Mysterious stories about the disappeared ships and their crews. Mysterious Disappearances

  • 30.09.2019

Sailing remains a dangerous activity in the 21st century. Before the sea element, even a person armed with technology is helpless. History knows a lot of cases when ships, together with the crews, disappeared into the sea without a trace. We have collected the 10 most mysterious shipwrecks, the causes of which remain a mystery to this day.

1. USS Wasp - the missing escort


In fact, there were several ships that were called USS Wasp, but, the strangest was Wasp, which disappeared in 1814. Built in 1813 for the war with England, the Wasp was a fast square-sail sloop with 22 guns and a crew of 170 men. Wasp participated in 13 successful operations. On September 22, 1814, the ship captured the British merchant brig Atalanta. As a rule, the Wasp crew simply burned enemy ships, but Atalanta was deemed too valuable to destroy. As a result, an order was received to escort Atalanta to the allied harbor, and Wasp set off to the side caribbean. He was never seen again.

2. SS Marine Sulfur Queen - a victim of the Bermuda Triangle


This vessel was a 160m tanker originally used to transport oil during World War II. The ship was later rebuilt to carry molten sulfur. Marine Sulfur Queen was in excellent condition. In February 1963, two days after leaving Texas with a cargo of sulfur, a conventional radio message was received from the ship saying that everything was in order. After that, the ship disappeared. Many assume that it just exploded, while others blame the "magic" of the Bermuda Triangle for the disappearance. The bodies of 39 crew members were not found, although a life jacket was found, and a piece of board with a piece of the inscription "arine SULPH".

3. USS Porpoise - killed in a typhoon


Built in the golden age of sailing, the Porpoise was originally known as the "hermaphrodite brig" because its two masts used two different types of sails. She was later converted to a traditional brigantine with square sails on both masts. At first, the ship was used to pursue pirates, and in 1838 it was sent on an exploratory expedition. The team managed to trip around the world and confirm the existence of Antarctica. After exploring a number of islands in the South Pacific, Porpoise sailed from China in September 1854, after which no one heard from her. It is likely that the crew encountered a typhoon, but there is no evidence of this.

4. FV Andrea Gail - a victim of the "perfect storm"


The fishing trawler Andrea Gai was built in Florida in 1978 and was subsequently acquired by a company in Massachusetts. With a crew of six, Andrea Gail sailed successfully for 13 years and disappeared on a voyage to Newfoundland. The Coast Guard launched a search, but could only find the ship's emergency beacon and a few pieces of wreckage. After a week of searching, the ship and its crew were declared missing. Andrea Gail is believed to have been doomed when a high-pressure front crashed into a massive area of ​​low-pressure air, and then the nascent typhoon merged with the remnants of Hurricane Grace. This rare combination of three separate weather systems eventually became known as the "perfect storm". According to experts, Andrea Gail could have encountered waves with a height of more than 30 meters

5. SS Poet - the ship that did not send a distress signal


At first, this ship was called Omar Bundy and was used to transport troops during the Second World War. It was later used to transport steel. In 1979, the ship was purchased by the Hawaiian Eugenia Corporation of Hawaii, which named it Poet. In 1979, a ship left Philadelphia for Port Said with a cargo of 13,500 tons of corn, but never made it to its destination. The last communication with Poet happened just six hours after leaving the port of Philadelphia, when one of the crew members spoke to his wife. After that, the ship did not reach the scheduled 48-hour communication session, while the ship did not send a distress signal. Eugenia Corporation did not report the loss of the ship for six days, and the Coast Guard did not respond for another 5 days after that. No trace of the ship was ever found.

6. USS Conestoga - the missing minesweeper


USS Conestoga was built in 1917 as a minesweeper. After the end of the First World War, it was converted into a tugboat. In 1921, she was transferred to American Samoa, where she was to become a floating station. March 25, 1921 the ship set sail, and nothing more is known about it.

Source 7Witchcraft - the pleasure boat that went missing on Christmas Day


In December 1967, Miami hotel owner Dan Burak decided to watch the city's Christmas lights from his personal luxurious Boats Witchcraft. Accompanied by his father Patrick Hogan, he went to sea for about 1.5 km. It is known that the boat was in perfect order. At about 9 pm, Burak radioed for a tow back to the pier, saying that his boat had hit unknown object. He confirmed his coordinates to the Coast Guard and specified that he would launch a flare. Rescuers got to the scene in 20 minutes, but Witchcraft disappeared. The Coast Guard combed over 3,100 square kilometers of the ocean, but neither Dan Burak, nor Patrick Hogan, nor Witchcraft were ever found.

8. USS Insurgent: the mysterious disappearance of a warship


US Navy frigate Insurgent the Americans captured in battle with the French in 1799. The ship served in the Caribbean, where she had many glorious victories. But on August 8, 1800, the ship sailed out of Virginia Hampton Roads and mysteriously disappeared.

9. SS Awahou: boats did not help


Built in 1912, 44m cargo steamer Awahou passed through many owners before eventually being bought by the Australian Carr Shipping & Trading Company. On September 8, 1952, the ship sailed from Sydney with a crew of 18 and sailed to the private island of Lord Howe. The ship was in good shape when she left Australia, but within 48 hours a fuzzy, "crunchy" radio signal was received from the ship. The speech was almost unintelligible, but it looked like Awahou was caught in bad weather. Although the ship had enough lifeboats for the entire crew, no signs of the wreck or bodies were found.

