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It sounds like something out of a fantasy novel, and yet it appears in the written accounts of a respected medieval English chronicler, Gervase of Tilbury. The event is said to have taken place in the year 1211, in the borough of Cloera, while parishioners were attending Sunday Mass. That day, something strange and unexplainable reportedly occurred—something that defies all logic even today.

According to Gervase’s account, as the congregation gathered inside the church dedicated to Saint Kinarus, an anchor suddenly fell from the sky. Attached to a rope, it snagged on the arch above the church door, shocking those inside.

Then, in an even more astonishing twist, an airborne ship appeared above the church. Floating in the sky, it was clearly visible to the villagers, and it carried men aboard. One of them is said to have jumped "overboard," descending the rope as though swimming through water, attempting to free the lodged anchor.

The crowd rushed forward to seize the mysterious figure, but the bishop intervened, urging the people to let him go, warning that touching him might prove fatal. The man was released, climbed back up the rope, and returned to the ship. The crew then cut the rope and the vessel sailed away into the sky, vanishing from sight.

Most curiously of all, the anchor was reportedly kept in the church of Cloera, preserved as a physical testimony to the surreal encounter.

More than eight centuries later, the mystery remains unsolved. Was this a supernatural vision, a legend embellished over time, or perhaps a misunderstood event seen through the eyes of a medieval mind? Some suggest it may even be an early account of aerial phenomena—long before modern tales of UFOs and flying craft emerged.

Whatever the explanation, the story continues to fascinate historians, folklorists, and lovers of the unexplained alike. And one question lingers in the air: could ships once have sailed the skies?