In 1749, the British warship HMS Montague experienced a remarkable encounter with ball lightning while anchored off the coast of England. During a severe thunderstorm, a large luminous sphere reportedly descended from the ship's mainmast and moved along the deck, passing through closed doors and bulkheads. The ball was described as approximately the size of a cannonball, brilliantly white, and moving with a slow, deliberate motion.
Several crew members who were in close proximity to the ball reported feeling intense heat and experienced temporary blindness. The sphere eventually exited the ship through the hull without causing visible damage, though the ship's compass was reportedly demagnetized. The HMS Montague case is significant in ball lightning research because it was documented by naval officers accustomed to precise observation and record-keeping, and because it illustrates one of ball lightning's most perplexing characteristics: the apparent ability to pass through solid matter without causing structural damage, which defies most conventional physics models of the phenomenon.