Nautical Nightmares - Part 1 | For Those in Peril

as a species we have always believed our selves to be the most dominant on the planet relentlessly expanding outwards to lay claim to the territories and natural resources we discover and yet over two-thirds of the world remain beyond our reach hidden deep beneath seemingly endless stretches of water what do those debts hold for those in peril [Music] you perhaps one of humanity's most redeeming qualities is an unrelenting fascination with the mistakes of our past we pick apart each misadventure in catastrophe in order to avoid their repetition in the future in the aftermath of any significant

crisis society demands that the cause of the disaster be clearly identified as well as any contributory or aggravating factors this is particularly true of tragedies that have historically occurred in a nautical setting the harsh and unyielding nature of the oceans have remained unchanged throughout the ages no matter what advances in communication technology or fail-safes we have introduced to protect the sailors who traverse them these vast bodies of water remain amongst the most dangerous environments on the planet over time mistakes of the past have been rectified from lighthouses to lifeboats and radio sets to GPS systems

with every seafaring disaster shipbuilders have developed mechanisms in order to prevent such losses from being repeated and yet despite their finest efforts seafaring craft continue to vanish from our seas daily sometimes these tragedies are born of human error in the construction or handling of the vessel in other instances the fault lies with the savagery of nature itself from tempestuous weather to natural disasters but in a small number of cases a cause is never identified or simply defies explanation in this series we will examine the disappearances of some infamous vessels and on occasion the crews that

inexplicably vanished from them we will explore the mysteries surrounding the remains of ships that were located far away from where they should have sunk and evidence of alleged cryptids that remain undiscovered beneath the waves in this episode we start by exploring the notion of ghost ships this phenomenon usually relates to visions of spectral vessels which have returned to traverse the high seas long after having been sunk but there is another form of ghost ship one beset by the antagonisms of an unseen phenomenon often leading to the deaths of the crews who sail aboard them in

the early hours of the 8th of February 1904 the Japanese Navy attacked the Russian fleet whilst it lay at anchor in Port Arthur the Japanese ship struck without warning hours in advance of an official declaration of war this attack would prove to be the opening salvo in a brutal conflict that would play out over the following two years the precursor to a much larger and bloody global conflict the unexpected nature of the campaign took the Russian Admiralty by surprise necessitating an immediate buildup of their forces hundreds of civilian ships were pressed into military service including

a steam freighter named the Ivan Vasily which had previously been employed to haul Freight across the Baltic Sea between Russia and Finland captain Sven and restrictor on his vessels homeport of st. Petersburg and deliver war supplies to Russian ships stationed in Vladivostok the journey would take them around the Cape of Africa much further than they had traveled before but what the Ivan Vasily lacked in speed it compensated for in reliability than several weeks later the crew found themselves taking on coal beneath the sunny skies of South Africa it was as they departed Cape Town that

captain and restricting the mood of his crew saying this heard whispered voices behind them as they knew around the boat and witnessed shapeless black figures passing straight through metal bulkheads those tasked with maintaining watch reported hearing ghostly footsteps traversing the deck of the vessel in the dead of night nurse Firth afraid as these incidents escalated in terms of frequency and intensity crew members described feeling temperatures suddenly plunge and then immediately rise again as if an invisible force had passed directly through their cabin fights started to break out with sailors accusing one another of playing tricks

then things deteriorated further after several nights the men are woke to pitiful screams emanating from the ship's deck they emerged to find one of their crewmates huddled against a bulkhead howling and clawing wildly at his eyes the unfortunate sailor was sedated and when he awoke the following morning he claimed to have witnessed a mysterious figure walking the length of the boat he described this apparition as human in shape but with no discernible features it seemed composed of a luminous mist and when he shouted a challenge it had turned and walked directly through one of the

ship's lifeboats disappearing from view the Sailor said that the very sight of the intruder had consumed him with hopelessness and an inexplicable urge to end his own life a search of the ship uncovered nothing but captain Andres decided to double the number of sailors tasked with watching the deck at night the next two evenings passed without incident but as the Ivan Vasily neared its destination a bizarre and tragic incident transpired the crew were again awoken by panic shouting coming from the deck and hurried to see what was happening they found the two men assigned to

the watch rolling around on the floor strangling one another as others tried to intervene they too seemed to be consumed by madness lashing out and trying to throttle their comrades this terrifying scenario played out for several minutes until a sailor named Alec Kavinsky silently rose to his feet and hurled himself from the boat into the churning black waters below Kavinsky 'he's death had an immediate effect causing the other men to stop in their tracks he had been one of the original two victims his companion stating that they had encountered a glowing shape moving towards them

before they completely lost their minds and began to fight when the ship arrived at Vladivostok the following morning twelve sailors promptly deserted only to be detained by sentries and herded back onto the ship having delivered their supplies the crew was subsequently tasked with another mission down through the East China Sea to the port of Hong Kong despite assurances from the captain that whatever had taken place had now ended the men were visibly apprehensive as they readied for departure it would take little time for their worst fears to be realized on the third evening of the

