Southend-on-Sea, England: Woman sees torpedo-shaped airship with searchlights at window

At 11:20 p.m. Miss H. M. Boville noticed from her bedroom window at Southend-on-Sea, Essex, a "large dark object looming out of the sky" and traveling slowly from the east. After a few seconds it remained nearly stationary in front of her window for a few minutes, and she saw the outline of a torpedo-shaped airship at about 1,300 feet. It rose higher and then traveled swiftly west toward London, very briefly showing two powerful searchlights, one at each end. The London Evening News reported the sighting on 15 May 1909; Carl Grove (Flying Saucer Review, 1970) and David Clarke (Fortean Studies, 1999) place it in the airship wave of 1909. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.