The Chilling Disappearance of the SS Hewitt - Bermuda Triangle Mystery

[Music] [Music] on the afternoon of January 29th 1921 Captain Thomas Jacobs of the Cape Lookout light ship spotted a five masted Schooner approaching from the south for days the light ship was battered with wind rain and fog but now the weather was finally clearing and the Magnificent Schooner was a welcome sight impressed by her beauty the light ship's engineer James steel took a photo as she Drw closer as the Schooner sailed past at around 4 knots a redheaded man called out from the ship using a megaphone he said that they had lost both anchors in a gale off the frying pan shols and asked if the light sh could convey word to their owners the man didn't look or act like a captain or an officer several men were Milling around her Quarter Deck the space that was usually reserved for officers all of it seemed very strange almost as soon as the Schooner disappeared on the horizon a steamer approached from the south Captain Jacobs quickly raised the letters rqk to signal that they had an important message but the steamer didn't slow down the light ship LED out four blasts from its steam whistle another widely honored signal to establish contact but immediately following the signal the steamer changed course at the same time the men on board hastily covered the ship's name plates with canvas and quickly steamed away the Schooner Captain Jacobs and his crew saw that day was the ill-fated Carol a Dearing a fmed scooner that would be discovered only a few days later on the diamond shs completely abandoned one of the most infamous ghost ships of all time the mystery of what happened to her crew remains unsolved to this day but a less known aspect of the story is the identity of the strange steamer seen following the Deering some believe that the mystery ship was the ill fad SS hwit a 5,300 ton cargo ship that vanished from the same area at around the same time sometimes linked to the fabled Bermuda Triangle the fate of the huitt and her 42 crew members is a mystery all but forgotten to the chaos of time I'd like to take a quick second to talk about this video sponsor Warhammer 40,000 tacticus tacticus is an immersive turn-based tactical strategy game set in the Eternal conflict of game workshops Warhammer 40,000 Universe fight against your strategize with other players in exciting high stakes battles with an army of 70 legendary Warhammer 40,000 champions from 17 playable factions the game challenges the player with fast-paced tactical Battlefield gaming all in the palm of your hand it's up to you to upgrade your Champion develop your strategy and advance to Victory snow print Studios is always introducing fresh content exciting features new gameplay play modes and challenging events so there's always something new tacticus is free to play and with an average rating of 4. 5 in the App Stores it's the go-to game for top quality tactical gaming join a passionate community of Gamers and Warhammer fans by downloading Warhammer 40,000 tacticus today be sure to use the code n o h l l o to claim 2,000 gold and 50 blackstones available until December 1st thank you again to tacticus for sponsoring this video download the game build your strategy and win and now back to the SS [Music] hu Hans Jacob Hansen was one of the most experienced captains of the Union sulfur company he first signed on with the fleet as a third officer it's been years working up the ranks until he finally earned his master's license and took command of the company's most prized vessels throughout his long career he battled every type of storm imaginable from dense fog and Howling winds to torrential rain hurricanes snow and sleet Captain Hansen survived at all through the darkest days of World War I he managed to slip through minefields and evade German submarines his navigation skills were unmatched and he easily earned the ad Iration and respect of his Crews by 1921 Captain Hansen commanded the SS huitt one of two nearly identical vessels built by the Four River ship building company in Quincy Massachusetts between 1913 and 1914 originally named the Atlantic and the Pacific the two ships were constructed for the JS Emory steamship company based in Boston for their Boston to Seattle route via the Panama Canal they were designed by Naval architect George to be as versatile and capable as possible accommodating both bulk cargo and lumber the ships measured 45. 9 ft or 123.

456 6 M and each contained 3 90t long cargo holds each ship measured 5,399 gross registered tons they were powered by three Scotch Marine boilers that fed steam to a triple expansion engine capable of generating 2,000 horsepower achieving a service speed of around 12 knots from a single screw propeller the Pacific was launched on August 4th 1914 and entered service in September neither ship remained with its original owner for long and both were used to Aid the Allied war effort during World War I the Atlantic renamed the Wilmore was torpedoed and sunk in 1917 the Pacific was sold to the union sulfur company and renamed the huitt in 1915 she underwent a minor refit and her home Port was changed from Boston Massachusetts to New York City the union sulfur company was founded in New Jersey in 1896 by inventor Herman fres by World War I the company was a major source of sulfur a key ingredient to the Allied war effort they relied on a growing Fleet of bulk cargo carriers to transport sulfur up and down the Eastern Seaboard of the the United States the United States Navy requisitioned the huitt on August 9th 1917 and used her throughout the war to transport various War materials to ports in France during her service she was fitted with a 6-in gun to defend against enemy OTS but she managed to avoid conflict during the war on February 26th 1919 she was returned to the union sulfur company and she soon resumed carrying sulfur between Texas and Portland Maine in October 1920 she underwent a minor refit costing $100,000 after the overhaul she was inspected and certified by the United States Steamboat inspectors in Portland by 1921 there was no reason to believe that the relatively new and well-maintained ship's career would end anytime soon [Music] in late January 1921 the huitt took on a full load of around 8,000 tons of crude sulfur at the union sulfur company's loading plant in Sabine paths in Port Arthur Texas while she wasn't anything too impressive the hwit was one of the largest bolt carriers built and operating in the United States at the time she wasn't an Old Ship but by this point in her career this was