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Grenuychik · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location: USA

Haunting of German u-boat ;- U-65

We hear many stories of haunted houses, castles and pubs, but very rarely do we heard of haunted German U-boats like U-65. The U-boat’s keel was laid at the naval dockyard at Wilhelmshaven in June, 1916, and from the first ill luck was to dog her. Her first victim was to die within a few days of the beginning of her construction, when a heavy metal girder, being lowered into position in the hull, slipped from the crane tackle and crashed down onto the partially-built boat, killing one of the German workmen instantly. A second workman was to die in hospital a few days later as a result of injuries sustained in the same accident. Three men died in the engine room after becoming overcome by poisonous fumes. A total of five men had already been killed before the boat had even put to sea.

On her sea trials further disaster struck the U-65 when a seaman, sent forward to inspect hatches, was swept overboard and lost. During sea trials the captain gave the order for the U-65’s first dive. Instead of levelling out at 30 feet, as the captain had ordered, the boat sank to the bottom of the sea following a fracture in one of the forward ballast tanks. Flood water reached the giant batteries and by the time that the U-65 had finally emerged after, inexplicably freeing herself from the sea bed and being trapped there for 12 hours, the crew were suffering from the effects of toxic fumes created by the flooding of the batteries. Two men died in hospital shortly after being got ashore.

Even before U-65 was commissioned, eight men had been killed as a result of incidents on board her. Finally in early February, 1917, the U-65 was placed under the command of Oberleutnant Karl Honig, It was not long before he was to experience at first hand the ill luck that surrounded his new command. Whilst torpedoes were being loaded prior to the U-65 going out on her first patrol, a warhead exploded, killing the Second Officer and eight seamen. Nine other seamen were seriously wounded. Whilst the U-boat was being towed back into dry-dock for repairs, a seaman, in complete hysteria, swore that he had seen the ghost of the Second Officer standing on the prow, his arms folded. Another seaman, a man called Petersen, claimed to have seen the same ghostly officer. The day before the U-65 was to set out on her first patrol, Petersen deserted.

At last, after a total of 17 men had been killed on the U-65, she was sent out on her first active service patrol. During the patrol several seamen reported having seen the ghost of the Second Officer and on one occasion the Duty Officer was found sobbing hysterically on the bridge after having seen the same figure standing on the prow. Three seamen, who had joined the boat at Zeebrugge, were to see the figure before they had had time to be warned that the boat was haunted. In February, 1918, after a patrol in the Dover Straits, and after several further sightings of the ghostly officer, including one occasion when he spoke with one of the seamen in the forward torpedo room, the U-65 docked at Bruges. The crew were only too thankful to have reached dry land again, even though the docks were under attack from British aircraft at the time. Oberleutnant Honig, who had decided to chance the raid and make his way to the Officers’ Club, was just leaving the boat when he was decapitated by shrapnel as he walked down the gangplank. His headless body was carried back on board the U-65. That night nine men, including an officer, were to see the ghost of the Second Officer standing beside the canvas shroud of the captain’s corpse. At this the crew, to a man, requested a transfer from the U-65 and the boat was placed into reserve at Bruges. A German Naval Padre, Pastor Franz Weber, conducted a service of exorcism.

By June, 1918, U-boat losses were becoming a strain on the German Naval Command and the U-65 was ordered to be prepared for patrol duties. On 30th June, she set out on what was to be her last patrol. Early in the morning of the 10th July, the U.S.submarine L-2 was patrolling nine miles off the coast of Cape Clear, in Ireland, at periscope depth. The American captain was studying the scene around him when he sighted a German U-boat moving slowly on the surface. It was the U-65. The American moved his submarine into the attack position and was about to give the order to fire two torpedoes when there was a shattering explosion that ripped the U-65 from stem to stern. The captain was later to report that he was amazed to see the solitary figure of a German naval officer standing on the prow of the U-boat.

