The photos appear to show a giant ship hovering over the water off the coast of England

One man said he was “surprised” to look out to sea from a village in Cornwall, in southwest England, and to see a giant ship apparently suspended in the air above the water. It was not his eyes deceiving him, but a rare climatic phenomenon that causes an optical illusion seen most often in the icy arctic.

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A ship appears to be hovering over the sea off the coast of Cornwall, England, in a photo captured by David Morris that shows the optical illusion known as the “upper mirage”, caused by the hot air placed over the colder air, distorting the light as it reaches the eyes of a viewer.

David Morris / APEX


BBC News meteorologist David Braine explained that what David Morris captured with his camera lens was not levitation, but a “superior mirage”, caused by more typical conditions in the Arctic region than on the south coast of England.

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A ship appears to be hovering over the sea off the coast of Cornwall, England.

David Morris / APEX


“Higher mirages occur because of the climatic condition known as temperature inversion, where the cold air is close to the sea with the warmer air above it,” said Braine. “Since cold air is denser than hot air, it diverts light into the eyes of those on the ground or on the coast, changing the appearance of a distant object.”

Previous sightings of “ghost ships” around the world may well have involved the illusion, but the sharp images captured by Morris seem to be some of the clearest examples of a superior mirage to date.


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Braine said that although in this case the phenomenon made the ship appear to float on water, “sometimes an object below the horizon can become visible”, launching objects that would otherwise be invisible to someone’s eyes, almost like a mirror giant.

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