Disappearance of a ship in Philadelphia. The Adventures of Captain Vrungel

The Philadelphia Experiment was an experiment possibly conducted by the US Navy on October 28, 1943, during which the destroyer U.S.S. Eldridge allegedly disappeared and then instantly moved several hundred kilometers in space along with a team of 181 people.

The legend is this: in the harbor of the Philadelphia shipyard, the Americans conducted experiments on camouflage of warships in order to make them invisible to radars and magnetic mines. For one of the experiments, they chose the small destroyer Eldridge, which had just left the shipyard. They installed four powerful electromagnetic generators on it. They turned them on, expecting that the created field would begin to distort the radar signals. But everything was distorted. The ship, standing in the harbor, was enveloped in a cloud of green fog, after which both the ship and the fog, emitting a deafening howl, disappeared not only from the radar screen, but also from sight altogether. There was only a trace left on the water, as if pressed by an already invisible destroyer. After the generators were turned off, the Eldridge reappeared with a living, but completely stunned crew - the sailors were staggering like drunken people, they were vomiting.

The crew was changed and a few weeks later the experiment was repeated, strengthening the field. The green fog did not form - the destroyer simply became translucent. Then a blue glow appeared - a bright flash, and the Eldridge disappeared without a trace. “Back” a few minutes later, having been in the Norfolk area, several hundred kilometers from Philadelphia. They allegedly saw him there - the ship first appeared out of thin air and then disappeared.

That is, during the operation of the generators, “Eldridge” may have been teleported in space. Or did only his image move to Norfolk, creating something like a mirage - an optical illusion projected over a huge distance? Which is also no less surprising. In any case, it affected the team more than last time. Almost everyone went crazy, two disappeared immediately, five were literally fused into metal structures, some burned alive, instantly igniting with torches, others, on the contrary, froze, as if doused with liquid nitrogen.

The experiments were stopped, and all information was classified. But it still leaked out in both space and time, although it did not become any clearer.

The assumption of the experiment has been widely circulated, but has not been officially confirmed by the US Navy.

For almost seventy years, the Philadelphia experiment has haunted tens of millions of ordinary people, turning into one of the nation's obsessions. The mysterious events of 1943 are the subject of 16 (!!) world bestsellers, two category A super films, and countless symposiums, conferences, seminars, and studies. Dozens of “generally recognized experts”, “authorities” and “experts” travel around the world: giving lectures, signing autographs, collecting materials, interviewing witnesses. Here and there, “eyewitnesses of the events” pop up, their relatives, friends, friends of friends.

A gigantic industry, interest in which is constantly fueled by the media, which from time to time throw up sensational “discoveries” and “new turns of events.”

This operation is one of the darkest stories of our century. Perhaps no one will ever be able to unravel its mystery.

The Philadelphia Experiment... Its mystery begins with the name Morris Jessup. He was a man with diverse interests - an astrophysicist, a mathematician, a writer. He had to deal with various problems, but he never sought public recognition.

In the late 40s and early 50s, Jessup became interested in the phenomenon of “flying saucers,” initially out of curiosity, and later purely professionally. Having accumulated certain material, he decided to write a book about it, which was supposed to be the first truly scientific attempt to answer the question - what is a UFO? – based on available data. In his opinion, the driving force of the UFO was based on the principle of antigravity, which is still unknown to us.

The Case for UFOs, published in 1955, was not a bestseller, but it was after its publication that Jessup received a most strange message. It came along with a pack of traditional reader letters, which the publisher regularly sent to the author.

This particular letter was postmarked Pennsylvania and was written in multi-colored pencils and ink scribbles, not to mention a very strange style. In the middle of a sentence, words were suddenly written in capital letters, there were many spelling and lexical errors, and punctuation marks seemed to be scattered at random. Often entire sentences were underlined in different colors.

But even more surprising was the content of the letter. Its author was interested in sections of Jessup's book that talked about levitation, which could have been known to our distant ancestors. According to the author of the letter, levitation not only existed, but was once a “well-known process” on Earth. The letter ended with the signature "Carlos Miguel Allende."

Jessup wrote a brief response to the mysterious Señor Allende, asking for details. Over the next few months, the answer never came, and he gradually began to forget about the incident.

On January 13, 1956, exactly one year after completing work on the manuscript “Arguments for UFOs,” Jessup, now in Miami, received the following letter from the same Carlos Miguel Allende, who, however, this time signed “Carl M. Allen ". It was written in the same strange manner, indicating a former Pennsylvania sender, but it was postmarked from Gainesville, Texas. We present it here based on the text of a brochure published in 1962 in the USA in a small edition.

"Carlos Miguel Allende

New Kensington, Pennsylvania

My dear Dr. Jessup, Your appeal to the public to bring its representatives into the movement en masse and thereby put sufficient pressure on the relevant institutions to legislate the study of the Unified Field Theory of Dr. Albert Einstein (1925-1927) is not at all is necessary. You will probably be interested to know that the dear doctor, when withdrawing his work, was guided not so much by mathematics as by humanism. The result of the later calculations he carried out outraged him. Therefore, today we are “told” that this theory was “incomplete.”

Dr. B. Russell states privately that it was completed. He also says that man is not ripe for this and will not be so until the end of the third world war. Nevertheless, Dr. Franklin Reno's "results" were used. They were a complete recalculation of that theory from the point of view of any rapid application possibilities if they could be carried out in a short time. Moreover, these were good results, as far as theoretical recalculation and a good physical “result” are concerned. And yet the Navy is afraid to use this result! This result was and is today proof that the Unified Field Theory is correct to a certain extent. No person of sound mind or any sense at all would dare to go to the other side. It is true that this form of levitation was accomplished as described. This is also a frequently observed reaction of certain metals to certain fields surrounding a current, and this field is therefore used for this purpose...

The “result” was the complete invisibility of a destroyer-type ship at sea and its entire crew (October 1943). The magnetic field had the shape of a rotating ellipsoid and extended 100 meters (more or less, depending on the position of the Moon and the degree of longitude) on both sides of the ship. Everyone who was in this field had only blurry outlines, but they perceived all those who were on board this ship and, moreover, as if they were walking or standing in the air. Those who were outside the magnetic field saw nothing at all, except for the sharply defined trace of the ship's hull in the water - provided, of course, that they were close enough to the magnetic field, but still outside it.

Why am I telling you this today? It's very simple: if you want to lose your mind, reveal this information. Half the officers and crew of that ship are now completely insane. Some, even to this day, are kept in appropriate institutions where they receive qualified scientific assistance when they are either “soaring,” as they themselves call it, or “soaring and getting stuck.” This "floating" - a consequence of being in a magnetic field for too long - is not at all unpleasant for sailors with a healthy curiosity. But it becomes so if they get “stuck” at the same time. In this state, they are unable to move of their own accord unless one or two companions who are in the magnetic field with them quickly approach and touch them, otherwise they will "freeze".

If a person "freezes", his position is carefully marked and then the magnetic field is turned off. Everyone except the “frozen” one can now move again and enjoy their seemingly material body. Then the team member with the shortest service life must go to the place where he finds the face or naked patch of skin of the "frozen" not covered by the uniform. Sometimes it only lasts an hour or a little more, sometimes a whole night and day, and once it took six months to "unfreeze" a person.

It was necessary to construct a highly complex apparatus to return the “fresh frozen” and “deep frozen”. Usually the “deep-frozen” person loses his mind, goes berserk and talks nonsense if the “freezing” lasted more than one day according to our time count.

I'm talking about time, but... the “frozen” perceive the passage of time differently than we do. They resemble people in a twilight state, who live, hear and feel, but do not perceive so much that they seem to exist only in the next world. These perceive time differently than you or I. As I said, it took six months for the first "deep frozen" to return. In addition, the electronic equipment necessary for this and a special berth for the ship cost over $5 million. If in or near a seaport you see a group of sailors laying their hand on one of their comrades or “in the air,” quickly go there and lay your hands on him, for he is the most unfortunate man in the world. Neither of them would like to become invisible again. I believe this cannot be continued, because man is not yet mature enough to work with force fields.

These people use expressions like “hanging in the stream” or “in the toffee” or “in the fireworks” or “getting stuck in the syrup” or “I whistled” to describe some of the consequences that occur decades after the force field experiment .

Very few of the team members who took part in the experiment remained... Most lost their minds, one simply disappeared “through” the wall of his own apartment in front of his wife and child. Two other crew members were "ignited", that is, they "froze" and caught fire while wearing small boat compasses; one carried a compass and caught fire, and the other rushed to him to “lay on his hand,” but also caught fire. They burned for 18 days. Faith in the effectiveness of the laying on of hands was destroyed, and a general madness began. The experiment as such was absolutely successful. It had a fatal effect on the crew.

Look in the Philadelphia newspapers for a tiny paragraph (top of the page, about the last third of the newspaper, 1944/46, spring, fall or winter, not summer) - a note about the actions of sailors after their first voyage. They attacked the Sailor's Rest, a tavern at the shipyard, leaving the waitresses in shock and fainting.

Check the crew of the observation ship "Andrew Furset" (Matson company, home port of Norfolk. The company may have a logbook from that voyage, or it may be from the coast guard), first officer Moseley (the captain's name will be established later, the list of crew is in the ship's log) . One of the crew, Richard Price, could recall the names of other members of the deck crew (the Coast Guard has information about sailors who were issued "documents"). Mr. Price was 18 or 19 years old in October 1943. He lives, or lived then, in his old family home in Roanoke, Virginia, a small town with a small phone book.

These people are eyewitnesses, people from the team. Connelly from New England (Boston?) could also be a witness, but I doubt it (maybe the last name is spelled differently). He was an eyewitness. I ask you to conduct this little investigation...

With deep respect yours

Carl M. Allen"

A few days later the following addition arrived:

As a result of a cold and sober analysis, I want to inform you and, through you, science, the following.

The Navy did not know that people could also become invisible if they were not on a ship, but under the influence of the field.

