A Russian ship called "Ivan Vasilievich" began life in 1897 in St. Petersburg. It was there that this civil steamer was built and launched, designed to transport Russian goods across the Baltic Sea. Equipped with an overhead steam engine, with a cruising range of 2,500 miles at a speed of 8 knots, she was relatively sturdy, reliable (thick iron plates covered her wooden hull) and fast. The steamer did an excellent job with its work until 1903, when relations between the Russian Empire and Japan deteriorated, threatening to escalate into a war. It was during this turbulent time that an unexpected and ominous metamorphosis occurred to the conscientious seafarer.
So, Russia was approaching war, and "Ivan Vasilievich" was redesigned to supply the ships of the domestic fleet. He should have made a long and dangerous journey in the direction of Port Arthur, Manchuria and Vladivostok and delivered supplies to the ships located there.
… This event, strange and frightening at the same time, happened when, skirting the southern tip of Africa, the ship stopped in Cape Town to replenish coal supplies for the final stage of its long journey to the shores of the Far East.
The ship seemed to be cursed and populated with evil spirits
It was then that something happened to the ship, and the evil force first manifested itself. It all started quite harmlessly: the crew members began to feel that someone outside was watching them all the time, to hear footsteps when no one was around, and to note a sharp drop in the temperature in the premises. In addition to this, it was reported that people experienced an incomprehensible depressing anxiety, as if a real threat was hanging over them. Disagreements and quarrels among the crew members began to flare up for no reason. This could be explained by the fatigue caused by the hardships of a long voyage, but every day the situation became more serious and frightening.
One evening, a frightened sailor of the watch came running to the captain and reported that he was on duty when he saw on the deck some ghostly figure in a halo of glowing fog. It was unbearably creepy to look at her.
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And the next evening, the crew members suddenly fought, as if a wave of madness swept over them. During this scuffle, one person threw himself overboard and died. The same thing happened a couple of nights later: as if the devil suddenly possessed the sailors, pushing them into senseless cruelty. Once again, one man voluntarily threw himself into the waves to drown in the rough sea. By the way, after that the team immediately calmed down.
Nobody could understand what was happening with the crew. Rumors spread among the sailors that an unclean force had settled on the ship, which intends to destroy people. As a result, when the ship reached Vladivostok, more than a dozen people fled from it, simply jumping overboard and swimming to the shore.
Of course, they were detained, placed under armed guard, and again found themselves on the damned ship before the Ivan Vasilievich left port for Hong Kong. On this way, another inexplicable fight will take place, another sailor will jump overboard and die, another crew member will fall dead from an incomprehensible fright … And upon reaching the Hong Kong port, Captain Sven Andrist will commit suicide, after which nothing can stop a team that together escapes from the ship.
New ship crews and their tests
Although the deserting sailors had no doubt that the "Ivan Vasilyevich" was captured by evil forces, for the Russian government it was still a very good ship, to which a new crew and captain were invited. The ship went to Sydney (Australia) for a shipment of wool. He reached his destination without incident, but upon arrival at the port, the new captain suddenly raised a pistol to his temple and shot himself. The crew, which had heard about the ill fame of "Ivan Vasilyevich", were so frightened by this strange suicide that they refused to continue sailing. Finding a new crew was understandably difficult, and it took several months.
Then the doomed "Ivan Vasilyevich" again hit the road, which this time lay in San Francisco (California, USA). However, madness overtook this team in its turn: two sailors died, others - especially violent - were locked in their cabins, and the captain traditionally shot himself in the forehead, without waiting for arrival at port. The surviving crew members panicked and changed course, heading for Russia. There, "Ivan Vasilyevich" was permanently disabled and eventually burned. According to legend, when it was engulfed in flames, an incomparable scream was heard from inside the ship and did not subside until the ship was completely burned up …
Daniil Myslinsky
