In this episode I look into the UFO turned USO that was witnessed by many people in 1967 in Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia.
In this episode I look into the UFO turned USO that was witnessed by many people in 1967 in Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia.
Ep 44 Shag Harbor
Hello and welcome back to the UFO and Aliens Podcast. I’m your host Rick Black. I was on the golf course last Sunday and we noticed that the alligators were a little more active than normal. Usually, they just lay there. So, I had to look up alligator mating season in Florida. I found out that courtship begins in early April and mating occurs in May or June. So, that wasn’t it. And that makes me think that we need to be aware on the golf courses and when walking Charlie because it’s coming soon and these gators are getting big. It’s really an adventure living in Florida.
Yesterday I was looking through Facebook and one of my friends posted something he couldn’t figure out. It was a string of lights in the night sky. It was the second time he’d seen it, the first time he didn’t get a picture. But this time he took some really good pictures and got a great video which he posted. I didn’t know what it was but it reminded me of the pictures of the UFO from one of the earlier episodes. I scrolled down to see what people were saying about it and every single person said it was Starlink satellites. So I had to look that up. Starlink satellites are sent up by SpaceX and provide internet coverage on a global scale. If you see them shortly after they launch they will appear as a Starlink satellite train. And they have been the cause of a lot of UFO sighting reports. Once they get to their operating altitude of 340 miles, the disperse and become harder to see. If you want to see them, you can look up where and when would be the best place and time. So, cool.
Today I am going to look into an incident that happened back in 1967. It seems that lately I’ve been finding things that happened back in the 60’s. I’m not doing it on purpose, it’s just happening. This time we’re going to Nova Scotia to a little fishing village called Shag Harbor. This little rural community would be host to one of the best documented UFO events to date.
The town Shag Harbor was named after the “shag,” which is a bird of the cormorant family, the harbor was literally left off most maps of the time, but that would be changed once and for all.
The tiny fishing community has always had its stories….stories of giant sea serpents, man-eating squid, and ghost ships. The list of local color would see one more addition to its list: a story of a visit of a mysterious flying craft of unknown origin. This craft would visit the waters of Shag Harbor, permanently stamping the village’s name in the public eye.
The first indication of this mysterious occurrence would come from local residents who noticed strange orange lights in the sky on the night of October 4th, 1967. Most witnesses agreed that there were four orange lights that evening. Five teenagers watched these lights flash in sequence, and then suddenly dive in a 45 degree angle toward the water’s surface. The witnesses were surprised that the lights did not dive into the water, but seemed to float on the water, approximately one-half mile from the shore. Witnesses at first thought they were watching a tragic airplane crash, and quickly reported as much to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which was located at Barrington Passage. Coincidently, RCMP Constable Ron Pound had already witnessed the strange lights himself as he drove down Highway 3 in route to Shag Harbor. Pound felt that he was seeing four lights, all attached to one flying craft. He estimated the craft to be about 60 feet long.
Constable Pound Made his way to the shore to get a closer look at the phenomenal sight. He was accompanied by Police Corporal Victor Werbicki, Constable Ron O’Brien, and other local residents. Pound clearly saw a yellow light slowly moving on the water, leaving a yellowish foam in its wake. All eyes were glued on the light, as it slowly either moved too distant to be seen, or dipped into the icy waters.
Coast Guard Cutter #101 and other local boats rushed to the spot of the sighting, but by the time they arrived, the light itself was gone. However, the crewmen could still see the yellow foam, indicating that something had possibly submerged. Nothing else could be found that night, and the search was called off at 3:00 a.m. The fishermen reported the foam was not sea foam and looked like nothing they had ever seen. In fact most were unnerved by the fact that they had to sail through it to look for survivors.
The RCMP ran a traffic check with the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, and NORAD radar at Baccaro Nova Scotia. They were told that there were no missing aircraft reported that evening, either civilian, or military.