1. The Navy didn't know that people could die from side effects of the hyper-field inside or outside the field.

2. Besides, they still don’t know why this happened, and are not even sure that the “P” in “P” is the reason for it at all. I myself “feel” that something related to the boat compass “caused the fire.” I have no proof, but neither does the Navy.

3. What's even worse and what was never mentioned: when one or two people, visible to everyone inside the field, simply disappeared into nothingness and nothing tangible remained of them - neither when the "field" was turned on, nor when it was turned off - when they simply disappeared, fears increased.

4. It was even worse when one seemingly visible went "through" the wall of his house, and the surrounding area was carefully searched using a portable field generator, and no trace of him was found. Then the fears increased so much that none of the people or people who worked with the experiments could continue with them.

5. I would also like to mention that the test ship disappeared from its dock in Philadelphia and a few minutes later appeared at another dock off Norfolk, Newport News, Portsmouth. There he was clearly and clearly identified, but then disappeared again and a few moments later returned to his dock in Philadelphia. This was also in the newspapers, but I don't remember where I read it or when it happened. Perhaps during later experiments. Possibly also in 1946, after the experiments were interrupted. I can't say this with certainty.

For the Navy, this whole story was very inconvenient, because it had such a morally corrupting effect that the normal operation of the ship was greatly hampered. In addition, after this incident it turned out that even basic operation of the ship could not be counted on.

I think if you had worked with the group that participated in the project back then, and if you had known what you know now, then the “fire” would not have been so unexpected or such a terrible mystery. It's more than likely that none of these would have happened. In fact, they could have been prevented, in part by a more careful program and more careful selection of officers and crew. But this did not happen.

The Navy simply used whatever human material was available, with little, if any, consideration for the characters and personalities of that material. With care, great care in the choice of ship, officers and crew, with careful training and sufficient attention to such ornaments as rings or watches, and also to personal insignia and belt buckles, and especially to nailed boots, I think it would certainly be possible has been somewhat successful in dispelling the fear-filled ignorance surrounding this project.

Naval Personnel Office records in Norfolk, Virginia (for naval school graduates) will show who was assigned to the USS Andrew Furset in late September or October 1943. I well remember another observer who stood next to me during the tests. He was from New England, with dark brown, curly hair. I forgot his name. I leave it to you to decide whether this deserves more work or not, and I write in the hope that it will be done.

With deep respect, Carl M. Allen."

The story is certainly crazy, fantastic, but it attracted Jessup. However, in his 1964 book Invisible Horizons, researcher Vincent Gaddis says that “Jessup’s first reaction was to dismiss the letter as a hoax by some crank.”

Still, according to Gaddis, Jessup entertained the possibility “that the letter was an exaggerated account of a real event. After all, many secret experiments were carried out during World War II. And in 1943, research was also carried out that led to the creation of the atomic bomb. The impetus was given to them by Einstein’s letter to President Roosevelt, and the Unified Field Theory of the famous scientist could well have served as the basis for other, less successful experiments.”

Dr. Jessup was clearly puzzled. He wrote a reply to “Allen,” emphasizing the “great importance” that he immediately send any additional material at his disposal to support his strange assertions.

Five months later, another message from Allen arrived - just as mysterious and difficult to understand as the previous ones. We present it with abbreviations that do not exclude the general meaning.

"Carlos M. Allende

New Kensignton, Pennsylvania

Dear Mr. Jessup, having just returned from a long trip, I discovered your postcard. Since you want me to answer you “immediately,” I, after careful consideration, have decided to do so. What you want from me is tantamount to positive evidence, which, however, could only be provided to you by a duplicate of the equipment that caused “this phenomenon.” Mr. Jessup, given this attitude, I could never come close to satisfying your desires. For the reason that I couldn't do it. And the Office of Naval Research (at that time under the command of the current Chief of the Navy, Burke) would never allow disclosure.

You see, this experiment could only be carried out thanks to Burke's curiosity and persistence. He turned out to be a complete failure, but his stance on progressive and ultra-progressive research is precisely what made him what he is today. If the stench of those experiments had ever escaped, Burke would have been nailed to the cross. Be that as it may, I have noticed that after the outbursts generated by the reaction have cooled down, the crucified achieve a kind of holiness.

You write that this is of “the greatest importance.” I am of the opposite opinion not only sincerely, but also passionately. At the same time, your ideas and your curiosity are akin to my own. I personally could give you positive help, but we would need a hypnotist, sodium pentothal, a tape recorder and an excellent typist to get something of real value to you.

As you know, a person under hypnosis cannot lie, and a person under hypnosis and who has received a “vaccination against lying,” as it is called in everyday language, is not able to lie at all. Moreover, by this means my memory would be rendered capable of remembering in full detail those things which my present consciousness does not remember at all, or remembers only weakly and uncertainly, so that the use of hypnosis would be of much greater benefit. Thus, I would be able to remember not only full names, but also addresses and telephone numbers, and perhaps even the extremely important numbers of those sailors with whom I sailed or even came into contact.

You, I hope, understand that their failure was not in achieving metallic and organic invisibility, but in achieving the involuntary transport of thousands of tons of metal in the blink of an eye along with people. Although this last effect was a matter of long experimentation (for the Navy) which they presented as a failure, I believe that further experimentation would quite naturally lead to the controlled transport of large tonnages at extremely high speeds at the right time and place.

Unintentionally and to the great embarrassment of the Navy, this had already happened once to an entire ship and its crew. I read about this and also about the actions of the sailors who left their base without permission and who were invisible at that moment in time, in one of the afternoon newspapers in Philadelphia. Under narco-hypnosis, I could reveal the name, date and page number of this or another newspaper. Consequently, the archive of these newspapers will produce even more positive evidence of this experiment. Thus, one can find the name of the reporter who so skeptically investigated these incidents and described and interviewed the waitresses, so that it would be possible to obtain testimony from him and from the waitresses.

The end result will be a truth too monstrous, too fantastic to be concealed. Well-founded truth backed by clear positive evidence. I would love to find out where these sailors live now. It is known that a small number of people can name the address and name of a person whom they have never met or only seen. These people have a very high PSI factor, which can intensify under conditions of pressure or tension, or usually intensifies during severe fear. It can also be activated under hypnosis - meaning it's as easy as reading a manual.

A check of registration records in shipyard pharmacies or in hospitals, ambulance stations or prisons on the very day on which the restaurant was attacked could reveal the exact names, who these people were, and their service numbers, and therefore could find out where they are from and, with some effort, their current addresses.

Perhaps the Navy has already used that accident to build your UFOs. From any point of view, this is the logical next step. What do you think???

With deep respect, Carl Allen"

It’s not hard to imagine what thoughts were in Jessup’s mind when he read all this. One of two things: either the most important event of our time fell on him out of the blue, or someone is fooling him in the most sophisticated way.

In late July or early August 1955, that is, if the date is correct, at least several months before Jessup received Allende's first letter, Major Darell L. Ritter, an officer in the Marine Corps Air Navigation Projects Branch of the Office of Naval Research (OMR). ), found in the incoming mail a parcel addressed to “Admiral N. Firth, Chief of the Office of Naval Research, Washington-25.” The brown wrapping paper was stamped “Seminole, Texas 1955.” There was no sender's address or cover letter.

The only contents of the parcel was the paperback book “The Case for UFOs” by M. Jessup. When Ritter opened it, he was immediately struck by numerous random handwritten notes in the margins and areas underlined in at least three colors. The notes gave the impression that their author had great knowledge about UFOs - their history, origin and driving force. The book itself was already pretty tattered - someone had obviously spent a lot of time working on it.

The notes in the margins were devoted mainly to the mysterious disappearance of ships, planes and people - mostly in the area of ​​​​the mysterious Bermuda Triangle. They also dealt, sometimes in great detail, with “unusual storms and clouds, objects falling from the sky, strange marks and footprints, and the like,” of which Jessup wrote.

Major Ritter probably knew that military institutions at that time were showing special interest in research in the field of antigravity. Be that as it may, he kept the book. And it was from his hands that this book was received a few months later by two UMI employees who showed interest in the scribbles - Captain 3rd Rank George W. Hoover and Captain 1st Rank Sydney Sherby. At one time, both participated in the Avangard project (the code name for the design work to create the first artificial Earth satellite in the United States) and were interested in research in the field of antigravity. One of them wrote a letter to Jessup, inviting him to Washington, D.C., to UMI to discuss the book.

Jessup has arrived. He was shown a copy of his book, marked in the margins. “Who could be the author of the notes?” - they asked him. As Vincent Gaddis, one of the UMI employees, recalls, “while reading the notes, Morris Jessup's face became increasingly embarrassed, as an increasing number of comments concerned things that, although he had heard, he did not mention in his book. In addition, the author of the notes, apparently, had extensive information about “creatures from UFOs,” about extraterrestrial phenomena and many other things that were discussed, as a rule, only by psychiatrists and people involved in cults and mysticism. And the main thing was not even whether they correspond to reality or not. Much more important was the amazing knowledge of the unknown author of the message in these matters.”

Jessup was confused. Why, he probably asked himself, is the Navy so interested in the work of an obviously mentally ill person? It had not yet occurred to him that there was a direct connection between the letters of "Carl Allen" and these notes.

But then he noticed a note regarding the 1943 Navy project. And again - an invisible ship... And Jessup remembered Allende! Yes, he has two letters from “one of the commentators.” And he told Captain Hoover about it.

“Thank you, Mr. Jessup,” Hoover said. “It’s very important for us to see these letters.” Hoover once again emphasized his exceptional interest in this case and said that he had already made the necessary arrangements for the book with notes to be reproduced in a limited edition and then presented to “influential people in the leadership.” “We'll make sure you get a copy,” he assured Jessup.

It must be assumed that Jessup complied with Hoover’s request, because after some time the letters appeared as part of the “introduction” to Jessup’s “limited edition” book. The rest of the foreword was written by Hoover and Sherby.

There is information that Jessup visited the UMI at least three times on this case.

Hoover tried to find Allende at the address he indicated on his letters to Jessup. But unsuccessfully. Allende seemed to have disappeared into the ground...