10. SS Baychimo - arctic ghost ship


Some call it a ghost ship, but in fact Baychimo was a real ship. Built in 1911, Baychimo was a huge steam cargo ship owned by Hudson's Bay Company. It was mainly used to transport furs from northern Canada, and Baychimo's first nine flights were relatively quiet. But during the last voyage of the ship in 1931, winter came very early. Completely unprepared for bad weather, the ship was trapped in the ice. Most of the crew were rescued by plane, but the captain and a few Baychimo crew members decided to wait out the bad weather by camping on the ship. A severe snowstorm began, which completely hid the ship from sight. When the storm subsided, Baychimo disappeared. However, for several decades, Baychimo has allegedly been seen drifting aimlessly in Arctic waters more than once.

Harbor of the Lost Ships

That old story about the journey of Columbus could well be forgotten for the reason that in the following centuries the Bermuda Triangle relatively rarely made itself felt, except for a reminder of the Sargasso Sea with its unique properties. The events of 1840 forced us to recall the mysterious body of water, when the drifting French sailing ship Rosalie was discovered near the port of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. All the sails were raised on it, there was the necessary equipment, but at the same time - not a single living soul from the crew or passengers.

After inspecting the sailboat, it was found that it is in excellent condition, and all its cargo is safe and sound. No entries were found in the ship's log. At first, there was an assumption that the ship ran aground, the crew sailed on boats, and at high tide, the Rosalie moved to the open sea.

However, few believed in such an explanation, classifying the ship as a kind of "Flying Dutchman" - a ghost ship, legends about which have been circulating since ancient times. There was also a version that the sailboat seemed to have fallen into some kind of powerful whirlpool, in which forces of clearly unearthly origin operate. In this case, the whole team could go to the bottom, and the ship could be left without control.

A similar situation was repeated 30 years later with the Mary Celeste brigantine, which became a classic example for the entire Bermuda Triangle problem. She, like the sailboat Rosalie, was found safe and sound, but ... without a single member of the team. "Maria Celeste" with a displacement of about 300 tons was discovered in the ocean by the cargo ship "Dei Gratia" on December 4, 1872. Before that, both ships loaded their holds in New York in early November. The brigantine, under the command of Benjamin Briggs, headed for Genoa, and the Dei Gratia, under the command of Captain David Morehouse, headed for Gibraltar.

When Captain Morehouse met the Mary Celeste a month later, she was under full sail, but in such strange zigzags that it was just right to suspect something was wrong. When the sailors boarded the brigantine, it turned out that there was no team on it, and there was no captain, who was sailing with his wife and daughter. And again: the ship was in perfect order and did not suffer from bad weather. Moreover, the missing people did not take with them any money, or things, or any other property. There were no signs of a hasty flight from the ship, which could indicate a threat to the crew. In the captain's cabin on the table were maps that marked the route from New York to the port of destination. The last entry was made on November 24, when the brigantine was off the Azores.

Captain Morehouse had no choice but to take the ship in tow and bring it to Gibraltar. A months-long search began for the missing Captain Briggs, his family and crew members. The incident was urgently advertised in the newspapers, but no one responded to them. Various versions were put forward about the death of the crew of the Mary Celeste. They talked about the attack of pirates, who captured everyone, abandoned the ship, then they themselves, together with the captives, died in the depths of the sea. Others suggested that some otherworldly forces intervened in the fate of the brigantine.

As often happens, writers did not fail to take advantage of the drama of Mary Celeste, one of whom was the young and then little-known Arthur Conan Doyle. In the January issue of Cornhill Magazine, 1884, he published the story "Message of J. Hebekuk Jephson." The story of Conan Doyle, which appeared 11 years after the story with the brigantine, was believed immediately and unconditionally, since much of it was close to the truth or was derived from real facts.

Since the time of Conan Doyle, the proposed versions of the Mary Celeste disaster have gained immense scope. It was suggested that the spoiled food caused the crew to hallucinate and people began to rush into the sea to escape terrible visions. There was also such a rumor: the owner of the Mary Celeste persuaded the sailors to deal with Captain Briggs and flood the ship in order to receive an insurance premium. But the sailors made some mistake and died. Perhaps the plan called for them to throw themselves into the sea and swim to shore when the ship approached the rocks near the Azores. However, a sudden gust of wind drove the brigantine into safe place and the sailors drowned. According to a more restrained assumption, the crew abandoned the ship due to a powerful tornado, which is no less dangerous at sea than a tornado on land.

One way or another, no one will probably know the truth about the “Mary Celeste”, because even today no more is known about the fate of the brigantine than on the day it was discovered in the ocean.

Meanwhile, the list of ships that disappeared in the area of ​​the Bermuda Triangle continued to grow at the end of the 19th, and especially in the 20th century. With each decade, the world fleet increased, which means that the number of catastrophes and disappearances in the Hellish Circle multiplied.

