It was a rainy November night in 1959. A few hours later the cargo-passenger ship "Borodino" was going to leave the English port of Gul and head for Copenhagen.
At this time, only a sailor, a night watchman, a mechanic and a young steward were on deck. The rest of the crew were still in the city, enjoying their last hours of overland life.
Suddenly, somewhere around midnight, the lights began to alternately go out and then flash again. And then a wild scream echoed throughout the ship.
A sailor who ran out into the corridor saw a steward trembling as if in a fever, who shouted in a mad voice:
- It was him!.. Percy!.. He came!.. I saw him!.. It was Percy!.. He moved in the air!..
The sailor hit the steward on the cheek. And only after that he began to come to his senses. Instead of short hysterical remarks, he finally began to utter more meaningful phrases.
“Instead of legs, he had bloody stumps,” the steward said much more calmly. - He appeared suddenly … He did not walk, but floated through the air … His dead eyes looked past me … Then he passed through the bulkhead and disappeared …
It was the ghost of the mechanic Percy MacDonald, who died from being accidentally cut off both of his legs in the engine room. But the young steward, who had this first flight, knew nothing about this story. And he was so shocked by what had happened that he left the ship in the nearest port.
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But the case with Percy is not an isolated one from the collection of mystical incidents that are stored in the annals of the history of navigation …
“A terrible hurricane. All sails are torn. Roll - 45 degrees. Flooding is possible! - this was the text of a radiogram, which on December 21, 1957, at about three o'clock in the morning, was received by ships in the Atlantic Ocean.
This cry for help was transmitted from the German training sailing ship "Pamir". No more signals were received from the ship. Everyone considered that the ship, unable to withstand the onslaught of the elements, sank.
Four years have passed. The Chilean training ship "Esmeralda" in the English Channel struggled with a strong gale wind. And suddenly, right before the eyes of the astonished sailors, a ship appeared, which, despite the raging sea, confidently kept on the water. This, as it turned out later, was the Pamir. After that, the wind died down, and the Esmeralda reached its destination without incident.
The Pamir also saved the life of yachtsman Reed Biers, who was overtaken by a storm off the Virgin Islands. According to Reed, accompanied by the Pamir, he sailed to the nearest port. And when the coastal lights appeared on the horizon, the ship suddenly disappeared, as if it had evaporated.
The crews of a number of other ships, for example, the German sailing ship Gorch Foch and the Norwegian ship Christian Radich, spoke about their meetings with this sailing ship.
Moreover, whenever the Pamir appeared next to a ship in trouble, all of its sailors were on deck at that time.
But over time, eyewitnesses noticed one curious detail: if at first all 70 dead crew members were seen on the deck of the sailing ship, then after some time their number began to decrease. So, the sailors of the German sailing ship have already counted only 20 people …
In 1948, a steam boiler exploded on the passenger ship Piraeus en route to Australia. In the course of the investigation, it turned out that there was no water in the boiler at that time. This unexpected accident claimed the life of the driver on duty.
A year has passed. Once, when the Piraeus was in the port of Sydney, mechanic Peter Jones decided to make an unscheduled inspection of the ship's engine room.
Suddenly, Jones heard strange noises coming from the pump feeding the water to the boiler. The control gauges indicated that the boiler was filled to the optimum level, and Jones turned off the pump. The mysterious sounds also disappeared. But not for long. After just a few minutes, they resumed again. Moreover, the devices showed that the water in the boiler did not decrease.
Worried, Jones decided to take a closer look at the indicator. And to my horror, I immediately saw that he was spoiled. It turned out that the boiler was practically empty and could explode any minute. Thus, it turns out that by making strange sounds, the pump warned Jones of danger.
However, the young mechanic did not see any connection between the signals that warned him of a possible disaster and the tragedy that happened a year ago, believing that the sounds in the pump were of natural origin.
But the stokers, who knew the cause of the driver's death, thought differently. They remembered how a mechanic who was dying a year ago had vowed that no one else would die from a malfunction in the engine room.
Indeed, for more than two decades, when "Piraeus" sailed the seas and oceans, the state of its engine was watched by the ghost of a dead mechanic. And all these years, he constantly warned drivers about those malfunctions that could cause a tragedy …
The so-called Big Banks near Newfoundland have long enjoyed a bad reputation among sailors. And this is due to the fact that catastrophes very often happen here, and with numerous victims.
But, in addition to many deaths, one rather unusual story is associated with this place.
It happened in 1869. It was at this time that the newly built schooner Charles Haskill was launched. In a day or two, she was to set off on her maiden voyage. Naturally, the owner of the schooner, the captain and the sailors were looking forward to this event.
However, just before the schooner went to sea, one of the sailors fell into the hold and broke his spine. It was a bad omen, so the captain, who piously believed in such things, refused his post on the same day.
