Another Maritime Mystery For Monday...!

Nothing like starting out the week with a long unsolved mystery, right?

Seems like there were a lot of maritime mysteries, especially right after the war. Of course, ships and light houses have always been a good source for unsolved mysteries. Wonder why that is?

Death Ship

In the summer of 1947, in the calm straits off the Malaysian coast, several ships received chilling distress from a Dutch transport Ourang Medan stating “the entire crew was dead”, before the caller stated he too was about to die. Upon boarding the ship, a ghastly and up to this day, unexplainable discovery was made. According to official US maritime reports the crew were “lying on their backs, staring towards the sun with expressions of horror, twisted into strange positions with their hands clutching outward.” The investigators hastily evacuated the ship and cut the ropes, just in time before the ship exploded. Theories include a leak of cyanide based nerve gases concocted by Japanese military scientists pardoned in exchange for collaborating with US weapons developers.

Thanls to the fine folks at Listverse, you can always find an interesting tale or two. Good to know, right?

Coffee out on the patio today. The high expected is around 77 with sunshine!

Maritime Mystery For Monday...!

We have covered quite a mixture of mysteries on our Monday Mysteries", but I don't think we've done this one before.

This one is pretty strange, to say the least. It is also one that I would like to have an answer to, without a doubt!

The Greytown Noises

In March 1867, passengers and crew including Captain Reeks aboard the Royal Mail steamer Danube were startled to hear strange, baffling noises at sea while the ship was anchored near Greytown (also known as San Juan de Nicaragua) off the coast of Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea. Similar noises were heard at other times by sailors aboard steamships in the same area. Captain Charles Dennehy of the Shannon was one who spoke about his experience in a letter to Nature magazine.

The phenomenon appeared to occur only in iron hulled vessels, not ships with wooden hulls and only at night, though not every night—heavy swells were seen to prevent the freakish occurrence. The noise was described as a loud, high pitched, metallic, monotonous vibration traveling through the ship’s metal hull. One witness likened the sound to an Aeolian harp and observed the iron plates resonating. The sound could last for several hours before suddenly ceasing. No one on shore reported hearing anything unusual.

Captain Dennehy said the sound had a distinct ¾ time signature like a waltz that turned his ship’s hull into a “great musical sounding board.” According to the unflappable captain, the source couldn’t be determined by listeners as it appeared to be everywhere outside the ship and could also be heard clearly in various places around the vessel.

Following letters posted in Nature and Field magazines by witnesses, speculation ranged from schools of Sciaenidae (a type of fish known for its “drumming”), sharks, alligators, turtles, manatees, currents changed by the silting in the harbor, sea quakes, gas escaping underwater, a previously undiscovered form of electricity, or even a new type of mesmerism. The riddle of the Grey Town noises may never be solved—we can find no mention of it after 1871—but weird noises at sea have been reported in other locations around the world right up to modern times.

Land locked mysteries are intriguing enough, but those that take place in the air or aboard ships are even more creepy! I sure wouldn't want to be aboard when these noises started, would you?

Coffee in the kitchen today. I'm liking the idea of some apple turnovers, OK?