Case description
Pawlu Zammit and other Maltese fishermen were reportedly hauling nets about twenty miles south of Malta when they noticed a dark object floating on the Mediterranean. The later Malta UFO Research account, attributed to David Pace's book about local UFO reports, compared it with a black submarine. Its unfamiliar appearance frightened the crew, who hurried to recover the nets and start their boat's engine.
A strong light then illuminated the object and the surrounding water. Several small, humanlike figures were said to move across its deck. The fishermen could distinguish something around their waists but little further detail. Zammit's comparison with the size of a ten-year-old child described the figures' apparent stature; it did not mean that actual children were aboard. After a few minutes they reportedly went inside, the object became too bright to see clearly, and it submerged.
The date is not securely established. Retellings give summer 1947, an uncertain June 8, or early July; the imported July 31 is not justified by these accounts. The accessible report is retrospective, with its initial reporting date and independent witness documentation unclear. A surfaced submarine and crew have been proposed as an ordinary explanation. The illustration therefore uses only summer 1947 and keeps the small deck figures' faces indistinct. Boat design, lighting, waist equipment and exact proportions are reconstructed, not recovered visual evidence.
