What you describe here is the usual kind of mirage, the one you see when light travels over a hot surface (desert sand, road) during summer. This particular ki

What you describe here is the usual kind of mirage, the one you see when light travels over a hot surface (desert sand, road) during summer. This particular kind of mirage ("superior mirage", as the author of the picture calls it) works the other way around: light bends away from the cold water surface. So, of I understand it correctly, the horizon appears where it really is whereas the ship appears higher up (contrary to normal mirage where the sky appears to come from the ground).