April 27

Phantom Submarines

On this date in 1983 divers in Husnes Fjord spotted what they believed to be the conning tower of a submarine. It was reported, and since most nations are just a tad touchy about their territorial waters, a search team from the Norwegian military arrived shortly thereafter. Aside from a corvette and two submarines, it included an Orion aircraft equipped with anti-submarine weapons, with three  frigates joining the next day. From then until May 1 the military received reports of numerous civilian sightings of the mystery sub, generally from the same areas where the navy made sonar contact.

KNM Oslo obtained a sonar target near Leirvik (on Stord Island) at 4:55 pm. A rocket thrown depth charge (Terne) was fired at 5:21 as a warning to the intruder that they had been sighted and were being tracked. The next night a probable sonar contact was made, but with no weapons fired.

Up to April 29 two more contacts had been made at different locations, but then, on April 30 sufficient sonar contacts were made for Oslo to fire five Ternes, as well as dropping a mine, before contact was lost. Around 4:00 pm that day five more Ternes were fired at a different location, with one more, near Leirvik again, at midnight. At 4:20 pm the next day six more were fired, and a mine dropped from the Orion.

The last sonar contact, by the Orion, was made at 8:30 pm, then the mystery sub vanished. Six mines and 24 of the rocket propelled depth charges netted absolutely nothing.

No other country admitted to having a sub prowling various fjords, and it certainly wasn't one of Norway's own. Could the sonar contacts have been a whale, or some other large sea creature? Unlikely. Experienced sonar technicians can usually tell the difference in echoes produced by a sub or a whale.

These phantom subs have been seen in almost every country that has a coast. The thing that seems especially odd is that there are observations dating as far back as the mid 1800s.