Flat-Earther’s attempt to sail to the edge of the world ended in disaster after just days
Topics: News, World News, Science, Travel
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: martinwimmer/Getty / vuk8691/Getty
Topics: News, World News, Science, Travel
A couple set out to find the edge of the Earth only to be left disappointed (unsurprisingly).
The pair from Venice, Italy, decided to undergo their voyage during the pandemic, so that alone was a problem in itself.
But, away from ignoring Italy's strict quarantine rules, the unnamed couple sold their car and purchased a boat in a bid to travel to the edge of the Earth - which they believed to be Lampedusa - despite Flat-Earth theories having been debunked on several occasions.
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Lampedusa is one of the Italian Pelagie Islands and is located in the middle of the Mediterranean ocean.
Salvatore Zichichi, a doctor from the maritime health office, went on to find the situation amusing as the Flat-Earth-believing pair used a compass to try and locate the island; something in itself that proves the Earth is in fact round due to the direction the compass points being based on our planet's magnetic field lines.
Zichichi told La Repubblica back in 2020: "The funny thing is that they oriented themselves with the compass, an instrument that works on the basis of terrestrial magnetism, a principle that they, as Flat-Earthers, should reject."
Evidently their compass reading skills needed working on as the pair found themselves in Ustica instead.
Upon arriving on the island, they were made to quarantine in Palermo as precaution.
But their first failed efforts didn't stop them from trying again and they attempted to escape quarantine.
They only lasted three hours on the run, however, after Harbor Master's Office went on to retrieve them.
Anyone else getting flashbacks of when you used to 'run away from home' as a kid to be dragged back shortly after?
They gave up eventually and went on to return home by ferry.
While some believe flat-Earthers can't possibly believe the that Earth is genuinely flat, Asheley Landrum, a psychologist from Texas Tech University, chatted to people at a flat-Earth convention in Denver and said they were 'sincere'.
"If they were [trolling], they are very good actors,” she said, as per Physics World.
"We talked to more than 90 members of the Flat-Earth community and they’re all very sincere in their beliefs."
Flat-Earthers' misguided beliefs aren't down to a lack of education though, but down to not being able to trust institutions and authorities.
Landrum explained: "It’s not really an education thing - it really is about distrusting authorities and institutions.
"[It] seems to be based on both a conspiracy mentality and a deeply held belief that looks a lot like religiosity but isn’t necessarily specifically tied to a religion."