1912: UFO|UAP & Alien Sightings Archive

Nineteen twelve was the year the Titanic sank, the year Roald Amundsen had just returned from the South Pole, and the year the world was still two years from a war that would end the old order entirely. It was also the most internationally diverse year of UAP and entity encounters in the archive to this point — thirteen documented cases spanning Canada, Scotland, Ohio, Germany, Indiana, Australia, Russia, Illinois, Saskatchewan, Spain, Yorkshire, and the UK coast. The cases span every category the archive holds: a round glass-cabined craft landing on a British Columbia farm with small beings who operated on mind power; two tiny men in green vests speaking Gaelic and English on a Scottish island beach beside a tiny boat with a tiny woman in red; a Currockbilly Range yowie that collapsed a trained assistant unconscious for hours; a 3.3-meter luminous giant floating toward a church entrance in Escalante Spain; a man forcibly taken aboard a machine on Christmas Eve in Russia and questioned in flight before being released sixty kilometres from where he had been seized. By any measure, 1912 is one of the most anomalously dense years in the pre-war archive.

What makes 1912 analytically significant beyond the volume is the geographic spread and the case type diversity. The year contains the only Scottish island CE-III in the pre-war archive, the only interior Germany bedroom entity materialization, two separate Ohio cases in the same year, and two separate Russian cases spanning the full calendar year from January to December. The Abram Penner Vancouver case and the Currockbilly Range Australia case both have individual dedicated report pages in this archive — the entries here serve as the index nodes for those fuller treatments. The Portsmouth airship entry is the most complex on the page, containing a partial explanation that was itself partially refuted — The Times reported it on December 4th, 1912, Flight magazine confirmed the Beta II identification, but witnesses had specified a night sighting while the confirmed Beta II flight was by day, and the Army Ensign detail does not resolve the discrepancy. The archive holds both the explanation and the residual.

Date: 1912
Location: Near Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
Time: Unknown
Summary: A round craft “something like a helicopter,” with a glass cab, landed on the farm of the father of 6-year old Abram Penner. “One man felt my body; they admired my hands. They have different hands than we do; they have round feet, short legs, no knees, and no elbows. They operate on mind power; I understood what they said.” His father told him never to tell anyone.
Source: J. A. Hynek, John B. Musgrave, UFO Occupants and Critters | Source Status: VERIFIED — credentialed dual-author source; individual report page exists on archive

Date: 1912
Location: Island of Muck, Highland Region Scotland
Time: morning
Summary: Two young boys were looking for driftwood along the beach when two small men wearing green vests suddenly appeared and asked them what they were doing. They spoke to the witnesses in both English & Gaelic. The boys then saw a “tiny boat” alongside the cove and onboard they saw a tiny woman in red and a tiny dog. She invited them onboard but they refused, she then gave them small pieces of bread, which they ate. Before leaving, the little men told the boys “others of our race will be coming.” The two boys were found sitting on the rocks staring at the sea in a state of shock. [Full Report]
Source: Janet & Colin Bord, Modern Mysteries of Britain

Date: 1912
Location: Newton Falls, Ohio
Time: morning
Summary: An object was observed. Animal reactions to the object were reported. One object was observed by two witnesses at a military facility (Goldner)
Source: CUFOS

Date: 1912
Location: Near Gallipolis Ohio
Time: morning
Summary: A man and his mother had been out picking berries in a wooded area when they noticed a dark cloud like object descend overhead, it then followed them at treetop level. As they walked away they noticed a figure walking parallel to them, apparently observing them. The figure was dark in color with wide shoulders, a large bulky head, and no visible neck. The woman screamed and the figure looked at them emitting a growling sound. They both ran away and looked back to see both the figure and the dark cloud gone.
Source: Janet & Colin Bord, FSR Vol. 25 # 3

Date: 1912
Location: Cologne Germany
Time: afternoon
Summary: The young witness, Ernest Dickhoff was alone in his bedroom when he felt a strong urge to look behind him. He then saw two strange beings, sitting on his bed. This appeared to be man-like, but seemed to be naked. After a short duration the beings suddenly vanished in plain sight.
Source: Denys Breysse, Project Becassine

Date: 1912
Location: South Bend N2M, Indiana
Time: Unknown
Summary: Nocturnal lights were observed by a female witness (Johnson, A).
Source: Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980 ISBN:0-313-21337-2

Date: 1912
Location: Currockbilly Range, New South Wales, Australia
Time: 21:00 — 9:00 PM
Summary: Huge man-like animal, hunting dogs retreated, assistant unconscious for hours. [Full Report]
Source: Tony Healy, High Strangeness in Yowie Reports

Date: January 1912
Location: Banks of the River Volga, Russia
Time: night
Summary: Mr. V. Dychkin and his friend were driving during a snowy night in separate sledges along the banks of the river. Dychkin’s friend was driving ahead and he was following him. Suddenly they encountered two “strangers” standing alongside of the road, and Dychkin invited them to seat on the sledges. The two strange looking men convinced Dychkin not to continue home because of the storm, but to turn to the nearest town and spend the night there. Though Dychkin knew that there weren’t any towns in the area, he drove against his will in the direction where the men told him. One of the men then pointed and yelled out, “Look, there is the town!” Dychkin looked and to his amazement saw a beautiful scene; something resembling a huge strange “city” was located on a flat plateau, illuminated by thousands of lights. The lights were positioned in a “fantastic” arrangement; he had never seen anything like it. Convinced in the reality of his vision Dychkin turned in the direction of the lights without hesitation. His companion followed and soon approached him. Suddenly both men were seized by incredible fear and rushed towards the road, never seeing where the two strangers had gone. Dychkin looked back in the direction of the lights but was surprised to see only the night gloom and darkness.
Source: “Rebus” Magazine, St. Petersburg 1914 German Mikhailov “NLO” Magazine # 50

