Is There an Underwater UFO Base Off the Southern California Coast?

by Preston Dennett
FATE :: February 2006
 
 
 
Shortly after I began investigating UFOs in the late 1980s, I started to
receive reports of unidentified ocean-going craft. Most of these reports
came from a certain stretch of California coastline, from about Santa
Barbara south to Long Beach. This particular body of water, I soon
learned, had a widespread reputation as a UFO hotspot. After several
witnesses told me they believed there was an underwater UFO base there, I
decided to conduct a more in-depth investigation to determine the truth.
 
 
My first step was to survey the research of other prominent
investigators. To my surprise, most of the local researchers were already
aware of the sightings. Writes Ann Druffel, ¡°This body of water lies
between the coastlines of Southern California and Santa Catalina Island,
20 miles offshore to the southwest. The area has for at least thirty
years been the scene of UFO reports of all kinds:
 
 
surface sightings of hazy craft which cruise leisurely in full view of
military installations, aerial spheres bobbing in oscillating flight,
gigantic cloud-cigars, and at least one report of an underwater UFO with
uniformed occupants.¡±
 
 
 
Another researcher, Robert Stanley, editor of the now defunct magazine
Unicus, writes, ¡°Even in the sixties, families were going down to the
beach and waiting for a UFO to pass by¡­. By the 1970s, whole families
were going down to the beach at Point Dume at night to watch the
multi-colored UFOs [that] would sink under the water at times.¡±
 
 
MUFON field investigator Bill Hamilton writes, ¡°For years witnesses have
seen many types of UFO cruising off the Palos Verdes Peninsula in
Southern California. UFOs have actually been seen to come out of the
water in the San Pedro Channel.¡±
 
 
I had already uncovered several firsthand cases myself. My next step was
to put together a comprehensive list of all the recorded ocean-going
encounters in the area. I came up with more than 50 sightings. These
cases were next categorized into different types.
 
 
 
Coastal Sightings
 
The first and most common type are cases that take place over the
coastline. In these cases, people see UFOs either from the shoreline or
while they are out at sea. What follows are several typical cases.
 
1953: Engineer Frederick Hehr and several others are on Santa Monica
beach when they observe a ¡°squadron of saucers¡± performing maneuvers in
the daylight sky over the bay. Later that day, the objects return and
perform more maneuvers for a period of about ten minutes.
 
 
July 10, 1955: Around 11:00 a.m., several fishermen off the coast of
Newport Beach observe a bluish-silver, cigar-shaped object flying
overhead at a ¡°moderate speed and medium altitude.¡± Two and a half
hours later, a Washington family of three are sailing 13 miles off the
coast of Newport Beach on their way to Catalina Island when they observe
a ¡°perfectly round, gray-white¡± craft about 2,500 feet above their
boat. When the object maintains its position over their boat, they radio
the Coast Guard, which sends out a plane. The object darts away before
the plane arrives.
 
 
November 6, 1957: Early morning in Playa Del Rey, three cars driving
along the Pacific Coast Highway suddenly stall when a large ¡°egg-shaped
object¡± surrounded in a ¡°blue haze¡± lands on the beach only a few
yards away.
 
 
Witnesses Richard Kehoe, Ronald Burke, and Joe Thomas exit their cars and
observe two strange-looking men disembarking from the object. The UFO
occupants have ¡°yellowish-green skin¡± and wear ¡°black leather pants,
white belts and light colored jerseys.¡± They walk up to the witnesses
and begin asking questions. Kehoe and the others are unable to understand
the occupants, who are apparently speaking a foreign language. After a
few moments, the figures return to the object, which takes off and
accelerates out of sight.
 
 
 
That same day at 3:50 p.m., an officer and 12 airmen from an Air Force
detachment in nearby Long Beach observe six saucer-shaped objects zooming
across the sky. Two hours later, officers at Los Alamitos Naval Air
Station report seeing ¡°numerous¡± objects criss-crossing the sky. At the
same time, police stations in Long Beach receive more than 100 calls from
residents reporting UFOs.
 
 
December 1957: The crew of the British steamship Ramsey observes a large
metallic gray disk with antenna-like projections off the coast of San
Pedro. One of the crewmen grabs his camera and captures a blurry photo of
the object before it moves away.
 
 
1960: Actor Chad Everett and two friends are on the rooftop of his
Beverly Hills home one night when they observe a lighted object moving
back and forth at high speeds over the nearby ocean. Because the object
moves so quickly and at right angles, the witnesses are convinced it is a
genuine UFO.
 
 
 
1970: As investigated by Bill Hamilton, an anonymous gentleman sailing
from Catalina Island to San Pedro Harbor observes a metallic saucer with
four ¡°hemispherical pods¡± underneath it flying only a few hundred feet
above his boat.
 
 
May 1973: Art director George Gray (pseudonym) observes an object sending
down a beam of light while driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in
Santa Monica in the pre-dawn hours: ¡°The UFO was over where the beach
was¡­hovering I would say maybe a hundred, two hundred feet in the air.
It was silver. It was your basic UFO¡­it was definitely completely
metallic with a silver dome on top and a silver dome on the bottom of it,
like two plates put together. And it had little lights around it.¡± Gray
is able to bring in additional witnesses before the object moves away.
 
 
 
Summer 1988: Professional photographer Kim Carlsberg observes a darting,
star-like object while relaxing in her Malibu beachfront home. Suddenly,
the object moves directly toward her. ¡°The brilliant point of light
advanced until it became a luminous sphere some fifty feet in diameter,¡±
reports Carlsberg. ¡°It ominously hung in the air a hundred feet from my
window¡­the apparent standoff lasted no more than a minute before the
sphere departed as quickly as it appeared. It tore away diagonally
through the night sky and vanished.¡±
 
 
Summer 1990: Private pilot Toshi Inouye and his student observe a large,
red, glowing cigar-shaped object hovering near their plane as they fly
over the Santa Monica Bay in late afternoon. ¡°It was standing still in
the air, glowing red,¡± says Inouye. ¡°We were kind of stunned. We
didn¡¯t know what to do.¡± Inouye considers calling the nearby airport
control tower when the object suddenly darts away.
 
 
May 4, 1990: Early in the morning, two Malibu surfers are lying on their
surfboards waiting for the next wave when they observe a ¡°brushed
aluminum saucer with a bump in the middle [which] approached the
shoreline from out of the fog bank sitting about a mile offshore.¡± The
object darts back and forth then moves back out to sea.
 
 
 
1998: Adam (pool-cleaner) and Mario (military private) are driving along
the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when they see six black,
diamond-shaped objects darting at high speed up and down the coast. The
two men are so impressed by the brief sighting that they spend the next
hour driving up and down the coast hoping for a repeat appearance. While
they don¡¯t see any more UFOs, they do find other UFO watchers. Says
Adam, ¡°We did come across a couple of people who were just sitting in
their lawn chairs along the road. I don¡¯t know if this has anything to
do with it, but they were just sitting there along the side of the road,
just looking up.¡±
 
 
 
January 3, 2004: Young Chyren is standing along the Santa Monica coast at
midday when he observes a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering only a
few thousand feet directly above a small yacht less than a mile out at
sea. He quickly grabs his camera and snaps a photograph.
 
Into the Ocean
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