By 1958, Jessup had virtually ceased his professional activities, deciding to make a living by publishing his works. Despite his rather modest income, this brought him a certain independence. However, she did not save him from deep depression. The situation was further complicated by a car accident.

In mid-April 1959, having barely crossed the 59-year-old mark, he decided to call it a day. It is known from reliable sources that Jessup wrote at least two farewell letters to his close friends.

On April 20, 1959, around 6:30 p.m., Dr. Morris C. Jessup was discovered still alive behind the wheel of his car parked near his home in Coral Gables. It is reported that he died either on the way or immediately upon arrival at the hospital, from carbon monoxide poisoning, directing the hose from the exhaust pipe into the car through a half-closed window.

A few years later, Ivan Sanderson, a renowned scientist and one of Jessup's closest friends, was the first to dare to state that "the mysterious circumstances surrounding the Allende case set off a chain of events that ultimately led to Jessup's death."

The mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. Jessup forced researchers to take a closer look at this topic. Was it suicide, as it seems at first glance, or was he killed because he knew too much?

The first starting point was information from Miami from Anna Genslinger, who, along with her friend, a police lieutenant, managed to gain access to documentation of the examination of corpses in Dade County, Florida. Documents show that at the time of his death, Jessup's blood was saturated with a lethal level of alcohol. According to Mrs. Genslinger, Jessup was constantly taking medications at the time, which together with such a dose of alcohol could lead to immediate death - at least enough to completely prevent him from moving. He was simply incapable of driving a car himself, let alone driving several kilometers to County Park, writing a suicide note, and then attaching a hose to the exhaust pipe of his car, then closing the window. By the way, a full autopsy was never carried out, which in itself is very unusual for cases of suicide...

Dr. J. Manson Valentine, an oceanographer, zoologist and archaeologist who had studied the Bermuda Triangle intensively since 1945, was a close friend of Jessup's when he lived in Florida.

Jessup, increasingly suffering from depression and in need of a grateful listener, spent a lot of time in the company of Valentine in the last months before his tragic death, trusting him with many of his thoughts.

“Why,” they asked him, “did Jessup commit suicide?” The answer was stunning: “If it was suicide,” Valentine said, “then depression must be to blame. The Navy offered him work on the Philadelphia Experiment or other similar projects, but he refused - he was worried about dangerous side effects... Perhaps he could have been saved. He was still alive when he was found. Perhaps they let him die."

Valentine recalls that Jessup told him about some of the amazing things he learned in connection with this incredible project. The experiment, he said, was carried out using magnetic generators, so-called demagnetizers, which operated at resonant frequencies and thus created a monstrous magnetic field around the docked ship.

It is striking that Valentine's message, based on direct information from Jessup, almost completely coincides with Allende's data, according to which the experiment brought amazing results, but had dire consequences for the crew.

“When the effects of the experiment began to manifest themselves,” Valentine continued, “at first an impenetrable green fog appeared. By the way, survivors of the Bermuda disasters also spoke of a glowing green fog. Soon the entire ship was filled with this green fog and, together with the crew, began to disappear from the sight of the people at the dock, until, finally, only a trace remained on the water.”

Valentine was asked to state the essence of this theory as simply as possible. “It's practically about electric and magnetic fields,” he said, “namely: by inducing an electric field in a coil, a magnetic field is created; the field lines of both fields are at right angles to each other. But since space has three components, there must also be a third field, presumably gravitational. Then, by connecting electromagnetic generators in series in such a way that a magnetic pulsation occurs, it would probably be possible to create this third field according to the principle of resonance. Jessup believed the Navy encountered this by accident."

No less interesting is the case of the writer James R. Wolfe, who spent some time investigating the Allende mystery. Wolfe began writing a book on the subject, but before the book was finished he suddenly disappeared.

Over the years, interest in the mystery either faded or flared up again, and more and more new questions arose. In fact, if the Navy really managed - accidentally or intentionally - to achieve the effect of invisibility or even teleportation (instantaneous movement of a material object from one point to another), then could the results of such experiments also serve as an explanation for a number of mysterious events and numerous cases of disappearance without a trace in the area of ​​the Earth commonly called the Bermuda Triangle?

But the most important question is: are those letters genuine? Researchers' opinions on this issue are divided.

In his book “What Happened to the Destroyer Eldridge?” Kuzovkin A. and Nepomnyashchy N. summarize the information available in Allende’s letters:

"1. Albert Einstein created the Unified Field Theory in 1925–1927, but then withdrew it out of fear that an insufficiently mature humanity would use it for evil. According to Allende, Dr. B. Russell can confirm this.

2. The concept of this Unified Field Theory was tested during World War II by the US Navy "in terms of general and specific applications in a very short time." A certain Dr. Franklin Renaud, whom Allende describes as a friend, allegedly had something to do with the results at this stage of the project.

3. These results were used to achieve "complete invisibility of a manned destroyer-type ship at sea (October 1943)" by creating some kind of energy or force field around the ship. The people on the ship could probably see each other more or less clearly, but all observers outside the field saw only a sharply defined trace of the ship's hull in the water. The effect of this invisibility force field on people was, according to Allende, terrible.

4. At the Philadelphia naval shipyard there was a special berth for an experimental ship.

5. A small note appeared in one of the Philadelphia afternoon newspapers. It talks about “the actions of the sailors after the first voyage,” when they “attacked” a bar or restaurant (presumably “Sailors’ Rest”).

6. Allende claims to have partially observed the experiment himself in October 1943 from the ship Andrew Fureset. According to Allende, the following people were present on deck and witnessed the experiment: First Officer Moseley; Richard Price, an 18 or 19 year old sailor from Roanoke, Virginia; a man named Connelly from New England (possibly Boston).

7. Rear Admiral Rawson Bennett, director of Navy research, could conceivably confirm that the experiment actually took place.

8. An experimental ship mysteriously disappeared from its dock in Philadelphia and appeared in the Norfolk area. Then, just as suddenly, he returned to his dock in Philadelphia. Everything happened within a few moments.

9. Allende implies that the Office of Naval Research at the time of the force field experiment was run by "the current (at the time of writing, that is, in 1956) Chief of the Navy Burke" and that the experiment was made possible "thanks to Burke's curiosity and persistence "

10. Finally, Allende tells Jessup, in addition to his then address, the following details about himself: his Z number (416175) as a merchant seaman; the fact that he served on the Andrew Furset for approximately six months; He characterizes himself as “a kind of dialectician and astrologer” and reports that he is in the habit of going on “long journeys.”

Checking all this fragmentary information seemed both extremely labor-intensive and extremely interesting. Berlitz and Moore needed to obtain additional information and consult with many people.

Did the Philadelphia Experiment really work as Allende describes it? And let us remember the final words of his third letter: “Perhaps the Navy has already used that transport disaster to build a UFO. From any point of view, this is the logical next step.”

Maybe. But before we offer possible answers to this question, let us turn to the person who, apparently, is at the center of this whole mysterious story - Señor Carlos Miguel Allende.”

Despite many years and numerous attempts to unravel the mystery of Allende’s letters, no one was able to find the most mysterious lord. The problem became even more complicated with the appearance in the 60s of several “false Allende” who were ready to sell “their history” for the appropriate amount. Fortunately, not a single buyer could be persuaded.

The search for Allende took Berlitz and Moore a lot of time. Labor-intensive study of telephone books of numerous cities and rural areas, personal files of members of the army, military and merchant navy, review of police reports, newspaper archives and lists of the dead, requests to writers and researchers in the field of unexplained phenomena - all was in vain. And here is the case.

The answer came from Jim Lorenzen, to whom the researchers were one of the first to write. Lorenzen is director of the Aeronautical Phenomena Research Organization in Tucson, Arizona. He said that their magazine published an article about Allende in 1969, after which a person appeared on their board who called himself by that name. Lorenzen even sent a photo of Allende during an interview at the editorial office, but he could not say more, since he had not heard anything about Allende since then and did not have his address.

About a month later, Moore approached Lorenzen about an entirely different matter. Several weeks passed, and a letter arrived from Lorenzen, at the end of which, among other things, he said that “I received a letter from K.A. by today’s mail,” followed by the address. And although this was not the address of Allende himself, it still provided a trace, and it was so fresh that Berlitz and Moore rushed to use it, which ultimately led to the meeting.

As a result of conversations with Allende, it turned out that from August 1943 to January 1944, he served on the ship Andrew Fureset as a member of the deck crew. He knows only a little more about the experiment than what he has already talked about on this topic in his letters to Jessup.

Here we must make allowances for the fact that he was neither a scientist nor even a professionally trained observer, but just a simple sailor who, by chance, was destined to be at the right time in the right (or inappropriate) place and witness the spectacle for which he explained I couldn’t find it then or now.

Did he really see the ship disappear? He himself claims that - yes, he saw it.

How was this accomplished? He cannot give an exact answer, but he knows that some kind of force fields were involved for this. “There was a huge amount of static electricity running.”

Can he tell you the name of the ship? Yes, maybe: “It was DE-173.”

Did he witness the ship disappear multiple times? No wasn `t. "But he disappeared repeatedly."

Where does the information about Einstein, Russell and Admiral Bennett come from? “From friends in high places, whose names I won’t mention.” Albert Einstein, according to him, was present at a certain stage of the experiment.

Allende also claims that before his eyes a man became invisible at the loading dock; However, he doesn’t remember the date or in which dock it happened.

However, let's give the floor to Allende himself. Here is a transcript of a tape recording of one of the conversations:

“So you want to hear about Einstein's great experiment, right? You know, I actually plunged my arm up to my elbow into its unique force field, which flowed counterclockwise around this small experimental ship - DE-173. I... felt the pressure of this force field on my hand, which I held in its humming, pressing stream.

I saw how the air around the ship... very easily, very gradually... became darker than the rest of the air... After a few minutes, I saw a milky greenish fog rise in a cloud. (This description is very similar to eyewitness accounts of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.) I think it was a fog of elementary particles.

I saw how after this DE-173 quickly became invisible to the human eye. And at the same time, an imprint of the keel and bottom of this ship remained in the sea water. Yes, today I can talk about it, but, on the other hand, who cares about it now?

