Throughout the history of mankind, many legends and myths have been invented about the mysterious inhabitants of the deep sea. Some of them turned out to be true. Only cryptozoologists believe in other stories. But there is a category of events in which real facts are more surprising than fiction. They are told by people whose scientific and social authority is too great and significant to doubt the evidence they presented.
One of these people is academician R. A. Sak is an outstanding marine biologist who devoted more than 30 years of his life to his beloved work and during this time managed to found his own scientific school. In his youth, he was deeply impressed by the book by P. Yu. Schmidt "On the Rio Kiu Islands", and since then he dreamed of working on the seas of the Far East.
Having brilliantly defended his dissertation on the fauna of the Kamchatka waters, he headed the Department of Hydrobiology. However, he could not sit in one place, locked in four walls. Initially, he organized outdoor summer practices. And then, at the invitation of foreign colleagues, he taught at universities in Spain, Canada and the USA for several years.
In the mid-90s, Saku had a unique opportunity to work as part of an international team on the American research ship Olaf. The ship had seven laboratories, which could simultaneously accommodate 28 people. In addition, the team included a cook, a doctor, a sysadmin and a diesel engineer.
The expedition was led by an outstanding oceanologist John A. Poskatov. The participants were selected strictly - like cosmonauts, since all chronic diseases are aggravated in a stressful situation. They also tested psychotypes so that people were able to compromise and get along with each other.
“From Buenos Aires we flew to the port of Ushaia on the Argentinean island of Tierra del Fuego. On May 18, 1996, the ship with polar explorers headed to their destination - to Antarctica. Due to ice conditions and storms, it took a whole week to get there.
Each of the members of the expedition was assigned a section of the ship, from which they had to constantly clear the snow. The schedule was extremely strict, no indulgences: wake up at 7 am, lunch at 13:00, dinner at 19:00, followed by watching movies and chatting with friends. The festive table was only on weekends. Although the very concept of a day off was purely conditional - no one had a rest on Saturday and Sunday, recalls Roman Andreevich.
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“I had to live in a micro-collective, and all the problems were reduced only to this closed space. The big world remained somewhere out there, we stopped letting its hardships through us. Distance very much negates the perception of what is happening thousands of kilometers away."
“The most vivid impression is Antarctica itself with its unique nature,” the academician continues and reaches for a stack of photographs. But then, with a smile, embarrassedly puts aside a few pictures: “In the station bar there was a relaxation room with a rope on which were hung multi-colored women's bras. This tradition was first introduced by the British: every woman who gets to the station must leave this part of her linen here as a souvenir."
“And here is the desalination plant,” he shows the photo. - Our problems began with her. One morning it was discovered that it was not working: there was a blockage in the pipe. Attempts to repair the water supply from the ground were unsuccessful. The guys joked that now they had to make do with whiskey - one bottle for ten.
But the scarce water reserves were melting catastrophically - and it was decided to go down under the ice and continue repair work there. Putting on a heavy-duty wetsuit and feeling like a clumsy astronaut, or, more precisely, an elephant in a china shop, I was sent down on a zipline, under a 20-meter-thick ice shelf. To be honest, it was very scary."
“The breakage was revealed literally immediately: a huge clump of white wool got stuck in the filter. That was incredible. Bears did not approach us, and how could they dive to such a depth, even theoretically it was impossible. Having somehow cleared the filter, I decided to take some of the wool with me, but, unfortunately, the evidence was carried away by the current, and the guys on earth did not believe me, laughing at the "joke of a funny Russian." Scientists are skeptical people, they believe only in what they see with their own eyes.
“A week later, the failure occurred again, and another scientist, Jerry Newman from the University of Oklahoma, climbed into the well. As time went on, no one gave signals from under the ice. Since the oxygen supply in the tank is limited, we sounded the alarm. With every passing minute, the chances of saving Newman were dwindling. What happened next, we tried to remember as little as possible. A professional diver who went to the rescue found a gnawed cable with a piece of equipment dangling from it. Newman disappeared without a trace.
“We dined in silence. The team spent the entire evening in thought: it was necessary to report to the authorities about the emergency. The version with unknown creatures that could attack the scientist and kill him no longer seemed funny to us."
“In the morning we decided to inspect the desalination plant again. In particular, there remained the left sleeve of the pipe, into which no one had looked before. To their surprise, several live fish with extremely sharp teeth were found there.
But the most amazing thing was that the fish were covered with hair! At first, they even thought that the species unknown to science was something adjacent between fish and mammals. However, it was later established that these are still fish. I was lucky enough to take and take with me a few photos."
“A week later, the military arrived at the station. The expedition was urgently turned off and we were sent home. Since then, I have not known anything about the fate of the station. Of course I would like to know. But later I didn’t come across any information in the press”.
Here's a story. The incident could easily be explained by a group hallucination due to a lack of oxygen - but there are photographs. They prove once again that our planet has its own dark secrets that pose a threat to human life.
Elena Muravyova for neveroyatno.info