Unidentified Airborne Object

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

## Third Mate,

3. At 10:00 am on 4 Aug 50 as I was checking the compass at mid-bridge through a bridge port hole, I observed a flying object off the starboard bow. I immediately shouted to the Captain, who was in the chart room, and the Chief Mate, who was below on the port deck, of my observation and vent out on the flying bridge myself. The object was approximately 70' above the horizon at a distance of 12 miles. It came toward us, then ran on a course reciprocal to ours and turned off into the horizon in the northeast. I clearly saw its shadow on the water. My impression of the object was that it was elliptical, not unlike a Japanese diamond box kite in shape. I have no idea of its size but the length was about six times the breadth and it had a depth of from two to five feet. It made no noise and was traveling at a tremendous rate of speed. An it traveled through the air, it made a spinning or vobbly motion. After it disappeared in the horizon, I saw it reappear several seconds later, ascending at an even faster speed then when I first observed it. I have no idea what this object was, I never saw anything comparable to it before, and it was one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had. I roughly estimate that the object traveled 28 miles during the 15 seconds I had it under observation.

Collector's Note: The Chief and Third Mates were interviewed on 8 August by two Intelligence Officers. The Captain, who was absent at that time, was interviewed on 9 August by only one of the two Intelligence Officers. In describing the occurrence, the Chief and Third Mates reemacted their behaviour at the time of sighting, and the period from the time the Chief Mate saw the object abean until he reached the after deck and saw it disappear off the starboard quarter was timed at 15 seconds. In laying the angles of observation out on a chart and assuming the object was ten miles distant and taking the time into account, it is evident it was certainly traveling at a very high rate of speed, which approximated 400 to 500 miles per hour. It will be noted that there is a tremendous discrepancy between the Captain's estimate of the speed and the estimate of the two officers which could not be explained as they were very careful in making their statements and asserted that their observations had been correct. All three men were quite evidently very much upset by the sighting. Aside from the discrepancies, it was quite evident to the Intelligence Officers who interviewed these men that they had certainly seen some very unusual object which they could not identify but was just as certainly not any conventional type of aircraft.