Was Nauscopie Real or a Scam?
A French engineer by the name of Etienne Bottineau claimed to have created a brand-new technology called nauscopie that could be used to "find ships and land at a vast distance" some 250 years ago. In modern times, the man and his peculiar claim have all but vanished from recollection and are only occasionally mentioned in passing in other people's writings. However, even in Bottineau's own time, nauscopie was never really investigated, in part because he never cared to record or explain in detail how it functioned and in part because he resided on the isolated island of Mauritius, which was then known as Isle de France.
It appears that Bottineau, who could foretell ship arrivals up to four days in advance using nauscopie, primarily exploited this skill to win bar bets. But in 1782, he informed the governor that an 11-ship fleet was making its way toward the island. He was then informed by Bottineau that the fleet had altered its route. The governor sent a cruiser to investigate because of fear that the British could be attacking. When it arrived back at port, it verified everything Bottineau had said: a fleet of ships had been sailing in the direction of Mauritius before turning around and sailing in the direction of India. The question still remains, however: was Bottineau merely fortunate, a con artist, or did nauscopie genuinely work?