massetXA · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 51 Location: USA

The Haunted U-Boat

Submariners aboard the U-Boat 65 were as terrified of ghosts on their vessel as they were of Allied attacks. In 1916 among the many U-boats which came down the submarine assembly line ready for British blood was UB65, which would go down in naval lore as the host to at least one ghost, and the scene of many disturbing and tragic occurrences. Indeed, UB65 became so infamous, that even as the war raged on, its panic-stricken crew grew increasingly reluctant to sail on her. Even before she was launched, the ‘Iron Coffin’ as she became known, seemed to attract disaster. She was built to join a fleet of submarines prowling off the Flemish coastline, gorging on the slow, heavily laden ships crossing back and forward across the English Channel. But it seemed that everything that could go wrong during construction did. Not even seven days into her construction, as the hull was being laid, the first tragedy struck. As workers poured over the site, a giant girder hovering overhead on chains suddenly broke free, plunging into the hull. A hapless worker was horribly crushed under its massive weight, and lay there, in agony, for over an hour while frantic mates tried to rescue him. Tragically, he died just as the huge weight was finally lifted off him. An inquiry into the accident found there had been no faults in the chains used to hoist the girder, and officials were mystified as to what could have caused it to snap free.

Less than two months later, there was a second, more alarming tragedy. Three engineers who were assigned to the U-boats engine room to test the submarine’s dry cell batteries, were overcome by deadly chloride fumes. They died before anyone could rescue them and drag them into the fresh air. No-one ever determined why the batteries ever leaked the toxic fumes. Thankfully, there were no more mysterious incidents during the remaining construction and shortly afterwards UB65 set sail for sea trials. But whatever dogged the boat seemed to follow it out of port because it quickly ran into a fierce Channel storm, and one hapless sailor was washed overboard to his death, when the vessel came up to test her stability on the surface during rough seas. After the man went overboard, the captain ordered the U-boat to dive. As she did, a ballast tank sprang a leak, flooding the dry-cell batteries in sea water and filling the engine room with the same deadly gas that had already claimed three lives while the boat was still on the slipway. After 12 nerve-racking hours the crew finally managed to get the ship to surface, where they flung open the hatches and breathed clean air. Amazingly, no-one was killed and the bedevilled craft limped back to Germany for repairs. After several days, the U-boat was again readied for sea and her first on-line suddenly exploded, killing the second officer and badly wounding several others. Yet again, an inquiry was conducted, but no explanation for the explosion was ever found. In the meantime, the second officer was buried, and another round of repairs made to the jinxed vessel. Her jittery crew, already worried about the U-boat’s growing reputation for being accursed, were given a few days’ much-needed shore leave to calm their shattered nerves before setting out on their first active patrol.

The U-Boat 65 was forced to limp back to harbour after another mysterious disaster. The submarine was bedevilled by tragedy and death. Yet just moments before she was set to leave port, another bizarre incident occurred - this time, a panicked sailor swore he had seen the apparition of the dead second officer. “Herr Kapitan!” he blurted. “The dead officer is on board!” The captain, of course, refused to take the report seriously, believing the sailor had had too much to drink during his shore leave. However, even the stoic skipper was a little taken aback when a second member of his crew also claimed to have seen the ghost of the second officer coming casually up the gangplank! The seaman was sobbing from fear when he told the captain that the apparition had walked aboard, strolled up to the bow and then looked out at the inviting sea. He then vanished into thin air.

That two crew members had reported seeing the dead officer gave the captain some reason for pause, but nevertheless he knew his duty lay at sea and in sinking British ships. UB65 had some early successes on its maiden voyage, sinking three Allied merchant ships in quick succession. However, the rumours of the unwanted ghost had spread through the crew like wildfire, and their celebration over any direct hits was tempered by their belief that their vessel was haunted. Indeed, there was almost full-scale panic after UB65 recorded its second kill, when startled sailors in the engine room saw the dead officer observing the instrument panel as he had done in the trial voyage. By the time the submarine returned to base, rumours of its ghostly visitor were already spreading throughout the entire U-boat armada. The captain did his best to dispel the talk, claiming it was all poppycock, fearing that the ghost tales would only further erode the morale of the 34-man crew. But in their hearts, the men of UB65 knew something was terribly amiss with their craft.