If you try to describe the sound that accompanied this force field as it circled around DE-173... well, at first there was this buzzing sound that quickly turned into... a buzzing hiss, and then intensified to a seething roar, like a torrential stream.

The field had a shell of pure electricity around it. This current was so strong that it almost knocked me off balance. If my entire body were inside this field, I would probably be thrown to the floor... onto the deck of my own ship. Fortunately, my entire body was not inside this force field when it reached its maximum strength and density - I repeat, density - so I was not knocked over, but my arm was pushed out by that field.

Why didn't I get electrified when my bare hand touched this... shell of electricity? Probably because I was wearing high sailor rubber boots and a sou'weil.

People from UMI still don’t know what happened that time. They say the field was twisted."

And then he talks about a newspaper article that he read while, in his own words, on shore leave in Philadelphia. True, he admits that he slightly embellished his story about the consequences of the experiment for the sailors. According to him, he did this out of fear that Jessup would get the government to accelerate research in the field of Unified Field Theory, and simply wanted to scare him off. He was afraid that the results of such research would fall into the wrong hands and have dire consequences...

If we trust the data of Carlos Allende and Dr. Valentine, then the basis of the Philadelphia Experiment project should be found in a very vague and highly complex scientific theory developed by Albert Einstein and known as the Unified Field Theory. In his second letter to Jessup, Allende writes that Einstein first published this theory in 1925–1927, but then withdrew it for reasons of “humanism,” as Allende put it. He, however, does not explain what he actually meant by this term.

Albert Einstein did create a version of his Unified Field Theory for gravity and electricity in 1925–1927. The results appeared in German scientific journals of the time. Allende is correct in asserting that the work was withdrawn as unfinished. It is noteworthy that this theory resurfaced only in 1940, that is, after Einstein, a pacifist to the core, became convinced that National Socialism must be destroyed under any circumstances and that any means will do. And, amazingly, 1940 appears to have been the year that the US Navy began working on what would become the Philadelphia Experiment...

William Moore, one of the researchers, recalls a lecture hall discussion after Einstein's death in 1955, in which it was said that Einstein, in the months before his death, had burned papers relating to some of his well-researched theories - because humanity is not ripe for them and will feel better without these theories.

In 1943, the time Allende said he witnessed the Philadelphia Experiment, Albert Einstein was the Navy's scientific advisor. Records from the General Services Administration in St. Louis state that Einstein was employed by the Navy Department in Washington as a research officer from May 31, 1943, to June 30, 1944.

Einstein's own comments on this matter are quite dry, but not without interest. In July 1943, he wrote to his friend Gustav Buckley: "While the war is going on and I am working for the Navy, I would not like to do anything else." In August he wrote to Buckley again and described the close ties he had established with the Navy Research Office. In the same month, Dr. Rannevar Bush placed him at the disposal of a committee "where it is highly likely that his special knowledge would be useful." Neither the nature of the "committee's" activities nor the nature of the relevant knowledge was ever disclosed.

It seems that Einstein was involved not only in the mathematical justification of the project, but also in the experiment itself. According to some reports, after the first experiment was unsuccessful, officials from the Ministry of the Navy brought Einstein to the scene to receive additional recommendations from him on the principle: “Now that you have seen everything for yourself, explain to us what our mistake was!” »

So what is Unified Field Theory? As Berlitz and Moore explain, the theory is essentially about using a single equation to explain mathematically the interactions between three fundamental universal forces—electromagnetism, gravity, and nuclear energy.

Remarkably, the simultaneous discovery of two new elementary particles in New York and California in 1974 suggests that there is a fourth "weak" universal force, related to gravity in the same way electricity is to magnetism. It is not yet known whether this field is interdimensional or temporal in nature.

If such a theory is to be fully developed, then its final equations must also include light and radio waves, pure magnetism, X-rays, and even matter itself. The enormous complexity of such a problem can be roughly imagined if we remember that Einstein devoted the lion's share of his life to achieving such a goal and, even in his declining years, often complained that he did not know enough mathematics to complete this task.

Some researchers tend to believe that even decades after Einstein's death, much of his life's work remains obscure even to the most eminent scientists. If the Philadelphia experiment really confirmed some of his theoretical constructions, then knowledge about this is so camouflaged that even today his concept of the Unified Field Theory is considered more as a goal than as a real theory. This is despite the fact that Einstein, less than two years before his death, announced the “exceptionally convincing” results of his search for mathematical proof of the relationship between electromagnetism and gravity.

No matter how interesting theoretical discoveries may be, true attention can only be awakened by visual, practical results. So weren't similar results already achieved in 1943, when the US Navy attempted to use some of these principles to make that ship invisible or even teleport it, as Allende claims? Or did the experiment fail in some way, and this led to fatal consequences?

Perhaps Allende was right in hinting in the final lines of his letter to Jessup of a possible connection between the results of secret Navy experiments and the driving force of UFOs? Or was it all just a mirage - one of those “ghost ships” that suddenly appear in the sea fog and just as suddenly disappear?

Archival documents made it possible to establish the following. The name "Andrew Furset" was proposed in July 1942 to the United States Shipping Commission by the Pacific Seamen's Union in honor of the organization's founder and longtime chairman. In October of the same year, number 491, the ship left the slipways of Kaiser Industries shipyard No. 1 in Richmond, California. As Allende wrote, the ship was soon thereafter leased to the Matson Navigation Company of San Francisco, which operated it for the next four years.

On August 13, 1943, the Andrew Furset set out on another voyage - this time along the coast to the ports of Norfolk and Newport News, where it accepted cargo for a further transatlantic voyage. And from this point on it becomes particularly interesting to us, for one of the deck crew hired for this voyage was a young man just out of nautical school and listed under the name of Carl M. Allen. Particularly important is the fact that he receives permission to board the ship only in Norfolk - so he covers the distance to it by land, stopping for the night in Philadelphia. It arrives in Norfolk Harbor on the morning of August 16, just in time to board before the Fureset departs Newport News at 10:18 a.m. This was his third voyage as part of a convoy. Port of destination: Casablanca.

On October 4, Fureset docked again at Newport News for repairs and loading and remained there until October 25. On this day he again departs from Norfolk for North Africa, and again the name Carl M. Allen appears on the crew lists. On November 12, the ship reached Orange Harbor and did not return to any American port until January 17, 1944. A few days later, a crew member named Carl M. Allen leaves the Fureset. He is believed to be transferring to another ship, the Newton Baker.

As for the convoy destroyer DE-173, aka Eldridge, then, as official documents testify, its history is outwardly quite cloudless. Construction of the vessel began on February 22, 1943 at Federal Shipbuilding and Drydocks, Newark. The length of the vessel was 102 meters, the standard displacement was 1240 tons, the total displacement was 1520 tons. About five months later, on July 25, the ship left the slipways. The official commissioning ceremony took place on August 27, 1943 at New York Seaport, and command was transferred to Lieutenant Commander Charles R. Hamilton.

The Eldridge first sailed in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and then, fulfilling its escort and reconnaissance duties, was sent to the Pacific Ocean, where it remained until the end of the war. Upon returning to New York, she was decommissioned on July 17, 1946 and docked until January 15, 1951, to then be sold to Greece as part of a bilateral defense agreement.

There it was renamed “Leon” and could remain in operation for some time.

The first suspicions that not everything was as described in the official papers arose when researchers tried to get hold of the ship's logs of both ships. Here Berlitz and Moore were in for surprises. It turned out that the Eldridge's ship's logs for the period from the moment it was put into operation (August 27, 1943) to December 1, 1943 “are not possible to find and, therefore, to make available to you.” And the Fureset's logbooks were destroyed by order from above, that is, they simply no longer exist.

Since the only period of time of interest for our investigation was the one during which Allende served on the Fureset - that is, from approximately August 13, 1943 to January 30, 1944 - the researchers tried to focus their attention on this period as much as possible. This is what came out of it.

From documents still in the possession of the Matson shipping company, it follows that during this period the Fureset made two voyages to the shores of North Africa; the first began on 13 August 1943, when Fureset sailed from Norfolk south along the coast and from there on into North Africa; on his second voyage he departed from Lynhaven Roads, Virginia (near Norfolk), to Oran, Algeria. For Allende, the first voyage began no earlier than August 16. His second voyage ended when he abandoned ship a few days before the Fureset arrived in Hampton Roads on January 17, 1944.

According to the official history of the Eldridge, as presented in Navy Department records, the ship was launched on July 25, 1943, at Newark, New Jersey, and commissioned on August 27, 1943, at the New York Seaport. His reconnaissance mission began in early September, extended to the area of ​​Bermuda, British West Indies, and continued until December 28, 1943. The same documents show that his first transoceanic voyage began on January 4, 1944 and ended in New York on February 15.

If we take this data on faith, then it turns out that during this period of time none of the ships we were interested in approached the other. The only question is how reliable this information is. The first piece of data discovered in the archives remained secret until recently, and it is this that seems to completely discredit the official version.

This is an anti-submarine action report written by the commander of the Eldridge on December 14, 1943, concerning the events of November 20 in the North Atlantic. According to official data, the Eldridge was on a reconnaissance mission in the Bermuda area from early September to late December 1943; his first transoceanic voyage began on January 4, 1944. But according to the operational report of the ship’s commander, Lieutenant Commander C.R. Hamilton's Eldridge dropped seven depth charges on a suspected enemy submarine shortly after 1:30 p.m. local time on November 20, 1943, while moving as an escort ship in convoy UGS 23 west toward the United States. The Eldridge's coordinates given in the report were 34 degrees 3 minutes north latitude and 8 degrees 57 minutes west longitude - meaning that it was about two hundred miles from Casablanca and about three thousand miles from Bermuda!

And the second piece of information: while the deck logs remained unattainable, the engineering logbook was found. True, it did not contain information directly necessary to resolve the issue, but it provided the coordinates of the ship according to disputed dates. These and other documents, which appeared almost simultaneously, showed that the Eldridge left Brooklyn on November 2 to collect ships from convoy UGS 22, scattered by a hurricane in late October. And this was really valuable information, because we were talking about the same convoy that left Norfolk - Lynhaven Roads on October 25 and included the Fureset.