a very familiar voyage for the vessel and her crew she was scheduled to cross the Gulf of Mexico round Florida and then head north to drop off her Cargo in Boston Massachusetts in Portland Maine Captain Hansen had been with the ship since the war as said much of her crew when they left Sabine on the afternoon of January 20th 1921 there was no reason to believe that this Voyage would be anything out of the ordinary the hu was equipped with a modern 2 kwatt Wireless set capable of transmitting messages to a radius of 300 mil the equipment was housed in a wireless cabin in the ship's main superstructure it was powered by the ship's main generator and supplemented with a storage battery capable of powering the equipment for hours if the ship's main power ever cut out as mandated by the company Captain Hansen sent d Wireless messages reporting the hu's position these updates were also used to report any issues with the ship unusual weather or anything else that might delay the ship's scheduled arrival in Boston on January 29th starting on January 21st Captain Hansen diligently sent out these daily updates reporting nothing out of the ordinary in the coming days the Huck crossed the Gulf of Mexico as planned she then rounded the tip of Florida and headed north on January 24th Captain Hansen reported that they were 70 M south of Jupiter Florida one day later on January 25th he reported that they were 222 mil north of Jupiter indicating that they had traveled 292 nautical miles in 24 hours at a speed of around 12. 16 knots which was the hwi's typical cruising speed no issues were reported but the huitt was never heard from again on the 26th when Captain Hansen missed his daily update Union sulfur company officials assumed that the ship's wireless equipment had failed it wasn't until the ship failed to arrive as scheduled in Boston on the 29th that any alarm was raised the company alerted the Coast Guard and ships in the area were asked to search for the missing ship vessels in the union sulfur Fleet sailed in zigzags over the area of the ht's last reported position but no trace of the ship or her 42 crew members was ever found then only a few days later a strange discovery on the diamond shols stole attention away from the missing braider early on the morning of January 31st 1921 surfman CP Brady of the cape hatus Coast Guard Station spotted a large Schooner at the edge of the diamond shols the five masted Schooner was the Carol aaring they called out to Signal those on board but strangely received no rep Supply the Phantom ship seemed to be abandoned bad weather prevented anyone from boarding the mystery ship until February 4th they found her completely deserted despite multiple theories in extensive speculation the fate of the deering's crew has never been explained she remains one of the most infamous ghost ships of all time the derik Schooner was discovered only a few days after the huitt was reported missing from roughly the same area this led some to speculate that the two strange occurrences might have been related some suggested that the Deering collided with the huitt it was posited that the crew of the Deering was taken aboard the hu but the ship was more damaged than originally thought and eventually sank taking both Crews with her but most consider this Theory to be a major stretch espe especially because the Deering showed no clear signs of damage from a collision with another ship only minor damage from running on the shols a vaguely more likely explanation is that the crew of The deing Abandoned their ship for another unknown reason and boarded the hu before the steamer met some other unknown fate but considering the state of the Deering when she was discovered it's hard to imagine why her crew would have voluntarily abandoned her it's also hard to believe that the huitt would take on the crew from another ship and never use their Wireless set to report the incident while it might be appealing to speculate about some connection between the two ships there's no real reason to believe that they ever cross paths [Music] [Music] [Music] there was one man who survived the huitt Bates Rainey signed on with the ship as a third engineer just before Christmas in 1920 while the ship was anchored at the main Central dock in Portland the 23-year-old Oklahoma City native joined the ship as she sailed for Sabine Texas a voyage that was by all accounts uneventful on the morning of January 20th 1921 as her crew prepared the ship for her return Voyage to Maine rainy went to repair a broken ice machine the moment he stepped into the room he noticed the smell of cyanide of potassium fumes he ran from the room but he already inhaled too much much of the noxious fumes from the broken machine as he fled he passed out and fell from the top grading of the ship's engine room onto the engine below the fall severely injured his back just 20 minutes before the ill-fated ship pulled away from the pier Rainey was taken off the ship and transported to the Lake View Hospital in Port Arthur where he would spend the next week recovering when he was well enough to travel he went to his father's home in Denver to recover it was there that he got a call from a reporter for the Associated Press that was how Rainey learned that the ship he should have been on that day had disappeared and was presumed lost rainey's injury was unrelated to The Disappearance but he was one of the only people still alive with firsthand knowledge of what happened on the hwit in the days before she vanished while he couldn't be sure what happened to the ship he used to work on he did remember one key detail shortly before he left the ship he overheard a conversation between Captain Hansen and the sine Harbor pilot the pilot remarked very heavily loaded aren't you Captain Hansen replied I know it it's the company's orders and I have to do it or I'll lose my job at the mess table he recalled officers joking about the overloaded ship the third mate ominously joked we will all wake up someday and find ourselves floating in the Atlantic based on what he observed while he was on the ship Rainey believed the habitual overloading had strained the ship's hole and she suddenly broke into two sinking quickly before anyone could launch a Lifeboat or send out a distress call while this theory is the most likely explanation it is worth remembering that the huitt was built at a high standard and was refitted and certified only a few months before she went missing Ry is just one of several theories that attempt to explain what happened to the huitt just after 2: a. m.