voyage there was a further sighting of the nocturnal Spectre which ended with another crew member stabbing himself to death in the galley two nights later one of the ships Stoker's was found deceased in his cabin the man appeared to have been scared to death his lifeless eyes wide open in fear hands outstretched as if to ward off an attacker there would be one more tragedy before the Ivan Vassili reached its destination as it neared Hongkong captain and rest' hurled himself off the stern down onto the propellers below the crew who had been on the bridge

at the time reported that his eyes had suddenly glazed over before he had silently risen and walked stiffly to the rear of the boat ignoring any attempts to stop him with no soldiers left on board all the crew with the exception of second officer Hanson and five of the sailors immediately deserted the ship it took several weeks to assemble a new crew with new orders necessitating a trip to Sydney to collect a cargo of wool whether it was a sense of duty or merely stubbornness that motivated Hanson his decision to remain aboard the ship would

prove disastrous immediately prior to their arrival in Australia he retired to his cabin and ended his life with a revolver the Navy were forced to dispatch a replacement crew to Sydney as word had spread around the port about the curse hanging over the ship during its next journey to San Francisco another fight erupted between two sailors who had been stationed on watch they were confined below decks howling like animals until they broke free of their shackles and somehow managed to strangle one another the relief captain would suffer the same horrific fate as second officer Hanson

shooting himself in the head with a pistol before reaching America his panicked crew immediately turned the ship around and made their way directly to Vladivostok where they were detained for mutiny the Ivan Vasilis notoriety is a death ship men that few were willing to sail with her she spent the next few years gradually rusting away where she was abandoned in 1907 a group of drunken men decided to be done with her once and for all creeping aboard in the dead of night and setting a fire as the doomed vessel was rapidly consumed by the inferno

the docks lined with sailors who cheered as it keeled over and started to sink but before the ship slipped beneath the waves an eerie and unnatural scream emanated from deep inside her one that sent chills down the spines of the assembled on lockers in December of 1924 at anchor name the SS Watertown sailed from its homeport in California to deliver a consignment of oil to New York it was a lengthy journey requiring the vessel to stop in New Orleans and to traverse the Panama Canal but the ship had not even cleared the western seaboard when

tragedy struck two of her crew members James Courtney and Michael Meehan found themselves subject to sanctions imposed by captain Keith Tracy for a minor offense part of this punishment involved the pair being tasked with cleaning one of the empty cargo tanks in the ship's hold not long after the two sailors had clambered down inside the tank the hatch above them had slammed shut isolated deep in the bowels of the vessel nobody heard their screams for help or the desperate hammering of their fists against the metal walls and eventually both men succumb to the toxic fumes

which permeated the confined space the senseless nature of their deaths made the rest of the crew uneasy even though neither the two victims had been especially popular amongst their colleagues a short service was held for them by captain Tracy with their bodies weighted down and committed to the deep but this would not be the last time that either Meehan or Courtney would be encountered by their comrades the following morning the ship's first mate was stood sipping a mug of coffee on the stern of the tanker when he suddenly cried out in horror in the waters

below he could clearly see the faces of the two dead crewmen looking up at him their eyes were wide open their mouths moving soundlessly before they faded away after a few seconds the captain was somewhat skeptical of his deck officers report attributing the incident to fatigue or an overactive imagination but subsequent events would soon change his opinion over the coming days dozens more of the water towns crew came forward to report the same thing witnessing the faces of the two dead sailors following behind in the ship's wake so great was the consternation amongst those on

board that not only did Keith Tracy record it in the ship's log he also raised the issue with the shipping company when the vessel docked at New Orleans he was sarcastically advised to take a photograph of the phenomenon a reply that prompted him to purchase a camera before once again setting sail as soon as the tanker was out on the open seas further reports of the two ghostly figures following the ship started to surface upon waking every morning Tracy made his way to the rear of the vessel camera in hand before he finally witnessed the

phantom sailors for himself on the third morning of the voyage he had arisen and walked down to the stern when he caught sight of two pale objects lying in the water a short distance away he immediately raised the camera he was holding and took six photographs before the faces faded away Tracy was deeply disturbed by what he witnessed experiencing a paralyzing sense of fear and self-doubt as he paced back to his cabin he tried to figure out the best course of action deciding to lock the camera away in a secured cabinet when the ship finally

arrived in New York he disembarked and made his way directly to the shipping company's offices where he surrendered the camera and undeveloped film the first five photographs that Tracy had taken showed nothing untoward but the sixth photo has become one of the most infamous depictions of an alleged ghost in history the image clearly shows what appears to be two faces of two adult males staring back up at the camera surrounded by swirling seas unsettled by the claims made by their employee in the accompanying photograph the shipping company took the negatives to the offices of the

