7 True Scary Ocean Horror Stories From Reddit (Vol. 2)

[Music] I used to be a scuba instructor in Bali Indonesia groups could book me for a casual lesson or for like a week's worth of diving where they could earn a provisional diving license so this one group books me they're a mixed group in their early 20s couples and friends good people silver spoons galore but I'm not one to judge our first activity was underwater walking now I had never tried underwater walking since it was relatively new at the time but I'm keen to try it so we pile into a little boats and take a short trip out towards the mothership now this is just a naval term for a larger boat that smaller ones like ours can work from but we go one step further to justify this having spray-painted one of those huge grey alien heads onto the hall it looked awesome and naturally the kids loved it underwater walking itself was similar to the time I did snuba scuba plus snorkeling equals snuba in the Caribbean in that the oxygen tanks float up on the surface of the water instead of being on the divers back the other major difference to regular diving is that instead of having a scuba mask to breathe out of we had these big old sci-fi looking helmets on I mean they look like they were props from that old lost in space show that used to be on TV I went first and the procedure was pretty simple I hung onto the ladder with the majority of my body in the water they placed a small foam rubber ring on my head to cushion the helmet and then they finally put the helmet on the second that it was on my body it felt like its weight was forcing me to the bottom of the ocean it was kind of scary because I went down pretty fast which caused the pressure to build up quickly I made sure to swallow and yawn a bunch to negate the effects of the pressure and I was fine also I could never really get a deep breath of air because as I breathed thin the helmet began to make a vacuum and I would have to stop to let it fill in with more air then two members of the mixed group of teens followed suit before a scuba-diving man came down to be our guide he handed all of us a piece of bread in the plastic bag which drew all of the fish to us that was a lot of fun watching otherwise timid fish practically swarming us there were metal guiding handrails in the ocean floor which I followed the two kids followed behind me it was very difficult to walk because the current was surprisingly strong and the helmets were quite heavy we found it all incredibly enjoyable though I had been diving for years and even to me it was a novelty as I breathe there was a constant loud whirring sound as the water put pressure on the oxygen tube it was kind of annoying but it meant that it was getting air which was obviously good that's why it was so scary when the sound suddenly stopped I was confused but it quickly came back on after about two or three seconds and I could breathe again it happened one more time and again it came back on very quickly I rationalized it by assuming that my tank had run empty and they were switching it to a different one no big deal I didn't understand how they would run out so quickly but I didn't think too hard about it it soon came back on and I could breathe so no big deal after about ten minutes or so I'm guessing I have no idea how long we were down there the guide points at me and indicates that he wants me to climb over the railing I was very confused but I did it after he made it very clear that that was what he wanted it was kind of hard to see out any peripherals out of the mass so it was easy to get lost I look back behind me to make sure that the teenagers saw where I went and didn't get lost we made eye contact so I assumed we were all good and then turned back around to follow the guide he had me walking in a very small path between two corals so I went very slowly to make sure that I didn't cut my legs up on them it was hard due to the strong underwater current my unwieldy helmets and an occasional tug by the air tube as I pulled it taut as I reached the guide my hair stopped again I figured it was no big deal like the previous two times and continued on I followed him for a bit but it still didn't come on five seconds without oxygen then 10 I started to get confused was this some kind of joke if so it wasn't funny at all 15 seconds I thought to myself don't panic they always tell you not to panic but I panicked I started taking quicker and quicker breaths but I forced myself to stop that thanks to previous training I knew that that was the worst thing I could do I spun around to the guide and started pounding my fist on my chest that was the sign for I can't breathe he seemed to notice and started walking away I could only hope that he was taking me to the boat I thought maybe I should just try and shrug off the helmet and swim to the surface I didn't know if I had enough air to make it I didn't know if the boat was above me I didn't want to hit my head I didn't know if I could actually shrug it off and I didn't want to get the bends so I figured it wouldn't be a good idea 30 seconds I started to notice that I was getting less and less oxygen with each breath water was starting to seep into my helmet I had to look up to breathe with the little air that I had I grabbed hold of the guides arms so that I wouldn't lose him and also so that he would understand the gravity of the situation I gave him quite the death grip 40 seconds without oxygen my lungs burned for air I saw the ladder of the boat I knew that all I had to do was make it there and I would be okay I must have gotten some sort of adrenaline rush with the renewed hope because I almost forgot about my lack of air I fumbled for the ladder for a few seconds it was hard to tell distances through the helmet because it had a bit of a magnifying aspect to it before I grabbed it and started pulling myself up as I broke the surface air came rushing back into my helmet and I took a nice deep breath breathing had never felt better it was definitely the scariest experience of my life and I categorically would not recommend underwater walking to anyone [Music] being that I live on