The following day, the Rescue Coordination Center filed a report with Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa. This report stated that something had hit the water in Shag Harbor, but the object was of “unknown origin.”
The HMCS Granby was ordered to the location, where divers searched the bottom of the ocean for several days, but without positive results.
Soon, the story of the mysterious crash at Shag Harbor died as quickly as it had begun. That is, until 1993. As the original story faded from papers and newscasts, several theories were put forward. One explanation was that a Russian spacecraft had crashed, which would explain the presence of a Russian submarine in the area. There was also the rumor of American involvement in the follow-up investigation, but there was no official statement from the United States.
The Shag Harbor incident would have new life breathed into it through the efforts of MUFON investigator Chris Styles. The case intrigued him so much that he decided to search for more details. Styles found the names of many of the original witnesses through newspaper clippings, and was able to interview many of them.
Styles was assisted by MUFON investigator Doug Ledger. These two men would uncover some extremely compelling evidence through their interviews. They discovered that when the divers of the Granby finished their work, the case was not over, after all.
The divers, along with other witnesses related these events: The object that dove into the waters of the harbor had soon left the Shag area, travelling underwater for about 25 miles to a place called Government Point, which was near a submarine detection base. The object was spotted on sonar there, and Naval vessels were positioned over it. After a couple of days, the military was planning a salvage operation, when a second UFO joined the first. Common belief at the time was that the second craft had arrived to render aid to the first.
At this time, the Navy decided to wait and watch. After about a week of monitoring the two UFOs, some of the vessels were called to investigate a Russian submarine which had entered Canadian waters. At this point, the two underwater craft made their move. They made their way to the Gulf of Maine, and putting distance between themselves and the chasing Navy boats, they broke the surface, and shot away into the skies.
These extraordinary events were corroborated by many witnesses, both civilian and military. Unfortunately, the reports were given “off the record.” Ex-military personnel feared the loss of their pensions, and civilian witnesses feared ridicule, and their privacy being invaded. The unusual events of Shag Harbor command an important place in the study of UFOs. There is little doubt that something “unknown” crashed into the waters of Shag Harbor on October 4th, 1967.
Before October 4th people were seeing strange things in the area. The First Officer Robert Ralph on Air Canada flight 305 pointed out to Captain Pierre Charbonneau something strange on the left side of the aircraft at 7:15 p.m. The captain reported an object tracking along on a parallel course a few miles away. He describes it was a brilliantly lit, rectangular object with a string of smaller lights trailing it. At 7:19, the pilots noticed a sizeable silent explosion near the large object. Two minutes later, a second explosion occurred which faded to a blue cloud around the object.
Darrel Dorey, his sister Annette, and his mother were sitting on their front porch in Mahone Bay, when they noticed a large object maneuvering above the southwestern horizon. The next day he wrote a letter to RCAF Greenwood Base Commander asking what was flying over the water that evening, as he had never seen anything like it.
While standing at the wheelhouse of his vessel, Captain Leo Howard Mersey was looking at four blips on his Decca radar that were stationary. When he looked up about 28 kilometers from the vessel’s windows, he could see the four bright objects situated in a roughly rectangular formation. The entire crew of nearly twenty fishermen stook on deck and watched the object in the northeastern sky. Mersey radioed the rescue coordination center and the harbor master in Halifax asking for an explanation and filed a report with the Lunenburg RCMP outlining his sighting when they returned to port.
The Chronicle-Herald and local radio stations reported a glowing object that was seen by many people who called their newsroom. They reported witnessing strange glowing objects flying around Halifax at around 10:00 p.m.
The Shag Harbor reports received extensive front page coverage in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. The paper ran a headline story on October 7th titled, “Could Be Something Concrete in Shag Harbor UFO -RCAF.” The article, by Ray Macleod, included witness descriptions of an alleged object and crash, the air force’s search and rescue effort, and the navy’s underwater search that was underway, including three additional divers from Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic.