On the last day of January 1880, the British training sailing ship Atalanta was in the area with three hundred officers and cadets on board. But the sailboat never arrived at the port of destination. A whole armada of ships came out in search of him, sailing from each other at a distance of direct visibility. In vain. All along the way, the rescuers did not meet either a boat or any object that could have been left from the Atalanta. By the way, in 1881 the English ship "Ellen Austin" met a schooner in the open ocean, sailing without any signs of the presence of the team. It was not possible to stop her, as well as to read the name of the ship. Maybe it was the ghost of Atalanta that disappeared a year ago?

Not less than amazing story occurred in 1909, when Captain Joshua Slocum, the most famous sailor of his time, went missing in the Bermuda Triangle. He gained worldwide fame as the first person in history to sail alone around the globe. This journey, which took several years and ended in 1898, he made on his magnificent yacht, the Spray. The captain was lucky in overcoming any difficulties: he left the pirates chasing him off the coast of Morocco, withstood storms that killed large ships nearby, repelled the attack of savages in the Strait of Magellan, and continued sailing even after his charts fell into disrepair . For a whole week he was stuck in the Sargasso Sea due to complete calm, and on the approach to New York he was met by the most severe storm that he had ever experienced in all the years of his journey. It was a real tornado that then caused great destruction in New York.

Only a few years have passed, and the same Joshua Slocum, who had the courage, composure and skill to overcome the most difficult trials prepared by the sea, suddenly disappeared along with the yacht during a short trip through the Bermuda Triangle. November 14, 1909, he moved away from the island of Martha's Vineyard and headed for South America. From that day on, there was no more news of him. In the opinion of those who knew Captain Slocum, he was too good a sailor, and the Spray too good a yacht, to fail any test that the ocean might bring.

The next catastrophe happened during the First World War. In 1918, the pride of the American navy, the 540-foot Cyclops coal ship, en route from the island of Barbados to the port

Baltimore and having 309 people on board, seemed to dissolve into space. His intensive search also ended in failure. By the way, the Cyclops was the first of the disappeared ships equipped with radio equipment, but for some reason it never used the SOS signal. Half a century later, representatives of the Ministry of the Navy said that none of the many versions can reliably explain the disappearance of the Cyclops.

In January 1921, the schooner Carroll A. Deering was found firmly aground with her sails raised. The strangest thing was that in the galley there was a dinner prepared for the crew, which was no longer destined to enjoy it. In the same year, a dozen other ships disappeared without a trace in the Bermuda area. According to the ship's documents, all of them went to Puerto Rico, some to Miami, some to Bermuda. But they all ended up in the same area.

In 1931, the Norwegian ship "Stavenger", which had 43 people on board, disappeared there. At the last minute, they broadcast on the radio: “Hurry to help, we cannot be saved! ..”

In the second half of the XX century. ship disasters continued to haunt the imaginations of sailors and shipping company owners. In 1955, in the very center of the triangle, the Connemara-4 yacht was discovered without a single person on board. But for some reason, especially many disappearances occurred at Christmas. So, in December 1957, publisher Harvey Conover, one of America's most famous yachtsmen, took his family on a racing yacht on a 150-mile trip to Miami. And although the yacht was always within line of sight of the shore, it never arrived at its destination.

The year 1963 was especially fruitful for mysterious disappearances. The beginning was laid by the Marine Sulfur Queen cargo ship, specially equipped to transport molten sulfur. En route from Virginia to Texas, it disappeared off the southern tip of Florida after a standard radio broadcast that caused no concern. As a result of the search, only a few life jackets were found. The most incomprehensible thing in all these stories is that during the search for the remains of people they were never found. It would seem that the bodies of the shipwrecked should sooner or later be thrown ashore by the surf, but this has never happened in the Bermuda Triangle area.

In July 1969, in calm weather, five ships were found abandoned by the crew. The representative of the largest insurance company in the UK said that, given the excellent weather conditions, what happened is "absolutely incredible case." And a month later, the most experienced navigator Bill Verity disappeared in the triangle, having made many crossings across the Atlantic. Unexplained disappearances still occur to this day: in 1971, the cargo ships Elizabeth and El Carib sank into obscurity, and in March 1973, the largest cargo ship, Anita, left Norfolk and no one heard from her again. The trouble did not bypass the submarines. In 1963 and 1968, the US Navy lost two nuclear submarines, the Thresher and the Scorpion, both of which ended their last voyage near the Bermuda Triangle.

Accident investigation commissions do not consider them to be caused by such ordinary manifestations of the elements as the sudden appearance of tropical cyclones, but tend to believe that catastrophes can be caused by some kind of atmospheric disturbances, as well as electromagnetic and gravitational anomalies.

Other researchers suggest that the whole point is the so-called aberration - the curvature of space, due to which the missing ships fall into the trap of the "fourth dimension". In this regard, the statements of some "visionaries" are curious, who are sure that one day all ships will get out of the Bermuda Triangle and return to their native ports along with their crews. They believe that the sailors are still alive, and their age has not changed at all since the day they disappeared. Moreover, upon their return, they will reveal the whole secret of the world located beyond the ghostly edge of Bermuda.

Exploring this theory, experts say that time as such flows at different speeds. This may explain the numerous cases in which ships were hundreds of miles away from where they were supposed to be. If the speed of time at a given point in space differs from the usual one, a ship that has fallen into such a time trap will cease to exist in our world. Part of the temporary stream in this case deviates from the main channel, taking with it everything that happened to be in its area. Then the ship, along with its unlucky crew and passengers, can be transported to the future or the past, and even to a "parallel universe."