the coast of Mississippi I have been on and around the water my entire life I have countless stories of crazy experiences and bizarre happenings while being on the water most involve dealing with bad weather such as lightning storms water spouts or rough seas those can be awesomely frightening but the craziest things that I've seen have happened while working on fishing charter boats but the one job that always sticks with me and the one I would consider the biggest iOpener occurred back in 2010 when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew and began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico BP after realizing to a certain extent how vast the spill was began a program that allowed owners of boats to register and participate in the cleanup efforts along the coastline those that were lucky enough to be accepted into the program sometimes took advantage of an awesome opportunity to do something good for the environment and made some serious money from it while at the same time preventing others from getting into the program who would have actually helped that's someone to mention later but over all is a story for another discussion so being that the water that I had basically grown up on was being destroyed I couldn't just sit back and not do anything I went and got hazmat certified then through certain contacts I first started working on a hundred and twenty seven foot charter boat that would normally go out to the chandelure islands located off the coast of Louisiana for several days and nights and dropped skiffs in the water where clients were guided around the islands to fish also I would suggest if anyone has the opportunity to go out to these islands please do it's absolutely incredible there and the fishing is always superb you know anyway back to the story I was working on this boat for about two weeks before I was transferred to an offshore division that consisted of about a dozen boats these boats were strictly personal fishing and commercial charter boats with the largest being 57 feet and an average price of around $100,000 a couple of the other boats had to be worth well over a million dollars conservatively our job was to leave at the crack of dawn and go out looking for oil or any marine life that may have been impacted by the Spill if we found crude oil slicks or anything else had a placer not normal we'd log it take pictures and report it for about a month all we ever found were slicks but one day we went out to about a hundred miles or so and I'll never forget the sights or smells that day the crude oil which we called mud because that is exactly what it looked like was everywhere and ridiculously thick on average six inches and in some places up to one foot it was like super thick putty and to be honest is actually really hard to describe to put this into perspective though if you've ever been mud riding or seen a truck get stuck in the mud that's exactly what it was like to these boats but out on the water and a lot worse over time it destroyed the boats hauls and caused significant damage to pretty much whatever it touched we were the first group to find the crude and report it coming in that close to the shore also during this time we found a lifejacket belonging to one of the poor guys who actually worked on the oil rig when it blew words honestly can't describe what that was like it was a haunting moment to say the least so we eventually get back to shore and that's when things started to change the operation had now shifted to how are we gonna clean this up and what are we gonna do with it it wasn't until this point when we all realized how serious this was not only for the coastline but for the environment as a whole the next morning at the dock we noticed that pallets of skimmers and absorbent materials have been dropped off we were to use the skimmers to round up as much crude as we could tie off the skimmers into a circle and place the boom together with the crude inside that would then be brought to the decontamination stations by another division who was assigned that job a little reminder our job originally was to just spot and fine take pictures and report back not necessarily handle the oil if at all possible but it got to the point where instead of myself being the only one who could handle the crude on my boat everyone else working the boats eventually ended up in protective suits handling this toxic sludgy substance and 100-plus degree temperatures for 12 hours a day a little side note each boat had to have at least one hazmat certified person on board at all times who was supposed to be the only person handling the crude also only four people were allowed to work on each boat in our division we also ended up getting stranded twice by the shrimp boats who decided to call it a day leaving us with no way to move the crude well also not allowing us to leave because we couldn't just leave the rounded-up crude unattended it was absolutely miserable nobody could have ever imagined what we were getting into b.p themselves had no idea what they were getting into and their claims of being prepared were completely overshadowed by the fact that they truly did not know how to run and contain an operation of this magnitude day in and day out this became a day-to-day challenge up until the point when my shady boss got caught being greedy charging BP for every miscellaneous thing he bought which caused all of his boats to be shut down during this time both the employer and employees were making some serious money what ruined it were the greedy jerks who just couldn't get enough this in turn caused less boats that were actually doing it for the right reasons from being able to make a change out on the water in total we worked a little over three months going out every day and seeing schools of dead fish dead sea turtles was disheartening to say the least although it was one of the most awful experiences of my life I do feel like we made a difference out there even if it was just a little on one of our last trips we were about 20 or so miles out past the barrier islands when we could see from a distance would look like the water boiling