Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, distributed in August 1950 and marked as unevaluated, covers a sighting on 4 August 1950 by three officers of a merchant ship in the North Atlantic. The ship was sailing from Walton, Nova Scotia, to an East Coast US port. The captain, chief mate and third mate described a silent, shiny elliptical object that wobbled and flew close above the water. A collector's note says intelligence officers estimated its speed at 400 to 500 mph and judged it was not a conventional aircraft.
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CD NO. COUNTRY . At Sea - North Atlantic DATE DISTR. / 1 Aug 1950 SUBJECT Unidentified Airborne Object NO OF PAGES 2 PLACE ACQUIRED NO. OF ENCLS. ILLUSTRED BELOW DATE ACQUIRED BY SOURCE 4 Aug 50 DATE OF INFORMATION AU 50 SUPPLEMENT TO REPORT NO. THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION SOURCE. Officers who reported the following observations at 10:00 an EDT on 4 Aug 50 at 39° 35' North, 72° 24' West. 1. On 4 Aug 50 at 10 am my ship, while on a heading of 2450 true, with a smooth sea and clear weather, visibility 14 miles, barometer reading 30.03, was underway from Walton, Nova Scotia, to an East Coast US port. I was in the chart room just aft the bridge when Third Mate, who was at mid-bridge checking the compass, shouted that there was a flying object off the starboard bow. I immediately ascended the conning tower and by this time the object was on our starboard beam. It was traveling on a reciprocal course to ours about 50 or 100 feet above the water at an estimated speed of over 25 mph. From the conning tower I observed it with my binoculars for a period of approximately a minute and a half when it disappeared into the horizon in a north-easterly direction. I would estimate that the closest it approached my ship was one thousand feet and it was an ovular, cylindrical shaped object the like of which I have never seen before. The object was quite small and I would judge that its diameter was approximately 10 feet. It had depth but to what extent I was unable to observe. The object made no noise and as it passed abeam our ship it appeared to pick up considerable speed. It was not flying smoothly but impressed me as having a churning or a rotary motion. It had a shiny aluminum color and sparkled in the sunlight. Chief Mat 2. I was on the main deck, port side, just forward of the bridge when the Third Rate shouted there was an object on our starboard bow. I looked off to the starboard and saw an object of elliptic shape looking like half an egg cut lengthwise traveling at a great rate of speed on a course reciprocal to our own. I immediately ran to the stern, port side, and with my glasses was able to observe the object disappearing into the horizon. From the time I was first alerted to its presence until it disappeared from sight, 15 seconds elapsed. I believe that it was traveling at a tremendous rate of speed, possibly faster than 500 mph. During the time I saw it, it was approximately 70 feet off the water and I judge it was approximately 10 miles away. I clearly saw its shadow on the water. I last observed it off the starboard quarter and it seemed to be increasing its speed and ascending. It had an elliptic shape and I could clearly see that it had three dimensions. It vobbled in the air, made no noise, and was a metallic white in color. The length was approximately six times the breadth and its belly had a depth of possibly 5'. Approved for Release
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.