The Mary Celeste
The vast briny deep has been the source for many a tale of
the unexplained and unexplainable. Even though water covers a majority of the
planet, we know more about outer space than we do about what exists beneath the
surface of the oceans. The mysteries of the deep date back to ancient times.
Modern science has been able to dispel many of these tall tales, but not all of
them.
I recently came across a list of ten unexplained ocean
mysteries, shown here in no particular order. There are, of course, many more
strange and unexplainable occurrences than the ten listed here.
10) "The Bloop" and "Julia"
Several creepy sounds have been recorded by underwater
microphones off the Southern coast of South America. Nearly all of these sounds
have been attributed to volcanic activity and shifting icebergs. There are,
however, two incidents that have baffled scientists. The Bloop occurred in 1997 and lasted over a minute. In the same
region, two years later, they recorded something that sounded like a watery
voice saying Julia. Both seismic and
human activity were ruled out in each case. Scientists agree than an animal is
responsible for Julia, but no
currently known creature is large enough to produce such a noise.
9) The Mary Celeste
In 1872, a merchant ship named Mary Celeste set sail from New York with ten people on board. Eight days later the ship was found adrift in
the North Atlantic, intact with the exception of one missing lifeboat. A six
month's supply of food was on board as were the crew's belongings along with
the ship's logbook and some charts. Neither the lifeboat nor any bodies were
ever found. So, what happened to the sailors, the captain and the captain's
family? With valuables left on board, a pirate takeover wasn't the answer. An
experienced crew and well-liked captain ruled out error and mutiny. To this day
no one has an explanation for what occurred on board the Mary Celeste.
8) The Sonar Flying Saucer
Swedish researcher Peter Lindberg was using sonar to search
for a shipwreck between Sweden and Finland in 300 feet of water. In July 2011,
he discovered a perfectly round circle approximately 60 feet in diameter with
deep scars nearby on the ocean floor suggesting the object had moved across the
ocean bottom. Released sonar images immediately had a number of news outlets
claiming the object was a UFO. Although finding a perfectly round object of
that size on the ocean floor is very strange, sonar specialists declared the
resolution of the image too low to identify it as anything in particular. Until
more money is available for improved equipment and more exploration, the object
will remain a mystery.
7) The Montauk Monster
In the summer of 2008, an unidentified dead animal washed up
on the shore at Montauk, New York. Although several people reported seeing it
and photographs surfaced, the carcass disappeared before police were able to
recover the remains. Newspapers ran the story along with a grotesque image.
Locals speculated that it could be a mutant resulting from experiments at
nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center. Others suggested that it was nothing
more than a hoax. Many scientists who studied the photographs think it was a
known species heavily damaged and decomposed as a result of time spent in the
water. The raccoon claim seems to be the closest, but the Montauk Monster's
legs are longer than a normal raccoon leaving us without a definitive conclusion.
6) The Vil Vana
A 41-foot fishing trawler with a seven man crew mysteriously
vanished off the coast of Santa Cruz Island in 1993. With no signal for help
and very few ship remains ever found, it was determined that the boat sank
quickly and fully intact. For two decades, investigators have been baffled by
the fact that no diesel fuel ever bubbled to the surface and no bodies were
ever found. Some of the victim's families believe that a military submarine may
have accidently caught one of the boats' nets and dragged it under. This is
rare, but possible. Four years earlier a submarine sank a tugboat in the same
area. The case of the Vil Vana is
still open and unsolved.
5) The Lost City Of Atlantis
In 360 B.C. Plato wrote "in a single day and night of
misfortune" a major sea power called Atlantis mysteriously sank into the
ocean. Some historians have labeled Plato's account a myth while others have
dedicated their lives to finding the lost city which they believe was a super
power devastated by a natural disaster. It's been suggested that Plato was
describing the Minoan civilization on Crete and neighboring Santorini where a
devastating volcanic eruption happened in 1600 B.C. During the last fifteen
years several research teams claimed to have located Atlantis, but this 2000
year old puzzle is still waiting to be solved.
4) The Bermuda Triangle
Certainly one of the best known ocean mysteries, this
stretch of water between Bermuda, Miami, and San Juan has also been called The
Devil's Triangle. Most of today's theories say that nearly all reported
incidents are due to equipment or human error combined with the areas strong
currents and frequent (and sudden) storms. Others strongly believe that
paranormal activity or a magnetic anomaly are to blame. A few of the Bermuda
Triangle accidents have escaped any
type of scientific explanation. The U.S.S.
Cyclops with 306 people on board disappeared in 1918 between Barbados and
Baltimore with no signal for help and no remains discovered. Five Navy bombers
disappeared off the coast of Florida in 1945 with neither the planes nor any
bodies ever found. A DC-3 plane with 3 crewmen and 29 passengers on a flight
from San Juan to Miami with perfect visibility radioed in just 50 miles from
landing saying all was well, but the plane never arrived and has never been
found.
3) Alaska's Loch Ness Monster
In Bristol Bay, Alaska, a fisherman managed to get some film
footage of what the locals refer to as Caddy,
a creature with undulating body, horse-like head, long neck, big eyes and back
humps—much the same as descriptions of sea serpent sightings from Scotland's
Loch Ness and of Lake Champlain's Champ
on the New York-Vermont state line. This footage shot in 2009 has the
distinction of being the first hard video evidence. After studying the footage,
scientists have determined that the creature isn't a whale, seal, shark, eel or
fish. It has been suggested that the film shows a Cadborosaurus, a beast named
for Cadboro Bay in British Columbia combined with the Greek word saurus
(lizard) that's been popular in Alaskan lore for nearly 200 years. But, without
more physical clues no definite conclusions can be drawn.
2) Quackers
In various parts of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans
during the peak of the Cold War, Soviet submarines reported hearing mysterious
sounds they called quakers (the
Russian version of our own ribbit of
a frog). Using sound recording from various ships, scientists concluded that
the noises were made by a moving object with the behavior of a living creature
or manned vessel. The origin of the sounds seemed to show interest in and
occasionally circle the subs. However, their sonar was unable to find anything
to account for the sounds. The Soviets claimed it was secret U.S. technology.
Others believed it was giant squids that evaded sonar because they don't have a
rigid skeleton. The most mysterious part of the quaker puzzle is that the
sounds stopped in the mid 1980s.
(Note: spellings of quackers and quakers is the way it
appeared in the article)
1) The Baychimo Ghost Ship
For centuries there have been stories about ghost ships
either manned by the dead or possessed by some type of unknown force. While
most of these stories are considered myths, one actual ghost ship did exist. Baychimo, a 1322-ton cargo steamer
became trapped in pack ice in 1931 where the crew had to abandon ship off the
coast of Alaska. A harsh blizzard hit and the ship was nowhere to be found. The
crew assumed the ship had sunk, but Inuit hunters reported several sightings
over the ensuing months. Many reports were received for nearly 40 years from
people claiming to have seen the unmanned vessel sailing the waters around
Alaska as if still in use. The last reported sighting was in 1969. The ultimate
fate of Baychimo is a mystery.
And as a footnote to Ghost Ships:
This didn't actually involve a ship, but it is about a large
man-made object that ended up navigating thousands of miles of ocean on its
own. The large destructive tsunami following the March 2011 Japanese earthquake
ripped apart four large sections of dock and set them adrift on the ocean, each
about the size of a freight train box car. One landed on a nearby island, two
were never seen again, but the fourth managed to find its way across 5000 miles
of ocean without any type of help and came to rest on a beach in Oregon. So…I
guess a ship without a crew could continue to stay afloat and move with the
currents and tides for an indeterminate amount of time.
