Remembering the Oct. 4, 1967, skies over Nova Scotia
Besides Shag Harbour, sightings were reported in Dartmouth, Sambro, Wedgeport and elsewhere
Chris Styles was just 12 years old on a clear night when he looked out his bedroom window and spotted a strange light moving along the shoreline a few blocks from his house.
He grabbed his grandfather's binoculars to get a better look and then ran out of the house, much to his dad's dismay, down to the water's edge.
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He → remember → edge
"There's this huge sphere and it was a very dull orange, and it was glowing just like a poker in a fireplace," said Styles about what he saw on Oct. 4, 1967, around 10 p.m. AT.
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he → be → Oct.
While that date is best known for a UFO sighting in Shag Harbour in southwestern Nova Scotia, Styles was in Dartmouth, N.S.
Primarily between the Halifax area and southwestern Nova Scotia, people recorded seeing things in the sky that night, which has led ufologists to call it "The Night of the UFOs.
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which → know → UFOs
"If you were outside that ... night and you looked up, and for some hours afterwards, you would have seen something," said Styles.
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Styles → look → something
People were seeing the faintest stars without binoculars."
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People → see → binoculars
Styles has written or co-written three books about UFO sightings, including Impact to Contact: The Shag Harbour Incident.
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Styles → write → Contact
He said coverage of Shag Harbour meant other sightings fell out of the press, such as what the crew of the MV Nickerson saw in the waters off Sambro.
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crew → say → Sambro
Around 9 p.m., Capt. Leo Mersey said he spotted an object with three flashing red lights.
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he → say → lights
The object, which showed up on radar, was about 25 kilometres away.
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which → show → radar
"It was very clear that night and we could see the lights of Halifax," Mersey said in a statement he filed with the RCMP.
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he → see → RCMP
The radar also showed three objects about 10 kilometres away, but he could not see them.
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he → show → them
Around 11 p.m., the object he could see went into the air, but by then had only one red flashing light.
uncertain
he → see → light
"I had never seen anything like that before but it sounds like the thing they are looking for down off Shelburne or Barrington Passage," Mersey said in the statement, which was taken Oct. 7, 1967.
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which → see → statement
The RCMP statement, taken by a corporal with the Lunenburg detachment, noted: "Capt. Mersey is considered to be a reliable type individual and bears a good reputation in his community.
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Mersey → take → community
"
But Shag Harbour has long remained the focus, said Styles, in part because of the large witness pool, what authorities said at the time, and the subsequent paper trail left behind.
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authorities → remain → time
In Shag Harbour, an object with flashing lights crashed into the waters off the tiny fishing village.
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object → flash → village
Besides the many eyewitnesses, adding credence to the account was that a responding RCMP officer, Const. Ron O'Brien, described seeing a light from the object floating about 800 metres offshore.
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officer → add → object
"It was being carried out to sea by the tide and disappeared before we could get a boat to it," he told the Chronicle-Herald in an Oct. 7, 1967, article.
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he → carry → article
Styles said RCMP officers commandeered two fishing boats to see what was in the water and if there were any survivors, assuming a plane had crashed.
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plane → say → water
They were joined on the boats by local fishermen and other residents.
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They → join → fishermen
He said depending on who you talk to, the object either disappeared or submerged, but there was a yellow foam on the water that some say smelled of sulphur.
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some → say → sulphur
On Friday, Oct. 6, a naval diving team was brought in, and seven divers searched through the weekend, but reported finding nothing.
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divers → bring → nothing
The investigation reached the highest levels of National Defence.
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investigation → reach → Defence
An Oct. 6, 1967, memo by Col. W.W. Turner, the director of operations at National Defence headquarters, noted: "The Rescue Co-ordination Centre conducted [a] preliminary investigation and discounted the possibilities that the sighting was produced by an aircraft, flares, floats, or any other known objects."
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sighting → note → aircraft
His son, John Turner, told CBC News his father often mentioned to the family that he received reports of alleged UFO sightings.
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he → tell → sightings
"Many were easily discounted as photos of a Frisbee or a hubcap, but he often said others simply could not be explained," Turner wrote by email.
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Turner → discount → email
Styles wasn't the only person to see something in Dartmouth on Oct. 4, according to the Chronicle-Herald on Oct. 7, 1967.
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Styles → see → Oct.
The newspaper reported that a woman on her way home from work saw a bright, round object in the sky moving from the Halifax-Dartmouth ferry terminal.
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object → report → terminal
"She described it as brighter, more vivid than a star, with an orange hue like a halo around the circumference," the reporter wrote.
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reporter → describe → circumference
The woman looked at it through binoculars when she got home and saw it was not a star.
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it → look → binoculars
The newspaper checked with CFB Shearwater's control tower to see if anything was on the radar during the window the woman described.
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woman → check → window
Control tower personnel said no one was monitoring the radar at the time.
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one → say → time
The Aporia
