The USS Trepang Periscope Photos
A set of black-and-white photographs, complete with periscope crosshairs, that claim to show enormous objects over the Arctic sea as a US Navy submarine watched. The submarine was real and was exactly where the story puts it. The problem is that the men who commanded it say the sighting never happened, and the objects match something far more ordinary that the Navy itself was testing.
What did witnesses see at Arctic Ocean?
Black-and-white photos, allegedly shot through the periscope of the USS Trepang (SSN-674), showing a large cigar or blimp-shaped object, a triangular object, and an egg or disc shape low over the sea, with some frames appearing to show an object entering or leaving the water. The Trepang verifiably operated under the Arctic ice between 22 February and 22 March 1971.
More footage and images of this sighting
What is the official explanation?
No official Navy statement exists on the photos. The boat's commanding officer, Admiral Dean Reynolds Sackett, told researcher Alex Mistretta he "only saw ice" during the cruise, and John Klika, the periscope operator named in the original claim, confirmed he was aboard but said no one observed anything unusual.
What did the witnesses think it was?
No firsthand witness has ever come forward. The photos surfaced anonymously through the French magazine Top Secret in 2015 and were publicized by researcher Alex Mistretta, who himself later concluded the Trepang was probably not involved in taking them.
Is the USS Trepang Periscope Photos real? The two-pass assessment
Pass one: The Black Vault's investigation concluded the photos likely show a naval weapons test, with the cigar-shaped object matching a target balloon or dirigible, and the Trepang's own deck logs record extensive weapons-system tests on that exact cruise. Metabunk analysts matched the shapes to naval airships, and two researchers found signs of digital manipulation in some magazine reproductions. Both named officers deny the event. Pass two: a structured object photographed at sea with apparent water interaction, a USO morphology that recurs in the literature. Verdict: Disputed, leaning prosaic. The balloon identification is method-shown and the witnesses deny the story, but the original negatives have never surfaced for a definitive analysis.
Sources
- www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/arctic-ufo-photographs-uss-trepang-ssn-674-march-1971/
- www.metabunk.org/threads/claim-uss-trepang-ssn-674-submarine-photographs-are-of-ufos.13064/
