FLYING SAUCER REVIEW
Special Issue No. 4 August 1971 60p.
UFOs in Two Worlds
THE HUMANOIDS
OPERATION TROJAN HORSE
PASSPORT TO MAGONIA
MYSTERIOUS WORLDS
UNINVITED VISITORS
by Dennis Bardens £.1-80
by Ivan T. Sanderson £1-50
THE SCORITON MYSTERY
by Eileen Buckie £1 50
BEYOND THE SENSES
by Paul Tabori and Phyllis Raphael £200
ANATOMY OF A PHENOMENON
by Jacques Vallee £1 25
JOHN M. WATKINS
21 CECIL COURT CHARING CROSS ROAD LONDON WC2
We are proud to announce that
THE HUMANOIDS
the famous FSR Special Issue No. 1, out of print since 1969, has since had a successful career in attractive hard-cover presentations in both Britain and the United States (not to mention a Spanish-language version).
The English version contains, in addition to the original material, detailed studies of the Villas Boas abduction case, the Villa Santina case, and interesting comparisons of entities.
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY Jacques Vallee Gordon Creighton Aime Michel Coral Lorenzen Antonio Ribera W. T. Powers Donald B. Hanlon Charles Bowen
Great Britain
Neville Spearman Ltd. 112 Whitfield Street London W1 8DP
FLYING SAUCER REVIEW
SPECIAL ISSUE NO. 4
UFOs IN TWO WORLDS
FLYING SAUCER REVIEW
Edited by CHARLES BOWEN
Consultants
GORDON CREIGHTON, MA, FRAI, FRGS, FBIS
C. MAXWELL CADE, AlnstP, FRAS, AFRAeS, CEng, FIEE, FIERE
BERNARD E. FINCH, MRCS, LRCP. DCh, FBIS
CHARLES H. GIBBS-SMITH, MA, FMA, Hon Companion RAeS, FRSA
R. H. B. WINDER, BSc, CEng, MIMechE PERCY HENNELL, FIBP
Overseas AIME MICHEL BERTHOLD E. SCHWARZ, MD
Assistant Editors DAN LLOYD, EILEEN BUCKLE
An international journal devoted to the study of Unidentified Flying Objects
Special Issue No. 4 August 1971
CONTENTS
Introduction by Charles Bowen Confounding the Critics .. 1
Flying Saucers over Papua
The Reverend N. G. Cruttwell 3
The New Guinea Sightings
A note on some anthropologi-cal aspects Gordon Creighton 39
Type-1 Phenomena in Spain and Portugal—1
A study of 100 Iberian landings Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Jacques Vallee .. 40
Table 2
Index of the Iberian landings
Survey of Iberian Landings .. 46
Type-1 Phenomena in Spain and Portugal—2
A study of 100 Iberian landings Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Jacques Vallee .. 57
1971 (£> Flying Saucer Review
Contributions appearing in this magazine do not necessarily reflect its policy and are published without prejudice.
For FSR subscription details and address please see foot of page iii of cover
Confounding the Critics
PERSISTENT individuals, and small groups of dedicated investigators, have essayed, for more than twenty-four years, to make a case for the flying saucer. Their critics are legion.
They have not been helped in their aims by the unfortunate name “flying saucer”, the silliness of which has rubbed off on the subject—and that despite the adoption by many of the respectable name “Unidentified flying object.”* For that they can thank the newspapers, for the name “flying saucer”—which seldom fails to provoke a smile, particularly in the news-papers—was coined by a newspaperman after a very reasonable description of unidentified (and unexplained) aerial objects, seen in an incident over the Cascade Mountains, had been reported.+
In the eyes of its critics, a weakness of the subject is that a large proportion of the incidents are reported by solitary witnesses. Where, they ask, are the multiple witness reports? We know there are many multiple witness cases, but among those who choose to criticize without first considering all the reported facts there are those who delude themselves into believing that flying saucers are invariably reported by lone observers.
Again, it is difficult to avoid the impression that critics, particularly those in many branches of science, consider that a truthful witness is one who reports only something that can be readily explained in the light of current knowledge. A witness who reports phenomena that are inexplicable —and uncomfortable—is either a liar, or drunk, or a victim of a too-vivid imagination, or hallucinated, or a psychotic whose mind has succumbed to the rigors of modern “civilized” life.
In face of all of this, and with the added irritant of the ridicule deservedly attracted by the cultist beliefs of certain enthusiasts, it seems that the would-be serious researcher of reports of flying saucers, or UFOs, is on a hiding to nothing before he begins his task. Yet there are good, reasonable people in every stratum of society—many of them highly qualified—who thrust prejudice aside and take the trouble to look at the facts. They find many surprising things in the records so far amassed: surprising things which, if widely known, would confound the critics.
