In the era of the omnipotence of science, it would seem that there are no unsolvable problems left for it. Nevertheless, sometimes incidents still occur when it turns out to be powerless in front of the task set for scientists. Or the conclusions of these same scientists prefer to keep secret from the general public. One such case is the story of the so-called "Quakers."
Deep sea frogs
This story began in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when new Soviet nuclear submarines were able to dive to previously unattainable depths. At the same time, they acquired new highly sensitive means of hydroacoustic detection. And while sailing in the North Atlantic, they began to notice some strange sound signals of unknown origin.
Sometimes it seemed that the underwater kingdom at great depths was inhabited by some unknown creatures. These creatures behaved reasonably enough. They were in no hurry to reveal themselves, but they themselves persistently tried to study the metal guests.
They accompanied our submarines for a long time, sent signals to the sailors, but at the same time they seemed to be playing hide and seek with the nuclear-powered ships. As soon as the divers tried to better study the approaching object, it immediately left the field of view and gave signals from the other side.
The former commander of the nuclear submarine Igor Kostev told the famous TV journalist Igor Prokopenko:
“When we entered the Atlantic, we spotted some strange objects. They were clearly sending us signals. But it was impossible to identify them. They looked nothing like anything we've encountered before. By ear, they resembled a frog croak. Therefore, later in official documents, these objects were called "Quakers". They begin to croak quickly - "kva-kva-kva-kva", then they switch to "kva-a-a, kva-a-a". Moreover, the frequency and tone of the sound change simultaneously. It was like the transmission of encoded information, as if the "Quakers" were trying to speak to us in a language that we do not know.
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When the boat returned from the cruise and a report was made about strange unidentified objects, it turned out that the same "Quakers" are in contact with other submarines. They literally chase our nuclear-powered ships. The signal from the object is stable, it is well heard. And this is at great depths in the open ocean, where no one should be nearby for hundreds of miles.
Agree, there is something for the commander of the submarine cruiser to go crazy. After all, the route of the combat alert of the submarine is carefully classified. On board are missiles with nuclear warheads, and nearby someone unknown is teasing you. And while he sees you, but you cannot find him. What if he's going to attack the boat?
By the decision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Sergei Georgievich Gorshkov, a special, highly classified group was created under the Fleet Intelligence Directorate, which was supposed to find out the nature of the "Quakers". The collection and processing of information was organized and a whole series of ocean expeditions was undertaken.
At the request of the naval leadership, both the USSR Academy of Sciences and our military institutes, primarily the hydroacoustic one, were engaged in this problem. Other organizations were also involved. Each in his own way assessed this underwater phenomenon.
The intrigues of the Americans?
Initially, the main theory was that the "Quakers" were the work of the Americans. True, the version that we are talking about supernova submarines was discarded immediately. A large underwater object equipped with an engine cannot behave and manifest itself in this way.
For the rest, opinions differed. Someone considered the "Quakers" to create interference for Soviet submarines. The submariners themselves objected to them: the Quakers did not create any serious obstacles. Someone was convinced that these are devices that facilitate the navigation of American submarines. And someone saw in the "Quakers" elements of a global surveillance system.
There were more and more “Quakers”. At first they were met only in the Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea, but then they appeared in the Barents Sea. Everything seemed logical: the Americans are expanding their detection system with the help of the Quakers.
But there was something confusing about this hypothesis. If "Quakers" are navigation beacons or elements of a detection system, then the devices must be stationary. They must be geo-referenced. However, the observations of submariners often contradicted this. In addition, organizing such a global system is extremely costly, even for the United States. To cover the most important regions of the World Ocean, tens of thousands of such sources are needed.
Admiral of the Fleet Vladimir Nikolaevich Chernavin testifies: “We also had such a theory when there were still the Anti-submarine Warfare Forces, which were headed by Admiral N. N. Amelko, and his chief of staff was Admiral E. I. Volobuev. They developed one of the options for overlapping the World Ocean with buoys. Special hydroacoustic buoys, which were dropped and which recorded the underwater situation.