But pragmatic scientists believe that all catastrophes are associated with underwater earthquakes, since as a result of sudden displacements of the ocean floor, waves up to two hundred feet high can be created.

While experts from the navy and other organizations debunk the hypothesis of underwater volcanoes and earthquakes, other researchers are trying to put all the blame on storms and waves. And although little is known about such facts, it can be assumed that the tragic stories are somehow connected with ocean currents or water eddies. The vulnerability of this hypothesis is that strong winds are needed for storms and waves. However, oddly enough, none of the mysterious disappearances recorded in the Bermuda Triangle happened in bad weather.

From the book Behind the stern a hundred thousand li author Svet Yakov Mikhailovich

Harbor thrown aground For several hundred years, the Musi River, this Sumatran Nile, lengthened its delta by several tens of kilometers due to silt and sediment. A sad fate befell many cities lying in the lower reaches of large rivers and in areas where the coastal

From the book of Noah's Ark and Scrolls Dead Sea author Cummings Violet M

CHAPTER 14 THE CASE OF THE MISSING PHOTOGRAPHS A few weeks after the Frenchman Navarre discovered what he took to be the outline of a ship buried deep in ice, an American made his own discovery. In the late summer of 1953, George Jefferson Green -

From the book Ancient Rome author Potrashkov Andrey Sergeevich

Mysteries of the Lost Legions This chapter will focus not so much on the mysteries of the disappearance of the Roman legions, although to some extent about them, but on the Roman army as a whole. Or rather, about one big mystery: why exactly the Roman army managed to subdue and for a long time

From the book Parisians. Adventure story in Paris. by Robb Graham

3. The Case of the Six Thousand Missing Criminals June 20, 1827, Rue Petite-Saint-Anne, 6

From the book Historical districts of St. Petersburg from A to Z author Glezerov Sergey Evgenievich

From the book Forgotten Belarus author Deruzhinsky Vadim Vladimirovich

Question about the "missing" officers

From the book Russian America author Burlak Vadim Niklasovich

Descendants of the missing? Jakob Johann Lindenau, a member of Vitus Bering's expedition, translator of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, has been researching the tribes and peoples of North-Eastern Siberia for many years. His pen belongs to the well-known work in the 18th century: “Description of the foot Tunguz, or so

From the book The Jewish World [The most important knowledge about the Jewish people, its history and religion (litres)] author Telushkin Joseph

From the book In the footsteps of the disappeared Russia author Muzafarov Alexander Azizovich

Harbor of the Empress Maria Very little is known about the history of the town of Novy Skarpans. It housed the headquarters of the commander of the Russian troops in the Alands, a post office, a hospital, a market, the houses of local and Russian merchants who supplied supplies to the builders of Bomarzund. Yes and

From the book Russian Finland author Krivtsov Nikita Vladimirovich

BOMARZUND, SITKOV AND "MARIA'S HARBOR" In Aland, everything is miniature. The archipelago of 6,500 islands is home to only 25,000 inhabitants, with half in the main city of Mariehamn. It is the smallest of all Scandinavian capitals. The diminutiveness of the city is especially striking,

From the book Commanders of the Polar Seas author Cherkashin Nikolai Andreevich

IN THE CABIN OF THE MISSING CAPTAINS I am going to Krasnaya Presnya, where the building of the forensic medical expert center is located in the depths of the old courtyard. And the owner

From the book Modernization: from Elizabeth Tudor to Yegor Gaidar author Margania Otar

From the book Essays on the History of Architecture T.2 author Brunov Nikolay Ivanovich

From the book Adventures of the High Seas author Cherkashin Nikolai Andreevich

In the wardroom of the missing captains I am going to Krasnaya Presnya, where the building of the forensic medical expert center is located in the depths of the old courtyard. This is not the first time I enter Viktor Nikolayevich Zvyagin's office and every time I shudder at the sight of shelves lined with skulls. And the owner

From the book Emperor Nicholas II. Life, Love, Immortality author Plekhanov Sergey Nikolaevich

"The harbor was already in sight ..." By the beginning of 1917, the Russian military industry was working at full speed, providing the army with everything necessary. The arsenals of weapons and ammunition grew rapidly, the warehouses of uniforms and food were replenished, designed to provide

From the book Under the Russian Flag author Kuznetsov Nikita Anatolievich

CHAPTER 6 The Harbor As soon as the day came and the bad weather subsided, the guys who did not go with us on the boat began to be impatient - they wanted to see what our bay looks like. But we, who went on a motorboat, knew little about the bay (except that we found a parking lot and protection from

There have been many cases in history when large and reliable ships disappeared into the seas and oceans without a trace. They simply disappeared without a trace and were never found again. Is it any wonder that a South Korean passenger liner just recently disappeared and no one can find it? Look how many ships have disappeared, even today no one knows where they all went.

Mysterious disappearances. Lost ships. Even today no one knows where they are now.

