USOs: the phantom submarines

We are continuing our journey, in a way, to the dark and hidden watery depths of our planet. So much is undiscovered and might remain mystery for millennia to come or as we explore and roam the oceans and high seas, mankind might come across a baffling find to puzzle over. A strange thing happened on June 19, 2011. Some seamen were looking for sunken treasure from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Their sonar hit on a most baffling find they could ever think of — about 385 feet below the surface between Sweden and Finland they got indication of a huge round object. Let us first clarify the subject or rather “object” under discussion here. Unidentified Submersible Objects or USOs as they are termed are strange previously unknown underwater submarines or vessels. They are not shipwrecks or an unknown species of marine life or plants but have or are supposed to have a technological origin. Now, coming back to the unique find, the team of treasure hunters went ahead underwater to find out what their sonar was showing. What they found is probably one of the most unusual underwater discoveries of our century. The leader of the team on the Swedish Ocean Explorer, Peter Lindberg, stated to the authorities that the unidentified thing formed a perfect circle and was almost 197 feet in diameter. He stated to the authorities, “I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff in this profession, but during my 17-18 years as a professional, I have never seen anything like it — the shape completely round makes this unique. All I know is that I’ve seen anything down there that is solid-stone, concrete or steel — and that is completely round.” And here comes the “wow factor”. In the article regarding the mysterious object written in the Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, titled, ‘Mysterious Circles in the Baltic Sea’, the thing is supposed to have moved across the floor of the sea. According to the article, “Next to the circle is a 300-metre long slide track — as if the circle has travelled across the seabed before it settled.” It is theorised that the 1000-feet track was made when the object initially came to a halt under the sea as it came to a forced halt from above at a great speed. Now that’s something! The waters around Scandinavia are not new to this kind of anomaly. There have been many sightings of strange craft speeding across the skies and then just going underwater as reported by sailors and ship crew. Expedition team member Dennis Asberg thinks that the strange object that was found at the bottom was some sort of debris from the World Wars and maybe the Germans or Russians dumped some of their underwater warfare material around these parts. Andreas Olsen, who is a marine archaeologist with the National Maritime Museums in Sweden, studied the images taken of the mysterious circular object. She could not come to any proper explanation and said that she needed more information to make a complete study. But the newspaper stated that it is no leftover mine from the First World War, and thus we are back to where we started. On April 13, 2011, a Swedish family not only saw but also photographed a submarine-like object slipping under the waters. The head of the family alerted the armed forces wondering what the 328-foot submarine was doing near their property. But even though a search was conducted of the waters around the area, nothing was found. But the phenomenon of Unidentified Submersible Objects is not a new one. Back in March of 1870, around the Atlantic Ocean, sailors onboard the English vessel, Lady of the Lake saw a strange roundish object with a cloud-like tail zooming over the waters which the Captain F.W. Banner wrote in his ship’s log. Coming back, we have an official sighting by a witness Dan Willis who worked for the United States Navy in Washington D.C. While he was working at the code room in San Francisco, he received a classified priority message from a military ship in Alaska that stated that they had seen a bright reddish glowing object coming out of the ocean. The unusual object was about 70 feet in diameter and zoomed out of the water at 700 miles per hour. The ship’s radar tracked the object, thus it was not just an ordinary sighting. Then there is a more interesting sighting which led to the most believable image of one of these phantom vessels from underwater; on August 15, 1990, around the waters of Turkey — The Aegean Sea — near Saros Bay between Turkey and Greece. Erol Erkman was 57 metre underwater on an exploration stint with his friend Mr Kemal. Erkman stated to the authorities, that he and his friend while underwater first felt strange as someone was watching them. They looked around and to their amazement saw a green light at a distance which came close to them and moved around them for about three minutes. Erkman got out his underwater camera and took the first and rare photograph of a USO underwater. As soon as he snapped the picture, the green light went off. As their oxygen was very low they had to swim to the surface. The unique image was developed and had to be enlarged 300 times to make it visible. There were several assumptions. A secret submarine, an experimental craft being developed or a craft from the cosmos? No answers yet. The incident has been recorded and filed. These are just some of the reported underwater unidentifiable crafts. But what are they? After all there has to be something down there. Theories abound from underwater alien settlements to earth-based subterranean ancient kingdoms to secret advanced technological submarines by some developed nation. But something or someone is most probably down there not wanting to be discovered or disturbed.