Mystery Man Who Eyed submarine Triton Found

 Posted by - U.S. Naval Institute - April 1, 2023 

On this day in 1960, USS Triton was on a top secret mission to circumnavigate the world while submerged when Captain Ned Beach raised the periscope and was spotted by a Filipino fisherman. The terrified fisherman thought the periscope was the eye of a sea monster.

The story behind the photo...

Mystery Man Who Eyed Triton Off Cebu Found

The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Virginia Tuesday, November 8, 1960

WASHINGTON-As the submarine Triton was making its super secret, submerged journey around the world, it raised periscope in the Philippines Magellan Bay.

Cap. Edward, L. Beach found himself staring into the eyes of a startled fisherman in a canoe, The Filipino, as it turned out, was the only unauthorized person to detect Triton during the voyage.

People have since wondered: "Who was the fisherman?"

The National Geographic Magazine, in a search dubbed "Needle in a Haystack," has located the fisherman on Mactan Island off Cebu. He is 19-year-old Rufino Baring.

YOUTH TERRIFIED

Rufino, by his own admission, was terrified when the "eye" of the huge, 447-foot nuclear submarine unexpectedly broke water, vanished, then reappeared.

"I was tired and thought I was seeing things," he said. "But when it came back, I thought it was part of a very big monster, and I was very frightened!"

Whereupon, he said, "I tried to get away as fast as I could because it started to move very fast."

Rufino never looked back as he paddled frantically for home, and he concealed the incident from his family though he later confided it to a friend. His last trace of dread vanished only recently when he was told what he had actually seen.

INCIDENT DESCRIBED

The incident, as described by Captain Beach in his log:

"Upon raising the periscope, I am looking right into the eyes of a young man in a small canoe, close alongside. Perhaps he has detected the dark bulk of our hull in the relatively clear waters of the bay... 

"Down periscope!" The bright steel tube slides down into its well as I describe the scene above to the people in the conning tower.

"A few seconds later I motion for the scope to be raised once more. Sure enough, there is our friend, impassively leaning on his gunwales and staring right at the periscope as it rises barely two inches out of the water.

"It is a ludicrous situation: On the one hand an impassive Asian, staring with curious concentration at an unusual object in the water; on the other, a U. S. Navy officer, equipped with all the technical devices money and science can procure, looking back with equally studied concentration. On one end of the periscope, an outrigger canoe propelled by the brawny arms of its builder: on the other end, a $100,000,000 submarine, the newest, biggest most powerful in the world, on a history-making cruise.

"What an abyss-what centuries of scientific development lie between him and me!"

SEARCH ON MACTAN

As Captain Beach's narrative of the voyage, "Triton Follows Magellan's Wake," was being readied for publication in the November issue of National Geographic, assistant editor John Scofield cabled Edson H. Canova, a business executive whom he had met in Cebu City, to try to track down the fisherman.

Canova and Bob Yost, the American consul in Cebu, thought Mactan was a likely place to look. They went there, finally trekked through fields of camote and corn to find their man in the last house on the island.

"Have found needle in haystack," Canova cabled.

"To say that he was frightened would be putting it mildly” Canova said.  He had no idea why we were there except that it was in connection with what he had seen some months ago I think he felt he had committed a crime and that we were coming to take him in. He was quite relieved to find out that our mission was merely to interview him."

PICTURE TAKEN

Rufino was unaware that his picture had been taken through Triton's periscope by J. Baylor Roberts, of the National Geographic staff. Roberts, a commander in the Naval Reserve, was recalled to active duty to record the voyage for the Navy and National Geographic.

Canova had a copy of the photograph, which he showed to the young Filipino fisherman.

"What I wouldn't have given for a flash picture of his face!" Canova said. "Unfortunately, we were in his dimly lit nipa house and I had no flash."

RUFINO IS A HERO 

When Canova told Rufino that he was the only person who saw the Triton, the information was "greeted with a typical embarrassed smile from Rufino plus the 'Oohs' and 'Aahs' of his family and friends."

"At this point," Canova said, "There was a minor stampede up the small ladderlike stairway to his porch as quite a crowd had now gathered outside the house - and all wanted to see the picture and the hero."

The story of Rufino and Triton ends with an uncanny coincidence.  In making the voyage in early 1960, Triton began and ended the circumnavigation from the St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks off Brazil.

Back on Mactan Island, the frightened Rufino repainted his outrigger canoe and added saints' names to protect it from further meetings with sea monsters.

The apostles' names he gave his boat were St. Peter and St. Paul.