The head of the air force’s “Air Desk” in Ottawa, Squadron Leader Bain, who recommended the navy undertake an underwater search, was also quoted, saying the air force was “very interested” in the matter. “We get hundreds of reports every week, but the Shag Harbor incident is one of the few where we may get something concrete on it.”
The article also mentioned UFO reports that immediately preceded the incident, including one from a woman in Halifax around 10:00 p.m.
The Chronicle-Herald ran another story on October 9th titled “UFO Seach Called Off”, stating that the navy had ended “an intensive search for the mysterious unidentified flying object that disappeared into the ocean here Wednesday night.” As to what was found, the navy stated, “Not a trace…not a clue…not a bit of anything.” The story of the search being called off for an alleged “mysterious, dark object” was also carried by The Canadian Press in other newpapers.
There in Shag Harber they have this huge sign with a picture of a UFO disc and it says “crash site of the 1967 Shag Harbour UFO”. There is a UFO society, a museum and an annual festival there all because of this UFO event.
On June 4th, 2001 Canada Now aired a story of the 1967 Shag Harbor UFO incident and it was also commemorated with a stamp.
This is like Canada’s Roswell. This UFO was seen by many people and reported and the coolest thing about it was that it went into the water and then travelled underwater for 25 miles. Most of the witnesses reported seeing the same thing. Four lights in a row that flashed in sequence. That sounds really familiar.
It’s strange, but it’s not the only report of a UFO being seen entering the water. There is another case from Canada of something similar. In late August of 1981, between five and six p.m. three men and two women were driving west from a mountain area slightly east of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and south of Lake Ontario. The weather was clear and sunny. At a point, roughly half way through Hamilton, one of the occupants in the car saw a strange craft through the window of the car, and by their exclamation, alerted the others in the car to the sight. The craft of a red-orange, domed saucer shaped object, which appeared solid, with many yellow lights radiating from the base or bottom. When asked about the size of the craft, one witness answered that the diameter would be roughly 3-4 car lengths, and 3 car heights for the height of the craft. She ended with it was “not a small craft.”
Its speed and altitude could only be expressed as that of an aircraft on approach for a landing near an airport. It was on a course roughly parallel to theirs. Due to the curving road it was first sighted to their right (which was north) and then over them and then to the left. Its course was roughly north-northwest.
While driving the radio had been on and, while they were close to the object, they were getting a lot of static. At that point the driver turned the radio off to avoid further distraction. Someone in the car at this point said “Follow that UFO.” They all agreed and followed the UFO. Although the road had many curves, the craft was seen to move in a straight line towards Hamilton Harbor. As it approached the Harbor, it appeared to slow down, and then angle itself downward and gently entered the water. At the point of entry, it can be seen on the nautical chart that the water depth was 23 feet and gets deeper in the direction of Lake Ontario, so the UFO had at least 10 feet to spare. Therefore a craft of 13 feet in height could be covered by water. There are many cases of UFOs submerging in shallow waters.
The witness reporting this case states that the UFO had passed them and was at a distance away when it entered the Harbor, and doesn’t remember any major disturbance of the water as it went in. After it had entered the water the group lost sight of the area for a bit, because of the terrain. They were really curious so they went to the waterfront to see what they could. I would probably do the same thing, but that seems a little scary.
From a city map of Hamilton, the distance from the mountain area and the waterfront is about seven and a half miles and they could get there pretty quick. They stayed in the area for about seven hours, wondering if the UFO would surface, whether any aircraft would attempt a search of the area, and thinking about the various possibilities of the event. Between 12:20 and 1:00 a.m., two objects were seen to partially emerge and remained in that position through the point that the group finally left. The question of these two objects being submarines came up and has been done away with, as information from the Canadian Navy states that it does not use the few subs they have in any of the Great Lakes. Another possibility regarding the emerging objects might be the tide going out and revealing some fixed underwater object. This portion of the sighting is the most speculative and should not detract from the sighting of the craft and its actions.
