David Pace
The known source trail points to Maltese amateur astronomer David Pace and his book UFOs fuq il-Gżejjer Maltin / UFOs over the Maltese Islands.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA · ABOUT 20 MILES SOUTH OF MALTA · SUMMER 1947
A black shape on the water.
Small figures on the deck.
Pawlu Zammit and other Maltese fishermen were later said to have encountered a dark, submarine-like object at sea. A bright light illuminated the area. Small figures appeared on its deck. Then the object submerged.
SUMMER 1947The source chain does not securely fix an exact day.
~20 MILES SOUTHReported position offshore from Malta.
PAWLU ZAMMIT + OTHERSMultiple-witness claim, but only Zammit is individually named.
NO PRIMARY 1947 RECORDThe earliest certain surviving publication appears decades later.
THE REAL CASE
High strangeness resting on a very thin source chain.
The story is one of the strangest maritime encounters in the Maltese UFO catalogue. Fishermen hauling nets reportedly saw a dark object on the surface that reminded them of a submarine but also struck them as somehow monstrous or unfamiliar.
Then, according to the later account, the object lit the surrounding area and several small figures moved across its deck. After a few minutes the figures went inside, the object glowed intensely and it disappeared beneath the sea.
The problem is not the weirdness of the story. The problem is that the surviving public source trail appears to begin roughly half a century after the alleged event.
THE REPORTED SEQUENCE
What the surviving retellings actually say.
NETS COMING UPThe fishermen were said to be hauling in a catch when they noticed a dark object floating on the sea.
BLACK “SUBMARINE”The object looked enough like a submarine for that comparison to dominate later accounts, though the fishermen reportedly found it frighteningly unfamiliar.
BRIGHT LIGHT + FIGURESA strong light illuminated the area and several small figures were reported moving across the deck, with some kind of apparatus around their waists.
SUBMERGENCEThe figures went inside. The object reportedly glowed so brightly that its form became difficult to see, then submerged.
THE WITNESS CLAIM
“About the size of a ten-year-old boy.”
In the surviving account, Pawlu Zammit was later asked how tall the figures appeared. His answer has become the most quoted detail in the case: they were roughly the size of a ten-year-old child.
That does not mean investigators measured humanoids. It means one named witness, recalling an event from an unknown reporting distance, estimated the apparent height of figures seen from another boat at sea.
The record gives no facial description, skin colour, clothing detail, limbs, speech or interaction. The only recurring physical detail is some kind of apparatus around the waist.
The story contains “little men.” The evidence does not contain a measured non-human body.
SOURCE HISTORY
The case appears late.
Malta UFO Research
A later Malta UFO Research website reproduced the story and named Zammit. That page then fed multiple English-language UFO catalogues.
Rosales, WaterUFO, NICAP
Later catalogues repeat broadly the same narrative. They are not separate witnesses or independent 1947 confirmations.
Summer, June 8, early July?
Different later listings attach different date forms. The safest surviving anchor is simply summer 1947.
Possibly five decades
The source-recovery review notes that the earliest certain public record may be around 2000, creating a very long evidential gap.
The Maltese book
Recovering Pace's exact Maltese text, publication date, source notes and interview history is the single most important next step.
THE SUBMARINE QUESTION
The conventional explanation is not a throwaway.
Why a real submarine fits
The object was on the sea surface. It was dark. It had a deck-like area. Human-shaped figures moved on it. Then it submerged.
Those are not incidental similarities. They are exactly the behaviours expected from a surfaced submarine and crew.
Why the story stayed strange
The fishermen reportedly found the object unusually frightening in appearance, described the crew as very small, saw a powerful light and said the object became intensely luminous before sinking.
Those elements are the anomalous residue — if the late account preserves them accurately.
Important: the submarine explanation is plausible. It is not demonstrated. The surviving record is too weak to prove either an ordinary vessel or an extraordinary one.
POST-WAR MEDITERRANEAN
1947 was a bad year for assuming that an unfamiliar vessel must be exotic.
The Mediterranean had just emerged from six years of war. Naval traffic, military surplus, changing fleets and wartime technologies were recent realities. Malta itself had been one of the most heavily militarised strategic locations in the region.
That context strengthens the need to test an ordinary maritime explanation before turning the report into an underwater spacecraft.
But because the story was apparently written down so late, we lack the ship movements, weather, exact position, vessel type, moonlight and observation geometry that would make such a test meaningful.
WHAT REMAINS
A compelling story that has not yet earned a strong evidential ranking.
The Malta fishermen case deserves to survive because it is unusual, locally rooted and specific enough to be researchable. It names a witness. It names a Maltese source author. It points to a book. It gives an offshore location and a coherent sequence.
But until the Maltese primary source is recovered, the case remains mostly a chain of retellings.
The right question is not “were the little men aliens?” It is “what did David Pace actually record, from whom, and when?”
If that source trail can be rebuilt, Malta 1947 could become much more interesting. If it cannot, the responsible version of the case must remain exactly what it is now: strange, memorable and unresolved — but thin.
SOURCE ROOM
Follow the trail — and mind the gap.
Patrick Gross · URECAT case fileBEST CURRENT SOURCE-CHAIN AUDIT · LATE-REPORT WARNING · SUBMARINE ALTERNATIVE · MULTIPLE CATALOGUE REFERENCES
David Pace · UFOs fuq il-Gżejjer MaltinPRIMARY KNOWN SOURCE TARGET · MALTESE-LANGUAGE BOOK · EXACT EDITION / DATE / SOURCE NOTES STILL TO RECOVER
Malta UFO Research / MUFOREARLY WEB RETELLING · NAMED ZAMMIT · ORIGINAL PAGE/CAPTURE REMAINS A RECOVERY TARGET
Pawlu ZammitONLY INDIVIDUALLY NAMED WITNESS IN SURVIVING PUBLIC RETELLINGS · ORIGINAL INTERVIEW NOT RECOVERED
National Archives of Malta · historic fisherman imageAUTHENTIC MALTESE MARITIME CONTEXT · NOT EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY · HERO SOURCE
Highest-value missing evidencePACE BOOK · ORIGINAL MALTESE WORDING · INTERVIEW DATE · OTHER FISHERMEN NAMES · VESSEL ID · CONTEMPORARY PRESS / PORT / NAVAL RECORDS