1. USS Wasp - the missing escort

In fact, there were several ships that were called USS Wasp, but the strangest was the Wasp, which disappeared in 1814. Built in 1813 for the war with England, the Wasp was a fast square-sail sloop with 22 guns and a crew of 170 men. Wasp participated in 13 successful operations. On September 22, 1814, the ship captured the British merchant brig Atalanta. As a rule, the Wasp crew simply burned enemy ships, but Atalanta was deemed too valuable to destroy. As a result, an order was received to escort Atalanta to the allied harbor, and Wasp set off towards the Caribbean Sea. He was never seen again.

2. SS Marine Sulfur Queen - a victim of the Bermuda Triangle


This vessel was a 160m tanker originally used to transport oil during World War II. The ship was later rebuilt to carry molten sulfur. Marine Sulfur Queen was in excellent condition. In February 1963, two days after leaving Texas with a cargo of sulfur, a conventional radio message was received from the ship saying that everything was in order. After that, the ship disappeared. Many assume that it just exploded, while others blame the "magic" of the Bermuda Triangle for the disappearance. The bodies of 39 crew members were not found, although a life jacket was found, and a piece of board with a piece of the inscription "arine SULPH".

3. USS Porpoise - killed in a typhoon


Built in the golden age of sailing, the Porpoise was originally known as the "hermaphrodite brig" because two different types of sail were used on its two masts. She was later converted to a traditional brigantine with square sails on both masts. At first, the ship was used to pursue pirates, and in 1838 it was sent on an exploratory expedition. The team managed to travel around the world and confirm the existence of Antarctica. After exploring a number of islands in the South Pacific, the Porpoise sailed from China in September 1854, after which no one heard from her. It is likely that the crew encountered a typhoon, but there is no evidence of this.

4. FV Andrea Gail - a victim of the "perfect storm"


The Andrea Gai fishing trawler was built in Florida in 1978 and subsequently acquired by a company in Massachusetts. With a crew of six, Andrea Gail sailed successfully for 13 years and disappeared on a voyage to Newfoundland. The Coast Guard launched a search, but could only find the ship's emergency beacon and a few pieces of wreckage. After a week of searching, the ship and its crew were declared missing. Andrea Gail is thought to have been doomed when a high-pressure front crashed into a massive area of ​​low-pressure air, the nascent typhoon merged with the remnants of Hurricane Grace. This rare combination of three separate weather systems eventually became known as the "perfect storm". According to experts, Andrea Gail could collide with waves over 30 meters high.

5. SS Poet - the ship that did not send a distress signal


At first, this ship was called "Omar Bundy" and was used to transport troops during the Second World War. It was later used to transport steel. In 1979, the ship was purchased by the Hawaiian Eugenia Corporation of Hawaii, who named it "Poet". In 1979, a ship left Philadelphia for Port Said with a cargo of 13,500 tons of corn, but never made it to its destination. The last communication with the Poet happened just six hours after leaving the port of Philadelphia, when one of the crew members spoke to his wife. After that, the ship did not reach the scheduled 48-hour communication session, while the ship did not send a distress signal. Eugenia Corporation did not report the loss of the ship for six days, and the Coast Guard did not respond for another 5 days after that. No trace of the ship was ever found.

6. USS Conestoga - the missing minesweeper


USS Conestoga was built in 1917 as a minesweeper. After the end of the First World War, it was converted into a tugboat. In 1921, the ship was transferred to Samoa, where it was to become a floating station. March 25, 1921 the ship set sail, nothing more is known about it.

SourcePhoto 7Witchcraft - the pleasure boat that went missing at Christmas


In December 1967, Miami hotel owner Dan Burak decided to watch the city's Christmas lights from his personal luxury boat, the Witchcraft. Accompanied by his father Patrick Hogan, he went to sea for about 1.5 km. It is known that the boat was in perfect order. At about 9 pm, Burak requested a towing back to the pier by radio, saying that his boat had hit an unknown object. He confirmed his coordinates to the Coast Guard and specified that he would launch a flare. Rescuers got to the scene in 20 minutes, but Witchcraft disappeared. The Coast Guard combed over 3,100 square kilometers of the ocean, but neither Dan Burak, nor Patrick Hogan, nor Witchcraft were ever found.

8. USS Insurgent: the mysterious disappearance of a warship


The US Navy frigate "Insurgent" was captured by the Americans in a battle with the French in 1799. The ship served in the Caribbean, where it won many glorious victories. But on August 8, 1800, the ship sailed out of Virginia Hampton Roads and mysteriously disappeared.

9. SS Awahou: boats did not help


Built in 1912, the 44m Awahou cargo steamer went through many owners before eventually being bought by the Australian Carr Shipping & Trading Company. On September 8, 1952, the ship sailed from Sydney with a crew of 18 and sailed to the private island of Lord Howe. The ship was in good shape when it left Australia, but within 48 hours a fuzzy, "crunchy" radio signal was received from the ship. The speech was almost unintelligible, but it looked like Awahou was caught in bad weather. Although the ship had enough lifeboats for the entire crew, no signs of the wreck or bodies were found.

