SS Patna Light Wheel Sighting
The SS Patna Light Wheel Sighting occurred in May 1880 when the captain, a Mr. Manning, a third officer, and other crew aboard the British India Company steamer Patna observed two enormous luminous wheels appear simultaneously on opposite sides of the ship in the Persian Gulf near 11:30 p.m. The case is one of three encounters constituting the Persian Gulf USO Flap (1879–1901) and is among the most detailed multi-witness accounts of the Maritime Light Wheel phenomenon in the historical record.
| Date | 1880-05-01 |
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Incident Description
Two enormous luminous wheels appeared simultaneously, one on each side of the vessel. As described by the witnesses:
"The wheels were whirling around; the spokes of which seemed to brush along the ship. The spokes would be 200 to 300 yards long and resembled the birch rods of the dame school. Each wheel contained about 16 spokes and although the wheels must have been some 5 to 600 yards in diameter, the spokes could be distinctly seen all the way around."
The witnesses compared the visual appearance to standing in a boat and flashing a bull's-eye lantern horizontally along the water surface. The simultaneous appearance of two wheels on opposite sides of the ship with spokes estimated at 200–300 yards in length — implying a total wheel diameter of 500–600 yards — makes this the largest estimated structure in the maritime light wheel record.
Significance
The Patna case is notable for the specificity of its dimensions, the multiple witnesses, and the simultaneous bilateral appearance — two wheels on opposite sides of the vessel at the same time — which UAP Gerb treats as inconsistent with a natural phenomenon driven by a single propagating disturbance. The case is documented in admiralty records and cited by UAP Gerb in the context of the broader Maritime Light Wheel phenomenon as evidence of structured, symmetric behavior rather than random bioluminescent disturbance.