An item which is always a source of surprise—and delight—for those who come across it for the first time, is the remarkable report of the flying saucer wave over Papua, New Guinea, in 1958-1959. Details of this wave were carefully gathered and logged by the Reverend Norman E. G. Cruttwell of the Anglican Mission in Papua.
For most of us New Guinea is a remote and unknown part of the globe; a vast sub-continent not yet wholly explored, much of which still lingers on
* On reflection it seems no more silly to query the origin of “flying saucers” than it is to puzzle oneself over things identified as unidentified flying objects.
} On June 24, 1947, airman Kenneth Arnold likened the undulating movement of nine unusual objects, which he saw in “flight” near Mount Rainier, to that of “saucers “skipped* over water.”
the fringe of that ancient world of the Stone Age. Lightly brushed by civilization, the bulk of its peoples know just a sprinkling of European missionaries, teachers and doctors, and a handful of District Officers. Among those who live away from the towns, a few will have memories of the fighting in the coastal districts and among the Owen Stanley Mountains during World War II, memories which for some are retained in the form of a cultist faith in the return of “supplies from the skies.” Between them, the peoples of New Guinea can muster many scores of unwritten languages, and it is only now, and thanks to the devoted work of Canon Cruttwell and others, that one or two of these tongues are being put into scripted form.
Into the skies of this ancient world of unsophisticated peoples there came, in 1958 and 1959, an intruding wave of strange aerial phenomena. We must bear in mind that this was not a world with skies crisscrossed by high-flying jet aircraft, satellites and re-entering rockets, and dotted with skyhook balloons. It was, instead, a world of largely primitive folk who knew nothing of flying saucers and their alleged occupants, or of science fiction and dreams of space travel. Some of the witnesses of the UFOs were Europeans, some were natives with mission school education and elementary training, but many were neither of these. These witnesses were neither liars nor drunks, and while it is unlikely that they were imagining things—even in the fashion of the “cargo” cultists—it is certain that they were not suffering from psychoses brought on by the pace of modern city life. Whether alone, or in groups, they reported what they saw, and what they saw were things inexplicable in our terms let alone theirs.
When, during his last visit to England in 1970, Canon Cruttwell suggested to us that Flying Saucer Review might consider publishing the unabridged account of the events which he himself had published in 1960, and distributed in a limited and much sought-after duplicated version, we readily agreed. As one of the two works which make up this fourth FSR Special Issue, the Papuan story will now reach a much wider audience than heretofore. Which is as well, for it is one of the most important events in the history of our subject.
For the record, the FSR team and a few friends were happy to meet the Reverend William Gill when he paid a brief official visit to England during December 1970 and January 1971. We were all deeply impressed by this quiet, unassuming churchman and teacher. Before he returned to Melbourne, Australia, where he has lived and worked for the last ten years, he also visited Aime Michel and Paul Misraki in Paris.
An important feature of the Papuan events is that there was a marked peak of activity by UFOs, or flying saucers, during a short period of time. This “wave” effect has been observed in other parts of the world, including the “Old World’* of Spain and Portugal in 1968.
The wave of 1968 is an important feature of the study by Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Jacques Vallee of 100 UFO “landing’* reports through the years in the Iberian Peninsula. The persistent unearthing, gathering, recording and processing of data by Dr. Vallee and his friends will prove to be another factor in the ultimate confounding of uninformed, unthinking critics of serious UFO research.
CHARLES BOWEN.
TWO EARLIER “SPECIALS” STILL TO BE OBTAINED . .
A North American look at the psychic aspects of UFO phenomena. Was this beyond Dr. Condon’s brief?
Remarkable cases of contact with UFOs and entities, and in particular that of a French doctor who experienced physiological effects which have been photographed for all to see.
BEYOND CONDON . . . UFO PERCIPIENTS
FLYING SAUCERS OVER PAPUA
The Reverend Norman E. G. Cruttwell. MA
IDO not wish to sail under false colours. I wish to state at the outset that I have not unmistakably seen a “flying saucer”. That good fortune belongs to others. I have only been an investigator and reporter. But I have been in a very good position to report and investigate the Papuan sightings of unidentified flying objects, being in the midst of the area where most of them have been seen, and knowing the majority of the witnesses per-sonally. I have made it my business wherever and whenever possible to interview the witnesses individually.
I have collected and checked many more reports than anyone in the Territory, and as far as I know, am the only person who has taken the trouble to annotate and examine them thoroughly. I am writing this account as I feel that the sightings are of great significance and importance in the elucidation of the great “flying saucer” mystery. I do not claim to know what they are or whence they come. That is a matter for the experts. All I can claim to know is that these people have told me these things, that they are all reasonably honest and intelligent folk, and that their evidence is in many cases corroborative. It bears the stamp of sincerity. I have faithfully recorded what they have told me without embellishment and the reader must judge the reliability of their statements.
