92. The Notre Dame Cathedral in Antwerp at a height of 403 feet should not be visible from a ship 150 miles away on a spherical Earth

“The Notre Dame Antwerp spire stands 403 feet high from the foot of the tower with Strasburg measuring 468 feet above sea level. With the aid of a telescope, ships can be distinguished on the horizon and captains declare they can see the cathedral spire from an amazing 150 miles away. If the Earth were a globe, however, at that distance the spire should be an entire mile, 5,280 feet below the horizon!”

Another unverifiable historic observation from the 1800's

As usual his calculations are incorrect but I skip over that here.

Dubay copied this account from Thomas Winship's Zetetic Cosmogeny.  The original extract from "Music and Morals" by H. R. Haweiss published in 1871 is as follows:

"Pass for a moment, in imagination, from such a scene to the summit of Antwerp Cathedral at sunrise.  Delicately tall, and not dissimilar in character, the Antwerp spire exceeds in height its sister at Strasburg, which is commonly supposed to be the highest in the world. The Antwerp spire is 403 feet high from the foot of the tower. Strasburg measures 468 feet from the level of the sea : but less than 403 feet from the level of the plain. 

By the clear morning light, the panorama from the steeple of Notre Dame at Antwerp can hardly be surpassed. One hundred and twenty-six steeples may be counted, far and near. Facing northward, the Scheldt winds away until it loses itself in a white line, which is none other than the North Sea. By the aid of a telescope ships can be distinguished out on the horizon, and the captains declare they can see the lofty spire at one hundred and fifty miles distant. Middleburg at seventy-five, and Messing at sixty-five miles, are also visible from the steeple." 

See:  https://archive.org/details/musicandmorals00hawegoog

So we have a second hand account of an unspecified number of sea captains having attested to the steeple being visible from 150 miles away, and no way of verifying if this was a tall tale from a single captain, an incorrect memory from Mr Haweiss or an accepted truth held by captains of the day.

Mr Hawiess also reveals himself as an unreliable witness.  The distance to Middelburg from the Cathedral is 39 miles, not 75 as claimed.  Using the correct height of 424 feet of height measured from sea level, from this distance, only 126 feet of Middelburg would be obscured on a spherical Earth.  I don't know the details of the skyline but at the very least the town hall (right) would have been clearly visible.

I can find no town or city called Messing or anything with a similar name within 65 miles.

So the one verifiable observation associated with this "proof" turns out to be completely compatible with a spherical Earth.

There is also good reason to believe that these observations of distant lighthouse sightings are bogus.
For details click the link below.

Why Dubay's lighthouse quotes are bogus

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