10. SS Baychimo - arctic ghost ship


Some call it a ghost ship, but the Baychimo was actually a real ship. Built in 1911, the Baychimo was a huge steam cargo ship owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. The ship was mainly used to transport fur from northern Canada. The first nine flights were relatively quiet. But during the last voyage of the ship, in 1931, winter came very early. Completely unprepared for bad weather, the ship was trapped in the ice. Most of the crew were rescued by plane, but the captain and a few Baychimo crew members decided to wait out the bad weather by camping on the ship. A severe snowstorm began, which completely hid the ship from sight. When the storm subsided, Baychimo disappeared. However, over the course of several decades, Baychimo has allegedly been seen drifting aimlessly in Arctic waters.

Source

A sailor is one of the most romantic professions. Just imagine - you wake up in the morning, and instead of a boring gray city, there is an immense ocean expanse, clean air before your eyes. Comrades are always ready to keep you company in raids on taverns, and in every port they expect a beautiful girl... This profession seems like this to any uninitiated.

But there is also the other side of the coin - during a long voyage, anything can happen to a ship. You can get caught in a storm or be captured by pirates, who, oddly enough, have not died out in the 21st century. And sometimes there are mysterious disappearances of ships, and then the ships disappear without a trace. Some blame it on supernatural forces and legendary inhabitants. sea ​​depths- such as, and others - the Maelstrom whirlpool, the Bermuda Triangle and others natural phenomena.

1943 - the disappearance of the ship Capelin (SS-289)

Capelin (SS-289) - submarine, launched on January 20, 1943. On November 17, 1943, the ship patrolled the waters of the Celebs and Molucca seas, paying special attention to the Davao Gulf, the Morotai Strait, as well as the trade routes located near the island of Xiaoe.

The last time an American submarine was seen was on December 2, 1943, reported by the Bonefish (SS-223). The official reason for the disappearance of the ship is considered to be enemy minefields, which could be located in the area of ​​​​patrol of the submarine. There was no exact confirmation of this fact.

There is another version of this catastrophe, which official sources rejected due to its fantastic nature. According to her, Capelin (SS-289) could become a victim of an unidentified sea monster, which was repeatedly stated by local fishermen. According to the sailors, the animal resembled the huge size of an octopus.

1921 SS Hewitt disappears

This cargo ship made voyages along the coast of the United States. On January 20, 1921, a fully loaded ship left the Texas city of Sabine. The ship was under the command of Captain Hans Jacob Hensen. The last signal from this ship came on January 25, the radio call did not report anything unusual. The ship was then spotted 250 miles north of Florida's Jupiter Inlet. Further, the thread breaks, and the SS Hewitt, like other disappeared ships, has become part of history.

Along the entire route followed by the ship, a thorough check was carried out, but it did not give results - the mystery of the disappearance of the SS Hewitt ship has not been solved so far. There were many rumors and speculation about this incident. It was even suggested that the ship's crew fell victim to a rare voice of the sea, as curious as the whirlpool of the Maelstrom.

for reference: - a natural phenomenon that affects the psyche and human health. The sea generates infrasound, which is below the limit of human hearing, but affects his brain. Infrasound can have a variety of effects - from auditory and visual hallucinations to nausea and other symptoms of motion sickness. Strong exposure to infrasound can cause death - vibrations lead to cardiac arrest.

Who is to blame for the disappearance of ships?

It is believed that one of the most dangerous areas on the surface of the sea is the maelstrom whirlpool. Literary sources describe this natural phenomenon as having terrifying power, and detrimental to any ship that finds itself in its zone. In fact, the danger of the Maelstrom is somewhat exaggerated. A much more significant threat can be considered, the height of which can exceed the mark of 30 meters!

If this whirlpool was dangerous for ancient ships - wooden sailing boats, then modern ships, once in these waters, do not receive any damage. The speed of the Maelstrom whirlpool does not exceed 11 km/h. And yet one should not be careless about this natural phenomenon - the direction of water movement can change in the most unpredictable way. Therefore, even modern ships avoid the strait located to the north of Mosque Island, there is a danger of breaking on coastal stones.

The Maelstrom whirlpool is located between the islands of Moskenesøy and Ferø. It is formed at certain hours due to the collision of ebb and flow waves, the emergence of a whirlpool contributes complex terrain bottom and broken coastline. Maelstrom is a system of eddies in the strait. But, despite all the dangers, tourism in Lofoten is very popular. The guidebooks state that "winter fishing in the archipelago is an incomparable pleasure."

Bermuda Triangle - the secrets of the deep sea

The Bermuda Triangle is one of the most famous, located between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Miami in Florida. Its area covers over a million square kilometers. Until 1840, this zone was unknown to anyone, until the mysterious disappearances of ships and then aircraft began.

For the first time, the Bermuda Triangle was discussed in 1840, when the crew from the Rosalie ship, which was drifting near the capital of the Bahamas, the port of Nassau, completely disappeared. The ship had all the equipment, the sails were raised, but the crew was completely absent. True, as a result of the checks, it was found that the ship was called Rossini, and not Rosalie. The ship ran aground while sailing near the Bahamas. The crew was evacuated on boats, and the ship was swept out to sea by tidal waves.

The greatest activity in the Bermuda Triangle in terms of the disappearance of ships or crew occurs in the 20th century. So, for example, in the Atlantic Ocean on October 20, 1902, the German four-masted merchant ship Freya was spotted. The ship had no crew at all. There is still no explanation for this incident.

