A BIZARRE 'floating ship' has been spotted off the British coast following a string of mind-bending optical illusions.
The vessel was captured from a pub garden in Minster On Sea, Kent, leaving onlookers baffled.
The ship appeared to be hovering in the sky, well above the horizon and seemingly out of the water.
But a rare optical illusion is to blame for the bizarre appearance – which follows a string of similar sightings last month.
One man in Falmouth, Cornwall, was left "extremely baffled" just weeks ago when he spotted a large vessel apparently floating just above the waves.
Days earlier, several cruise ships were also seen "hovering" above the waters off the coast of Paignton, Devon
Then Colin McCallum spotted a large red "floating vessel" on the horizon as he travelled through Banff, Aberdeenshire.
The phenomenon – known as Fata Morgana – is created when the sun heats up the atmosphere above either the land or the sea.
A layer of warmer air sits on top of a layer of cold air, causing the light from the ship to bend and making colours blend together.
For a Fata Morgana to appear, the atmospheric conditions have to be just right, the Mail Online reports.
It starts with a cold air mass close to the ground or surface of the water that is topped by a warm layer of air higher in the atmosphere.
And although the phenomenon can occur on land, they are more common at sea because water helps to form the cool air layer required.
BBC meteorologist David Braine previously said the phenomenon is caused conditions in the atmosphere which bend light.
"Superior mirages occur because of the weather condition known as a temperature inversion, where cold air lies close to the sea with warmer air above it," he said.
"Since cold air is denser than warm air, it bends light towards the eyes of someone standing on the ground or on the coast, changing how a distant object appears."
The mirage takes its name from Morgan le Fay – a sorceress from Arthurian legend – said to use her witchcraft to lure unwitting sailors into her traps.
The mirage is thought to be the reason for sightings of the Flying Dutchman, a 17th century "ghost ship" doomed to sail the seas forever.
So what is Fata Morgana?
A FATA Morgana is created when a layer of warmer air sits on top of a layer of cold air, causing the light to bend more than normal.
For a Fata Morgana to appear, the atmospheric conditions have to be just right.
It starts with a cold air mass close to the ground or surface of the water that is topped by a warm layer of air higher in the atmosphere.
Although the phenomenon can occur on land, they are more common at sea because water helps to form the cool air layer required.
Floating ships – like those which have been seen off Britain recently – are just one possible effect of the Fata Morgana.
It can warp, distort and obscure images – squashing them, making them blend into the horizon, or even producing chilling spooky inversions where a mirror image appears above the object.
Fata Morgana can also take the form of a "sea hedge" – which almost appears like a wall or cliff of water around the horizon.
The phenomena has been linked to numerous folklore tales, such as the infamous ghost ship the Flying Dutchman.
It has also been blamed for the appearances of phantom islands, such as the legendary Sannikov Land in Russia and the non-existence of the mountain-range of the Croker Mountains.
More recently Fata Morgana has been linked to sightings of UFOs and it is increasingly caught on camera.
Numerous photos document the mirage which show warped images of ships on the horizon, glistening walls of water appearing out to sea, or even cities in the sky.
The mirage takes its name from Morgan le Fay – a sorceress from Arthurian legend – said to use her witchcraft to lure unwitting sailors into her traps.
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