The bulk carrier Milena, which left Colombo with a cargo of Ceylon tea, was attacked by medieval pirates.
A mysterious incident happened in July 1983. The ship arrived at its destination only in October. The sailors traveled several hundred miles for 4 months. Although, judging by the readings of the ship's instruments, not a single extra mile was covered. Incredible events happened with them along the way.
For 7 hours of sailing, the vessel regularly got in touch, but then disappeared for many months. All forces of the coast guard and aviation were thrown in search of the missing sailors. But "Milena", as they say, "seemed to have sunk into the water." The ship was considered sunken.
Meanwhile, the events on the Milena itself developed as follows: on July 12, the cargo ship fell into a furious storm, which was accompanied by powerful lightning strikes. The storm stopped suddenly, as it began, the sea calmed down, and the sun appeared in the sky.
Further, amazing events began to occur, about which there is an entry in the logbook: “On July 12, 1983, at 14 hours 08 minutes after leaving the tornado, I was met and attacked by a two-masted sailing vessel of unknown nationality. The attack was repulsed with improvised means and with the help of the "Thompson" machine gun on board. One attacker was killed. After that, he continued to move in a given course."
The sailors themselves later said that the attackers were dressed in old pirate costumes and shouted loudly in an incomprehensible language.
The defeated pirate looked exotic: he was wearing harem pants tied with a wide belt, a goatskin vest. A wide knife was tucked into his belt. He was unshaven and did not seem to know any soap or toothbrush.
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As soon as the captain of the ship, William Tucker, gave the order to put the corpse in the ship's freezer, and the clothes and knife in the safe, a squall suddenly hit the ship again. When the disaster subsided, the flight engineer contacted the port of departure and Bombay, but was shocked by the answer: “So you were found? You are alive?". The ship's crew was informed that it was now October on the calendar and that they were presumed dead. To which they replied that they "followed their course, did not drift in place for five minutes."
After arriving at the port, a thorough investigation of the incident began. It turned out that the transported cargo - Ceylon tea, had lost its qualities so much as if it had actually been on the road for several months. Despite the fact that the corpse of the pirate disappeared without a trace, his things were not damaged and their study showed that they were really made in the XVI-XVII centuries. Traces of boarding guns were also found, made according to the technology used three centuries ago. An examination of the tape recordings submitted for the study revealed the strange behavior of the ether at the time of the transmission of the signal for help. But here are the data of the examination: “The receiver recorded a significant amount of atmospheric discharges, which in their frequency characteristics significantly differ from thosewhich correspond to the region between 7th and 20th degrees north latitude and 70th and 80th degrees east longitude."
Tucker was fired and accused of fraud, there was a loud newspaper skirmish between the captain and the shipowners, while many newspapers in England took the side of the crew and its commander. At the same time, the respectable Times wrote: “If you believe the former owner of the captain's bridge of Milena and the records of the instruments, which were obviously just cleverly reconfigured, then Tucker must be restored to work immediately. But only in order to immediately send him himself, along with assistants and all the sailors, to a psychiatric institution for socially dangerous patients."
But it wasn't all that simple. The fact is that the electronic lot with a lag, and other equipment equipped with recorders, according to experts, were not opened and adjusted by anyone after leaving Colombo. Consequently, the team did not lie, and the captain who fell into disgrace had every reason to demand reinstatement in the service.
Scientists began to seriously investigate all the circumstances of this story. Some of them believe that the ship fell into another time dimension. Then all events add up to one chain, including the disappearance of the corpse. Scientist Charles Moorey says: “A corpse in our time could undergo chemical processes usual for the human body in the tropics. After all, he actually remained in the same space for at least three centuries. The reason for the ship's delay? Obviously, entering and exiting the “time curve”, which, from the point of view of the participants in the event, took a few minutes, actually lasted months. Things? This is how they are much outlived by their former owners in museums."
Captain William Tucker fought for his good name for a long time and continued to insist on the reality of the events that happened to him and his crew. The sailor presented to the press the results of radiocarbon analysis, which recognized that the fabric from the trousers of the old cut was burlap, made in the 16th or 17th century and preserved thanks to the resinous substances impregnated with it; a knife, a vest and a belt in the form of a wide scarf also belonged to this period.
Gradually, interest in this event began to wane. But 9 years later, a large ship with a crew of 39 people, the Starfish, owned by the Indian Navy, left Bombay for Malaysia. There were 10 tourists on board. On the fifth day of the voyage, a storm broke out and the ship in distress sent an SOS signal. The storm died down and the ship disappeared from the radar screens. Five boats were looking for him for 3 days, but no traces of the disaster were found in the water area.
Three years later, in the same area, a ship appeared out of nowhere and broadcast: "Everything is all right." The discouraged radio operators could not understand what was at stake, because there was no storm that day. The representatives of the coast guard, who boarded the ship, were even more surprised - it turned out to be "Starfish"!
They told the captain and crew that their ship had been missing for three years, but they took it as a joke. “What three years? We broadcast the distress signal two hours ago, "- said the captain. Then people began to vying with each other to talk about what they had experienced when they got into a terrible storm." Starfish "was sent to Bombay for investigation, but its results were classified and so and did not appear in the open press.