The most interesting thing here is that “Fureset” was in the last row of the convoy, catching up with the stragglers, and probably should have seen DE-173. In addition, the location of the Eldridge near Casablanca on November 22 indicates that the Eldridge accompanied Fureset and its convoy UGS 22 all the way to North Africa (where the convoy is known to have arrived on November 12) and was in as escort for UGS 23 on its return trip when it encountered the said submarine. If it had not been for the discovery of the operational report, which the Navy Department had kept under lock and key for thirty-four years, these things would never have come to light. After such an “error” was discovered in the official version, the question arose about other “errors”.

Thus, Fureset and Eldridge apparently met during a convoy mission en route to Africa. The only question is whether the Navy would have decided to conduct such a risky and top secret experiment in front of an entire convoy. In addition, Allende insists that the experiment was carried out on the docks of Philadelphia and at sea, that is, off the coast of the mainland. The time data he indicated - the end of October - is consistent with the timing of the convoy operation, but otherwise there is no agreement.

First, the Eldridge was apparently sailing from Brooklyn, not Philadelphia, when it joined convoy USG 22. Shipping records for this period of time make no mention of the Eldridge being in Philadelphia at all—except at the time when it was being built in Newark. Allende also reported that he read about the consequences of the experiment in one of the Philadelphia afternoon newspapers. However, Allende (or Allen) was not in Philadelphia at all in October 1943. But he was there in August, around the time the Eldridge was supposedly waiting in Newark for orders to sail to New York for the commissioning ceremony. In the letter, he reports that this newspaper article appeared in the fall or winter, and not in the summer. If this detail is attributed to the imperfection of human memory, then everything else makes some sense.

While this chain was unfolding, researchers received a letter from one former commander of the ship, who recalled that the Eldridge, shortly after the first hurricane of the 1943 season, approached Bermuda in late July or early August. There he anchored for a short time next to his ship and put to sea again.

Needless to say, unusual behavior, but even more unusual is that that ship, if it was the Eldridge, appeared off Bermuda just a few days after its launch in Newark, that is, at a time when construction work was not yet due end. This means that either the commander made a mistake, or... The Eldridge was launched in Newark before July 25th. US Navy documents excluded such a possibility. Well, what about the Greeks?

A new surprise awaited here, because, according to Greek documents (which they, naturally, should have received from the Americans), the launch of the Eldridge took place not on July 25, but on June 25, that is, a whole month earlier! Moreover, Greek documents show that the Eldridge, when transferred to Greece in 1951, had a standard displacement of 1,240 tons and a gross displacement of 1,900 tons, giving a deviation of approximately 380 tons. Was it possible that the electronic equipment was removed from him before he was transferred to Greece?..

Now the story is gradually becoming clearer. The Eldridge left the slipways not on July 25, but on June 25, 1943, and the Newark-Philadelphia area was her home base until she sailed in August for the commissioning ceremony; in late July - early August he was at sea and reached at least Bermuda, and the official version of the period before January 4, 1944 is probably false.

One authoritative person, who remained incognito and who was employed in a high position in the Navy radar program during the war, when asked how it was possible to obtain a ship for the experiment, responded as follows: “In 1943 it was very difficult to obtain a ship for the experimental goals. Immediately after being commissioned, the ships became an integral part of operational plans, and it was practically impossible to use them for experiments. The simplest and practically the only way to get a ship was to use it for a short time in the period between launching and commissioning. This path was never simple and required certain maneuvers in the highest echelons, but it was real, of course, if scientists managed to convince high-ranking officials of the feasibility and prospects of the project.”

The value of this information is that it indicates the almost exact timing of the Philadelphia Experiment and, possibly, that at least part of it took place in the Philadelphia-Newark area. Perhaps Allende made his observations then, and not during the second meeting with “Eldridge” in November?

Now, having assessed the information contained in the surviving ship's documents, we need to turn to that point in Allende's letters, which, if confirmed, could provide the key to solving the whole riddle. The reader will probably remember that Allende, in his second letter to Jessup, stated that Einstein's Unified Field Theory was not only ready in the period 1925-1927, but that the whole of it had been subjected by the Navy Department to a "thorough recalculation... from the point of view of all opportunities for rapid use... in the shortest possible time." If Allende can be believed, then it was the results of this mathematical analysis that, in all likelihood, formed the theoretical basis of the Philadelphia experiment. It is likely that Allende could have told Jessup the name of a certain scientist who allegedly participated in this recalculation. Allende introduces this man as Dr. Franklin Reno and casually calls him “my friend.” Now, if only I could find this Doctor Renault...

Until now, no one has succeeded in doing this. Therefore, they decided that if this mysterious man could not be found, then the whole story was nothing more than a bluff.

And after several years of searching, the mystery of the identity of the mysterious Renault was solved. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, there was a sign on Route 62 that read Franklin 8, Reno 3, indicating the distance from the turnoff to these two small towns. This index inspired more than thirty years ago a very real scientist to create a spectacular pseudonym.

If Franklin Reno is a pseudonym, then who is the real person? What does she have to do with Carlos Miguel Allende? Could she have contributed to this story, and if so, what?

Unfortunately, the story is so sensitive that these questions cannot be fully answered even today, for reasons that will soon become clear to the reader. And although the man whom Allende knew as Dr. Reno is no longer alive - he died in the late 70s - W. Moore, one of those involved in the investigation, was required to maintain complete anonymity from another living participants in the events. Moore tentatively called this man "Dr. Rinehart," a name he derived from a published fictionalized version of the Philadelphia Experiment.

He was born a little later than Morris Jessup in a completely different part of the country. After working for several years - with brilliant results - in one private scientific institution and receiving a doctorate, in the 1930s, during the Depression, he was forced, along with many others, including Jessup, to work in the military scientific institutions of the American government. Having advanced quite quickly in his career, he became the head of the department and, while in this post, came into contact with the project, which, by all indications, was the beginning of the Philadelphia experiment.

When he began to suspect that he knew more than he should, he decided to “lie down.” Having retired almost to the other end of the continent, he abandoned a brilliant and promising career and settled in a small cozy bungalow and became a hermit.

Here is a recording of W. Moore’s conversation with the recluse, who agreed to a meeting after almost a year of preliminary correspondence.

“You know, of course,” he began, “that every experiment begins with an idea, then from it comes a proposal, perhaps with calculations already carried out, then a project and finally experiments. In the beginning, only a very small number of people were associated with them. Most had various primary responsibilities from which they first needed to be freed.

The unified field theory remains incomplete, even today. In my opinion, no one can rightfully claim to have carried out a complete recalculation of this theory.

I remember conferences during the war in which naval officers took part. With regard to the project you are interested in, memory tells me that it began much earlier than 1943 - perhaps as early as 1939 or 1940, when Einstein was working on the idea of ​​​​theoretical physics presented to him by physicists and other people who were thinking about their military use. The authors of this proposal were Einstein and Ladenburg. I don’t know which of the two should be put first, but I remember that Professor Rudolf Ladenburg and Einstein knew each other since 1908 in Switzerland. Ladenburg was a silent, hyper-punctual man with the manners of a Prussian nobleman, but he enjoyed the exceptional respect of his colleagues as a calm, solitary thinker and worker.

Ladenburg spent the summer and fall of 1939 working at Princeton on nuclear fission experiments. I think I read that he discussed these problems with Einstein. In any case, I remember that it was around 1940, and the proposal that I associate with the subsequent ship project was supposedly the result of a conversation between Ladenburg and Einstein about the use of electromagnetic fields for protection against mines and torpedoes... and Einstein himself wrote the proposal... Einstein and Ladenburg were always ahead when it came to submitting proposals, but in front of important people they preferred to keep a low profile. John von Neumann (1903–1957 - a major mathematician, one of the founders of the theory of digital computers) was a modest-looking man who knew how to involve those in power in his projects.

Now, it was Neumann who spoke to Dr. Albrecht, my boss, about this proposal, and one of them was able to get practical agreement from the Navy Research Laboratory.

One day in early 1940, Albrecht arrived at his office at eight in the morning and saw two or three visitors from the NDRC (National Defense Research Committee) already waiting for him. This event was not special, and I did not attach much importance to it. However, at about half past nine, Captain Gibbons looked at the door. He raised his finger, which was a signal for me to go out into the corridor, because he wanted to tell me something without witnesses. I remember this because I was just doing some rather complex theoretical work and was about to contact the calculations.

I realized that we were talking about something quite important, interrupted my work and went out into the corridor. Gibbons took me to the chief's office, where there was a conference in which, on the one hand, two people (or was it three?) from the NCIO took part, and on the other, Albrecht and von Neumann.

When I walked in, they were animatedly discussing what ended up being a project that interests you. Albrecht apparently believed that I was the only one who understood enough about gravity and the theory of relativity to, without asking any questions, present the mathematical calculations that he needed immediately.

In front of Albrecht lay three pieces of paper, one of which was covered in small, florid handwriting, characteristic only of Einstein. Albrecht let me look at the sheets of paper without interrupting his conversation.

At the same time, he gave me instructions about what was required of me.

On one of the sheets there was an equation for wave radiation, and on the left side there were some unfinished scribbles. In addition, he handed me a fairly detailed report on naval degaussing installations, and I marked with a pencil the places where he pointed with his finger. Then Albrecht told me to take a look at what it takes to achieve, I think, 10 percent light curvature. When I asked how much time I was given for this, he answered “not long.” After which he continued the conversation with those present.

Here the discussion turned to the principles of resonance and how, using this principle, to create the intense fields necessary for such an experiment. I never received a real answer to my question about how much time I had, but Albrecht had already signaled for me to go and get to work. So I walked back down the corridor to Captain Gibbons and said to him, “When do you think Albrecht should get all this?” Gibbons thought for a moment and said: “I’ll take you to the officers’ club, then you’ll also have lunch time at your disposal, but no more. So, at one or two, no later.”

