What bizarre sight did Christopher Columbus claim to have seen which he wrote in his logs?

zbeckabee

1493, January 4: During his first journey to the Americas, Christopher Columbus made an entry in his journal that he himself, along with his crew, had witnessed a trio of mermaids breaking high from the sea off the coast of Haiti, going so far as to say: "They were not as comely as they are painted, but to some extent they have a human appearance about the face...." Columbus also swore that he had seen the same types of beings on a previous voyage off the coast of Guinea, West Africa. It is doubtful that he saw stitched-together fish-and-monkey corpses thrashing about in the sea. 1492, October 11, 10:00 PM: " Christopher Columbus and Pedro Gutierrez while on the deck of the Santa Maira, observed, "a light glimmering at a great distance." It vanished and reappeared several times during the night, moving up and down, "in sudden and passing gleams." It was sighted 4 hours before land was sighted, and taken by Columbus as a sign they would soon come to land. (From "The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus) http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message501458/pg1 Jul 14 09, 11:06 PM

unclerick

Columbus also witnessed St Elmo's fire. Sometimes called "ball lightening" or "sorcerers flight". It is a strikingly eerie form of glowing energy that generally appears around trees, church steeples and the masts of sailing ships. A haunting characteristic of the phenomenon is that it often travels horizontally and seemingly with intent. http://www.my-widder.com/BallLightning.html Jul 14 09, 11:18 PM

star_gazer

In 1492, shortly before making land in the West Indies, Christopher Columbus recorded in his ship's log that he and his crew had observed a large ball of fire fall into the sea and that the ship's compass was behaving erratically. False. That happened shortly after leaving the Canary Islands. The erratic compasses readings were recorded thrice while in the Sargasso Sea and Triangle. http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/html/myths___facts.html Jul 15 09, 10:33 AM