This case was reported by only one of the witnesses and almost twenty years after the event. She said that the other people were just work acquaintances and she can’t even remember their names. The exact date remains in question.
It’s an interesting story, but with only one witness coming forward it doesn’t have the credibility of the Shag Harbor incident. But we have a UFO going into the water. What bothers me is, after the see the UFO go into the water, they stayed there for seven more hours. Then they saw two objects partially emerge and that’s when the witnesses left. If they waited seven hours to see it again, why would they leave right after they saw it? That doesn’t make any sense to me.
What do you think? I like the Shag Harbor story. There are a lot of witnesses. They all reported seeing the same thing. It’s interesting when another UFO comes and hangs out with the first UFO while the Navy sits there and waits. Then as soon as the Navy leaves to check out the report of a Russian Sub, the UFOs make a break for it. That’s a great story. I couldn’t find a single item or person trying to debunk this case. It’s a pretty strong case. The Hamilton one, well…..There’s just no much there. The only reason I brought that up is because it involved a UFO going into the water in Canada. If we had the other witnesses coming forward, then maybe we would have something.
UFOs have been reported by Navy Pilots, but the greatest threat to the Navy is not UFOs, it USOs. Things in the water you would think could be a problem for ships. As long as there have been sailors, there have been tales of sea monsters lurking in the depths that could snatch crewmen and crush ships. While looking for strange things that ships have run into, I found this interesting story from 1978. The USS Stein was experiencing increased sonar noise which was interfering with operations. After looking into it, they found that the protective NOFOUL rubber-like coating on the sonar dome had several cuts and scratches. Within the cuts were the remnants of claws. These claws were the type found in the suction cups on the tentacle of the giant squid. Alarmingly, the only specimens of claws that previously had been collected by scientists were a fraction of the size of those recovered from the Stein. If it was a giant squid that attacked the destroyer escort, it was substantially larger than any cephalopod that had been documented. Old seafarers would probably claim that the Stein had somehow managed to escape the legendary Kraken.
In another incident in 1976, a torpedo recovery boat conducting oceanographic research was dragging a cargo parachute as a sea anchor when it snagged something. The crew didn’t know what had become entangled in the parachute, but it was very powerful and the ship struggled against it. Fighting the full power of the ship’s winch, the sea beast apparently suffocated when it swallowed part of the chute. The crew pulled aboard the bizarre creature that was 15 feet in length and weighed 750 pounds. They did not realize it but they had caught the never-before-seen megamouth shark. The megamouth shark remains elusive, with only about 100 sightings since the Navy’s first encounter with it.
In the April 1955 issue of Proceedings Magazine, Commander Vining A. Sherman wrote about when he was called to the bridge of the USS Hale to look at something caught on the destroyer’s ramming stem. There he saw “a monster of such gigantic size” that he was stunned. The beast had been split in two, and Sherman estimated that 40 feet of the body was being dragged down the port side of the ship while another 12 feet of the body was hanging from the starboard side. It appeared to be a shark, but Sherman had never seen one that was over 50 feet long. He ordered the ship to back clear of the monstrous creature because he was concerned that it would become lodged in the ship’s screws. As the ship freed itself from the impaled body, Sherman took a closer look. Besides being so large that Sherman thought he could easily fit in its mouth, the beast had features different from any shark he had ever encountered. He thought it must be from another world or a survivor from another age. Upon returning to port he continued to conduct research and concluded that it was a whale shark. Sighting of whale sharks at the time were extremely rare. Sherman stated that he spoke to many sailors and fishermen who had heard legends about the whale shark but had never seen one.
While these cases don’t involve USOs in the sense that they are from another world, who’s to say that someday the Navy could have an encounter with something even more exotic.
Remember, believe none of what you hear and half of what you read.
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