Many people are put off by the comparatively fantastic nature of the Boianai sightings and the appearance of “men”. What they do not realize is that they were only three sightings out of a total of 79 so far reported. Many others were as fantastic as the Rev. W. B. Gill’s. One cannot be isolated from the rest. They stand or fall together. No doubt some are explicable, but if only one is inexplicable, that one is significant. If these reports are to be rejected, they must all be proved erroneous, and many competent witnesses, such as the head of the Department of Civil Aviation, and the Manager of an Airline, not to mention a number of Clergy and Government officers, must be judged either liars or fools.
I have discussed the various possibilities of error or misinterpretation in each case, and have tried to assess the value of the report. I have recorded every detail that might be relevant to each case, but have not invented any. I have given the authority for every feature recorded.
Finally I have analyzed the sightings under various headings, and tried to point out some general characteristics of the whole series, and have discussed some possibilities of their nature, origin and purpose. But the question is still open. Nothing is proved.
But this overwhelming accumulation of 70 reports in a little over a year in a limited area, by witnesses many of whom are people of the utmost integrity, cannot be lightly ignored.
It is the purpose of this paper to present the reports and discuss them with a view to finding out what was in the skies over Papua in 1959.
I. SIGHTINGS BEFORE 1958
1. The first Papuan sighting
The story opens with Mr. Dairy’s sighting. Mr. T. P. Drury of the Department of Civil Aviation at Mel-bourne gave this information personally to me. At the time of the sighting he was Director of Civil Aviation in the Territory of Papua, New Guinea, stationed at Port Moresby. He is a man of very high qualifications and has flown 32 types of aircraft himself. He has also made a specialty of meteorological phenomena. The sighting was also witnessed by his wife and children. This is his story:
“I was standing on the coast road overlooking the Flying Boat Base at Port Moresby with my wife and children. It was about 11.00 a.m. on August 23, 1953. The weather was perfectly clear and cloudless. Even the summits of the Owen Stanley Range were clear, which is unusual. My wife and children were with me. I was engaged in taking a movie photo of a native boy spear-ing a fish. I was not looking at the sky. My wife noticed a wisp of cloud suddenly appear in the blue sky from nowhere and start to build up rapidly into a white puff. She called out to draw my attention to it. I watched it rapidly build up into a thick white mass of cumulus. There were no other clouds in the sky and there seemed nothing to account for it. Being very interested in meteorological phenomena, I decided to take a film of it. So I rotated the turret of my French-made movie camera to bring the telephoto lens into position, and started to film the cloud.
“The cloud was at an elevation of about 50 degrees above the horizon, in a roughly south-west direction, towards Napanapa. It was impossible to estimate the altitude, as there was nothing with which to compare it.
“Suddenly an object like a silver dart shot out of the cloud. It was elongated in shape like a bullet. It sub-tended about one inch at arm’s length. It was metallic and flashed in the sun. It was very clear-cut, sharp in front but apparently truncated behind, though the tail may have been hidden by the vapour trail. No wings or fins were visible. It shot out of the cloud upwards at an angle of about 45 degrees. It was travelling at an immense speed, at least five times as fast as a jet plane travelling at the speed of sound.” (Note that Mr. Drury is an expert airman and accustomed to estimating the speed of planes.)
“It never slackened speed or changed direction, but simply faded upwards into the blue and its vapour faded after it. It was gone in a few seconds. The vapour trail was very clear-cut, dense, white and billowing. It is visible in the remaining portion of the film still in my possession.
“In spite of the supersonic speed and the comparative nearness of the object, there was no sound whatever.
“I was greatly concerned about the appearance of such an extraordinary aircraft in the sky, and, without telling anyone, I drove straight to Jackson’s Airport, and checked with the Air Traffic Control. There were no unusual aircraft out, only a DC3 and the usual DC4 expected from Australia, and possibly a small aircraft or two.
“I then reported the sighting to the RAAF, but they were quite unable to account for it. Later I sent them the film, which was sent all round the world, but no one could explain the object and it was pronounced ‘unknown’.
“I am absolutely certain of its reality. It was photo-graphed. My wife and children saw it. If anyone in the Territory had the qualifications to identify an unknown aircraft, I had. It is my business to know what is in the air. I know all types of aircraft, and have flown 32 of them myself.”
Such is Mr. Drury’s remarkable report, which appears to be the first record of an unidentified flying object over the territory of Papua, New Guinea. It remains the only one to have been photographed. Mr. Drury claims that when the film was returned to him after being sent to America and other countries, the best frames had been cut out, and the remainder show only the cloud and the vapour trail. If this is true, it is very repre-hensible on the part of the Authorities. It is impossible to doubt the truth of Mr. Drury’s sighting, described in such detail by so qualified a man. The question remains, what kind of craft did he see, and where had it come from?