Date: May 1912
Location: Lockport, Illinois
Time: afternoon
Summary: An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One object, the size of the moon, was observed by two male witnesses for over three minutes (Howe, C).
Source: Lore, Jr., Gordon I. R. Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1968

Date: June 1912
Location: Kerrobert S20M, Saskatchewan, Canada
Time: 10:00
Summary: A cigar-shaped object was observed. One cigar-shaped object, about 600 feet across, was observed by one witness for over one minute (Nelson).
Source: John Brent Musgrave investigation files

Date: August 11 1912
Location: Escalante, Spain
Time: night
Summary: Claudio Rey Castillo was coming home late one night when suddenly everything around him was illuminated like daytime. The light seemed to emanate from something that descended from the sky at high speed. The witness stepped back and turned around and was confronted by a huge man-like figure. It resembled a giant man that emitted intermittent flashes of white light. He could not see any features on the humanoid, which seemed to float just above the ground. The humanoid was all white in color and moved slowly back and stopped right under the entrance to the local church. At this point the witness noticed that the figure must have been some 3.30 meters in height. Armed with a knife he moved towards the figure, which suddenly seemed to “tremble” and raised his arms up showing the palms of its hands. It then drifted back and disappeared into the darkness as the horrified witness watched.
Source: Iker Jimenez, Enigmas Sin Resolver II

Date: August 18 1912
Location: Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, England
Time: before midnight
Summary: Upon reaching the top of the stairs in the Rectory, the Marquis of Huntington found a strange monk-like figure standing at the doorway of his room. “There was a hood over the head and he was dressed in a long garment like a dressing-gown. The hood and shoulders seemed to be gray, but lower down the color was black or brown.” The Marquis, only a boy then, ran to fetch the Rector but could not find him. By the time he returned, the specter had vanished.
Source: Michael D Winkle, The Anomalist # 10

Date: October 14 1912
Location: Sheerness, UK
Time: 19:00
Summary: An object was sighted that had an appearance and performance beyond the capability of known earthly aircraft. One object was observed
Source: Rogerson, Peter World-Wide Catalog of Type 1 Reports

Date: December 3, 1912
Location: Portsmouth, U-K
Time: Unknown
Summary: In 1977, ufologist Michel Bougard wrote that on December 3, 1912, by night, in Portsmouth, U-K, an aerial ship with four occupants came from the north, hovered about fifteen minutes above the city, and went away towards the north. No additional details are given. But it appears that at the times, newspaper had already suspected it was a British Army dirigible airship, coming and returning to the Army facilities in the North in Aldershot, and Flight magazine had confirmed it was the Beta II airship. It was by day, not night, and besides, witnesses had specified it had the Army Ensign.
Source: The Times, newspaper, page 6, December 4, 1912. | Source Status: VERIFIED — contemporaneous newspaper of record; partial explanation on record; discrepancy between night sighting and confirmed daytime Beta II flight unresolved

Date: December 24 1912
Location: Proskurov, Podolsky region Russia
Time: evening
Summary: The mayor of the village of Vychylovka was walking towards Proskurov when he saw a dimly lit “machine” on a nearby field. He came closer and saw two men standing next to it, who seemed to be wearing military uniforms. The mayor asked the men who they were and where they were from but received no reply. The men then chased the witness and caught him dragging him inside the “machine”, despite his protests. In the air the “pilots” asked the mayor numerous questions but he refused to answer. Soon the object landed and he was released near the city of Bar 60 km from Vyhilevka. The “machine” then disappeared in an unknown direction.
Source: Mikhail Gershteyn

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Thirteen Countries, One Year — 1912 and the Pre-War Global Entity Encounter Record

Nineteen twelve produced more documented entity encounters across more countries than any previous year in the archive. The range is striking: a Scottish island CE-III with bilingual small beings who announced their race would return; a Canadian child’s telepathic contact with jointless small beings who operated on mind power; a Spanish witness who advanced with a knife on a 3.3-metre luminous humanoid and watched it raise its palms before dissolving into darkness; a Russian mayor abducted on Christmas Eve and questioned in flight before being deposited sixty kilometres from home. These are not marginal folklore accounts. The Vancouver case is documented by Hynek and Musgrave. The Volga case appears in a 1914 St. Petersburg publication. The Portsmouth case is in The Times of London on December 4th, 1912. The year’s cases span eight countries on five continents and collectively represent the most geographically diverse single-year UAP and entity record between the 1897 American airship wave and the 1933 Scandinavian ghost rocket wave.

The archive notes two defining characteristics of the 1912 record. First, the entity type range is wider than any preceding year — small beings with glass-cab craft in Canada, tiny beings in a tiny boat in Scotland, a treetop-following dark cloud with a parallel-walking no-neck figure in Ohio, naked beings materializing in a German bedroom, a yowie collapsing a man unconscious in Australia, a floating luminous giant in Spain, a sledge-misdirecting pair of strangers on the Volga, and uniformed men abducting a mayor in a machine in Russia. No single entity type dominates. Second, the suppression pattern is consistent across cultures — a Canadian father tells his son never to speak of it; a Russian man in 1914 publishes the Volga account carefully rather than filing a report; a young English marquis fetches the Rector and finds the figure gone. Across 1912, what people saw they did not readily tell, and what they told they did not readily publish. The archive holds what survived.