I'm not sure why this was posted. Perhaps it was due to recent blogging by Nick Pelling on the subject at https://www.ciphermysteries.com/ ? There are quite a few entries now over a period of months that started from a reported cipher at Roswell.

I'm seeing an uptick of public interest in UFOs in my channels. I'm guessing it was sparked by Tucker Carlson talking about UFO coverups during one of his recent Twitter shows.

Why is the cynic in me absolutely sure all the UFO coverage and news and Senate things are just a way to get more funding for the space force?

DOD has no issue securing funds no matter what they are squawking about in congress. For example, they ran a secret war in Cambodia during the Vietnam war that only came to light after a leak. I imagine there are probably hundreds or thousands of such campaigns we will never learn of.

I think it is more likely that they are trying to divert our attention from something.

Lol they don't need to ask for funding for the military, they just get it.

I didn't mean that it shouldn't have been posted. I really meant to say something like 'why this was posted now.'

Such a weird phenomenon. Hard to say if they were UFOs seen through the eyes of the 1800s.

Then on the other hand I find the classic “they wouldn’t have been able to understand what they saw” theory unlikely because an airship made of shiny metal or something else would have been distinguishable.

Honestly sounds like it was a hydrogen airship & some flights of fancy by the—not known for their intellectual rigor—local writers

The "flapping fins" and "two great mugs thrust out from each side" certainly seem like ailerons and ballast. And the mentions of it going at "a great rate of speed" sound like what happens to dirigibles when they get caught broadside in side drafts. What's interesting is the mention of a metal prow. Later dirigibles had docking tips and lightning rods on their noses, but a metal prow seems like it would cause a lot of issues with center of lift. My only guess is it was some kind of lifting surface and the entire craft was an aerostat and not a true lighter-than-air craft.

The great speed referred to for some in this article was estimated at 250mph. For someone in 1897 that might have just been shorthand for incomprehensibly fast. These accounts feel a lot more similar to the navy pilot accounts of the pill/cigar shaped craft they’ve been tracking, which are also capable of a rapid change in speed along a new vector.

I mean… they sound vaguely similar. Mostly though that’s because they’re both describing unknown airships moving in unexpected ways.

Or a bunch of hot air... in an enclosed space..

They have been reported in Europe at during that period. Here are some reports from all over the country.

https://www.americanghostwalks.com/articles/1897-milwaukee-a...

https://www.wildquincy.com/blog/1897-quincy-mystery-airship-...

https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/dark-histories-49725/phantom...

Chums of Chance.

I wonder if this was a part of the inspiration for Columbia in Bioshock Infinite?

Time travelers.

I'm inclined to believe that these accounts are true stories of something that real people reported seeing for a long period of time before the end of the 19th century and that this airship flight would be the first successful contraption to fly under its own power while transporting men. I'm working on figuring out how to support that conclusion. LOL. Wish me luck as I think all the participants are history. Luckily I love history.