burns detective agency who confirmed there were no indications of tampering or alteration whatever business the dead sailors had with their crew it appeared to end with the delivery of their cargo as they were not seen on the return leg of the journey or indeed ever again roughly 40 kilometres north of Perth on the western coast of Australia the barnacle covered remains of a sunken vessel can still be seen shutting out of the waters not far from the shoreline this wreck is the SS Alchemist which holds the unwanted accolade of being one of the unluckiest ships

to ever sail the seas the vessel was one of nearly 3,000 Liberty ships that were hastily manufactured by America during the Second World War in order to transport desperately needed supplies across the Atlantic to Great Britain they were famous for the speed with which they were constructed taking a mere 10 days to assemble from start to finish but even before her hull had touched the water The Alchemist had already claimed the life of one unfortunate soul one evening during construction a well that was found to be absent from the assembly team it was assumed that

the missing man had slipped away from his duties due to illness or perhaps indolence it was not until the following day that he was discovered to have fallen between the hull plates and had passed away while strapped in the space between them the alchemist was launched on the 20th of October 1943 assigned to the Norwegian trade mission under the command of captain tor beyond force and sadly the ship's maiden voyage did little to shake its unlucky reputation during an attack by German u-boats the crew found themselves grounded on an uncharted reef and spent the next

six hours frantically trying to free their stricken vessel during this time two other ships which approached to assist them were sunk by enemy torpedoes the sailors of the alchemor's were a mixture of Norwegian and Canadian service personnel including a radio operator named Maud Steen tragically whilst enroute to Naples to deliver gliders to the Allied forces Steen was shot and killed by a Norwegian crew mate who then turned the gun on himself concerned about negative publicity the Canadian authorities claimed he had in fact been killed by enemy fire a lie that was maintained until the conflicts

end with the war over and the ship no longer needed by the American government it was sold off to a private company where bad luck and numerous accidents caused it to change hands on a near regular basis in 1963 having been sold to a Greek shipping company The Alchemist was sailing from Jakarta to Bunbury when it again struck a reef off the Australian coast the vessel was towed into Fremantle where it was discovered that its propeller was catastrophic Lee damaged with no other option it was secured to a tugboat which then set out to tow

it to Hong Kong for a further attempt at repair within an hour of the tux departure the towline between the two crafts snapped sending the cursed freighter crashing against the nearby shoreline after the crew had secured the grounded vessel as best they could they were evacuated and local caretakers were employed until a salvage operation could be launched the men assigned to this task reported feeling uneasy as if someone else was aboard the boat with them whispering and shuffling around the ship's cabins at night two further attempts to take the alchemor's undertow ended in disaster with

one of the rescue ships catching fire and another tow line failure leaving it stranded on a stretch of coastline owners Eglinton rocks her owners could do little more than house more caretakers and try to raise the funds for further Salvage attempts almost immediately local residents hired to act as the ship's custodians refused to spend the night on board her they would find supplies and equipment inexplicably moved around when their backs had been turned the smell and signs of a dog were apparent even though one was not present and there were repeated sightings of a mysterious

spectral figure dressed in oil skins shuffling from room to room as time wore on the wreck became embroiled in a bitter legal battle until it finally deteriorated to the point where it couldn't be refloated the salvage work has moved in to remove anything of value there were yet more inexplicable occurrences tools would vanish only to reappear a day or so later placed in inaccessible parts of the boat the smells of cooking emanated from the galley even though it was long past any means of preparing meals and several of the workers reported being pushed or assaulted

by an invisible entity this strange activity was not only confined to the wreck itself locals riding horses are walking their pets on the beach within 500 meters of the ship reported that their animals became distressed and refused to proceed any further a significant number of swimmers have disappeared or drowned in the vicinity of the vessel including a long distance named Herbert Voigt he had been training in the waters nearby when he vanished his skull was found washed upon the wreck a few months later misfortune and calamity have consistently befallen anybody associated with the alchemist a

naval diver named Ted Schneider who was contracted to demolish the shipwreck died in the plane crash an author who visited the wreck in order to research a book he was writing on the ship's history fell gravely ill having to spend 10 months in hospital prior to his recovery and the wife of one of the caretakers suffered a harsh fall whilst visiting him there and lost the baby she was carrying as a result it remains unknown what mysterious force hangs over the alchemist frustrating any and all efforts to remove her some say it is the vengeful

spirit of moored steam still others claim it as the ghost of the construction worker killed during her assembly regardless she remains where she eventually came to rest in an isolated grave just off the Australian coast whilst the events we have presented contain particularly disturbing and inexplicable occurrences it is entirely possible that some of these details have even been deliberately misrepresented by those who experienced them or embellished over time still it is highly likely that these stories retain some kernel of truth the sailors involved had little to gain other than ridicule and likely spoke out in

order to avoid the fates that often befell their comrades next time we will explore three more and solve nautical mysteries these include the haunted shipwrecks of the Great Lakes and the sudden disappearance of a paddle steamer the remains of which were found buried away from the waterway in which she disappeared until then our thoughts remain with those who have lost their lives whilst sailing the high seas may their souls forever rest in peace [Music] [Music] [Music] you