Apparently, lunch passed very quickly, because at 13:15 Gibbons was already back, and my work was in full swing. I explained to him that I wanted to draw up a memo and make a typewritten copy, and that I would be done by three o'clock if he could hold off the others until then. Gibbons replied that it would not work that way and that a printed copy was out of the question. Let everything remain as it is, written in pencil.

“A miracle,” I said, “they always want a miracle!” Look, give me another twenty-five minutes and I'll see what I can do." Gibbons was clearly not happy about this, but what could he do if he wanted results? I had to agree.

Nevertheless, I compiled two small tables and several explanatory sentences for them. When we returned to Albrecht, he quickly looked at my work and said: “You did this regarding the intensity of the field at different distances from the side of the ship, but you seem to have forgotten about the bow and stern?” Albrecht has always been a pedant. I did not take these details into account because I did not know exactly what was required of me, and there was less time for such work than needed. All I could suggest were the points of greatest curvature directly outside the ship opposite these installations.

Albrecht needed calculations to test the strength of the field and the practical likelihood of bending light in such a way that the desired mirage effect could be achieved. I swear to God, they had no idea what would come of this! If they had known, the matter would have ended then and there.

The driving force at that time, I think, was the NKOI and Ladenburg or von Neumann. They discussed everything with Einstein, who even calculated the order of magnitude needed to achieve the required intensity, after which he spoke with von Neumann about which installations would best demonstrate the possibilities of practical use. I don't remember exactly when the Naval Research Laboratory became involved, but Captain Parsons, one of the leading specialists in the Navy, spoke with Albrecht quite often - it is possible that they discussed the use of the ship.

The only thing I have preserved from this in written form are fragments of Albrecht’s equations and some small tables.”

Moore asked Rinehart, “Do you remember what the code name for the project might have sounded like?” Rinehart thought for a moment.

“You remember,” he said, “that Albrecht and Gibbons prohibited the making of typewritten copies, and there were only memos written in pencil. I think I used the word “deviation” in one of the documents. I also remember, in a later discussion, saying that it was possible to make a ship invisible with a simple light smoke screen, and that I didn't understand why such a complex theoretical problem had to be addressed. In response, Albrecht looked at me over his glasses and said that I had an exceptional talent for distracting people from the topic. In my opinion, the code name was invented by people from the NKOI. In this connection, I remember something like a “rainbow” or “Fata Morgana”.

I attended at least one other conference where this topic was on the agenda. We tried to identify the most obvious side effects that could be caused by such an experiment. At the same time, we were talking about “boiling” water, about the ionization of the surrounding air, and even about the “Z-ization” of atoms, but no one at that time could take into account the possibility of interdimensional effects or mass displacement. In 1940, scientists classified such things as science fiction. We wrote a warning that eventually ended up in the NKIO that all this must be taken into account and that in general this whole matter requires the greatest caution.

I still remember several subsequent discussions of this problem, but the details are already quite vague. But I remember very well that for several weeks after the meeting at Albrecht's office we were constantly asked for tables concerning the resonant frequencies of light in the visible range.

Often there was no explanation for this, but apparently there was a connection.

The mock-up tests, by the way, might have been carried out in the Taylor mock-up pool, but maybe not, since I'm not sure that the conditions there were suitable. Some of the work was definitely done in Anacostia Bay, which is where most of the early location work was done.”

“How do you think they managed to get a ship for the real tests?” – Moore asked.

Oh, by the way, about the merchant ship that could be used as an observation ship... I think that this might not have happened without the help of Admiral Jerry Land, head of the US Maritime Commission. It was pretty impenetrable, but it often helped, especially if the IUD failed. There were many cases when we were able to obtain permission from the MK to test new equipment on merchant ships against the wishes of the Navy."

After this conversation, W. Moore managed to exchange letters with Rinehart several more times, and then the doctor died suddenly.

Well, what about the consequences of the experiment? After all, it was this aspect of the story told by Allende that led many to come to the conclusion that these letters were nothing more than a figment of a sick imagination. Another point of view is that such effects actually occurred and that the fear and confusion they generated among the military became the reason for the veil of secrecy that arose around those events.

Unusual information on this matter came from Patrick Macy, an electronics designer who worked in Los Angeles in the summer of 1977. He exchanged opinions with his colleague, whom he remembers only as “Jim,” about UFOs and how much the government was hiding about them.

“I had a strange experience once,” Jim said, “when I was in the Navy during the war. I was then involved in the supervision of audio-video materials and one day in 1945 in Washington I had the opportunity to see part of a film about an experiment being carried out at sea, which was shown to the highest ranks of the Navy. I remember only certain parts of the film, because I was on duty and could not, like others, sit and watch it. I didn't know what the film was actually about, since there was no commentary. But I remember that it was about three ships. It was shown how two ships pumped some kind of energy into the third one, which stood between them. I then thought that these were sound waves, but I can’t say anything definite; naturally, I was not privy to these matters. After some time, this medium ship - the destroyer - began to gradually disappear into some kind of transparent fog, until only a trace remained of it on the water. Then, when the field or whatever it was was turned off, the ship appeared again from a thin veil of fog. It was apparently the end of the film, and I overheard some people discussing what they had seen.

Some said that the field had been turned on for too long and that this explained the problems that some of the crew had. One of them mentioned an incident in which a crew member allegedly simply disappeared while drinking at a bar. Another said that the sailors “are still out of their minds and, apparently, forever.” There was also talk that some sailors had disappeared forever. The rest of the conversation was too far away for me to hear.”

Is it easy to believe that the US Navy, through work with force fields and experiments to create radar invisibility, accidentally discovered a path to other worlds and that the American government, as a result of the so-called Philadelphia experiment, came into contact with an extraterrestrial civilization? However, if this were true, it would explain the official veil of silence regarding so many topics, not least UFOs. But how to prove all this?

The mystery of the Philadelphia experiment remains unsolved, and the final answer may be stored in the depths of the archives of the US Navy Department. Perhaps this is all just a fairy tale, and such an experiment simply did not exist.

If, however, we take into account the multitude of materials that different people managed to collect at different times, and if the Philadelphia experiment was not carried out in the form in which it appears, then what actually happened back in October 1943 in secret area of ​​the Philadelphia Navy Yard?

Mikhail Gershtein, Chairman of the Ufological Commission of the Russian Geographical Society, in his article “The mystery of the invisible ship “Eldridge” has been solved,” published in the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” dated March 13, 2007, writes: “In the early 90s, the famous letters came to the researcher - skeptic Robert Goerman. And he also went in search of their author.

Allende turned out to be 100% American, born in Pennsylvania in 1925. It turned out that under his real name - Carl M. Allen - he has long been known in the ufological community.

“Allen wrote to me and other researchers for many years,” says ufologist Lauren Coleman. “He suffered from mental illness and often moved from motel to motel. Allen's family showed Robert Goerman letters in which he admits that he made up the entire story about the destroyer from beginning to end and sent Jessup's book, which he personally wrote, to the military."

Allen gleaned some information for his story from his experience serving on the Andrew Furset. It must be admitted that the invention turned out to be successful.

Some books write that the fatal experiment was called “Rainbow”. But now it is no longer a secret that during the war the name “Rainbow” was used by staff plans for possible military actions against the countries of the “Rome-Berlin-Tokyo” axis. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US military immediately launched Plan Rainbow V. The rules do not allow two identical codenames, so there could not be another "Rainbow".

Librarian Lawrence Cousche, author of the books “Unraveling the Bermuda Triangle” and “The Disappearance of the 19th Squadron,” also found out the reason for the increased attention of the military to Jessup’s book with the notes “Allende.” It turned out that Captain George Hoover was fascinated by UFOs, trying to apply the knowledge gained by ufologists to promising engines and experimental aircraft. Having received the covered book in his hands, he thought that “perhaps there is something here.” Hoover's enthusiasm for UFOs was shared by many of his colleagues. One of them, J. J. Smith, decided to reproduce the book, but did not calculate that its copies would go around and cause a sensation.

Supporters of the legend of the “Philadelphia experiment” claim that the two greatest physicists who lived in America at that time, Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, worked on it. But this also turned out to be untrue.

The declassified FBI dossier on Einstein proves that the US authorities, neither during the war nor after it, did not trust the scientist, considering him unreliable. “Because of his radical views, Professor Einstein cannot be considered suitable for use in secret work, for ... it seems unlikely that a person of such a type would become a completely trustworthy American citizen in such a short time,” FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said in response to a request for the possibility of involving the famous physicist in work on the atomic bomb.

He was right: Einstein openly sympathized with the communists, communicated with people, among whom were Soviet agents. Due to the mistrust of the authorities, Einstein was assigned only minor tasks that could not seriously affect the course of the war. In 1943 - 1944 he worked for the US Navy Ordnance Department on the subject of "High Force Explosives". His work had nothing to do with electromagnetism, much less invisibility.

An attempt to connect the “Philadelphia experiment” with the name of Nikola Tesla was even more unsuccessful. The Serbian genius died before the destroyer Eldridge was launched, on January 7, 1943.

According to the Navy's Office of Naval Research, the legend, concocted by Carl Allen, is based on a process that makes a ship "invisible" to magnetically detonated mines. The process was called degaussization (from "gauss" - a unit of magnetic induction).

To protect against mines, the steel ship was equipped with a “belt” surrounding the hull. When current was applied, it became a powerful electromagnet. Degaussization offered two possibilities: repeatedly strengthening the magnetic field so that the mines exploded at a distance without causing harm, or neutralizing the ship's magnetic field in such a way that even the most sensitive mine would not “notice” it. The choice fell on the second option, which required careful measurements of the magnetic field of each ship.

Since the procedure for degaussing and measuring the ship's own magnetic field was initially secret, a variety of rumors circulated among the ship's crews. Sailors saw that compasses and even watches “went crazy” because of strange cables, and believed that this could make them impotent.

It seems that Allen saw just such a procedure somewhere: stretched cables and incomprehensible equipment could impress anyone. But how did he come up with the idea that the experiment made the ship invisible, causing it to disappear?

