Over the years that I have spent on expeditionary routes, there have been many incredible stories, sometimes tragic. Some mystical cases have remained unsolved until now. Here is one such episode.
Lake Tembenchi is located 400 kilometers east of the town of Igarka in a deserted mountain tundra. The lake is 50 kilometers long and 2 kilometers wide. On the high eastern shore of Lake Tembenchi there is a monument to the perished pioneers, on which is engraved: “Here, on Lake Tembenchi, in 1969, creating a topographic map, the following tragically died: VG Tokarev, BM Pereverzev, LF Samofalov, Chernikov V. G."
When this tragedy happened, I was working as the head of the expedition. On August 2, 1969, I received an alarming radiogram, in which it was reported that on the night of July 31 to August 1, four people had drowned on Lake Tembenci. The radiogram was signed by the surviving head of the party G. P. Gulevsky.
Only a week has passed since I left this party. And he got two days: first by seaplane from the lake to the city of Igarka, then he flew on Li-2 to Krasnoyarsk (with three landings - in Turukhansk, Podsmennaya Tunguska and Yeniseisk), then on An-24 to Abakan and, finally, by car to Minusinsk, where the expedition's central base was located. And here's the news! I had to urgently return to the Arctic - this time as part of a commission to investigate a group accident.
Local legend
I've heard a lot of creepy stories about Lake Tembenchi. For example, at the Igarsky fishery, I was told that a terrible monster lives there that overturns boats, twists installed nets. The men who told about this flatly refused to fish on this lake.
The commander of the helicopter link from Norilsk, Vladimir Ivanovich Novikov, the only pilot at that time who had permission to fly at night in the Arctic, said that he had to take expeditions from this lake more than once. They also told him about the monster in the lake.
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“Once I myself, flying over the lake, saw something unusual,” Vladimir Ivanovich said. - When I flew up to Tembenchi, I saw on its surface foaming high columns of water from nowhere. And then they instantly disappeared.
Of course, one can assume that giant fish frightened people. Everyone knew that there were such people in the lake. They say that once a trout weighing about a hundred kilograms was caught there! Yes, I myself witnessed how our radio operator Mikhail Giginyak pulled out of the water a taimen, which was slightly lighter in weight than the fisherman himself. I even photographed this lucky catch. And yet, fables were clearly not about these fish.
Drenched Brigade
And so our commission arrived at the scene of the tragedy by helicopter. They began to figure out what happened there. Here is what the head of the party Gulevsky told.
It turned out that at 19:00 all six brigades went into radio communication, one by one reporting to the head of the party their location and the state of work for the past day. Viktor Tokarev also reported that his brigade had completed the work planned for a month and descended from the mountains to Lake Tembenchi. He asked someone to come for them in a motor boat and take the brigade to the party's base for a bath day.
Gulevsky tried to persuade Tokarev to spend the night on the shore.
He really didn’t want to go for the brigade at night, and even in inclement weather. However, Tokarev replied that, in a hurry to rebuild the last geodetic mark, people worked in heavy rain, were very wet, tired and unable to return to the place of their previous overnight stay, where their sleeping bags remained. By that time, Gulevsky himself had worked as a foreman for ten years in expeditionary conditions, so he understood what it was like for his soaked colleagues. Nothing to do, you have to go!
Monster attack
Pushing the boat from the shore, Petrovich (as everyone called Gulevsky in the party) pulled the cord. The whirlwind roared and the boat rushed to the northern part of the lake. Dark leaden clouds crawled gloomily over the surface of the water, literally clinging to the tops of the mountains. It was drizzling rain. Suddenly Gulevsky felt a strong push into the bottom of the boat. Then another followed. The head of the party with difficulty kept control.
"Is it really the devil himself?" - with anxiety he recalled local legends about the lake.
And then he noticed that the flashes of a fire appeared on the shore. Gulevsky abruptly turned the boat to the light and moored to the shore. The guys climbed into the boat. Viktor Tokarev sat down last, pushing the boat into the water. By the way, he was a hero with a height of more than two meters.
