Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

Flat Earthers tried to sail to the edge of the world… and you can totally guess how it went

Published Jan 1st, 2021 9:53PM EST
flat earth
Image: Reid Wiseman/NASA

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

  • A pair of “Flat Earth” believers from Italy wanted to prove that our planet is actually a flat disk by sailing to what they believed to be the edge of the world.
  • The duo ultimately failed miserably, and while they had a targeted destination, they sailed in the completely wrong direction.
  • The pair was then arrested for violating lockdown measures currently in place in Italy. 

The Earth is a sphere, just like all the other planets in our solar system, the Sun, the Moon, and presumably just about every other large body in the cosmos. This is due to gravity, a force that doesn’t care about conspiracy theories or really, really bad YouTube videos, and it’s impossible to disprove because there is nothing to disprove.

Still, that fact hasn’t stopped so-called “Flat Earthers” from doing whatever they can to shoot down the obvious truth and weave complicated and inane narratives about why the Earth being spherical is actually a conspiracy. Some even try to prove that they’re right and, well, every single one of them has failed. That didn’t matter to a couple of Flat Earthers in Italy who violated the current pandemic lockdown in an attempt to sail to the mythical “edge of the world.” Please now place your bets on whether or not they made it.

As IFLScience reports, the pair set off from their home to prove that the edge of the world was located south of Sicily (???). Their target was the tiny island of Lampedusa, which rests in the Mediterranean Sea. There’s no clear reason why the couple believed that this island represented the edge of the planet but Flat Earthers, despite all agreeing that the Earth isn’t a sphere, can rarely agree on anything else. This isn’t a surprise.

Anyway, the pair cruised across the sea toward what they believed was their destination. Unfortunately, their navigation skills were roughly as good as their ability to comprehend basic scientific facts, and ended up on the island of Ustica instead. Ustica is actually north of Sicily, while Lamedusa is south of it. The two geniuses managed to end up over 200 miles north of where they were trying to go.

The couple, who sold their car before embarking on the journey, were quickly quarantined by health officials due to the ongoing pandemic crisis. Despite this, they ran away once more, jumping on their boat and sailing for the edge of the world, only to be caught again hours later. Days later, they tried once again to escape but ended up hanging out with what the authorities refer to as “a mythomaniac,” which is just a fancy word for a liar. The man claimed to be positive for Covid-19, but tests revealed he was not.

Ultimately, the two adventurers were sent back to their home, where they no longer have a car, and will now have to sit with the knowledge that they not only did they not prove the Earth is flat, but they made fools of themselves in the process.