Etienne Bottineau was a sailor and an employee of the French East India Company who possessed a remarkable skill.
Bottineau could detect ships located beyond the horizon hundreds of miles from the coast and invisible to the eye.
One particularly famous anecdote involving Bottineaus almost supernatural gift occurred during the American Revolutionary War.
Fearing an attack from the British, de Souillac hurriedly dispatched a warship to counterattack.
The only error that Bottineau made was the fleets perceived intention.
A large cargo ship in the distant horizon.
In Bottineaus time, he would have predicted the ships arrival well before it appeared in the horizon.
He continued: We cannot treat him as an impostor, or as a visionary.
Bottineau began to observe the atmosphere around this time.
Here the advantages I possessed were much greater than before.
I had not been six months upon the island when I became confident that my discovery was certain.
Bottineau called this newly discovered sciencenauscopieornauscopy.
He was rarely wrong.
It puzzled them immensely.
The phenomenon ofFata morganacould be a possible explanation to Bottineaus wizardry.
In this engraving, dated 1870, a fata morgana is depicted appearing off the coast of Mauritius.
In 1784, Bottineau went to Paris to try his luck, but was only met with ridicule.
From these individual pictures a general picture is composed, exhibiting the features appertaining to each vessel.
Did Bottineau actually see something that others did not?
Or was he a highly successful fraudster?
Whatever it was, Bottineau wasnt the only one who practiced it.
The modern Port Louis, Mauritius.
