Project Blue Book file: Trinidade Island, 16 Jan 1958

ROB MERCERThe Trindade Island Sallcer
The mo¥ famous of all purported photographs of-a' UFO, the
Trindade Island saucer, also came from Brazil. First published in
Brazilian newspapers on February 21, 1958, the pictures showed
dark mountain crags looming against an overcast sky. Above one
peak appeared a startling image (much like the a Cruzeiro saucer
of 1952 ) resembling the planet Saturn- a flattened sphere banded
round the middle by a dark line that extended like a platform be-
yond the curved sides. According to the accompanying news stories,
the UFO had flown over the island of Trindade and had been ob-
served by the officers and crew of a ship of the Brazilian Navy. The
pictures, taken by a photographer on board, had been examined
and supposedly pronounced genuine by navy experts before being
released to the press. Since a responsible military organization and
a major world government thus seemed to accept the photographs
as proof that £lying saucers actually existed, the incident raised a
storm of official inquiry both in Brazil and abroad. Then, within a
few weeks, the storm abruptly subsided. Although no explanation
was given, the -object in the pictures was obviously considered no
threat to our planet's security.
Although saucer enthusiasts regard these pictures as genuine evi-
dence for the reality of UFOs, careful study of the facts strongly
suggests that this case, which rocked the Brazilian Government and
created a short-lived but world-wide saucer scare, was merely an
unusually skillful hoax.
At first glance, the circumstances of the sighting seemed to be
entirely clear and straightforward [18]. Trindade is a barren, moun-
tainous island of about six square miles, some 600 miles from the
coast of Brazil. Abandoned after the end of the Second World War,
the island remained deserted except by sea gulls until October 1957,
when the Brazilian Navy established an oceanographic post and a
meteorological station there to carry out its research for the Inter-
national Geophysical Year (ICY). To faciTit61te the oceanographic
·studies, the Navy also converted a training ship, the Almirante
Saldanha, into a floating laboratory equipped with scientific appa-
ratus and photographic darkroom . With a crew of about 300, the
ship routinely traveled between Rio de Janeiro and Trindade Island
on its duties for the ICY.
A major function of the meteorological station was the launching
and tracking of weather baTIoons; they were painted reel, inRated
with hydrogen, and carried radio transmitters. Launched each morn-
ing, they were tracked by radio and optical devices to show the
movements of the winds in the upper atmosphere. At a certain
point (when the balloon burst, or at a pre arranged Signal) the bal-
loon released a bag of scientinc instruments which, attached to a
parachute, floated to the ground to be retrieved.
The Trindade station began operation in November 1957. Almost
immediately, UFOs were reported over the island. (Brazil had not
been immune to the flying-saucer epidemic that had begun in Texas
early that month [see Chapter IX], and sentries at ltaipu Fort,
near Santos, on November 4 had reported a UFO that knocked out
the lights and electric plant.) With a weather balloon going up
daily, parachutes floating down at odd times, and sea gulls cruising
over the island, the advent of other "saucers" was inevitable. During
November and December several UFOs were reported by work,
men, none of whom were trained observers. Although neither Cap-
tain Bacellar, the commanding officer at the station, nor his offiaers.;·. ··
saw any unidentified objects, he radioed Rio to report the ineidents
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