Then in January, 1918 as the war dragged ever closer to its inevitable conclusion, even the captain could no longer dismiss the sightings as the rantings of some foolhardy seamen -for he, too, saw the apparition! It came as the U-boat was prowling in the Channel off Portland Bill. Because the weather was so foul and the seas extremely rough, the captain ordered the craft to the surface. After breaking the surface, a lookout stationed on the starboard side was scanning the stormy horizon. He turned to look to port, when suddenly he spotted an officer standing on the deck, which heaved under the growing fury of the waves. At first, the crew man thought the officer foolhardy for taking such a risk, but then realised that all the hatches were still battened down, bar the one from which he himself had climbed onto the deck. He knew no-one could have come up through there without him immediately spotting him.

Suddenly, the crew man got a full look at the officer - and his face went white as the blood drained from it. There standing in front of him was the second officer, who had been buried with full honours back at home base. When he finally summoned the courage to move, the terrified seaman screamed to his shipmates that the ghost was on the boat. Below deck, the crew were close to all-out panic, and the captain had to act immediately lest a hysterical sailor put all their lives in jeopardy. He raced up the ladder, fully expecting to see nothing save a panicked crew man, when he, too, saw his dead comrade, his face a grotesque distortion. Seconds later, the ghost vanished, as if blown into the raging swell by the strong winds. Finally in July of 1918 the U-Boat itself came to a grisly end while at sea. Having been confronted by an American submarine while on the surface the U-Boat blew up killing all aboard. The American sub had not even opened fire at the time.

massetXA · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 51 Location: USA

Ghostly Phantom Ships

Ghost ships most often appear at the scene of the disaster on a stormy night, leading one to believe that a portal has opened, causing the ship to manifest and to return to the world of the living, time and again. Many reports of ghost ships seem to constitute residual hauntings. This type of haunting in which the energy of the entity remains behind in a certain spot or general location, playing out a traumatic scene, but not being subject to interaction and is like watching a television re-run are in fact interactive, active hauntings which sometimes produce dire results for the persons unfortunate enough to be observing.

Most Phantoms whether observed on land or at sea, can often be explained as optical illusions. Mariners are familiar with the sight of ships sailing through the sky above the horizon—a simple mirage caused by the refraction of light rays. The Flying Dutchman legend may have originated in this way. However, owing to the frequency with which the Dutchman is sighted, and the recorded, documented results of these sightings, this explanation does not seem terribly plausible. This sailing ship is feared by mariners as an omen of disaster and is often sighted during stormy weather.

According to one version of the legend, Henrik van der Decken, the captain of the Flying Dutchman, swore, in a fit of rage, that he would round the cape even if he had to sail for all eternity straight into the wind and that God himself could not stop him. Because of this oath, Van der Decken was condemned to sail forever against just such a gale, and because he was a man of evil nature, who taunted God any sailor who sees him, or any member of his crew, on the deck of the phantom ship, is doomed to join his crew and partake of their special damnation.

Quite a few stories involving the sightings of ghost ships come from the British Isles especially the Goodwin Sands. Legend has it that more than 50,000 people lost their lives on the sandbank of the Goodwin Islands alone. Inhabitants of Ireland’s coastal areas often report seeing the ghostly spectral galleon ships of the doomed Spanish Armada. One prime example is the Lady Lovibond and she is one of the most famous of the ghost ships of the British Isles. This doomed vessel was shipwrecked on February 13, 1748. Thousands of witnesses have claimed, over the years, to have seen her and according to local legend, every 50 years, on the anniversary of her sinking. Pirates who sailed the seas in the 17th and 18th centuries are often associated with ghost ships. The Islands of the Caribbean are literally rich in tales of Privateers, Pirates and seagoing cutthroats such as Morgan, Teach and the infamous Captain Peter Blood and they all hanged at Port Royal. But their spirits are all damned to sail the seven seas for all eternity, for the sins that they committed in life.