It may be objected that it could have been a space rocket, gone astray. Certainly its appearance is remini-scent of a rocket. But that does not explain the mysteri-ous cloud, the appearance of the rocket suddenly out of the cloud, without having been there before, and the complete absence of sound. A rocket at such a distance would surely have made a sound like thunder: and in any case, how on earth could a rocket have got into such a position over Port Moresby at a comparatively low altitude, when the nearest rocket range is at Woomera (many thousands of miles away)? The rocket would have had to travel for thousands of miles horizontally—or in a very low orbit—and then suddenly decide to change direction just over Port Moresby and shoot up into space. In any case, if a large space rocket had been fired anywhere on that date, and which could conceivably have been the object seen over Port Moresby, the RAAF would have been the first to know about it. The object therefore remains, as far as we can tell, inexplicable.
This, incidentally, is the only record known to me of a cylindrical or rocket-shaped object being seen over the territory, if we except a very doubtful sighting over Port Moresby in 1959, which will be mentioned later.
2. Objects over the Papuan Gulf
Two rather similar objects were seen over the Gulf of Papua in 1955 and 1956. They bore no resemblance to aircraft, but were typical of many of the objects seen in 1959.
The first was seen by an Administration Doctor, Dr. E. Nespor, who at the time was at Yule Island in the l Gulf of Papua, west of Port Moresby. One evening in May 1955 he was returning from a swim in the sea when he saw a large disc, about half the size of the moon, glowing with a greenish light, “similar to a Geissler or Crooks vacuum tube”, moving slowly along, for about one minute, when it disappeared. When he returned to the hill residence where he lived, he found that his wife . had also seen the object. This sighting was reported in a letter, and I have not yet had an opportunity of . questioning the witness to elucidate further detail.
The second sighting over the Gulf was made by Mr. Clifford Jackson, Manager of Papuan Air Transport, one of the leading airlines in the territory. He does not . remember the date, but thinks it was in 1955 or 1956. He was fishing at night on Idia island in the Gulf of • Papua, about 70 miles west of Port Moresby. It was early in the morning, one or two a.m., when he and his 1 companion saw a very large round red light in the sky, about 15 degrees above the sea in a westerly direction. It was larger than the moon and much brighter, with a rather blurred outline. It did not move laterally, but appeared to increase and decrease in size as though it was approaching and receding in line with the observer. They watched it for half an hour, when it disappeared.
These two sightings are unsatisfactory in their lack of detail. This is partly due to the passage of time, and partly because I have not had opportunity to question the witnesses closely: but the witnesses are both highly qualified and intelligent men, and there can be little -i doubt that they saw the objects described. The similarity to subsequent sightings will be noticed, both in the I colour and behaviour of the objects. Whereas the first appears to have been a disc, the second seems to have been a sphere. The size of the second is remarkable.
3. A strange light over the Ninigo Islands
The following appeared in the South Pacific Post, the principal newspaper of the territory, published in Port Moresby. The issue was dated November 6, 1957:
“A Patrol Officer and four Europeans recently watched a strange unexplainable light hover near their ship for 20 minutes, the Acting Director of Native Affairs, Mr. J. K. McCarthy, said yesterday.
“He said that the Patrol Officer, Mr. F. V. Esdale. was on the Government Trawler ‘Eros’ on August 24th in the Ninigo Islands, when he and the others saw this light.
“Mr. Esdale reports that he was in the Ahu passage in the Ninigo group, when a strange light appeared in the west, Mr. McCarthy said.
“It assumed the appearance of a large yellow star.
“It hovered in the one place for twenty minutes, but . changed from yellow to red, then to green, and finally to crimson. It remained still for twenty minutes, and then moved violently in a small area.
“It turned from crimson to green, then appeared to , fall into the sea, Mr. McCarthy said.”
This report, coming from such a reliable source, is certain to be factual. The appearance of falling into the sea may be due to the rapid disappearance of the object over the horizon. (The hovering and sudden movement precludes either a star or a meteor. The most significant feature of this sighting is the change of colour, an effect noticed again and again in the reports.)
This is the last of the pre-1958 reports. It will be seen that sightings in the territory are not new. There were probably others not reported, or which have not come to my ears. I did not take the matter seriously until the latter part of 1958, when things began to happen on my doorstep.
II. 1958—THE OVERTURE
1. A red light over the airport
Early in February 1958 (I forget the exact date, as I was not keeping a careful record in those days) we all heard over the radio on the Local News the story of a mysterious red light which had appeared over Jackson’s Airport, Port Moresby. It was seen by several of the Airport personnel. It appealed as a bright red blob of light which came down from the direction of Sogeri, i.e. from the north-east, and descended to about 200ft. It then made a traverse of the airstrip at that height and shot straight up into the sky and disappeared. It appeared to buzz the strip as if inspecting it.
The names of the witnesses were not given, and the matter was not reported in the press. The sighting was confirmed by Mr. C. Jackson, Manager of Papuan Air Transport, but he was not a witness. So far I have not been able to trace the witnesses. However, the sighting would not have been put out over the ABC-controlled Radio News unless it had been well authenticated.