In 1945, scientists became interested in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. The data obtained by the researchers did not solve the mystery of this anomalous zone, but only added questions. Since the beginning of tracking, there have been more than 100 cases of the disappearance of ships and aircraft, both civil and military aviation. Most of the equipment disappeared in the most mysterious way - no oil stains, no debris, no other traces.

And yet, scientists managed to do one thing important discovery. In the zone of disappearance of ships, in the very center of the Bermuda Triangle, a giant pyramid was discovered. It was discovered by American researchers in 1992. It seems incredible, but its dimensions exceed the dimensions of the Egyptian Great Pyramid of Cheops by more than 3 times. The pyramid is interesting not only for its size. Its surface is in perfect condition - sonar signals showed that there are no algae or shells on the surface. It is likely that the ocean cannot have any effect on this mysterious material from which the pyramid is made.

Devil's sea - another mystery of nature?

Scientists - oceanologists believe that our planet is encircled by a certain zone called the "Devil's Belt". It includes five "dead" places - the Afghan anomalous zone, the Bermuda Triangle, the Hawaiian anomalous zone, the Gibraltar wedge and the Devil's Sea. This sea is located about 70 miles from the east coast of Japan.

What are the characteristics of anomalous zones, and what is their danger? A person present in such a zone is subject to causeless, it seems to him that he is being watched. At times, he is seized by bouts of insomnia, which are replaced by deep sleep. Abnormal zones also have a negative effect on plants - the extremes of yeast respiration undergo changes, the germination of grains of beans, cucumbers, peas, and radish seeds stops. Mice grown in such places are characterized by numerous deviations - the development of tumors, underweight and even devouring their offspring! Besides, in anomalous zones disappearance of ships and aircraft.

Sailors became wary of the Devil's Sea after a number of strange disappearances occurred in this area. At first, state authorities were skeptical of the reports, as only small fishing boats were missing. But between 1950 and 1954 in the Devil's Sea, there were 9 cases of disappearance of ships. They were massive cargo ships, equipped with reliable radios and powerful engines. A number of cases of the disappearance of ships occurred against the backdrop of fine weather.

Such phenomena of nature as the Maelstrom are quite explicable from a physical point of view. And the phenomenon of the Bermuda Triangle or the Devil's Sea has not been unraveled to this day. Who knows - will technological progress win, or will the mysterious disappearances of ships continue? And who is to blame for these disappearances - anomalous natural phenomena or otherworldly mystical forces?

The ocean is mysterious in itself, it is an element hostile to man. But there are areas where the feeling of fear rolls over. Mysterious disappearances of planes, crews and ships, sucking in whirlpools of global and local significance

standing waves over 30 meters high and mysterious luminous circles.

Interestingly, there is one zone in the oceans where all these phenomena are present, and this is ...

1 Bermuda Triangle

The area is bounded by lines from Florida to Bermuda, then to Pue.

rto Rico and back to Florida through the Bahamas, and its area is about one million square kilometers. About the mysterious disappearances in the area of ​​ships and aircraft started talking in the late 40s of the last century. On December 5, 1945, a flight of five Avenger bombers did not return from flight. The last words of the pilots were that they were completely disoriented and were entering "white water". Just as suddenly, the seaplane sent to rescue disappeared. For half a century, the list of missing ships and aircraft is about 50 cases. However, since the mid-80s, the triangle has significantly reduced appetite.

For half a century, no matter how crazy theories were put forward. From pseudo-science to fantastic, up to aliens and otherworldly forces. The most credible theory was put forward by Joseph Monaghan of Monash University in Australia. In 2003, he published an article in the American Journal of Physics, "Can a Bubble Swallow a Ship?". There, by modeling, he showed that this was possible. The theory was supported by other scientists, including Russian ones.

Its essence is this. At the bottom of the ocean in this area there are significant reserves of gas hydrate - methane and hydrogen sulfide. Under conditions of tectonic activity, methane from a solid state passes into a gaseous state and breaks upward through the water column in the form of a bubble. Gases, concentrating near the surface, can disrupt the control systems of ships and aircraft and, due to a sharp drop in the density of water in this place, sink ships.

The second Bermuda phenomenon that needs to be explained is the “flying Dutchman” phenomenon, that is, the loss of the crew while maintaining the ship intact. The most likely cause of such incidents is infrasound. According to some scientists, it is created at a frequency of 8-12 hertz that is dangerous for humans

the same gas bubbles escaping into the atmosphere. Others - that during a storm or strong wind over the surface of the ocean, disruptions of the air flow on the crests of sea waters can occur, causing low-frequency air vibrations.

Be that as it may, infrasound causes a dangerous resonance of the heart and blood vessels, makes people feel panic and unconscious fear. Perhaps the sailors in a panic rushed overboard to get rid of him. However, it is still not clear how to explain the fact that in the mid-80s the Bermuda Triangle stopped swallowing large victims. Many, such as Lawrence David Kouchet, author of The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle (1975), explain this by saying that there is no secret, it was invented and fueled by people.

He took the problem seriously for the first time, studying insurance company files, Coast Guard weather reports, internal investigations. Nevertheless, the sad superiority of the Bermuda Triangle in the list of the most mysterious places in the oceans, in addition to statistics, is justified by several features. This is one of two zones on Earth (the other being the Devil's Sea) where magnetic compasses point exactly to actual south, not magnetic south.

