A scholar and folklorist who looked at flying ships through the lens of story. In 1992, in Aerial ships and underwater monasteries, John Carey traced how the Airship of Clonmacnoise grew over centuries from a terse annal note. He argued its anchor scene was borrowed and reversed. The source was a tale of an ordinary ship whose anchor fouled an underwater monastery in the Sea of Wight. He also noted how closely the Merkel Airship Anchor of 1897 follows the medieval versions. Churchgoers, poor light, an anchor kept as a relic. Even so, how the story crossed to Texas remained unexplained.
Stories3
Scholar who traced the story's development, 'Aerial ships and underwater monasteries' (1992)
Scholar, traced the anchor scene to an underwater-monastery tale (1992)
Pro earlyFolklorist who linked the story to the Clonmacnoise legend