2. A “Blue Moon” near Samarai
So far all the sightings have been by officials of the Administration or Air Transport. Now the missionaries start to see things. First of all it was the Roman Catholics at Sideia, an island close to Samarai, in the Milne Bay District. The reports from the Catholic Mission were sent in by no less an authority than the Right Rev. Bishop Doyle, Vicar Apostolic of Samarai. He reports:
“In June 1958 there came from a southerly direction a round object about the size of the moon, pale blue in colour, emitting light brighter than sunlight. It seemed to hover in the sky over Mission property. After about 5 minutes it moved in a northerly direction and disap-peared in mid sky. It was seen by five senior schoolboys at the same time.'” (The report does not mention the time of day or night.)
It is a pity we have not more detail of this sighting, which is a remarkable one. The “light brighter than sunlight” suggests it was seen in daylight, but in any case the object must have been startling in the extreme, and hardly to be explained by Venus, the favourite culprit for explaining away these phenomena.
3. Lights over Goodenough Bay
It was in the same month, June, that the first signs of activity began over Goodenough Bay, where I am stationed, and which was to reach its climax in June 1959.
Somewhere about that time (unfortunately I did not record the date, not thinking of the significance of the sighting, though I realised afterwards that it must have been the beginning of the lights which were to appear so frequently in our skies), the children at my own Mission station saw a light crossing the sky. It was about 7.00 p.m., and my mother and I were having our evening meal. Suddenly there were shrieks and cries outside, and shouts of “Satellite, Satellite!” By now even the Papuan children were satellite conscious, though none of us had ever seen one. They raced past the house towards the front of the station overlooking the sea. We too ran out, but were too late, the object had gone. How often that was to be my lot! What the children had seen was only a white light, like a star, which had travelled horizontally from horizon to horizon in a north-west to a south-east direction. It could have been a satellite, or it could have been a “UFO” (Unidentified Flying Object), we could not tell.
If this had been an isolated occurrence we should not have bothered about it, but when the happening began to repeat, we began to wonder. For towards the end of the year the lights started to appear again.
The next sight was at Wamira on the opposite side of the Bay, about 25 miles across from my own station of Menapi. Here my brother-in-law, Dr. J. K. Houston, was Missionary-in-Charge and also Doctor to our Base Hospital at Dogura nearby. It was on October 18 that things began to happen.
Just as the Wamira people came out of their Evening Service, at about 6.30 p.m., the sun having just set, but the sky not yet dark, they all saw a moving white light, like a star, travelling fairly quickly across the sky from south to north, its light fluctuating regularly. Both the Doctor and I questioned the eyewitnesses, and there is no doubt of the sighting.
Later on, the very same evening, the Doctor and his wife (my sister) were sitting in the house, when another moving light was sighted by the children over the sea. Some Papuan girls shouted out “Satellite”. Dr. and Mrs. Houston rushed out to see it, but they could not pick it up. It had probably disappeared behind a tree.
4. A green fire-ball
While the Doctor was continuing to gaze at the sky. there suddenly burst forth without warning a dazzling green flare, like a Very light. It just appeared from nowhere at an elevation of about 60 degrees in the clear starlit sky. It moved across the sky from north to south at a fair speed, traversing about a quarter of the width of the sky, until it appeared to be above Cape Frere, to the S.E. of the Station, and about three miles away. It was dazzlingly bright, and of a clear brilliant apple green. It lit up the trees and the whole landscape with its green light. It then vanished without a sound.
At the same time the same object was seen by Mr. Brian Sweet at Dogura, our head Mission Station, about one and a half miles away and two hundred feet up. Dr. Houston and I got Mr. Sweet to indicate the approximate elevation of the object in relation to him. This was about 30 degrees. So knowing the elevation of Wamira and Dogura and their approximate distance apart, and the two angles, we were able to work out by parallax that the green fire-ball was at an altitude
Two scenes from Boianai, Papua, New Guinea probably between 3,000 and 5,000ft. This is corroborated by the fact that it appeared to be just above Cape Frere, which is probably about 3,500ft. high.
Many possible explanations have been suggested for this green light, but none of them fit. It could not have been an aircraft flare, because no aircraft fly over the territory at night, and if there had been a plane they would have heard it. It could not have been a Very light because there was no ship in the Bay, and because the light appeared high in the sky, left no trail, and made no sound. A meteor has been suggested, but the size, color, speed, absence of sound and lack of any remains precludes this. Besides what meteor would descend to 5,000ft. and just vanish? There would have been a tremendous explosion. Can it have been a stray observation balloon? Why should one be so low in such a remote place, and how could it suddenly produce such a violent flare, and why was no trace of it found next day? In any case its movement was too rapid.
Those who have read the account of the mysterious green fireballs in America will notice their almost exact similarity to the Wamira fireball. They were pronounced inexplicable at the time.
