Australian rescuers are trying to solve the mystery of yet another flying Dutchman - a bareboat yacht discovered in late April 2007 off the country's northern coast, with a running engine, radio, GPS system and a table set for dinner.
A rescue sump that stumbled upon the ship drew attention to the fact that the deck had been empty for too long, even though the dining table had been laid on it. Rescue workers were interested in an unusual circumstance and decided to check what was happening on the yacht. Imagine their surprise when they did not find a single living soul!
According to rescuers, the yacht is designed for a crew of three.
Any ship that meets the Flying Dutchman on its way is doomed, - the sea old-timers believe. At best, it will run aground and the crew engulfed in massive frenzy.
In the fall of 1892, the English barque "Lady Hortense", half-submerged and badly battered by a storm, was greeted by German whalers in the Indian Ocean. When they climbed onto the bark, they found only a black kitten there, and in the logbook they read an entry made the day before: "Lady Hortense" received serious holes and will soon sink. We are leaving the ship."
The whalers at that moment were engaged in whale fishing, they had no time to tow a ship abandoned by people to the nearest port. Therefore, the sailors only took the kitten and the logbook from the barge, which was then handed over to officials from the maritime department on the shore.
A hundred years later, in the summer of 1993, the Australian fishing vessel Carol Daring was located near Madagascar. Just before dusk, the sky was covered with clouds, and a thick fog descended. Suddenly the sailor of the watch shouted in fright: "Flying Dutchman!"
Everyone rushed to the deck and saw that a dark barque was slowly sailing in the half-cable, leaning heavily to starboard. In the dim light, the name of the ship was barely distinguishable - Lady Hortense!
Captain "Carol Daring" Savage Brookly knew maritime history well and immediately remembered a case of a century ago. At the head of a crew of sailors, he went to the half-flooded ship. There the Australian sailors saw … a black kitten (!), And in the logbook (which, like the kitten, was taken from the barge by whalers a hundred years ago), they read the last entry: "Lady Hortense" received serious holes and will soon sink. We are leaving the ship."
"What a devilish hoax?" - thought Brookly and gave the command to follow the barque relentlessly in order to tow it to the nearest port in the morning. But when the sun rose and the fog cleared, everyone saw that Lady Hortense was gone. Together with a mysterious kitten … a
magnet for ghosts
The 12-meter vessel "Kaz II", which left the port of Airlie Beach, sailed three men, 56, 63 and 69 years old. Two of them are relatives, the third is their friend. They planned to overtake the yacht to one of the ports in the west of the continent, bypassing it from the north.
The yacht was discovered drifting near the outer Great Barrier Reef, 80 miles northeast of Townsville, where the crew was heading.
"The spokesman for the Queensland Rescue Service, John Hal, said that the experts were extremely puzzled by the form in which the empty vessel was found: it looked completely normal."
The engine was idling, Hal said, and the ship's computers, GPS, the radio and laptop in the cabin were working. There was only a team.
“There was also steaming food and cutlery - supper was about to start. It looked like the ship had just been abandoned. In general, a strange situation, - explained the press secretary."
At the same time, a full set of rescue equipment remained on board: three vests and an emergency buoy. In addition, all of the ship's sails were raised, although one was badly damaged.
Experts note that at the moment the yacht left the port, the weather was extremely difficult: the wind reached a speed of 30 knots with strong waves.
Queensland rescuers surveyed an area of 700 square nautical miles using 10 aircraft and two helicopters. However, no traces of the three disappeared pensioners were found.
… As the marine statistics show, Australia is like a magnet attracting the "Flying Dutchmen" to its shores.
In March last year, Australian authorities discovered the tanker Jian Seng in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The ghost ship was drifting 180 km from the coast, with a piece of towing rope hanging from the tank. No traces of recent human presence on the tanker were found. The engine was inoperative and it was impossible to start it.
A similar "Flying Dutchman" appeared off the northwest coast of Australia in January 2003.
"The holds of the drifting fishing schooner High Aime 6 were filled with caught mackerel, but the crew - 12 sailors (according to the record in the logbook) - was absent on the Dutchman."
The undertaken searches for the crew at sea yielded nothing, as did a thorough inspection of the vessel. No lifeboats were found on board. In addition, it was not possible to find documents that could establish the identity of the crew members.
The Australian authorities in connection with this case argued that there were no natural disasters that could cause the disappearance of the sailors in the area. The weather conditions were also quite mild.
