Dark Object - Don Ledger and Chris Styles-pages

Page 65 of 82

Page 65 of 82
Dark Object - Don Ledger and Chris Styles-pages

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can be found again, with precision, on another day. This is why so much long-buried treasure is now coming to light. We would have advantages not available to the navy divers twenty-eight years earlier, but only if we could assemble the modern technology. On the cold winter's day of January 12, 1995, we were at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography at the northern end of Halifax Harbor, for a meeting with Gordon Fader, scientist and oceanographer. On that day Gordon's colleague Bob Miller sat in on the meeting. He seemed to be fascinated by the events in Shag Harbor, and appeared to find it refreshing that there was a UFO case that had significant corroboration and document support. As Gordon put it, "It seems to resist evaporating as one gets closer to it - just the opposite of most of these cases." Noon approached, so we moved our meeting to BIO's cafeteria. As we passed documents around the table, Bob's forehead furrowed in thought. He informed us that he might have sailed over or at least near the Shag Harbor impact site on a geoscience survey cruise in the summer of 1988, six years earlier. After that, lunch became a hurried affair and soon we were on our way to Bob's office in another wing of the institute. Moments after we entered BIO's Atlantic Geoscience Center, Bob had retrieved the cruise report of a survey conducted in 1988, between June 5 and 17, on the Department of Fisheries research vessel Navicula. The report's soft blue cover had a pocket containing two charts that were the result of the Navicula's efforts. Cruise Report 88-018 (B) Phase II: "The purpose of this cruise was to collect shallow seismic reflection, side-scan, and magnetic data in support of a program to map the superficial sediments and shallow bedrock geology of the near shore area south of Pubnico Harbor between Cape Sable Island and from Cape St. Mary's to Yarmouth. These data and their interpretations will assist in the processes that have and are affecting the sediments." Specific objectives of the cruise were to assess the mineral sediments in the area and get magnetic data, which would help to identify them, and also to collect samples. The scientists also aimed to make a map of the surface and subsurface features of the area. When Gordon located the side-scan sonar rolls that matched the Shag Harbor area, we pointed out on the Navicula's cruise chart the approximate site of the UFO's last known surface position. It appeared that the Navicula's closest course approach took it to within a mile of where the Dark Object had Atlee A disappeared. Then some interesting data caught our attention. On the Navicula cruise chart at the point nearest the UFO's last known position was a feature on the seabed marked by sonar interpreters "May not be ee i een) boulders." Bob removed and unfolded them while Gordon Fader unrolled the actual side-scan sonar data that had generated the Navicula's charts. The two scientists were calling out coordinates to one another while we read a statement detailing the purpose of the Navicula's cruise. The sonar rolls were examined and the exact location of these acoustic reflections was determined. The sonar techs had written various comments in the margins of the paper rolls such as "What the hell are