From 1665 to 1680, a bloody war took place between the Swedes and the Prussians. During this tumultuous time a spectacular event took place April 8, 1665, in the Swedish sky near the town of Stralsund. At that time, following the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and the Treaty of Stettin in 1653, the city of Stralsund was part of Swedish Pomerania. After the battle of Stralsund of 1678 and the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye 1679 the city passed to Sweden. In 1815, at the Vienna Congress, Stralsund became part of the Prussian province of Pomerania. Today, Stralsund is a city in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in northern Germany.

A spectacular appearance in the sky of this historic city, was reported in 1689 by Erasmus Francisci. This name was a writing pseudonym used by Erasmus Finx. He had collected the testimonies of people who observed the event in the sky of Stralsund.

About two o'clock in the afternoon, several fishermen reported seeing a huge cloud of starlings coming from the North over the sea. The birds gathering turned into warships that battled in the sky as if they were on the sea. They even saw a thick smoke developing. Different sizes of ships appeared continuously. This battle lasted for several hours.

The vision in the sky of Stralsund eventually disappear. Later, the people saw a circular and flattened shape. The object looked like a man's hat. It was orange as a raising moon. It came to float just above the church of St. Nikolai. It stood over the church until the evening. The fishermen were afraid to look directly at the phenomenon . The next day the witnesses of the apparitions became ill. They were trembling and were having pain throughout their body.