The incident soon became known throughout the entire district, therefore, during the next year, the shipowner could not find a person who wanted to lead the schooner at sea. And yet, when they forgot about the incident, they managed to persuade a certain Captain Kartis from Massachusetts.
The beginning of the fishing season for Charles Haskill was not entirely successful. Literally in the first days after the start of fishing, along with many other fishing vessels, he was caught in a severe storm. The ships were thrown like shells of nuts, and in this chaos "Charles Haskill" accidentally rammed the side of the schooner "Andrew Johnson".
Although both ships were seriously damaged, Charles Haskill still managed to somehow get to the nearest port. But "Andrew Johnson" is clearly not lucky. After the collision, no one saw the schooner again, as well as those who were on it during the storm.
The seemingly miraculous rescue disproved the prejudice of Charles Haskill's tainted reputation. But, oddly enough, the crew of the schooner explained their salvation not by a happy accident, but by the intrigues of evil spirits …
After being repaired, the Charles Haskill set sail again. It was then that the team's premonitions came true.
On one of the night shifts, two sailors of the watch saw how people in robes flooded with water suddenly appeared on the deck, as if thrown out by a wave that had swept the schooner. Instead of eyes, sunken sockets turned black on his face.
The navigator of the watch came running to the hysterical cry of the sailors. Seeing what was happening, he called the captain. And soon the whole crew was crowded on the deck.
Icy horror seized all those present at the sight of the dead, who, ignoring the frightened members of the Charles Haskill team, were preparing fishing tackle.
When, after some time, a net full of fish appeared, the dead silently climbed over the gunwale and disappeared into the dark icy water. Of course, after this incident, the sailors demanded an immediate return to port.
However, before the schooner reached the place of registration, another night passed, in which the same thing was repeated as the day before: the ghosts again climbed aboard the schooner, threw their nets and silently began to fish. And after finishing the work, they left the schooner in the same silence.
And as soon as "Charles Haskill" docked at the pier, the whole crew, led by the captain, seemed to be washed away by the wave. And just a couple of hours later, the whole port knew about the incredible incident, and after a few more days, the entire coast.
Of course, with such advertising, all further attempts by the shipowner to recruit a new crew to send her to fishing failed. No promises, even the most tempting ones, could attract not a single person to the schooner. In the end, after standing for several years at the pier, the damned Charles Haskill was dismantled for firewood.
And here is another case, which can be called "the appearance of the ghost of a Chinese boy …"
A number of researchers on the history of navigation claim that the Manila Museum of Ethnography allegedly contains the diary of Captain Shuan, which tells of a shipwreck that occurred off the coast of Manila in the 18th century.
The four-masted sailing ship, on which there was expensive china, was already in the coastal waters of the Philippines, when, unexpectedly, off the Marinduke Islands, it ran into a coral reef. The damage turned out to be very serious, and the ship began to sink very quickly.
There were several rafts on the ship, and almost everyone who was on the sailboat, and these are 14 women, 8 children and 24 crew members, escaped. And only one boy, together with the ship, plunged into the depths of the sea.
“The ship sank, and with it little Mon,” says the captain's diary. - The woeful cry of a mother, distraught with grief, tore our hearts. But we could not help the poor woman …"
And since then, fishermen and sailors have more than once seen at the site of that tragedy the ghost of a little Chinese boy who moved very slowly over the sea, and then his silhouette disappeared into thin air.
Of course, this phenomenon has not gone unnoticed. Photo amateurs began to go to the place of the sinking of the sailing ship, and some of them even photographed the phenomenon. And the French traveler Alphonse de Carrier managed to capture the appearance of the ghost of little Mona on a video camera. Subsequently, the film was examined in the most careful way by a group of experts. Their conclusion was unambiguous: this is not an original and skillful fake, but a phenomenon that exists in reality, although it has no explanation.
But the story with the boy's ghost did not end there. The fact is that Alphonse de Carrière, already known to us, intrigued by this amazing phenomenon, gathered a team of enthusiasts and went to the shores of Marinduke. Prior to that, de Carrière concluded an agreement with the Philippine authorities, according to which, in the event of a successful completion of the expedition, 30% of the treasures will be transferred to China, thirty - to the Philippines, and the remaining forty will go to him.
And so in 1993, the research vessel de Carrier arrived at the site. As the team began to prepare for the dive, a ghost suddenly appeared. The boy was moving away, then approaching, as if calling for him. Quarry watched him as if bewitched. Mon led them nearly 250 meters north and disappeared. When the scuba divers descended under the water in this place, they found a sunken ship along with a wonderful collection of jugs and vases, porcelain dishes and plates. Moreover, of all the dishes, only 10% were broken.
Among the jugs, Alphonse de Carrière also found the skeleton of a drowned boy. He raised it from the bottom and buried it in Beijing, buying a tombstone with his own money. Since then, the ghost of little Mona has never been seen again.
Bernatsky Anatoly