- I remember that Viktor could not start field work for a long time that year, because in all the warehouses they could not find size 48 boots for him, - Gulevsky later recalled. - In the end, the shoes were sent from Barnaul. And Victor's workers in the brigade were a match for him.
We sailed from the coast at 22 o'clock. Dusk was gathering over the lake, and a piercing cold wind blew. Everyone shrank in clothes swollen from the rain, dreamed of getting to the base of the party faster, to a warm dry bed.
In icy water
They sailed for thirty minutes. And suddenly Gulevsky, who was driving the boat, felt a powerful blow to the lower part of the engine. The boat turned sharply. Petrovich threw off the gas, began to turn around, and immediately followed by another blow, stronger than the previous one. The boat capsized upside down, everyone was in the icy water. We emerged, grabbed the boat, the bow of which was raised above the water. We looked around - the shore was about two hundred meters away.
- It's the sea devil! - shouted Petrovich. - On the way here he almost knocked me over twice!
We tried to turn the boat over, it didn't work. Then they decided to sail to the shore, and drag the boat along. Swamp boots and wet clothes dragged to the bottom. Pereverzev's legs cramped in the icy water. Together they put him on the protruding bow of the boat and continued to row to the shore. Then he was exhausted, began to freeze and plunge into the water of Samofalov. The guys supported him as best they could. And then they discovered that Chernikov had disappeared. Drowned! The boat, meanwhile, was slowly sinking to the bottom.
Here, on the way of the brigade, a half-flooded gas tank with a capacity of 20 liters was caught. The guys managed to pour gasoline out of it. It was decided to give this float to Petrovich so that he would quickly swim to the shore and run to the party's base for a boat. And so they did. Having reached the coast, the head of the party hastened to the base. But it turned out to be more than ten kilometers to get there! He arrived at the site only at five in the morning. Raised everyone, sent rescuers to the scene. When they arrived, there was only an empty gas tank on the shore. There are no signs of people around.
Marine life
In the evening our commission, returning from the place of death of people, settled down by the fire. Suddenly our dogs barked and rushed into the forest. We were on our guard. The barking ceased, and from behind the trees our musher (the driver of dogs or reindeer harnessed to sleds) appeared on a deer - Evenk Nikanor Nikanorov. He worked in one of our teams and came to buy groceries. Upon learning of the tragedy, he unequivocally stated:
- It's the sea devil!
The aboriginal was convinced that a sea monster had settled in their lake for a long time. After all, the Tembenchi River flowing out of the lake flows into the Lower Tunguska, that into the Yenisei, and the Yenisei into the Kara Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The monster got into the lake along this waterway.
Nikanor said that once he even shot a sea monster! Last summer, he was driving along an animal path along the lake and noticed a gray ridge rising out of the water. The dog, barking, rushed into the water and swam towards the monster. Nikanor had time to see that his back was the size of a dugout boat turned upside down. The monster is covered with mouse-colored hair.
Evenk shot at the ridge from his old double-barreled gun (and he is an excellent shooter!). The monster immediately began to plunge into the water, forming foamy gyres. For a moment, something like flippers appeared from the water, grabbed the dog and dragged it to the depths. For a long time Nikanor peered into the water, but the dog disappeared forever. The Evenk also said that sometimes he sees amazing phenomena on the lake: water swirls, funnels, and sometimes he notices the movement of some giant creature at a depth.
Not convinced
A month later, the trial took place, which took place in the hall of the expedition. The head of the party G. P. Gulevsky was sentenced to two and a half years of imprisonment in a general regime colony. The version with the sea monster, apparently, seemed unconvincing to the court.
The search for the drowned members of the expedition that began immediately yielded no results. They continued unsuccessfully the next year. And only two years after the tragedy, a specially equipped group of divers fished out the body of Viktor Tokarev from the bottom of the lake (50 meters deep). The corpses of the rest were not found at the bottom. The most amazing thing is that Tokarev had only swimming trunks on his body. Nikanor, of course, explained that these were the tricks of the sea devil.
In general, it remained unclear what kind of creature turned the boat with the brigade, as well as where the bodies disappeared. And miracles on the lake continued in subsequent years.
Victor YASHCHENKO, Honored Worker of Geodesy and Cartography of the Russian Federation.