5. The “satellite” that changed direction
Now we come to the first of the only two occasions where I personally saw an object, thought I cannot claim for certain that it was a UFO.
The object was seen for three nights in succession at Menapi, and for five at Dogura. It was also seen at the Roman Catholic Mission at Sideia, and finally it was seen at Port Moresby, on the other side of the territory. If it was a satellite, its behaviour was odd, to say the least of it.
The children reported having seen it first on Novem-ber 22. It was next seen at Menapi on the 29th, but missed by me, as I was in Church. However, on the 30th I was lucky and saw the object with my own eyes. It had been seen five days in succession at Dogura: so that in truth it had probably been passing overhead nightly for the best part of a week.
The object always came from the north-west, and travelled south-east on an unvarying course, except that the Dogura witnesses maintain that its track shifted slightly N.Eastwards each night, but always parallel to its track the night before.
On the night I saw it, exactly the same thing hap-pened as before. The children started shouting “Satel-lite”, and I ran out with my mother, carrying binoculars.
The light was just passing overhead as I came out, though the children had seen it appear from behind the hill at the back of the Station, to the north-west. The time was just about 6.50 p.m. The light took about three minutes to cross the sky, fluctuating slowly as it went from bright to faint and bright again, taking approximately 15 seconds to complete each cycle. It was like a silvery white star of first magnitude, appearing through the glasses to have a slightly fuzzy edge. It was at a very great height, passing behind the few high cirro-stratus clouds.
On the following night, December 1, it failed to appear, nor did we ever see it again. But on the next evening, December 2, the following item was broadcast over the Radio News from 9 PA, Port Moresby, at 7.00 and 9.00 p.m.:
“At approximately 6.45 p.m., on Monday night, December 1, an unidentified flying object was seen by several residents of Boroko, a suburb of Port Moresby. It was like a star, bluish white in colour, and of about the same brightness as a bright star. It was travelling from east to west, and disappeared low over the western horizon. It tended to disappear every few seconds. It was visible for about three minutes, during which time it crossed the sky from horizon to horizon. One of the observers, who had seen an earth satellite, said that it was similar in appearance. Civil Aviation authorities said that no aircraft or weather balloons were in the area.”
There can be little doubt that this is the same or a similar object to the ones seen on previous nights over Menapi, Dogura, Wamira and Sideia. Were these objects satellites? Could they have been the same satellite appearing again and again? Presumably this could be checked if the movements of satellites at that time were known. In those days very few satellites were in orbit and it is doubtful whether they were visible to the naked eye.
But the remarkable feature is the change of direction. Even if a satellite could behave in the manner observed, fluctuating its light, and appearing so regularly at the same time, how could it conceivably change direction in 24 hours from a south-easterly to a westward course? Taking into account the previous sightings at Menapi and Wamira (where the object was moving from south to north) the profusion of satellites in the sky travelling in different directions is, to say the least, puzzling.
It was this sighting that prompted me to write to the Flying Saucer Review, London, whose address I had found on the back of a book about Flying Saucers. I reported the Wamira fireball, and these satellite-like lights in the sky, asking for their opinion. The Editor* was very interested, and asked me if I would act as thei local observer and investigator for New Guinea in the International UFO Observer Corps. All it involved was reporting any further sightings to them, and trying, if possible, to interview the witnesses. Little realising what I was letting myself in for, I accepted, and started a UFO file. I never imagined that within a year my file would be bursting with reports.
This paper is the result.
III. 1959 “TILLEY LAMPS” IN THE SKY
After the satellite-like lights in the sky, nothing further was seen for four months, and I thought that was the end of the activity. But I was very wrong. That was only a preliminary overture. The curtain rang up with the appearance of lights in the sky, which were described by the witnesses over and over again as being like “Tilley lamps”. It should be explained that the
* At that time the Editor of FSR was the Hon. Brinsley le Poer Trench.
Tilley lamp is the most popular type of lamp in the territory where there is no electric light. Nearly all Europeans and quite a few of the better off Papuans possess them. They burn kerosene under pressure, which vaporises to heat a mantle. They give out a brilliant white light equal to 300 candle power. They are visible at a great distance and appear as an indefinite white blob of light, often with a halation of rays, due to the brightness. One often sees them far out to sea on a canoe, where the native people use them to attract fish.
1. A hovering “Tilley Lamp”
During Lent it is our custom to hold mid-week services in the villages. My assistant Papuan priest, the Rev. Albert M. Ririka, and a teacher, Augustine Bogino, were returning from such a service on the evening of March 19, 1959. They were on the coastal track (we have no roads or vehicles) walking back to Menapi, and had about five miles to go. They had no watches, but the time was “dusk”, i.e. about 6.45 p.m. They emerged from a piece of forest on to the seashore, facing across Goodenough Bay.
They were amazed to see a brilliant white light hanging in the sky, apparently over the Owen Stanley Ranges on the other side of the Bay. I should explain that they were on the south side of the Cape Vogel Peninsula looking across to the mainland over about 20 miles of sea.
