Project Blue Book file: Trinidade Island, 16 Jan 1958

ROB MERCERPage 4
IGY /Photo . . .
(Con tinued from page 1)
3. The object is not luminous or cloud-
like as in many other UAO photographs.
4. The shutter speed of 1/ 25 second
used would be enough to "stop" an object
goi ng several hundred miles an hour if
it were fnr enough fro111 the cam era, as
this one was. It is interesti ng to nOle
that the outline of the object is quite
sharp in views Nos. 2 and 3 where it
had slowed down, but slightly blurred in
Nos. 1 and 4 where it was going aL.a
hi gher speed and the shutter setting was
riot hi gh enough to freeze the motion.
Greater distance would also contribute
to this effecl.
5. I can see no evidence of a vapor
trail or luminous halo as reported by
some witnesses. This may not have reg-
istered due to overexposure of the sky
background.
6. Had the shutter been set at 1/250
Or 1/ 500 second, we would have had a
much sharper set of pictures; however,
Mr. Barauna should be complimented on
his alertness and self-control in getting
photographs as good as these under such
trying conditions. Had he stopped to re-
set his shutter speed, we might not have
had thi s valuable evidence at aiL
UAO SIGHTlNGS AT THE)
ISLAND OF TRINDADE
By Or.,\\,o T. FONTES, M .D.
Part III
The Official Att:tude of the Brazilian
Navy. Official Docume nts and Add i·
tional Evidence About the UAO Pho-
tos Taken from the NE "Almirante
Saldanha"
At thc beginning of thi s report, it was
said that the VAO photographs takcn at
the Island of Trindade wcre proven to be
genuine, according to official statements .
The first official document su? porting
that statement ha s already been present-
cd to the rcader; it was the Navy secret
memorandum to the House of Represen-
tatives with the answers to the questions
asked by Rep. S. Magalhaes. Two other
official documents shall be presented
now.
The Navy Offici al Relea se and
Other Official Statements
On February 22, 1958, under pressure
o( public opinion and th e press, the
Brazilian Navy 1\'Jinistry was forced to
issue an official release, admitting for
thc first time that a UAO had been
photographed over the Island of Trin-
dJdc, in the presence of a number of
members from the g<l rri son of the NE
"Almirante Saldanha." Th e document
from the Navy Minister's o (fic~ was the
followin g:
"With respect to Lhe n~w.s divulged
THE A. P. R. O. BULLETIN
through the press insinuating that the
Navy Ministry has attempted to avoid
the publication of facts connected with
the appearance of a strange object ovcr
the Island of Trindade, this offi ce de-
clares that such information is without
basis.
"This J\1inistry sees no reason to for·
bid the publication of pictures of snid
Object, taken by Mr . Almiro Barauna-
who was at the Island of Trindade as a
Navy guest-in the presence of a number
of elements from the NE 'Almirante
Saldanha' garrison, aboard that ship from
which the photos were taken.
"Evid ently, this Ministry cannot make
any statemcnt about the object sighted
over the Island of Trind ade, for the
photos do not constitute enough evidence
for such a purpose." Unquote (Rio de
Janciro CORllEIO DA MANHA, ULTIMA
HORA. February 2S; 0 GLOBO, Febru-
a r y 24. etc. Sao Paulo 0 ESTADO DE
SAO PA ULO. February 23. 1958)
That same day , a Navy spokesman
told the press t hat the authenticity of
the photos taken aboard the NE "Almi-
rante Saldanha" was now confirm ed be-
yond any doubt, and that those who had
rejected them as proof were e ntirely
wrong. He also stated that the whole
UFO problem was being investiga ted
and , at th e end, thc Brazilian Na vy would
r eleas e a decisive report about it. (Rio
de Janeiro CORREro DA MANHA, Feb-
ruary 23, 1958)
Admiral Gerson de Macedo Soarcs, the
Navy General Secrcta r y, told the news-
p:lper 0 GLOBO that what he knew abou t
the matter was already in the pape rs.
