Approximately 71% of the earth's surface is occupied by the world's oceans, and so far we have explored only a small part of it - on the strength of five percent. In the depths of the ocean lies a lot of interesting and unexplored, and exploring all this is a matter of the future. New species of animals were found in the Mariana Trench, and there may be many more such wonderful discoveries! In the meantime, we will recall several legends, mysteries and "horror stories" associated with the ocean.
Severed feet beach
Not for the faint of heart. Since 2007, sneakers and boots with the remains of a severed leg inside are regularly found on the beach of the Selish Sea in British Columbia (Canada). In February last year, they found the 16th in a row. Most of the legs are male, but there are also female ones - and for some reason they are mostly right. Why are they thrown ashore at this place with such regularity? What is the reason - the killing of people or their suicide? Why are they mostly sports shoes? Until now, no one knows the exact answer.
Rescue message in a bottle
The whole crew (23 people) of the ship hijacked by the Somali pirates was saved thanks to a bottle thrown into the ocean with a note inside. They managed to unnoticeably throw the bottle through the window. Surprisingly, she achieved her goal! Nearby were the warships of Great Britain and the United States, which rushed to help the sailors in trouble. The pirates immediately surrendered, realizing that their game was lost, but not understanding what led to this. So this legendary story has a happy ending.
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The mystery of "Mary Celeste"
The ghost ship is always guaranteed to be a thrilling horror story, and the story of the brigantine Maria Celeste is no exception. In 1872, 400 miles from Gibraltar, this ship was discovered with a slightly flooded hold, hatch covers removed, the captain's cabin boarded up and without a single person on board. Since the lifeboat was absent, as well as the sextant and chronometer, it was suggested that the crew left the ship - however, all the sailors' personal belongings and cargo (consisting of rectified alcohol), as well as a six-month food supply, were in place. The sailors didn't even take their pipes with them.
According to the logbook on board the "Maria Celeste" were: the captain, his wife and their two-year-old daughter, plus 7 crew members. Their fate has remained covered in darkness. Many theories have been put forward - mutiny, pirate attacks, paranormal phenomena (Bermuda Triangle, aliens, deep sea monsters), insurance fraud …
The most plausible explanation seems to be the version about the fact that because of the loosely closed barrels there was an explosion of alcohol vapors, and people left the ship in panic to wait out the dangerous situation. However, then the cable, which attached the boat to the ship, broke off, and the wind scattered the brigantine and the boat in different directions. The ship sailed away, and the storm that began drowned the boat with people. But how it really was - the devil only knows.
Motor ship SS Ourang Medan ("The Man from Medan")
If we are talking about ghost ships, then this story is one of the most mysterious. In June 1947 (according to other sources - at the beginning of February 1948), a radio message was received in the Malacca Strait between the island of Sumatra and the coast of Malaysia. It consisted of two parts and sounded like this: “The captain and all the officers lie dead in the cockpit and on the bridge. Maybe the whole team is dead. " And after a while: "I am dying."
After receiving the signal, an American ship arrived and spotted the Dutch freighter Ourang Medan there. The whole deck was strewn with corpses, and all the corpses had the same expression of horror on their faces. After some time, the ship exploded and sank, so it was not possible to find out the cause of the tragedy for certain. But the most plausible version of what happened seems to be an explosion or fire, as a result of which there was a rapid poisoning of all living things on board (including the dog). There is information that the ship allegedly transported nitroglycerin and potassium cyanide.
Another version is the effect of infrasound, which caused a state of panic, anxiety or horror, as well as cardiac arrest. And there is also a tale that the death of Ourang Medan was the work of the crew of the German submarine U-2670, who allegedly engaged in piracy and smuggling after the war. In any case, this is a blood-curdling story.
Remains of warships that disappeared from the bottom of the Java Sea
In the spring of 1942, two major battles took place in the Java Sea - the Dutch, British, Australian and American navies against the Japanese. In 2002, divers found the remains of three Dutch ships at the bottom. The site was declared a war burial.
However, in 2016, an international expedition, which went there specifically for the 75th anniversary of the battle, found that the wreckage of the ships disappeared without a trace. It was later revealed that three British ships and an American submarine also disappeared.
