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The year was 1943. The mission was to make a U.S. Naval ship disappear. The method to do this was to incorporate some principles developed by Albert Einstein and Nicola Tesla. The Navy ship was to have the air surrounding it refract the light in such a way as to make the ship appear invisible to anyone. In order to make this miracle happen, tons of equipment was allegedly brought on board and hooked up. Giant generators and electro magnets were employed to send the air surrounding the ship into a magnetic flux that would make it disappear from sight. The U.S.S. Eldridge was the test ship.

The switch was thrown near the shipyard, and the ship disappeared entirely from view. The ship also ended up reappearing near Norfolk Virginia, some 200 plus miles to the south! The experiment did produce the effect that they were seeking however, it also transported the ship 200 miles away in the process. When the equipment was shut off, the ship reappeared and some of the crew on board were still in some type of magnetic flux. They appeared and disappeared at random, and also appeared to be partially visible as well at times. The reports said that some of the crew re-materialized partially captured in the bulkhead of the ship. In other words, their bodies were returning with them intertwined into the metal parts of the ship. Some of the crew went mad during the experiment. To make a long story short, they all had a bad cruise that day.

The story was made into a movie in 1984 with the same name as the article here. This movie showed the exploits of the ill fated crew and the experiment itself.

Now for the reality of the situation. It is always exciting for us to have a genuine mystery on our hands. We love a mystery don't we? I'm sure it is one of our passions to try to solve any mysterious happenings whenever possible. As far as this mystery goes, it is all a fabrication produced by two men in this writers opinion. The entire story was told to one man by another man, and the whole legend took off from there.

Carl Allen was the merchant marine on board a cargo ship in Philadelphia harbor at the time of the alleged incident. He witnessed the entire event and sent the message to a writer who was writing a UFO book at the time. The year was 1956, when the story was presented by Carl Allen to the author Morris Jessup. Mr. Allen wrote letters to Mr. Jessup over a period of time and explained the entire story to him one letter at a time. The letters that Mr. Jessup received all had different return addresses on them, from all over the country. Morris Jessup took the letters seriously and wrote the story in his book "The Case for the UFO". That is how the entire thing began, with one man telling another man, which eventually created the legend.

The facts surrounding the case are not quite substantial enough to warrant any belief in the project. When you look at it logically, it is quite easy to dismiss the entire thing as one man's fanciful tale.

Carl Allen used many aliases when he wrote his letters to Morris Jessup. He tried to confuse anyone that would possibly intercept his letters. It's not that I would dismiss that our navy would not take on such an experiment, but rather that this particular case is not based in reality as I see it.

First of all, Carl Allen told of many details of what happened to the crew of the ship "Eldridge". He told of how some of them reappeared half buried in metal on the bulkheads and how some of them were in a partial state of invisibility etc. The crew was screaming and going mad. Now let's take Mr. Allen's viewpoint into consideration here. He was on a cargo ship in the harbor at the time. We have to assume logically that if such an experiment were to take place, that it would not be carried out close to any other ship or even in a big harbor with high ship traffic either. Even my dog would figure that one out, and would most likely take the ship out to sea, away from prying eyes! Then how much could he have seen from a distant cargo ship? I'm sure that the ship was at least at some safe distance. Could anyone on a ship at a distance see people that were in a partial state of invisibility? Could he see that some were buried in the bulkheads partially from such a distance? And could the screams be heard from that same distance? How could he have known that the crew went mad from that distance? I think that in reality, this was a tale that was told around the same time as people were taking trips to Venus and other planets on board spaceships! This was around the time of the George Adamski era, where "chosen people" were graced by our "space brothers" and given sight seeing trips around the galaxy. The "Adamski" time period produced lots of "crack pots" that told of such tales in order to get recognition. Our "space brothers" were in the limelight during this time period, and almost anything went, as far as telling fantastic tales to the gullible. Mr. Allen is in this same category as far as I'm concerned. He told of a "tale" and nothing more. From his vantage point on a cargo ship, I don't believe he could have possibly seen the details that he claimed to have seen. A further demonstration of his "folly" story should be that how would he have know that the Eldridge reappeared at Norfolk Virginia? Did his cargo ship just happen to beam down to Norfolk at the moment that it appeared there? I somehow doubt that. Back in that time period, there were so many people that were willing to believe in almost anything, that they really took this one a bit too far. Simple logic tells you that Carl Allen could not have witnessed what he said he did. To further his incredibility, a skeptic named Robert Goerman did some checking into Mr. Allen's background. He actually lived next door to Carl Allen's parents. Upon checking into his personal effects that his mother and father had at their house, he found that Mr. Allen was a strange bird indeed. He tended to annotate everything that was written. He had annotated Christmas cards and letters of all sorts. Whenever Mr. Allen received a letter or card, he would write on it and change or comment on the meaning of the words written on such materials. His own parents told Goerman that Carl's elevator didn't quite make it to the top floor. His parents knew that their son was a bit off in the head. That is another reason why it really wow's me on how many American's were sucked into this story and have perpetrated it's existence for such a long time. How gullible are we? The Philadelphia Experiment was the product of one man's imagination, who in turn led an author into his "tale", who in turn led millions of Americans into believing his story. Was it all a big hoax by Carl Allen? The joke is surely on all of us right?

Let us know your opinion on the Philadelphia Experiment. Go to the message board in this section and post a message with your opinion on this subject or any other paranormal subject.. We appreciate your stories of strange happenings at all times.. After all it's an odd place out there sometimes.. Gtars said it.

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