1967 · The Sound, Shag Harbour, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, Canada
Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia: lights into the sea
Part ofThe undersea program
RCC Halifax UFO report telex to CANFORCEHED, 5 Oct 1967 · Government of Canada records (RCMP / Department of National Defence, Library and Archives Canada); scans via David Rudiak, roswellproof.com
When4 October 1967, shortly after 23:00 ADT
WhereThe Sound, Shag Harbour, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, Canada
Backing4 independent
Witnesses1 named
Evidenceofficial records, documents
Shortly after 11 pm on 4 October 1967, several groups of people along the south shore of Nova Scotia saw a line of amber or orange lights descend at about 45 degrees toward the water near Shag Harbour. Some heard a whistle. Witnesses then saw a single light floating on the sea, which drifted with the ebb tide for several minutes. RCMP officers arrived in time to see it. Within the hour, the officers, local fishing boats and a Coast Guard boat were on the water. They found only a patch of unusual foam. The Canadian Forces Rescue Coordination Centre at Halifax ruled out a missing aircraft. Maritime Command sent navy divers, who found nothing. The University of Colorado UFO project (Condon Report, Case 34) took the case by telephone and closed it without explanation. The event itself is solidly attested by police and the military. What the object was has never been established, and no physical evidence is known to survive. Most of the military message traffic is known only through private researchers' transcriptions, which I could not check against the originals.
Evidence, in date order (4)
- Oct 1967Naval Maritime Command watch officerofficialrelayed reports of a 60 ft object going into the sea and ran the search Condon Report, Case 34
- 4 Oct 1967RCMP Barrington Passage (Cpl. Werbicki and two constables)officialofficers arrived in time to see the light on the water Condon Report, Case 34
- 4 Oct 1967Norman Smith and David Kendrickwitnessseparate sighting of amber lights descending at 45 degrees Don Ledger, "The UFO Crash at Shag Harbour" (via NICAP)
- 1968University of Colorado UFO projectdocumentCondon Case 34 file, closed without explanation Condon Report, Case 34
How plausible · High
Police officers saw the light on the water and the navy searched, all recorded at the time.
- ●●Access Direct observation or instruments.
- ●●No gain sought Nothing to gain.
- ●●Character record Trained professionals.
- ●●Independent convergence Independent sources agree.
- ●●Checkable details check out Released official records.
- ●●Fits the documented skeleton Fits the documented record.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.
On the record
- Naval Maritime Command watch officer (Condon Case 34; secondhand, since he relayed reports he had received). Reports said "an object about 60 ft. long with four lights on it had gone whistling into the sea; it flashed when it hit, and a white light remained on the water afterwards." The original report came from two teenagers, and the Navy was searching for wreckage. No aircraft were missing. Five days later, Maritime Command told the project the search had ended. The watch officer read from an RCMP report saying that "a 60 ft. object had been seen to explode upon impact with the water."
- RCMP corporal (Condon Case 34). Ledger names him as Cpl. Victor Werbicki of the Barrington Passage detachment. The first report came from five young people, 15-20 years old. While driving near the shore, they saw "three or four yellow lights in a horizontal pattern comparable in size to a 'fair-sized' aircraft, descending at about 45°" toward the water. After losing sight of it for about ten seconds behind a hill, they saw "a single white light on the water". "Two officers and the corporal had arrived about 15 min. later, in time to see the light on the water. It persisted about five minutes longer." This is firsthand police observation of the light. Ten minutes after the light went out, the officers were on the water in a rowboat, along with a Coast Guard boat and six fishing boats. They found "only patches of foam 30-40 yd. wide that the fishermen thought was not normal tide foam". "Apparently no one actually saw anything enter the water." Other witnesses: two young women on the island saw three yellow lights tilt and descend, then a yellow light on the water. A man about two miles away saw three red-orange lights descending at "aircraft speed" with "a whistling sound like a falling bomb". The corporal said the light was not on any boat. Air Search and Rescue had no missing aircraft. "An RCAF radar station nearby reported no Canadian or U.S. air operations in the area at the time, nor any unusual radar object." The night was clear and moonless. Navy divers found "nothing relevant".
- A fishing captain's report of red lights and radar targets was judged unrelated by Condon, because his position was about 175 nautical miles from the site.
- Condon closure: "No further investigation by the project was considered justifiable, particularly in view of the immediate and thorough search that had been carried out by the RCMP and the Maritime Command."
- Cited in BAASS's capabilities summary for DIA (DOW-UAP-D175, November 2010, PURSUE Release 07).
Claims
Laurie Wickens (18) and four friends saw four amber lights flashing in sequence descend at 45°. They watched a "dark object" with a pale yellow light floating 800-900 ft offshore, then phoned the RCMP from Wood's Harbour (chain: Wickens to Cpl. Werbicki (1967) and to Don Ledger and Chris Styles (1990s), published by Ledger in *UFO Magazine*'s "Unopened Files" (1997) and *International UFO Reporter* (Jan 1998))firsthandSourced, unconfirmedWickens
Mary Banks at Maggie Garron's Point also phoned in to say she saw an aircraft crash into the Sound; a man at Bear Point heard a whistle and a bangsecondhandSourced, unconfirmedLedger's account of the RCMP calls; not checked against RCMP records.
Norman Smith and David Kendrick saw four or five amber lights at a 45° angle pointing down toward Shag Harbour (firsthand (to researchers))firsthandSourced, unconfirmedSmith and Kendrick, via Ledger.
Cst. Ron O'Brien and Cst. Ron Pond saw the light on the water and went out in boats (firsthand (to researchers))firsthandSourced, unconfirmednamed by Ledger. Condon's corporal confirms police officers saw the light (record), but without names.
Yellowish foam was found at the sitesecondhandSourced, unconfirmedLedger, from witness interviews (as summarised in my earlier reading of his article; the saved copy here is truncated). Condon records only foam that fishermen
The object moved underwater to a second location off Shelburne County, where a separate naval operation watched it, and the publicised search was partly a coverspeculationSourced, unconfirmedwidely attributed to Ledger and Styles's *Dark Object* (2001), which I did not read. It reportedly rests on witnesses who came forward decades later, some anony
Where
The Sound, Shag Harbour, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, Canada
43.5°N 65.7°W
In The picture
They use the waterAt Shag Harbour police watched a light float on the sea where a line of lights had gone down; the boats found only a patch of foam, and navy divers found nothing. In 1986 the Japanese government research ship Kaiyo Maru held unknown targets on two radars for six hours north of Wake Island, one closing at about Mach 4…
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Sources
- Condon Report, Case 34
- LAC public research list 43130
- Don Ledger, "The UFO Crash at Shag Harbour" (via NICAP)
- David Rudiak, list of Shag Harbour documents (secondary)
- Don Ledger and Chris Styles, *Dark Object: The World's Only Government-Documented UFO Crash* (Dell, 2001). Cited for the appendix documents; not read here.
- war.gov: DOW-UAP-D175, BAASS Self-Assessment of UAP Analysis Capabilities, November 2010