Britons left baffled after rare 'Fata Morgana' mirage spotted off Cornish coast

Passengers aboard a boat trip off the Cornish coast were left astonished after witnessing a rare optical phenomenon that conjured enormous figures hovering above the sea.

The extraordinary sight, observed during a sea-safari expedition operated by St Ives Boats, appeared to show structures stretching hundreds of metres into the sky.

Those on board watched in disbelief as the mysterious formations continuously morphed before their eyes.

"It was surreal seeing these huge 'structures' and weird atmospheric changes and we and our passengers were just stunned at times," the company posted on Facebook.

The spectacle was later identified as a Fata Morgana, an uncommon type of mirage that dramatically warps distant objects into unrecognisable shapes.

St Ives Boats confirmed they believed the illusion was actually a heavily distorted view of container ships positioned many miles away on the horizon.

Mike Hancock, who operates St Ives Boats, provided a detailed account of the encounter while sailing near Portreath on Cornwall's northern coastline.

He initially spotted an aircraft carrier in the distance but thought little of it, describing such sightings as "quite cool to see but not unusual".

As the vessel continued westward towards Pendeen, however, the distant shape began behaving strangely.

"Initially it was like two huge blocks and they suddenly got taller, then they became very fuzzy, then became thin and defined and the shape changed and changed," Mr Hancock told the BBC

."At one point almost looking like a huge bear on the horizon. Then it changed in to the mathematical shape of Pi, a really defined shape."

The skipper eventually realised he was observing an inverted mirage of the aircraft carrier, which had by then travelled many miles from their position.

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Mr Hancock noted that while he had encountered mirages previously, a Fata Morgana was something he had never witnessed in Cornish waters, though the effect occurs commonly in other parts of the world.

"It would come in and out of focus and we actually had three horizons at one point, the whole horizon sort of tripled and was bendy," he recalled. "It was just so surreal."

The phenomenon occurs when an exceptionally steep temperature inversion traps a layer of cold air beneath significantly warmer air above.

This extreme temperature difference creates what scientists describe as an atmospheric duct, functioning like a curved lens that bends light rays far more dramatically than ordinary mirages.

Because the air layers are seldom perfectly stable, thermal ripples cause the refracted light to shift continuously, producing the rapid transformations witnesses observed.

Distant objects such as vessels or low coastlines become stretched vertically into towering, surreal columns.

The mirage takes its name from the Italian for "Fairy Morgana", a reference to King Arthur's shapeshifting half-sister Morgan le Fay, owing to how these illusions appear to construct castles in the sky.

Fata Morgana is believed to be the source of the infamous Flying Dutchman legend, as mariners throughout history observed distorted, giant vessels appearing to float high above the water or hover upside down.

Early polar explorers were similarly deceived, frequently charting vast mountain ranges that proved to be nothing more than warped images of flat sea ice.

It often resulted in entirely fictional islands appearing on historical maritime maps.