Augustine described it as “like another moon in the sky, but smaller”. The real moon (which was “half”, i.e. first quarter) was also in the sky in quite another direction. Father Albert described it as “like a Tilley lamp in the sky”. They both agreed it was a brilliant white light, much larger than a star.
They stood and gazed at it for a minute or two. They think it was stationary, though there is a slight disagree-ment on this point. If it moved, the movement was very slight.
They then continued to walk along the track close to the sea, keeping the object in view for about ten minutes. Then they passed through another short section of forest, losing sight of it. When they emerged a few minutes later on to the beach, the light was no longer there. They did not see it again.
It was also seen by two other Papuans whose house is on the beach nearby. When Father Albert and Augustine returned to the Mission they immediately reported the sighting to me, and asked if I thought it was a satellite. I went down to the beach and looked out over the bay. There was of course nothing to be seen. I looked out on subsequent evenings in the direction they indicated, but there was nothing there, not even a bright star to account for it. It is true that Venus was in the sky, but nowhere near the direction of this object.
Many people are inclined to doubt the testimony of Papuan native witnesses, on the grounds that they are (a) uneducated, (b) superstitious, (c) inclined to say anything to please the European. This is most unfair. I have been in Papua for thirteen years and speak four native dialects. Father Albert and Augustine are well-educated men, trained at our Teachers’ Training College, one an ordained priest, and their testimony is as valuable as that of any normal European.
Indeed, it is likely to be more impartial as they have no preconceived notions about satellites or astronomical phenomena, let alone flying saucers. They simply report what they see, and their descriptions are vivid and precise, and I can see no reason for not accepting them as accurate. If they are accepted as witnesses in court, why should their evidence not be acceptable in an investigation such as this ? Of course it is subject to the laws of corroboration, as is any other evidence.
2. Flying “Tilley Lamps”
On the evening of Good Friday, March 27, many of the students at St. Aidan’s College near Dogura saw a light “like a Tilley lamp” moving across the sky. The time was between 5.30 and 6.00 p.m., that is to say in daylight, though the sun would probably have set behind the hills.
It came from the sea, and moved over Dogura (our Head Station) from the direction of Cape Frere, and disappeared over the horizon in the direction of the Holy Name School (that is, south). This was reported to me in a letter from the Principal of the College, the Rev. David Durie, D.D., Dip.Ed.
At some indefinite date about this time, a white light was seen by Mr. George Awui, an engineer, and several other Papuans, hovering over the sea in broad daylight off Dogura. It was “like a star, but much brighter”. They watched it for five minutes, until it suddenly went out. It was high in the sky to the west. It is conceivable that they may have been looking at Venus.
However, at about the same time right over in Colling-wood Bay, a party of mountain people from the Daga country were down at Midino on the coast, hunting for wallabies, which abound in the grass plains. They were probably sleeping in the open under the clear starry sky. One night they saw a very bright “round white light, like a Tilley lamp”, coming from the north-west. It passed right over them, “very close and clear” and continued on a straight course to the south-east. It made no sound. They were very frightened, and my informant, named Wavine, asked me if it was some new aircraft made by the white man. I said I did not know.
The sightings of objects “like Tilley lamps in the sky” continued. During April they were seen at Giwa. Dogura, Menapi, Sariba near Samarai and even in the Conflicts and Sudest Islands. They were seen by Euro-peans and Papuans, from land and from ships. There seems little point in detailing all of them, as they are very similar. A white light, “like a bright star”, or “like a ship’s light”, or like a “Tilley lamp”, travelling in a straight line across the sky, or in one case “up and down”. They were regarded as quite commonplace after a few months. Many must have seen them without reporting them to me.
Were they meteors, satellites, or merely Venus? They could not have been aircraft, for no aircraft fly over the territory at night, and none of them was ever accom-panied by sound. Had these been the only sightings we might have dismissed them as explicable phenomena, misinterpreted: but soon the objects began to behave in a manner which suggested that they were intelligently guided.
3. “Tilley Lamp” on a mountain?
The scene now shifts to Boianai, later to become Stephen Gill Moi (right), Papuan Teacher Evangelist and witness of UFO visitations — see pages 12 to 17
Daisy Kolauna and Annie Borewa, two of the Papuan medical orderlies at the Boianai mission, were among the eye-witnesses famous for the most amazing sighting of all. Boianai is a village on a small tongue of land made by the Mase River where it flows out of a deep gorge of the Owen Stanleys. It is on the south side of Goodenough Bay, some 20 miles across from Menapi. About four miles behind it the mountains rise sheer to culminate in two peaks which overhang the gorge on either side, Mount Nuanua and Mount Pudi. They are about 4,000ft. high. Behind them rise ridge upon ridge up to Mount Simpson, nearly 10,000ft., which caps the range.
