SS Siberian USO Encounter
The SS Siberian USO Encounter occurred on November 12, 1887, when Captain RF Moore of the English steamer SS Siberian, 10 nautical miles off Cape Race, Newfoundland, observed an enormous fireball rise from the sea to a height of 50 feet before moving toward the vessel and then speeding away into the sky. The case was reported to and documented by the US Hydrographic Bureau in Washington, which described it as "one of the most rare and most difficult to explain electrical phenomena."
| Date | 1887-11-12 |
|---|
Incident Description
Captain Moore, navigating the SS Siberian approximately 10 nautical miles off Cape Race, Newfoundland, observed an enormous fireball:
- Rising from the sea
- Ascending to approximately 50 feet in altitude
- Moving toward the craft
- Speeding away into the sky
The US Hydrographic Bureau's characterization of the event as an electrical phenomenon reflects the limited explanatory vocabulary available in 1887 for an observed light emerging from the ocean surface and ascending with apparent directed movement.
Official Response
The US Hydrographic Bureau in Washington collected and documented this report, making it one of the earliest officially recorded USO or anomalous maritime sighting cases in an American government archive. The bureau's acknowledgment that the event was "one of the most rare and most difficult to explain electrical phenomena" is notable in that it does not dismiss the account outright but concedes the absence of a satisfactory conventional explanation.
UAP Gerb notes that no documented cases of ball lightning exiting the sea are known — making the "electrical phenomena" categorization provisional at best and suggesting the US Hydrographic Bureau had no better framework for the observation than to classify it under the broadest available anomalous electrical category.