Ultimately, it was all developed into a technique that could be applied. But each buoy was a cumbersome technical complex and was so expensive that our production and our resources were unable not only to throw them into the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, but even to deliver a hundred of them.
Nevertheless, quite often, soon after the "croak" in the area of passage of our submarines, American anti-submarine ships appeared. Yes, and in one of the Leningrad research institutes there was a craftsman who constructed a kind of "Quaker" - the simplest sensor with an elementary signal reception and transmission circuit.
The picture of the use of such sensors, as described by Vladimir Azhazha, may be as follows: they are scattered in huge quantities in the required areas. As the submarine passes each of them, the Quaker detects it by the noise of the propellers or the electromagnetic field. Then, having caught the boat, the Quaker begins to squeak.
These sound signals are captured by more sophisticated devices, which summarize the signals and, analyzing them, obtain the course, location and speed of the submarine. After that, anti-submarine forces are called into the area, which immediately begin their hunt, having all the data for its successful completion.
"Underwater UFOs" or supercalmars?
But the real Quakers had another oddity. Some submarine commanders got the impression of their deliberate actions. Sometimes it seemed that they were persistently trying to establish contact with our nuclear-powered ships, surrounding the submarine, changing the frequency and tone of the signals, as if inviting the submariners to a kind of dialogue.
They react especially strongly to sonar messages to the target. Accompanying our submarines, they followed alongside them until they left any area, and then, “croaking” for the last time, disappeared without a trace. No aggressiveness on the part of the Quakers was observed. This gave the impression that they were deliberately demonstrating their peacefulness.
According to Vice Admiral Yuri Petrovich Kvyatkovsky, what are “Quakers”, “… the question is still inexplicable. At the Academy of Sciences, the answers were also vague - perhaps they were marine organisms; plankton, which manifests itself in this way at a certain period; or killer whales, or someone else.
It was also said that "Quakers" are unknown living creatures, and with a high level of intelligence, this is a natural phenomenon about which we still know so little, as well as about the oceanic abysses in general. To date, much less people have visited the depths of kilometers. than in space."
It has also been suggested that the "Quakers" are "underwater UFOs" chased by sailors from all over the world in vain. They begin to accompany the submarine if it is near their submarine bases. To declare this publicly in those years was to expose oneself. Indeed, in the USSR, it has been officially declared more than once that no UFOs exist.
Apparently, the Quaker study group never came to any definitive conclusions. However, in the early 1980s, the program to study them was closed, the departments were disbanded, and the officers who worked in them were given other assignments. The whole mass of accumulated developments in puffy folders with the stamp "top secret" disappeared to no one knows where.
Some of the former employees of the group to this day believe that the "Quakers" are nothing more than living beings, and with a very high intelligence. This version is adhered primarily by the employees of the St. Petersburg branch of the Institute.
seas of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation, which at one time were attracted to the "Quaker" theme. There is nothing incredible in this, because there is plenty of evidence of unknown inhabitants of the ocean depths.
Perhaps the "Quakers" belong to some kind of mysterious architevris squid, whose dead carcasses are periodically thrown ashore by waves. Perhaps it is a subspecies of a giant eel or even a plesiosaur. The presence of senses operating in the acoustic range makes the most likely version that the "Quakers" may have a relationship or at least some traits of cetaceans.
Unknown architects can mistake submarines for their worst enemies - sperm whales. But why, in this case, do they not flee, but make themselves known about themselves? Maybe because these are some kind of special architectures, for which sperm whales themselves are prey. But submarines still somehow confuse underwater hunters, and they circle around them for a long time, trying to understand what it is that has come to visit them.
Be that as it may, the peak of the mass appearance of "Quakers" was the 1970s. Starting in the mid-1980s, the habitat of the mysterious frogs began to rapidly decrease in size. Today they have become quite rare again.
Andrey CHINAEV