Right on the beach is the Mission Station of All Saints, Boianai, with a coral cement Church and various Mission buildings. It faces northwards, the beach running north-west to south-east. It looks across to the low hills of Giwa and Menapi on the Cape Vogel Peninsula.
The Missionary-in-Charge, the Rev. William Booth Gill, is an old friend of mine. He came out to Papua with me in 1946, and I know him very well. On April 9 he was on his little 16ft. launch about a mile off shore, coming home from visiting an outstation. It was 6.50 p.m., and just about dark. The weather was clear overhead, but there were clouds and rain squalls about. The mountains were a dark silhouette against the still glowing sky.
He suddenly noticed a bright white light “like a Tilley lamp”, apparently high up on the flank of Mt. Pudi, not far from the summit. He estimates that the light was about 500ft. from the top. It was quite stationary, and he immediately thought: “Oh, there must be someone up there with a Tilley lamp.” The Papuans with him all noticed the light. He was puzzled about the light, but not unduly so, and looked away, continuing to read his book. Five minutes later he looked up again, but the mountain was in darkness. The light had disappeared. This again seemed odd, but he took no notice, and went on reading. After another five minutes he was aware of the light again, shining out from the mountainside, but to his surprise it was shining from a completely new position on the opposite side of the mountain. It had moved quite a mile to the east, quite impossible, if a man had been carrying it.
However, Father Gill did not realize the significance of what he had seen, and looked away again. Next time he looked back, the light had gone, and did not reappear. The next morning he examined the mountain by daylight, and realised that there was no house or village or even any track up there, but only the precipitous mountain-side. It was not until he got a letter from me about the later sighting from Giwa that it occurred to him that it might have been a UFO.
As it was quite impossible for it to have been an actual Tilley lamp for the reasons given above, in addition to the fact that very few people, apart from the Mission staff, possess Tilley lamps anyway, it seems likely that it was another appearance of the objects “like Tilley lamps” which were being seen all over the place. If so, the object could not have been actually “on” the mountain, but was probably hovering between the mountain and Father Gill’s launch, a distance of three or four miles. As it “appeared” at a height of 3,500ft., when seen against the mountain, its actual height could not have exceeded that altitude, but may have been considerably less. The object therefore could not have been astronomical, but appears to be some kind of craft hovering at aircraft height.
This sighting was therefore of great importance to us at the time, suggesting that some mysterious, apparently controlled, craft were flying about over Papua at night. This was amply confirmed by subsequent sightings.
4. A “Tilley Lamp” which turned on its tracks
Across the Bay from Boianai, but rather further in towards the head of the Bay, is a village called Giwa. It is about 12 miles along the Bay from Menapi in a westerly direction. Here there is a little Trade Store, run by Mr. D. L. Glover, an Australian Trader. His house is right on the beach facing across towards Boianai, which would not be more than a dozen or so miles across the water to the south.
On April 21 at about 7.00 p.m. Mr. Glover happened to look out of his front door and saw a bright white light in the southern sky over the mountain range across the Bay. It was apparently only a short distance above the mountains, and appeared just above a particularly sharp peak. When later he showed me the position. I realised that the peak was Mt. Pudi again, where Father Gill had seen the object on April 9.
Mr. Glover had thought at first that it was a ship’s light, until he saw that it was in the sky. He describes it as “like a Tilley lamp as seen from a couple of hundred yards away”. It travelled slowly out from the mountains over the sea, on a course oblique to him, in an approxi-mately north-easterly direction. As it drew closer it appeared higher, passing right across his field of view, until it appeared above a group of trees to the left of his house (i.e. somewhere over the sea betwenn Giwa and Baniara Island).
It then stopped, seemed to hover a moment and then reverse, travelling in exactly the opposite direction without turning. It continued to travel back on exactly the same track by which it had come until it again appeared to be over Mt. Pudi, where he had first observed it. It then suddenly vanished, like an electric light switched out. He did not see it again.
Mr. Glover was convinced he had seen a “Flying Saucer”. He admitted that he could see no shape, just a bright light, far brighter than any star. But what struck him, as it struck me when he told me the story, was the way in which it stopped and reversed without turning. No known aircraft could have done this, let alone a meteor. He estimates the speed to be roughly that of a slow aircraft. The whole duration of the sight-ing was between five and ten minutes. He did not time it. This sighting, like Father Gill’s, suggests a controlled craft of some sort, but certainly not a normal airplane.
So far, all the lights seen had been “like Tilley lamps” or “like stars”, but in May the objects started to put on a display of colour, though the white lights continued to be seen as well. Some of the earlier sightings before 1959 had shown these colour changes, which seemed to be a definite characteristic of certain types of UFO.
IV. KALEIDOSCOPIC LIGHTS
The first report of coloured lights came from a group of Papuans who were not particularly reliable, and I was inclined to discount it. I was especially sceptical at the time, because there were several stars low down on the