Project Blue Book file: Trinidade Island, 16 Jan 1958

ROB MERCERJ
J,
i•I
 "Tridente"
In a n interview wit h the press, Admiral
Gerson Macedo Soares, the Navy General
Secretary, confirmed the fact that a
Navy officer ha d sighted a flying saucer
n ~a r the coast of Espirito Sa nto (State).
Com. Pedro IVIoreira, the public relations
officer for the press, confirmed the infor-
tn<1tion too . Il is b eliev ed th at this s ight·
ing was made from aboa rd ~ the Navy
tow ship "Tridente," a nd that the ship's
C.O. as well as seve ral officers and
THE A. P. R. O. BULLETIN
sailors were the witnesses. (Rio de J a-
neiro CORREIO DA MANHA, February
25, 1958)
I must confess that I was not impressed
when I read this information in the pa-
pers. Those who saw the first pa r t of this
review know that , in the beginning of
my investigation of the Trindade cases,
I had received information about a sight·
ing involv in g a Navy tow ship. Yet, ac-
cording to my source, that ship was the
"Triunfo" and the incident had occurred
on January 2, 1958, nea r the coast of
Bahia. That press report was not cor-
rect, I thought.
Howeverl just a few days later, I saw
again the name "Tridente," This time it
appeared in an official document, the
Congressional inquiry approved by the
House of Representatives (item 8) on
February 27 , which was already tran-
scribed in the first part of this r eview.
Now I was impressed. I r echecked my
infor mation but got the same answers.
Yet someth ing wa s wrong. I was inclined
to believe that the discrepancy might be
due to a confusion of names, for the
lack of a better explanation. It was then
that I was startled by some amazing
inform ation . Someone told me that the
C.O. of the " Tridcnte" had sighted the
UAO, near the Espirito Santo coast, on
the same day of the Barauna case-i.e.,
on January 16, 1958. The same sOllrce
confirmed the other sighting too.
T he next thing was to try to get more
data on the "Tridente" sighting. I en-
listed the aid of several friends and we
t.ried to get an account of other UAO
sightin gs on the Espiri to Santo coast that
d3.Y. One of th e m was lucky and got a
report about a similar object in that area.
The sighting had been witnessed by a
physician, Dr. Ezio Azevedo Fundao
(Director, Surgery Service, Pedro E1'-
nesto Hospital, Rio de Janeiro), his £a-
ther, wife, and two sisters. DI·. Fundao
has a sum me r house on the Beach Coast
(Villa Velha), Espirito Santo, half a n
hour out from Vitoria (the State capital).
That night, the doctor's cal' was parked
on a small road beside the house, and
was hit and practically destroyed by a
truck. The whole family was awakened
by the crash and went outside to sec
what had happened.
When everythi ng was normal again, at
2:30 a.m ., one of the doctor 's sisters
called the attention of the others to a
bright object that hovered over the Rocky
Islands, at a distance of about 2400 feet
from t he observers a nd about 600 feet
above the ground. It remained there,
motioaiess, for about 40 minutes. It fin-
ally disappeared when it was covered by
thick, low·flying clouds that moved across
the sky,
That object's shape was ex actl y the
sam e as the UAO to be photographed
over the Isla nd or Trindade less than
twelve hours l.ater. Its spherical body
o Pa ge 7
appeared to be tra nslucent, with a s ilvery
light. The ring lool\Cd like alu mi num
shining in the sunl ight. The VA ~ 's s ize
W(lS, according to the observers , lik e
that of a "Convair " planc. A bCCl lll of
light was emitted from its bottom pro-
jecting toward the sea below. This search -
light was steady and moved from one
side to another.
The object was lao brig ht to be a
lighted ba lloon. As the ni ght was clear,
its outlines were sharp ly defined again st
the sky. It was obviously a craft of some
sort. It couldn't be an ai rpl a ne because
airpla nes don't hover in on e spot, and
it was not atmospheric phenomena. The
observers heard no sound and they were
away from all city noises.
By a coincidence 01' not, the beacon
at the Barra li ghthousc, loca ted at the
s;;lne a r ea, collapserl at the hour the
UAO was sighted to reappear only fifty
min utes lat er. By another coincidence,
the Navy tow shi p "Tridente" was within
about two miles of the site that sam e
night. From the ship' s deck, the C.O.
had spotted the object at approximately
the same tim e.
We talked to Dr. Fundao a bou t his
sighting. He emphasized the fact tha t he
d idn't know what the UAO was, but he
was sure it was so methin g he had never
see n before. He was a lso interviewed
by reporter J0<10 Marti ns, and his report
was publis hed in the magazine 0 CRU-
ZEIRO, of Ju ne 7, 1958.
The Last Sightings on the
Island of Trii1dad e
After the happenin gs of January 16,
1D58, the Bra zilian Navy decided to set
lip spe cial pl1otogl'aphic equip men t at
Trindade. This camera project included
automat ic cameras with telephoto lenses
',\' hich were to be kept ready to photo-
graph a ny new UAO appearance, at any-
time. Technicians handling the equip-
ment were to stay al their posts day and
ni ght-ea ch m.::l.ll being substituted by
another every four hour s.
I don't know if the system worked J S
planned. But I wa s informed that a UAO
reappeared over the Is land on ,March 7,
1958, in the daytime. One of the obse r ver s
a Navy doctor, tried to photograph it
with his camera-but nothing appeared
on the negatives. . .
The UAD was s ighted again on Ociober
5, HI58, at 8 p.m. It was described as a
luminous object, round-shaped and en -
circled by a bright, red glow, mov in g
a cross t he sky at high speed. It hovered
over the Island for about 4 minutes, then
it moved away toward the northeast at
tremendous speed and was go ne. The
sentry who saw it wa s so scared th a t
he forgot to a Jert the gar ri so n while the
object was stiil in sig ht.
These sightings were not published in
the Brazilian press.
( Sec T rindat/r Sigil lillgs) J)ngc 8)