TRACECAT Case Directory
  Category 6, Physical Traces 
 
  Preliminary Rating: 5  

                                   
     


Two Boat Crews Encounter Submerged Object
Nov. 6, 1973
Pascagoula, Mississippi

Fran Ridge:
Nov. 6, 1973; Pascagoula, Mississippi
9:20 p.m. Officer Nations stated that he and Officer Crews were in the Coast Guard vessel and were approaching the Ryan brothers in their boat. “One fisherman was there beside the boat. From 50 yards I saw the light lighting up the boat. It was a dim light, moving in a straight line in a northwesterly direction at four to six knots. When we got directly over it, I could see that there was a light amber light source about four inches long which cast an oval-shaped beam straight ahead for four, five, or six feet. Beneath the four-inch light source and attached to it was a metallic rod a couple of feet long and about four inches wide.” Nations and Crews tried beating the object with boat oars and hooks, but it went out and reappeared 20 yards away. “The Ryan brothers chased it around in their boat and reached it again before we did. They beat it with their oars,” said Nations. Crews also described observing the light coming up from the water and onto the Ryans’ boat as the Coast Guard vessel approached. “Three boats started chasing it,” Crews explained. “Each boat tried to get on top of it. Then it was under all three boats. I looked down and saw a metallic object three feet long, three or four inches wide, and shiny like stainless steel. It went 20 or 30 yards, then went out. Then it lit up again on the same course and we tried to hit it with oars. The light went out and then it relocated again.” At 10 p.m. they lost it. (More details in report linked below).

Rob Duvall:
Not far from Ryan's underwater encounter and the nearby shoreline where Charles Hickman and Calvin Parker were abducted, the Navy was reportedly preparing to launch the U.S.S. Spruance, the first of a new fleet of multimission destroyers with highly sophisticated electronics. The Spruance was being built at the Ingalls Shipyard, and there are other shipbuilding facilities in the Pascagoula area, including a large nuclear facility operated by Litton Industries for the U. S. Navy. Perhaps USOs, like their aerial counterpart, the UFO, may have more than a casual interest in nuclear installations. As far back as 1952, a Project Bluebook report and map with indicator pins were released that showed that UFOs were seen preponderantly in the critical areas of nuclear development in the U.S.A.

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