Hc _concluded his statement with the fol-
lowing words: "I do not sec any reason
to doubt the reports of reli ab le witnesses.
Personally, I believe in the reality of the
flying saucers, evcn if they come from
a no th er planet."
Admiral Alves Camera, the Navy Min-
ister, told the V. P. on February 24, "that
he didn't believe in flying saucers before,
but after Barauna's photograph ic cvi-
dence he was convinced. " The statement
was made when the Navy Minister was
leaving the Rio Negro Palace, at Petro-
polis, after his weekly meeting with the
President. Minister Alves Camara, talk-
ing with newspapermen, also said that
"the Brazilian Navy has a big secret
which cannot be released, because it can-
not be explained." He confirmed once
more thc a uthentic ity of the pictures
t aken from the NE "Almirante Said an·
ha." (Cred it: Asapress dispatc h, oC Feb.
24, published in seve ral newspapers)
Com. Paulo Moreira da Silva, in a
new press interview, confirmed his pre-
vious statement that "the mysterious
object seen at Trindade, on January 16,
was not a meteorological balloon." He
also rej ected bluntly the possibility of a
hoax with the following statement:
"I do not wish to discuss the personality
, . ..' ,.
of the photographer who sh;,t the pictures
of the unknown objcct sighted ,by many
people of recognized r esponsibility. I ca n
s tate, howcver, that the photos are au-
thentic, anel that the film was dcveloped
on the same occasion, aboard the NE
' Almirantc Saldanba'-and also that the
image of the object on the negatives was
vcrified, at that same opportunity, by
scveral officers, not eight days later as
it ha s been sa id-Lhus entirely discarding
any possibility of photographic trick .
"I do not wish to advance my opinio n,
stati ng categorically that I saw a flying
saucer. Yet, I ca n say that the UFO
seen at the Island of Trindade wns not
a weather balloon, neither an American
or Russian guidcd missile, nor a plane
or a sea-gull. ." ( Rio de Janeiro (J
JORNAL, February 26, 1958)
Since the beginning of the "Flying
Saucer" myster y, the attitude of various
governm ents has been and remains fun-
damentally the samc-flying s aucers do
not exist. As any serious r esearch cr on
the subject will admi t, therc is a dcplora.
ble tendency toward secrecy and ridicule.
But good UAO r eports cannot be writtcn
off. And sometim cs we havc something
more than good circumstantial evidcnce.
In the Trindade case, for instance, we
have an official release and official state-
ments saying that an object was sicthtcd
that it was a UAO, that it was ;hoto: .
graphed in the presence of witnesses
that thc photos arc genuinc-and th.at
the object in the photo was not a balloon,
an American or Russian guided mi ssile,
an airplane, or a sea-gull. . What
was it?
Com . Bacell ar's Press Release
Ca ptain -of-Corvette Carlos Alberto Ba-
cellar, th e C.O. of thc Navy Oceano-
graphic Post at the Island of Trindade
from October, 1957, to January 1958 wa s
thc man who rebuilt the Navy.'Base: nnd
al so a witncss to several of the UAO
sightings reported in thi s review. On
J :l.Ouary 16, Hl58, hc was aboard th e NE
"A lmirante Saldanha" to make his · re-
turn trip to Rio. Hc wa s contacted by
r eporter Joao Martins. In a personal
rcport, emphasizing the fact that he was
not entitled to speak in th e name of the
Navy, he made the following written
declaration (with the approval of the
Navy lVlinistry) about the UAO sightings
at Trindade:
"I-A n unidentified aerial object was
r eally seen by somc people on the deck
of the NE 'Almirante Saldanha .' J was
not a witness of the sighting bccause, at
that momcnt. I wa s ins ide my cabin'
however, r w~s cal led to th e deck immc'-
di a tely "fter the event.
"2-Tlle fact ca uscd some nalural exci-
tation and the subseq uent racin g of people
to the ship's de ck, attracted by the shouts
of tho se who sighted the object.
"3-The phot.ographer Almiro Barauna
( See T rindadc Sigh/ iogs, pngc 6 )