A Deal with the Devil
The legend of the Flying Dutchman, a ship doomed to eternal wandering across the sea for the sins of its Dutch captain Van der Straaten, popular among sailors, arose at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Even in complete calm, - say connoisseurs of marine folklore, - "The Flying Dutchman" rushes under sail at a breakneck speed. Meeting the skeletal crew of a ghost ship is life-threatening.
According to one version, Van der Straaten was such a wild drunkard and terrible blasphemer that his behavior often outraged even sailors who were accustomed to everything. At one of the drunken orgies, he vowed to his friends Captain Bernard Fock and Count von Falkenberg that, in spite of God and the devil, he would go around the Cape of Good Hope (the southern tip of Africa), even if it took him time until the Last Judgment.
According to another version, the captain of the Flying Dutchman argued with the devil that he would reach the West Indies on his ship from Europe in just three months, for which the devil turned the sails of his ship into uncontrollable iron sheets.
Any ship that meets the Flying Dutchman on its way is doomed, - the sea old-timers believe. At best, it will run aground and the crew engulfed in massive frenzy.
In the fall of 1892, the English barque "Lady Hortense", half-submerged and badly battered by a storm, was greeted by German whalers in the Indian Ocean. When they climbed onto the bark, they found only a black kitten there, and in the logbook they read an entry made the day before: "Lady Hortense" received serious holes and will soon sink. We are leaving the ship."
The whalers at that moment were engaged in whale fishing, they had no time to tow a ship abandoned by people to the nearest port. Therefore, the sailors only took the kitten and the logbook from the barge, which was then handed over to officials from the maritime department on the shore.
A hundred years later, in the summer of 1993, the Australian fishing vessel Carol Daring was located near Madagascar. Just before dusk, the sky was covered with clouds, and a thick fog descended. Suddenly the sailor of the watch shouted in fright: "Flying Dutchman!"
Everyone rushed to the deck and saw that a dark barque was slowly sailing in the half-cable, leaning heavily to starboard. In the dim light, the name of the ship was barely distinguishable - Lady Hortense!
Captain "Carol Daring" Savage Brookly knew maritime history well and immediately remembered a case of a century ago. At the head of a crew of sailors, he went to the half-flooded ship. There the Australian sailors saw … a black kitten (!), And in the logbook (which, like the kitten, was taken from the barge by whalers a hundred years ago), they read the last entry: "Lady Hortense" received serious holes and will soon sink. We are leaving the ship."
"What a devilish hoax?" - thought Brookly and gave the command to follow the barque relentlessly in order to tow it to the nearest port in the morning. But when the sun rose and the fog cleared, everyone saw that Lady Hortense was gone. Together with a mysterious kitten …
Even the most ardent adherents of the Flying Dutchman legend have no doubt that this is just … a legend. They believe in something else, in the fact that in the endless ocean expanses there is SOMETHING that is not subject to and hostile to the human mind, capable of "reading" thoughts and transforming into the form that eyewitnesses give it at that time. For example, in "The Flying Dutchman".
On February 8, 1948, the Dutch steamship Urané Medai began to send distress signals. The radio operator with dashes and dots begged for help: "… All the officers and the captain were killed … I was the only one alive …" The last phrase was: "I'm dying …" The
rescuers who boarded the steamer a few hours later found the dead captain on the bridge, officers - in the wheelhouse and navigational cabin, sailors - in the wardroom.
Despite the absence of any wounds on the corpses, the dead were united by a common expression of indescribable horror on their faces. A subsequent autopsy revealed that all crew members died from sudden cardiac arrest.
Fear caused by seeing a ghost ship? Rather, another manifestation of the mysterious SOMETHING powered by human energy. You can meet him. Never come back alive.
Infrasound Killer
“Most of the ghost ships drift in the North Atlantic. According to statistics, in some years the number of flying Dutchmen appearing here reached three hundred."
Scientists give various explanations for these mysterious phenomena. Some cases can be explained with the help of a discovery made back in 1935 by Academician V. Shuleikin.
“Its essence is as follows: infrasonic vibrations spread from storm regions at a speed of about 330 m / s, which have an adverse effect on the human psyche. Weak vibrations cause anxiety and fear in him.
During a strong storm, infrasonic vibrations occur with a frequency of 6 Hertz on average. Rapidly spreading over the surface of the water, they, figuratively speaking, cover all living and non-living things in their path.
On a ship that has involuntarily entered the ultrasound zone, under certain circumstances, the masts and casing can begin to vibrate and break. The sailors, from the sudden fear and unbearable noise in their ears, do not know how to get rid of them, and in horror rush into the water, trying to leave the ship as quickly as possible, which seemed to be visited by the devil himself!