A similar story is told about the German submarine, U-l 16, the last German U-boat to be sunk in the First World War. She went down in the North Sea, on the 28th October, 1918, less than one month before the Armistice, ending the war, was signed. No one knows the exact cause of her sinking, but ever since, when the weather in the North Sea is particularly foul, she is sighted, running on the surface into the jaws of the storm... a spectral crew manning her bridge. While she is not considered to be a sign of particularly ill luck, sighting this doomed craft is considered by all to be a portent that some incident of great import is about to happen. While not exactly “ghost ships” or “phantoms” as such, many amateur radio operators have reported, over the years, of having picked up distress signals from both the Titanic and the Lusitania. And to this day, unusual fluctuations in the electromagnetic (EMF) field exist in the area surrounding their sinking, as well as that of the S.S. Andrea Doria.

massetXA · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 51 Location: USA

Spectres, Spooks and Things
That Go Splosh in the Night

Shrieking boggarts, phantom candlelit tunnels and chilling watery spectres. Throughout the country the 2,000-mile network of canals and rivers play host to hundreds of unearthly visitors. Spine-tingling tales surround spooky tunnels, lock-keepers cottages and secluded bridges. Many believe that the hardy souls who built and toiled on the waterways have left an indelible trace in its fabric and perhaps even beyond the grave.

The Montgomery Canal, Wales, is haunted by a Welsh Princess. Legend recalls her ghostly apparition appearing near to the place where she was buried alive as punishment for running away with her lover. At Blisworth Tunnel on the Grand Union Canal, Northamptonshire, a ghostly light reveals a second phantom tunnel where 14 navvies died in a terrible rockfall whilst working by candlelight.

Known locally as the ‘bloody steps’ at Rugeley on the Trent & Mersey Canal a blood stain occasionally reappears marking a murder from 1839. A woman’s body was recovered from the canal and is said to have dripped blood onto the stone steps as she was carried to a nearby inn. Covered in shaggy black matted fur a hideous ghoul reputedly appears from a secluded bridge on the Shropshire Union Canal. Local stories recount the terrifying ghost attacking a horseman and riding the horse away to escape from the bridge.

Grenuychik · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location: USA

Ghosts in Blisworth canal Tunnel

Blisworth tunnel is one of the longest in Britain. 3076 yards long and broad throughout - so that two narrowboats can pass This made it the most troublesome part of the Grand Junction Canal’s construction. When work began, in 1793, the building of a 3km tunnel was a major feat of engineering with no mechanical aids beyond the basic picks, shovels and wheelbarrows being available. Unfortunately, just three years into the project, the navvies hit quicksand. All work had to be abandoned and a new course begun.

The opening of Blisworth Tunnel in March 1805 represented the final link in a chain of communications linking London with the industrial midlands and the north. Since then, the tunnel has given almost 200 years of service, aided by major rebuilding work in the 1980s. But one sorry tale from its construction has since come back to haunt today’s boaters...

Just over a decade ago a couple set off on a narrowboat tour on the Grand Union Canal from a base north of Blisworth Tunnel. They were new to boating and had been through various safety checks and demonstrations on the use of their craft. They also had full details of the route ahead of them and were looking forward to the trip. One of the highlights of their cruise was to be the journey through Blisworth Tunnel, at that time the longest open canal tunnel. As they would enter the tunnel soon after setting off, they were naturally both excited... and a little nervous.

There is no towpath, so in the days of horse-drawn freight boats, men and women would have had to ‘leg’ their narrowboats through it while the horse was led over the hill above. Alternatively, professional leggers could be paid to leg the boat through the tunnel - today, you can still see the leggers’ hut adjacent to the Boat Inn at Stoke Bruerne, just south of the tunnel. The couple taking the boat out had no particular knowledge of the tunnel’s history. After setting off it was only a short time before they chugged into the darkness of the tunnel entrance.

