The Experiment of a Century by: Dylan Beckham

How would you feel if you had the power of invisibility or teleportation?  This is what Carols Miguel Allende said happened during the Philadelphia experiment, which was a science experiment designed to cloak ships that was conducted on the USS Eldridge in a naval shipyard in 1943. There are many theories on this subject including sailors fusing with the hull of the ship. Let us explore the theories around this intriguing subject: 1. Did the ship truly disappear and teleport 300 miles down the coast? 2. Did Carols Miguel Allende, an eye witness, make everything up? These are just few questions that can be thought about with this mystery within our historic country.

 The experiment was not false, the eye witness, Carlos, was supposedly crazy. Yet, why would he make such claims? For years’ hundreds, or even thousands have conducted research to find the truth about these strange events.

Carlos Miguel Allende (pronounced Aye-enday) has been involved with government all his adult life. He was born May 31, 1925. He had three older brothers and one older sister making him the youngest son of Harold Allen and his wife. Carlos lived in a small town in Pennsylvania called Springdale, quitting school at nine years old, then joining the Marine Corps on July 14, 1942, later, he was discharged on May 21, 1943. Serving on more than twenty-seven different ships in his career as a Merchant Marine, later leaving the service in 1952. During that time in the service, he served on the S. S. Andrew Furuseth. He was a man of many names throughout his life. Sometimes going by Carl Meredith Allen, Carl Michael Allen, and many other names. On January 13, 1956, he sent a letter to the author of The Case of the UFO, Morris K. Jessup. After sitting in on one of his lectures, Carlos had caught his eye on Jessup after he mentioned a government test involving a ship. After writing to Jessup multiple times, Carlos decided to become invisible to the governments' radar since he witnessed a top-secret naval experiment. 
Carlos became quite superstitious and a loner from the time he witnessed the experiment until his death on March 5, 1994. Because of his superstitions, he went into hiding around Colorado and New Mexico. In his obituary, it states that “He lived through the United States, in Colorado and Mexico and came to Greely in 1986” (“Carlos Allende” A4). This brings up the question, what caused him to run? What was he running from? People believe he wanted to “be off the grid” so the government wouldn’t be able to find him. “All attempts by the Navy to locate Carlos Allende in 1956, failed” (Hochheimer 1). This quote signifies that Carlos was successful in disappearing.

One other trait about Carlos is that he was creative. Not only could he have made all this up, but when he was younger, he had troubles with school and decided to learn to write himself, eventually creating his own writing style. Throughout the Case for the UFO: Unidentified Flying Objects: Varo Edition, Carlos practically made up his own words and stories of course. Such as:

What occurred next? What did I observe next? I looked at the thin air where once had lain, and I could see, from the hull impression [in the ocean], the impression of the weight of the entire ship upon its bottom hull — that this impression, this weight, was causing an impression to be pushed, still, yet, down into the water as the DE sailed along, quite invisible, not visible to the human eye – I repeat, human eye — but there it sailed along making that impression, and that was the only evidence there was a solid, heavy, ship-shaped object of, at least, extreme transparency if not absolutely and totally invisible laying in that water propelling itself along at a normal speed, and then it scooted off and resumed patrol – Carl Allen (Hochheimer)

If that does not make Carlos creative, then ask yourself; What makes someone or something creative?

The theories around this experiment are: 1. Did the ship truly disappear and teleport 300 miles down the coast causing the Navy to keep it classified? 2. Did Carols Miguel Allende, an eye witness, make everything up?

Conspiracy theory number one: The united states navy conducted experiments on the USS Eldridge on October 28, 1943. This experiment was to test the possibility of invisibility to the entire ship to become undetectable to enemy devices. This experiment turned deadly and a complete success at the same time. It made the ship invisible, but it also achieved teleportation. Reports of the ship appearing over 300 miles down the coast at the exact moment the ship became “invisible”. Backing up a little bit to the test, scientists, and equipment used. Albert Einstein, a German scientist that helped the united states build the atomic bomb, was the leading scientist for this experiment as well. His theory “Unified Field Theory for Gravitation and Electricity” was the basis of the entire experiment (Hochheimer). Nicknamed Project Rainbow, the experiment consisted of:

U.S.S. Eldridge, DE (Destroyer Escort) 173, being fitted with tons of experimental electronic equipment. This included, according to one source, two massive generators of 75 KVA each, mounted where the forward gun turret would have been, distributing their power through four magnetic coils mounted on the deck. Three RF transmitters (2 megawatt CW each, mounted on the deck), three thousand ‘6L6’ power amplifier tubes (used to drive the field coils of the two generators), special synchronizing and modulation circuits, and a host of other specialized hardware were employed to generate massive electromagnetic fields which, when properly configured, would be able to bend light and radio waves around the ship, thus making it invisible to enemy observers. (Hochheimer).

You may ask yourself, how does any of that cause an entire ship to disappear? The only person who could answer this would be Einstein himself, and even then, he was not expecting it to physically disappear. When it reappeared, they were horrified by the outcomes. A skeleton crew, “just enough workers to keep a service or office operating” was on the ship to be used as test subjects (Macmillan). There were reports of screaming coming from the ship when it reappeared, and even some sight of people fused into the hull of the U.S.S. Eldridge.

After this gruesome event, some of the surviving crew members went into a bar. Eventually starting a bar fight amongst the sailors. Carlos said in his letters to Morris K. Jessup, that he witnessed the sailors start to “phase” in and out of visibility. The same man who witnessed the actual experiment that the sailors participated in. What does this say about Carlos? Has he been making this all up, or is it all true? He would be one of the most creative people in history, at least in opinion of course. First, dropping out of school and teaching himself his own form of writing, then coming up with such a sophisticated story about a naval experiment gone wrong. Why do all of this? Yes, he became jealous that people claimed to be him for money, sparking his reappearance. Yet in the beginning, he was not worried about fame or wealth from his claims. If not because he is telling the truth. This entire conspiracy requires an open mind once you dig deeper into this incredible part of history.

Now that I have gave you this information, what do you believe? Was this all made up by a creative, superstitious and lonely guy, or is the government covering up this remarkable piece of history? Through all this information, it is your opinion that tells you whether it happened or not. A ship disappearing, then reappearing causing people harm. It is a hard thing to believe, but this world has many things within it that we cannot wrap our minds around. The seven wonders of the world are the most common example, but millions more around this world that you must put time into research. This is just one of those millions of events.

Works cited

“Carlos Allende.” Greeley (Colo.) Tribune, 8 March 1994, A4. Obituary. Greeley (Colo.) Tribune, https://www.de173.com/carlos-miguel-allende-carl-allen/.

Hochheimer, Andrew. “Carlos Miguel Allende.” The Philadelphia Experiment from A-Z, 2018, https://www.de173.com/carlos-miguel-allende-carl-allen/

“Skeleton Crew - Definition and Synonyms.” Skeleton Crew (Noun) American English Definition and Synonyms | Macmillan Dictionary, www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/skeleton-crew.