I must say that the Indonesian authorities were seriously concerned when the Netherlands and Great Britain presented them with claims about this. The investigation has shown nothing, although so far everyone agrees on the version of the scrap metal hunters. Almost everything: the fact is that the depth in this place is 70 meters, which is too deep for ships to be raised. In addition, this is a serious undertaking that cannot be carried out in the blink of an eye, it would take months, maybe years. But how else to explain the disappearance of the ships - no one knows.
Cuban underwater city
In 2001, during a joint Cuban-Canadian expedition off the coast of Cuba, an ancient city sunk at depths of 600 to 750 meters was discovered. First, using the echo sounder, they recognized the correct geometric formations over an area of 2 km², and then sent an underwater robot there with a video camera on board. The camera took pictures of pyramids and other formations built from large granite blocks.
What is the mystery and mystery of this place? In such depth. Usually sunken cities are found at depths of up to 120 meters. And the city could sink 700 meters only as a result of a colossal tectonic catastrophe, but scientists have no information about disasters of this magnitude.
It is not clear how to explain the existence of a city at such a depth, if the sea level has never dropped so low. Perhaps the Caribbean was once inhabited land on which an ancient civilization flourished, and then the waters of the Atlantic Ocean flooded the basin and formed the sea. This is the theory.
Fishing yacht Kaz II
One of the most recent ghost ships is the fishing yacht Kaz II, found off the coast of Australia in 2007. Not a single living soul was found on board. Three men are missing and no one knows what happened to them. Moreover, what happened obviously happened suddenly, as untouched food and a laptop turned on were found on the table, the yacht's engine was still running, and all the emergency systems, radio and GPS were also in working order. The life jackets were also safe and sound. There are several versions, the main ones - falling overboard (all three?), Abduction, unforeseen circumstances (for example, ran aground, everyone went overboard to push the yacht, but it was carried away). In short, a mystery covered in darkness.
Giant cannibal shark
Scientists do not stop studying what is hidden in the depths of the ocean, conducting more and more new experiments. In Australia in 2004, one such experiment - tracking the movement of a great white shark - led to an unexpected turn of events.
A sensor mounted on the shark's body washed ashore. The sensor data recorded a sharp rise in the shark's body temperature and a sudden dive to a depth of 600 meters. According to scientists, the rise in temperature means that the shark is in the digestive tract of some animal. Discoloration of the transducer indicates that it has been exposed to gastric acid.
The researchers were stunned and intrigued - what is this giant predator capable of devouring a great white shark that lives in these waters? It has been suggested that this larger predator is the giant cannibal shark.
Japanese Yonaguni Complex
Japan - like Cuba - also has its own sunken Atlantis. In 1985 a diver came across a huge stone structure - wide flat platforms, stepped terraces … The strange object was named the Monument. There is another object 200 meters away - the Stadium. It is a flat platform surrounded by steps that look like spectator stands.
For a long time, disputes over these underwater structures do not subside - supporters of one theory argue that this is a man-made creation of a great ancient civilization that lived 16 thousand years ago, while adherents of another still say that all these are natural natural formations created from brittle material - a type of sandstone, which is remarkable in that it can crack along the planes. Hence all geometry.
Baltic anomaly (Baltic UFO)
Discovered in 2011 at a depth of 87 meters at the bottom of the Baltic Sea (between Finland and Sweden), the mysterious object has baffled scientists around the world. It is aptly nicknamed the "Baltic UFO" or "Baltic anomaly" because the object resembles the spaceship "Millennium Falcon", which was flown by Han Solo in "Star Wars".
Theories about the anomalous nature of the object arose when reports came that the underwater equipment near it was turned off, but if you swim further away, it turns on again. The object has already been called a meteorite, and the remains of a ship, and an alien flying saucer (of course), and a secret structure from the Second World War, with which the Germans fought against Soviet and British submarines. But finally a more or less plausible version was found - and it was put forward by a geologist.
According to this version, the basalt was once brought to this place by a glacier, and when the ice melted, the basalt formation was at the bottom of the sea. The shape of the object is explained by the fact that the ice massifs contained fragments of rocks, and as a result, at the end of the Ice Age, bizarre formations similar to the "Baltic anomaly" were sometimes formed from these fragments. However, this is only one of the versions.