When they emerged some 40 minutes later on the south side at Stoke Bruerne, they visited the Canal Museum where they started talking to a member of the museum staff. They recall their conversation here:

The chap said to me ‘That tunnel’s a weird place. I didn’t know which way to go.’

A bit confused, I answered ‘Sorry, what do you mean?’

The man replied ‘Well, for a split second I didn’t know whether to go straight ahead or turn left where the lights are.’

There’s certainly no left or right turn in that tunnel, it just goes straight through the hill. So, by question and answer I worked out exactly where they were in the tunnel when they saw the lights and the fork - and that’s when I felt my spine tingle.

Because the odd thing was... the man was absolutely right. There actually are two canal tunnels through Blisworth Hill.

From the man’s description, the worker was able to work out where the couple had seen the phantom lights. It was exactly at the spot where the first attempt at a tunnel - which collapsed due to quicksand - would have intersected with the main canal tunnel. Fourteen men died in the collapse of the original tunnel. They had been working in candlelight.

Grenuychik · Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location: USA

USOs - Do They Exist?

Many people know sighting reports about UFOs - strange objects that fly through the air of our planet. Only through the air? It is remarkable that most parts of our world are covered with water and that there is some evidence that the UFOs also use this “matter” to move to most places of the planet without being seen. If a UFO moves beneath the sea we call it a USO - an unidentified submarine object and there are more sighting reports about such strange submarines than most of us know.

On June 30 1967 a group of people on board of the Argentinean ship “Naviero” recognized a cylindrical-shaped object in the sea. The object emitted a blue-white light and was approximately 33 metres long. The most surprising fact: there was no noise from the object and although it was moving with moderate speed through the water there were no waves. While people were watching the strange submarine it changed course in the direction of the “Naviero”, then accelerated and dived before a collision with the ship disappearing into the deeper part of the sea.

On July 26 1980 the sailors on board of the Brazilian ship “Caioba-Seahorse” saw a grey round object with a diameter of approximately 10 metres drifting in the water. At the same time a bright light appeared on the horizon and came nearer to the ship. All technical equipment on the ship stopped working as the light was approaching the grey object in the sea which was illuminated from green, red, blue and yellow lights. The light appeared now as a very bright disc shaped object connected to the metalish USO in the water. Both objects then rose from the water, hovered some minutes over the sea and accelerated then with very high speed up to the sky and disappeared.

On April 30 1976 an unidentified object broke with great power through the ice of a frozen lake called Siljan in Sweden. The ice was over 20 cm thick, but witnesses report about a grey object which was approximately 9 metres long. This USO came from the ground of the sea and caused an over 800 metres long and 4 metres wide “channel” in the ice while it was moving and cracking with a speed of nearly 100 km/h through the frozen surface of the sea before it was flew up to the sky without any damage.

But why are USOs moving through the water? What is their task? Maybe they have the same reason as the flying UFOs in the sky. Unfortunately we don’t know their task. Are UFOs and USOs parts of the same phenomena and have they a common origin? Could all UFOs also be USOs? Is it no problem for them to move in space, air and water? It seemed so. Are there alien bases beneath the sea? Who knows? Lastly are there any normal and natural explanations for the sightings of USOs. Maybe. Some tiny plants and animals (plankton) in the sea are in fact able to emit light and to produce “glowing spots” on the water and chemical reactions can cause such phenomena (the mysterious “white water” in the Bermuda triangle is maybe a result of chemical reactions).

But can plankton produce “illusions” of solid and metalish cylindrical and disc-shaped objects moving with high speed? How can plankton rise from the water and start flying through the air (as many USOs have done)? If we believe that UFOs are a fact, we must believe that the submarine objects also exist. In the meantime people in the whole world will certainly continue to discover strange objects not only flying in the sky but also beneath the sea.