Editing Philadelphia Experiment (section)

===Alternative explanations===
Researcher [[Jacques Vallée]]<ref name="Vallée 1994">Vallée, Jacques F. (1994) [http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_08_1_vallee.pdf "Anatomy of a Hoax: The Philadelphia Experiment Fifty Years Later"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091222023540/http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_08_1_vallee.pdf |date=2009-12-22 }} ''[[Journal of Scientific Exploration]]'' Volume 8, Number 1, pp. 47–71</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=February 2020}} describes a procedure on board {{USS|Engstrom}}, which was docked alongside the ''Eldridge'' in 1943. The operation involved the generation of a powerful electromagnetic field on board the ship in order to [[Deperming|deperm]] or [[Degaussing|degauss]] it, with the goal of rendering the ship undetectable or "invisible" to magnetically fused undersea [[naval mine|mines]] and [[torpedo]]es. This system was invented by a Canadian, [[Charles F. Goodeve]], when he held the rank of [[commander]] in the [[Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve]], and the [[Royal Navy]] and other navies used it widely during World War II.

British ships of the era often included such degaussing systems built into the upper decks (the [[Electrical conduit|conduits]] are still visible on the deck of {{HMS|Belfast}} in London, for example). Degaussing is still used today. However, it has no effect on visible light or radar. Vallée speculates that accounts of USS ''Engstrom's'' degaussing might have been garbled and [[confabulated]] in subsequent retellings, and that these accounts may have influenced the story of "The Philadelphia Experiment".

Vallée cites a veteran who served on board USS ''Engstrom'' and who suggests it might have traveled from Philadelphia to Norfolk and back again in a single day at a time when merchant ships could not, by use of the [[Chesapeake & Delaware Canal]] and [[Chesapeake Bay]], which at the time was open only to naval vessels.<ref name="Vallée 1994"/> Use of that channel was kept quiet: German submarines had ravaged shipping along the East Coast during [[Second Happy Time|Operation Drumbeat]], and thus military ships unable to protect themselves were secretly moved via canals to avoid the threat.<ref name="Vallée 1994"/>

The same veteran claims to be the man that Allende witnessed "disappearing" at a bar. He claims that when a fight broke out, friendly barmaids whisked him out of the bar before the police arrived, because he was under age for drinking. They then covered for him by claiming that he had disappeared.<ref name="Vallée 1994"/>