The waters around Greenland are teeming with huge icebergs and ice fields. Under these conditions, the whaling ship "Herald" slowly moved across the ocean. It was mid-August 1775.
The strongest storm began unexpectedly. Huge ice floes began to break with a crash, and the sailors saw how a ship emerged from them, completely covered with an ice crust and shining like silver. On board the amazing vessel was its name - "Octavius".
Struck by what they saw, the sailors of the Herald, under the command of its captain Archibald Scott, boarded the ice-covered ship. The upper deck of the Octavius was empty, but below the gaze of the sailors a terrible picture opened up. There were corpses everywhere, also covered with an ice layer. It seemed that they were quickly and efficiently processed with cold and that is why they were so well preserved. It was surprising that, apparently, there was no panic on the Octavius: death overtook people instantly, during their usual activities.
For example, several people “slept” peacefully in their bunks. The captain's cabin also contained ice-bound bodies. Himself found his death at the desk, where the captain leafed through the ship's log. The "frozen" sailor was sitting on the floor and holding flint over a heap of shavings, apparently trying to start a fire. Next to him lay a boy, covered with a grown-up jacket - probably the son of the captain of the Octavius. It seems that in the last minutes of his life, the child was going to warm up. The body of a young woman, the captain's wife, rested on the sofa.
The picture showed that these people were freezing, but death overtook them instantly and suddenly. What happened after all? The answer may have been a logbook, so Archibald Scott decided he would take it with him. However, the frozen sheets became so fragile that they crumbled in the hands of the captain, only a small part of them remained. The Herald's sailors examined all the compartments of the frozen ship and found the same thing everywhere - the corpses of people in completely uncharacteristic positions and positions. Finally, oppressed by the ghastly sight, they left the dead ship.
The calm did not allow sailing from the Octavius, so the whaler's team was forced to spend the whole night next to him. People could not sleep and were on the verge of panic. Some claimed that they heard the voices of the dead, others that they could distinguish moving dark figures on the deck of the Octavius …
Promotional video:
The next morning, the sailors were relieved to see that the terrible ship was slowly moving away, sliding through the icy water. Finally, he completely disappeared from sight …
What happened to the Octavius team?
The surviving pages of the Octavius ship's magazine were examined. The first listed the date of his departure (September 10, 1761) and the route: the ship was heading from the port of Liverpool to China. There was also a list of all the people who went sailing, including the captain of the ship Seaton, his wife and ten-year-old son. The next surviving page reported that the ship was sailing along the Canary archipelago and everyone was happy about the wonderful weather. Later, many sheets were lost, and the last of the surviving ones testified that Octavius had fallen into an ice trap somewhere not far from the Alaskan Cape Barrow and had been there for more than two weeks …
How did a ship returning from China end up in the Arctic latitudes? Perhaps the captain decided to shorten the route, for which he led the ship not by a long, repeatedly tested route, enveloping the South African coast, but north of the American continent, intending to find a sea passage? But how could an experienced captain make such a crazy decision ?! And then, "Octavius" made its journey in 1761, and found it in 1775! It turns out that a frozen ship full of corpses has been sailing the northern waters for fourteen years? According to seasoned sailors, this is highly unlikely.
Modern researchers who have studied the information about "Octavius" have concluded that such a story could have happened in reality. In particular, an archival record was found, according to which a sailing ship called "Octavius" really existed and for an unknown reason did not return from sailing. (There was no investigation into this, as ships often did not arrive at their destination at the time.)
Using the latest scientific and technological advances, scientists analyzed the Octavius logbook and found it genuine. The ghost ship itself has never been seen again. It is quite possible that, having fallen into ice captivity, he still stands somewhere today, with his masts directed into the cold sky, and keeps his amazing, unsolved secret for centuries …