Besides, spaceships recorded here large deviations of the force of gravity. It is here more than the average for the planet, which causes the formation of the planetary warm current Gulf Stream and its

move to the north of Europe. As for the significant reduction in the number of mysterious catastrophes, many attribute this to the emergence of space navigation and the improvement technical equipment ships and aircraft.

2. Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea, located to the southeast of it, is often confused with the Bermuda Triangle. Moreover, many are looking for a clue to the mysterious phenomena in the Bermuda Triangle right there. However, the phenomenon is different from Bermuda. The sea is in the center of the Atlantic, and it is given own name because of one feature. Ocean currents move clockwise there, and in the water area outlined by them, accumulated a large number of sargasso algae, and now anthropogenic debris.

The sea, rotating in a giant funnel, lives its own life. The water temperature inside is much warmer than outside. It is almost always calm here, you can observe amazing mirages, for example, when the sun seems to rise simultaneously both in the east and in the west. This is a spawning ground for many species of fish, and, n

Finally, this is a seismically active area. Of course, sailors' tales of algae being carnivorous and eating sailors have faded into oblivion, but University of Western Australia scientist Richard Sylvester has theorized that the giant whirlpool of the Sargasso Sea is a centrifuge that creates smaller whirlpools that reach the Bermuda Triangle area. These whirlpools give rise to "minicyclones" in the air, which are formed from the rotation of water and, as if continuing to move in a spiral, suck in and can sink small aircraft.

3. Devil's Sea

This area is located in the Pacific Ocean with peaks from a point in the ocean 100 kilometers south of Tokyo, from it to the northern part of the Philippine Islands and to the island of Guam. The younger brother of the Bermuda Triangle is not marked on any

arte, but sailors still bypass this area today. Storms suddenly begin here, followed by dead swells. There are no whales, dolphins, or even birds here. In five years in the early 1950s, nine ships disappeared from the area. The most famous case occurred in 1955, when the scientific expedition "Kale-maru-5" disappeared without a trace.

This zone is extremely active seismically. The bottom is in the process of active formation, and the volcanic islands are disappearing as quickly as

appear. Therefore, various shipwrecks can be attributed to navigational errors. However, the main reason is more prosaic - it is an extremely active cyclonic activity. It is here that tropical cyclones and typhoons rage, originating in various areas of the Western Pacific Ocean, in the South China Sea, near the Marianas, and also the Philippine Islands. The trajectories of most of them pass through the Devil's Sea.

4. Strait of Good Hope

An area off the coast of South Africa called the Channel of Good Hope (or Cape of Storms). Here, for hundreds of years, a large number of ships have indeed been wrecked. The causes of the tragedies are unstable weather and, of course, "killer waves", or key prollers (from English words sare - "cape" and roller - "shaft", "big wave"). Oceanologists also call them "solitary or episodic waves."

These are huge steep waves, the height of which can reach more than 30 meters. They are formed when two coherent waves (or interference) are superimposed, while the height of the keyproller is equal to the sum of the heights of these waves. They do not change their shape in the process of propagation, even when interacting with their own kind, and can spread over very long distances without losing their energy. Troughs of the same depth form in front of such waves. There are other areas in the ocean where killer waves are recorded, but the area near the Cape of Good Hope is especially bloodthirsty.

5. Eastern part indian ocean and Persian Gulf

This area is characterized by an impressive and mysterious phenomenon - giant luminous and rotating circles on the surface of the water. At one time, the hypothesis of the German oceanologist Kurt Kalle was trusted, according to which, luminous formations in the ocean arise as a result of underwater earthquakes that excite the glow of plankton. Since this action is selective, the illusion of a spinning wheel is created.

However, in last years this hypothesis is criticized because it is powerless to explain the logic in the transformations of these luminous formations. But until now, scientists have not explained their correct circular shape and the rays that emanate from one center, as well as the enormous speed of their circulation. In this case, the UFO version is being seriously discussed.

6. Whirlpool Maelstrom

This whirlpool is not of a planetary scale, like the whirlpool of the Sargasso Sea, and nevertheless, sailors will tell dozens of chilling stories about the terrible depths of the Maelstrom. A whirlpool occurs twice a day, in the western part of the Vestfjord Bay in the Norwegian Sea off the northwestern coast of Norway. His name is known from Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Fall into the Maelstrom" (1841), in which the author himself acted as a narrator about the mad forces of nature. In the center of this mighty funnel there is a depression, the water level in which is several tens of meters below the ocean level. According to oceanologists, the energy of the whirlpool is ten times more energy normal flow.

And the strangest thing is that about once every hundred days the whirlpool changes its direction to the opposite. Like standing waves, whirlpools like the Maelstrom exist elsewhere (including the Bermuda Triangle). Under ideal, uncomplicated conditions, "mallstroms" are commonly believed to rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern, which is associated with the rotation of the Earth.

However, local topographic and hydrographic conditions often defeat this pattern. These include: the meeting of opposite tidal or sea currents, winds, the presence of rocks and reefs, uneven bottoms, natural slopes, the effect of gravity, or a combination of these elements.