This piece of the puzzle was discovered by ufologist John Keel: “During World War II, magician Joseph Danninger, an expert in organizing spectacles, proposed to the US Navy that their ships be made invisible. Dunninger may have had camouflage in mind, but his proposal was widely publicized at the time. It is very possible that Allen saw these articles and made up his own story based on them.”

By the beginning of the 21st century, 15 people from the crew of the destroyer Eldridge remained alive. They unanimously refute the legend.

In 1999, for the first time since the end of the war, sailors who served on the destroyer Eldridge gathered in Atlantic City. The meeting was widely covered in the United States, but for some reason went unnoticed in Russia. There are only fifteen of them left, including the ship's captain, 84-year-old Bill van Allen. Of course, at the meeting, talk about the “experiment” came up, which gave the veterans many funny moments.

“I have no idea how this story came about,” Van Allen shrugged. The other sailors were also unanimous.

“I think somebody came up with this while they were high,” said 74-year-old Ed Wise. Another former sailor, Tad Davis, said simply and clearly: “No experiments were ever done on us.”

“When people asked me about the “experiment,” I agreed and said that yes, I was disappearing. True, they soon realized that I was pranking them,” admitted Ray Perrigno.”

True, in the reviews to this article, the opinion was voiced that anything can be done with documents, and people can be manipulated and intimidated so that they remain silent...

So after all, where is the truth?...

The battleship Eldridge became famous thanks to a ufologist, and not for its exploits in World War II.

The legend of the teleportation of the destroyer was invented by a crazy sailor

What does the legend say?

After turning the switch, the air around the ship began to darken. A greenish fog floated from the water. A few minutes later, the Eldridge disappeared from sight, although the depression from its hull was still visible in the water.

When the Eldridge disappeared in Philadelphia, many people saw its sudden appearance in the port of another base - Norfolk. A few minutes later, the “ghost” began to melt, and immediately the ship “appeared” in Philadelphia.

But the worst thing is that the experiment had dire consequences for the crew of the ship. Most of the sailors died, and those who survived were immediately written off from the army and spent the rest of their lives in some closed clinic for the insane. This forced the US military to abandon risky research.

Such is this incredible legend, which can be found in almost any book on anomalistics, among the standard set of miracles.

Mysterious letters

The letters were written with multi-colored pencils and inks in a very strange style. In the middle of a sentence, words were suddenly written in capital letters, there were many spelling and lexical errors, and punctuation marks seemed to be scattered at random. Entire sentences have been underlined. Such creativity is a formidable symptom of a “roof gone crazy”*.

The creator of the myth is Carl Allen. The man is, to put it mildly, unbalanced.

“One walked through the wall of his own apartment and disappeared in front of his wife and child and two guests. The other two officers caught fire like matches and burned..."

Jessup's first reaction was to dismiss the strange, delusional messages. However, he soon learned that the Office of Naval Research at the Pentagon had received in the mail a copy of his book, The Case for UFOs, written in the same style. And instead of throwing it in the trash, the military reissued the book with all the notes in a limited edition.

Mr. Allende's Mystery

Neither the police nor his family doubted that it was suicide, especially since he wrote two farewell letters to relatives and friends. Jessup was severely depressed due to numerous failures - he was in a car accident, his wife filed for divorce, his books were not selling... But in the ufological community there was talk that he “came too close to the truth”, “he was removed.” Rumors surrounding the “experiment” immediately perked up noticeably.

The famous researcher of anomalous phenomena Charles Berlitz, the author of more than once exposed “masterpieces” about the Bermuda Triangle, and his co-author William Moore took up the matter.

Using the envelopes on which return addresses were indicated, the co-authors easily found the “elusive Mr. Allende.” But his name was not revealed to the general public. At the meeting, he added many colorful details to the description of the experiment, but admitted that he had “slightly exaggerated” the story about the dire consequences for the team. He was allegedly afraid that the research results would fall into the wrong hands and this would have dire consequences.

And in 1979, Berlitz and Moore's bestseller, The Philadelphia Experiment, was published. It tells the now classic story of the disappearance of the destroyer Eldridge.

Ufologists are on the trail

A page from the Eldridge's logbook. On the day of the “Philadelphia experiment,” the ship was anchored... in New York.

Could the Eldridge and Andrew Furset have been docked together in port in 1943? When ufologists requested their logs, it turned out that the Eldridge did not call at Philadelphia in 1943!

The Eldridge rolled off the New York docks and was accepted by the Navy on August 27, 1943. Throughout the fall and December, the destroyer accompanied convoys heading to the US capital, and did not even come close to Philadelphia. During this time, the Andrew Furset, assigned to the port of Norfolk, also took part in Atlantic convoys and never entered Philadelphia! His captain, W. S. Dodge, categorically denied throughout his life that he or the members of his crew saw anything unusual, much less took part in experiments. Although the Eldridge and Andrew Furset visited Norfolk in 1943, they never met as they were there on different days!

Some supporters of the legend claim that the invisibility experiment was carried out on August 12 or 15 on an unfinished ship that was towed to Philadelphia. But the documents clearly show that the Eldridge could not leave the docks until August 27th.

Some books write that the fatal experiment was called “Rainbow”. But now it is no longer a secret that during the war the name “Rainbow” was used by staff plans for possible military actions against the countries of the “Rome-Berlin-Tokyo” axis. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US military immediately launched Plan Rainbow V. The rules do not allow two identical codenames, so there could not be another "Rainbow".

Librarian Lawrence Cousche, author of the books “Unraveling the Bermuda Triangle” and “The Disappearance of the 19th Squadron,” also found out the reason for the increased attention of the military to Jessup’s book marked “Allende.” It turned out that Captain George Hoover was fascinated by UFOs, trying to apply the knowledge gained by ufologists to promising engines and experimental aircraft. Having received the covered book in his hands, he thought that “perhaps there is something here.” Hoover's enthusiasm for UFOs was shared by many of his colleagues. One of them, J. J. Smith, decided to reproduce the book, but did not calculate that its copies would go around and cause a sensation.

Tesla and Einstein: a bad choice

The declassified FBI dossier on Einstein proves that the US authorities, neither during the war nor after it, did not trust the scientist, considering him unreliable.

By the beginning of the 21st century, 15 people from the destroyer’s crew remained alive. They unanimously refute the legend.

An attempt to connect the “Philadelphia experiment” with the name of Nikola Tesla was even more unsuccessful. The Serbian genius died before the destroyer Eldridge was launched, on January 7, 1943.

Tricks and real experiences

To protect against mines, the steel ship was equipped with a “belt” surrounding the hull. When current was applied, it became a powerful electromagnet. Degaussization offered two possibilities: repeatedly strengthening the magnetic field so that the mines exploded at a distance without causing harm, or neutralizing the ship's magnetic field in such a way that even the most sensitive mine would not “notice” it. The choice fell on the second option, which required careful measurements of the magnetic field of each ship.

Since the procedure for degaussing and measuring the ship's own magnetic field was initially secret, a variety of rumors circulated among the ship's crews. Sailors saw that compasses and even watches “went crazy” because of strange cables, and believed that this could make them impotent.

It seems that Allen saw just such a procedure somewhere: stretched cables and incomprehensible equipment could impress anyone. But how did he come up with the idea that the experiment made the ship invisible, causing it to disappear? This piece of the puzzle was discovered by ufologist John Keel:

“During the Second World War, magician Joseph Danninger, an expert in organizing spectacles, proposed to the US Navy to make their ships invisible. Dunninger may have had camouflage in mind, but his proposal was widely publicized at the time. It is very possible that Allen saw these articles and made up his own story based on them.”

* Very similar to the truth. Letters with the most crazy ideas that come to our editorial office sometimes look exactly the same. - Department of Science "KP".

BY THE WAY

In 1999, for the first time since the end of the war, sailors who served on the destroyer Eldridge gathered in Atlantic City. The meeting was widely covered in the United States, but for some reason went unnoticed in Russia. There are only fifteen of them left, including the ship's captain, 84-year-old Bill van Allen. Of course, at the meeting, talk about the “experiment” came up, which gave the veterans many funny moments.

“I have no idea how this story came about,” Van Allen shrugged. The other sailors were also unanimous.

“I think somebody came up with this while they were high,” said 74-year-old Ed Wise. Another former sailor, Tad Davis, said simply and clearly: “No experiments were ever done on us.”

“When people asked me about the “experiment,” I agreed and said that yes, I was disappearing. True, they soon realized that I was pranking them,” admitted Ray Perrigno.

This mystery has haunted people's minds for more than 70 years. The Philadelphia Experiment has been called either the world's biggest military secret or science fiction. He inspired the work of many researchers, writers and filmmakers.

Based on this story, several films were released in 1984, 1993 and 2012 under the name “The Philadelphia Experiment”.

History details

It all started in 1955 after the publication of the book “The Case for UFOs.” Its author, astronomer Morris Jessup, spent a long time researching information about UFOs. Jessup believed that aliens warped cosmic time in order to cross vast interstellar distances.

Unfortunately for the astronomer, UFOs attracted more attention from Hollywood than from the scientific community, so the scientist’s research was not taken seriously.

After the book was published, Jessup received a letter that changed his life. The author of the letter had a positive attitude towards the work of the ufologist and said that the facts described are similar to what he himself experienced.

The man introduced himself as Carlos Miguel Allende. He told Jessup in detail about the Philadelphia Experiment.

The letter says that 12 years ago during World War II, the Navy conducted complex experiments on the destroyer Eldridge. During the experiments, the warship literally disappeared into thin air.

Once the destroyer moved 320 kilometers, appeared, then disappeared and ended up in its original place in Philadelphia.

The technology that made the ship invisible is attributed to Albert Einstein. The great genius secretly developed the Unified Field Theory. The theory combines the fields of electromagnetism and gravity into one field.

Einstein did say that he worked on this theory, but he never tested it.

Using data from the Unified Field Theory, one can deform the flow of light, change the relationship of space and time, make things invisible, or teleport objects.

Did the experiment fail?

But the technology of the experiment was imperfect. The first time the ship disappeared and reappeared, many sailors were injured. The second time almost all crew members were injured. Some became part of the ship in the literal sense of the word, others went crazy. The surviving sailors signed a confidentiality agreement.