And after a while it's all over, and on the ocean expanses, there is another newly-born "Flying Dutchman" or the dead sailors on board, or no people …
The theory of ultrasonic waves in the open sea, disastrous impact on people, developing in their studies and modern scientist -physicist A. Nevsky. He believes that the mysterious death of sea vessels, including the tanker "Nakhodka", which sank in 1997 near the Japanese coast, is explained by the so-called electric discharge explosions of meteorites.
A meteorite rushing at supersonic speed gains a gigantic potential due to friction against the air. At the moment when only a few kilometers remain to the surface of the planet, an electrical breakdown can occur between it and the Earth. The lower the heavenly guest descends to the sea, the higher the magnitude of the electric field strength.
From the protruding part of the ships, according to Nevsky, a kind of discharge swelling occurs. At first, this phenomenon is accompanied by increasing whistling and hissing sounds. With every second, they increase their intensity and gradually move into the infrasonic range that the ear cannot bear. An inexplicable panic grips people. It grows as familiar objects change their appearance. Glow of masts, pipes, antennas is observed. People rush to the deck and something incredible begins.
First, flashes of light will pass along the water surface, the crests of the waves will begin to glow. Then, under the action of electrostatic forces, foam and splashes will break off and be carried upwards. A kind of air-water "boiling" layer is formed, consisting of rising, and then, as the loss of its charge, falling drops of water.
In this milky-pearl suspension, vessels nearby can sink too. So, in 1935, the sailors of the Italian liner "Rex" watched in horror as the ship "La Domakha", which was sailing not far, slowly sank under water. But the most amazing thing is that a few days later he was again found floating on the sea. Naturally, already without a crew.
According to A. Nevsky, such a sinking and then ascent can be scientifically explained only by the fact that the ship sank not in the sea, but in the air-water layer that arose when a meteorite approached the sea surface.
Scientists working in marine geology believe that the reason for the mysterious disappearance of the crews of ships in the open sea may also be the unexpected, rapid release to the sea surface of carbon dioxide, which is contained in large quantities in some deep depressions …
Interpol could not solve the mystery
In August 2006, off the coast of Sardinia a mysterious old-built sailing ship was discovered, on board which law enforcement agencies did not find a single person. It was also not possible to determine where the ship came from. The mysterious sailboat was taken over by the Italian secret services and Interpol.
Emilio Casale, a spokesman for the port authorities of Sardinia, said port workers had been observing for several days a two-masted 22-meter sailboat that drifted in the coastal waters of Sardinia near the Porto Rotondo resort. And when he began to approach the rocks, risking crashing against them, the coast guard boats were sent to the ship.
“Our people boarded the sailing ship, but to our great surprise they did not find a single living soul there. Even rats. Therefore, we immediately reported this to the police,”said Casale.
Arriving law enforcement officials found French maps of the North African seas, a Luxembourg flag, remnants of Egyptian food and old clothes in the cabins of the sailing ship. The only thing that the forensic scientists accurately determined was that one of the members of the disappeared crew was a woman - a bunch of female hair was found on the ship.
“There are a lot of strange things in this story,” muses Casale. “Suffice it to say that all the information from the sailboat's navigation instruments has been cleared, so it is impossible to determine where it came from. The sailboat itself is unnamed, but there was a sign on board that said Bel'Amica (Beautiful friend)."
The detectives are sure that this is what it is called, since the mounting holes on the plate match the holes in the bow of the ship. At first, it was suspected that the ship could be used by smugglers to transport drugs. However, after the police thoroughly checked the sailboat using dogs, this version was dropped.
Law enforcement agencies did not rule out a version of an attempt on the life of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, since the ship was discovered literally a hundred meters from his villa.
“Divers who examined the keel part of the ghost sailing ship claim that it was absolutely clean, there were no growths on it. This means that the vessel, before entering the water area of the island, was constantly sailing and did not anchor for a long time anywhere. The naval specialists who examined the vessel came to the conclusion that it was of rather old construction."
The maritime authorities of Sardinia continue to find out the fact of the appearance and the country of registration of the mysterious sailing ship. So far, no one knows how he got there and to whom it belongs. At least in Sardinia, there are no such ships registered, and no one can remember that such sailing ships were in Italy. The prosecutor's office of the Sardinian city of Tempio opened a criminal case on the discovery of a mysterious sailing ship in the coastal waters of the island.
And local parapsychologists said that the mysterious ship is most likely another “Flying Dutchman” that escaped from the deadly Bermuda Triangle …