Allende claimed that he watched what was happening from a nearby ship. The author of the letter also said that he risked the wrath of the Navy because he divulged a national secret.

After reading the letter, Jessup didn't know what to think. Either this is one of the most secret secrets of the country, or the ravings of a madman. There is no man named Carlos Miguel Allende in the Navy, and no part of the story matches the official documents. According to military logs, the Eldridge was in the Bahamas at the time.

Interestingly, in 1943, right around the time of the supposed disappearance of the destroyer, Albert Einstein was actually working with the US Navy on a project related to the Unified Field Theory.

Morris Jessup spent months studying military archives, trying to find at least some clue on this case, but to no avail.

Some researchers later claimed to have discovered the man behind the name Allende. It turned out to be Carl Allen, originally from Pennsylvania. The man suffered from a mental disorder. Carl Allen served in the Navy during World War II.

The fate of Morris Jessup

In the spring of 1957, Morris Jessup was called to Washington to work at the Naval Research Office. The ufologist turned out to be a suspect.

The man was shown a copy of his book, which stated that aliens were capable of deforming space-time. The book was covered with notes, and the military wanted to know who made them. The Navy became interested in this topic.

Despite the close attention of the military, Jessup continued to search for a way in which UFOs and the fleet could overcome the barriers of space-time. But still, the astronomer told a friend that he began to receive strange phone calls and thought that someone was stalking him.

Jessup's ex-wife said Allende wanted to meet him at the time.

Dr. Reed, who examined the body, declared Jessup's death a suicide. No autopsy was performed.

Time travel

But the story of the missing ship did not end there. Al Bilek gave a sensational interview to the press in 1992. He claimed to have participated in the famous Philadelphia Experiment.

The destroyer test was part of the larger Montauk Project, which took place for many years at a secret military base in Montauk, New York.

The goal of the Montauk project, according to Bilek, is the creation of psychological weapons and mental objects, the study of the properties of super-resistant electromagnetic fields for time travel and teleportation.

Al Bilek claimed that on August 13, 1943, he was aboard a destroyer that mysteriously disappeared. The man talked about traveling to the future. According to him, he lived for about six weeks in 2137, and then in 2749.

Bilek described in detail how he lived in the future, and about the structure of the world seven hundred years later. According to him, strong geographic changes began to occur on the planet before 2025. Sea levels rose and the magnetic poles began to move. The population dropped to 300 million people. At a certain point, war broke out between Russia and China, as well as the USA and Europe.

In 2749, Bilek saw some land supports and floating cities. Instead of a government, everything was controlled by a computer system. People were provided with basic goods necessary for life.

From 2749, Bilek traveled to 2013, where he met brother Duncan. Then they were both returned to their “native” year of 1983.

Another witness

Electrical engineer and inventor Preston Nichols says he worked on the Montauk Project for 10 years. The engineer wrote the book Montauk: Experiments with Time.

Nichols claims that after the disappearance of the destroyer in Philadelphia, experiments did not stop. Scientists continued to electronically examine the brain and influence the human mind.

The engineer also spoke about the Philadelphia experiment. The tests were stopped after failure with the crew. It was too risky to continue.

The project leader, Dr. John von Neumann, was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project to create the atomic bomb.

At the end of the 40s, research was resumed and continued until 1983. According to Nichols, scientists managed to break through space-time to 1943.

The story of “Eldridge” is incredibly complicated, in particular due to the huge number of insinuations based on the “testimonies” of eyewitnesses and interviews with supposedly real participants in those events. This legend has everything to become an ideal conspiracy theory: the big names of Tesla and Einstein, an inhumane experiment that resulted in the death of almost the entire team, the wonders of the electromagnetic field, a crazy retired sailor and an unlucky mystical writer.

Destroyer Eldridge. (wikimedia.org)

The synopsis of The Philadelphia Experiment goes something like this: At the height of World War II, the US military was working to create technology that would make objects invisible. This technology, as follows from the narrative, was based on Albert Einstein’s unified field theory. It was assumed that the generation of a powerful electromagnetic field around an object could lead to the formation of a certain ring of light and radio waves, which would make it completely invisible to the eye.

And so, allegedly in 1943, the US Navy conducted field tests, as a result of which they managed not only to “dissolve” the entire destroyer Eldridge in the air, but also to move it in space 320 km from the harbor in Philadelphia to the port of Norfolk and then return it back. The first experiments took place in the summer of 1943, when the ship was made invisible for a short period of time, after which the ship’s crew felt very bad, but overall no one was hurt.

The case we are looking for dates back to October of the same year, when “something went wrong.” Movement in space led to terrifying consequences: most of the crew of the destroyer Eldridge, consisting of 181 people, died during the experiment, some lost their minds, several more people found themselves “grown” into the hull of the ship, others simply burned out like matches, and only several managed to remain relatively intact and more or less sane. But even those few survivors experienced the consequences of the experiment: they could pass through walls and move in space.

The experiment, of course, was considered a failure, and the fact of its implementation was hushed up for many years. This is the version of the supporters of the “Philadelphia Experiment”. There are also some deviations, according to which, the Navy was not working on the disappearance of the ship in the literal sense, but on creating a field around the ship’s hull that would make it invisible to radars and magnetic underwater mines, but during the experiment, again, everything went wrong plan.

Still from the film "The Philadelphia Experiment". (pinterest.com)

The “debunker” of the experiment was a certain Carlos Allende, who outlined the above story. In 1955, the mystical writer Morris Jessup, who was interested in ufology, received a message from the mysterious Mr. Allende, who vividly described the course of the experiment and its consequences. The text was written in a bizarre manner, with a huge number of spelling errors, capital letters in the middle of the sentence, and, moreover, was written in colored pencils. Here is his excerpt (the features of the author’s presentation are preserved):

The “result” was the complete invisibility of a ship, such as the Destroyer, and its entire crew, On the Open Sea (Oct. 1943) The Field Acted in the form of a flattened sphere, elongated a hundred yards (More or Less due to the position of the Moon and Latitude) on both sides of the ship . Each Person Inside this sphere became transparent in form, BUT He also saw that the rest of the People on board the ship were in the same state, and at the same time they were walking on air. Every person outside this sphere saw Nothing other than the clearly defined silhouette of a Ship's Hull in the Water, PROVIDED, of course, that person was close enough to see, albeit out of bounds. Why am I telling you this now? Very simple; If you decide to go CRAZY, then you will make this information public. Half of the officers and crew of that Ship are currently completely Mad. Some are STILL in restricted areas where they are Possibly receiving Scientific Help when they either "Go Empty" or "Become Empty and Stuck". Becoming Hollow is NOT such an unpleasant experience for Healthy, Curious Sailors. However, once they are "Stuck", they describe it as "HELL CORPORATION" A person in a stuck state cannot move of his own accord until two or more of those in the field come and touch him, quickly, otherwise he "Freezes".

Allende claimed that in 1943 he served on the ship "Andrew Fureset", which at that time was in the same port as the "Eldridge", and personally observed the events described above. Carlos explained that it was no coincidence that he chose Jessup as the addressee: he was extremely interested in the writer’s works on UFOs. Around the same time, Jessup's book, The Expanded Argument for UFOs, with similar multi-colored notes in the margins, arrived at the Office of Naval Research at the Pentagon, and for some reason the military did not ignore it, but published it in a small edition. In 1959, the writer committed suicide by mixing a large dose of sleeping pills with alcohol and locking himself in a car with a hose from the exhaust pipe. The cause of suicide, as the family believed, was difficult life circumstances: troubles in his personal life and large debts. However, Jessup’s death did not go unnoticed: conspiracy theorists spun the case, suggesting that the writer was simply “removed” because he had gone too far in his investigation.

In 1979, the book “The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility” was published by two ufologist writers Charles Berlitz and William Moore, in which the events were presented in the same vein as in Allende’s message. The work became a bestseller, and interest in this story flared up with renewed vigor. It is unknown whether the mysterious Carlos Allende actually existed, or whether he is a figment of Jessup's imagination. According to one version, under this name was hiding the American Carl Allen, who suffered from a mental disorder and during his life wrote many similar letters addressed to researchers of anomalies and mysteries.

In reality, the destroyer Eldridge was launched in August 1943 in New York, where it remained until September, and in October the ship made its first test voyage to the Bahamas, and did not enter the port of Philadelphia at all. It also turned out that the ship “Andrew Fureset” (on which Allende-Allen could have served) and the destroyer did not overlap in terms of time, and could not possibly stand in the same harbor. Convinced supporters of the “experiment” claim that for purposes of conspiracy, the name of the ship docked in the port of Philadelphia was changed.

A photo of a page from the Eldridge's log book. (wikimedia.org)

However, even if the Eldridge had actually been there in October 1943, its movement to Norfolk, 200 miles away, and back could have been accomplished in less than 24 hours via the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal, which During World War II it was protected from German submarines and was used only by military vessels. This explains how a warship could travel in 6 hours a journey that took merchant ships several days, and the “movement in space” was not so rapid. However, according to the ship's logs, the Eldridge did not even come close to Philadelphia in the fall of 1943.

In 1996, the US Navy Office of Naval Research was forced to publish an official refutation. By that time, the number of crazy publications in the yellow press had reached its peak. The communiqué noted that during World War II, “research on demagnetizing ships, as a result of which they became “invisible” to magnetic mines,” was carried out on the territory of the Philadelphia docks. It was separately emphasized that the department “never conducted any experiments to achieve invisibility, either in 1943 or ever before.”

As for the names Tesla and Einstein, which are often mentioned in connection with the experiment, there is no evidence of their participation in the project. It is worth noting that Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943, and Albert Einstein was on the list of unreliable citizens because of his “leftist” political views and could hardly have served in the Navy.

It is believed that the veterans who served on the Eldridge put the finishing touches on the Philadelphia Experiment. In 1999, a meeting of the destroyer crew took place, which was attended, among other things, by the captain of the ship. None of the sailors could find a reasonable explanation for the conspiracy theory and guess where it came from.