and had a red orange and yellow color to it when we got close we realized it was a school of thousands of red fish and jack crevalle that stretched as far as we could see and was about a hundred or so yards wide being in the middle of that surrounded by these fish just cannot be described with words it was incredible and that was the one moment that gave us hope that what we were doing was not a waste and that we were in fact doing something worthwhile still to this day it is the most incredible thing I'd ever seen on the water aside from the oil spill itself lastly just to throw this out there there are still tons of oil out in the Gulf regardless of what people say it's just buried and on the sea floor due to the so-called dispersants that BP claimed would break the oil up it still can be found in the islands beaches and marshes the marine life is just now getting back to normal again in the past two years and it's only going to get better as long as some nonsense like this doesn't happen again [Music] the year 2001 marked the 60th anniversary of the sinking of the British HMS hood and the German battleship the Bismarck but 1941 was a faithful year for countless other ships that were lost at sea including the SSS Britannia on which I happened to be a passenger at the beginning of 1941 I was in Cornwall working on a small team providing power for a new station for Cable & Wireless being built in two tunnels in Perth Colonel it was there that I was offered an extremely well-paying job that involved aiding in the construction of Tehran University all the way over and Iran so in March of that year I left the team to begin the journey that would take me from Britain to Bombay in India and then on Basra and Iraq for land journey to the Iranian capital I had no idea that I would never make it that far my wife saw me off from Houston station in London as there was a war on I did not say I was embarking for Liverpool as this would have clued her into the perilous nature of the voyage and worried her immensely but she told me later that she saw it on the side of the train as it left the SS Britannia was used as a troop ship and there were a lot of Navy army and RAF personnel on board but luckily for me I was a first-class passenger we sailed from Liverpool and the 11th of March 1941 bound for India via Sierra Leone and South Africa we had an anti-submarine escort consisting of three destroyers and an armed merchant cruiser the destroyers were stationed one ahead and one each two ports and starboard of the convoy the armed merchant Cruiser was a large passenger liner that acted as our rearguard I jut adown details of my journey including my expenses in a small diary that I still have the ship rolled quite a lot to start with and I was seasick for a few days but wants to see it calmed down a bit so I found the voyage much more pleasant then one day I found that the Britannia had become separated from a armed escorts and they were now nowhere to be seen but we figured we were safe as it was thought that we were sailing too fast for you boats to catch up an attack it was a Tuesday morning the 25th of March 1941 I had just taken a morning bath and was lying on my bunk trying to cool down never had I ventured outside of England before and I must admit I was having a terrible time adjusting to the heat suddenly a series of huge booming sound shattered the tranquility of the morning at sea I looked out my porthole and splashes in the water something was falling into the water around the ship I threw some clothes on quickly and made my way over to the starboard side that's when I heard the tannoy announcement a voice echoed around the ship from the small tiny speakers located on each deck I'll never forget how terrified I was when I heard we had come under attack from a German raiding vessel my fellow passengers were panicking as the military personnel aboard began to rush into action screaming at us to take cover away from any outward facing bulkheads as we cowered under tables and prayed for our safety we could hear the whistling of enemy shells as they flew over the ship it was a sound I still hear in my nightmares our civilian liner had been reinforced with a small gun at the rear of the ship and it brought us hope to hear them returning fire for a moment but when the ship rocked under the force of a direct hit our gun fired no more we later heard they had taken the full force of the incoming shell with the entire gun crew killed in an instant I can remember the officer rowlandson racing to and fro carrying the wounded to the first aid post with more and more blood staining his uniform with every trip he made I thought very highly of that man after another devastating direct hit from the German warship there was another announcements over the ship's tannoy ordering us to abandon ship we found some lifeboats damaged when we arrived on deck which was very worrying but we still managed to find one intact boat on the starboard aft i inflated my lifejacket through my overcoat into the lifeboat then climbed down and got in in theory it was supposed to be women first followed by first-class passengers in reality it was every man for himself there were too many people climbing down the ladder and some of the crew were jumping overboard we were forced to lower the lifeboat early to prevent it from being dragged down with the sinking vessel so many of the crew had to climb down the ropes to reach safety some slipped and scorched their hands causing horrific blistering to their palms and fingers two men were still climbing down the rope as we began to push the lifeboat away from the burning ship the terror in their eyes was something I'll never forget they must have thought they were doomed all the occupants of the lifeboat called out to them to jump into the water and swim to us thank God we waited for them as one of the men was a Sri Lankan doctor by the name of Das Gupta my god bless him for he treated the injured as best he could as we rode away from the burning wreck of the Britannia we watched as the German raiding ship closed in for the kill she was flying the swastika my heart burned with hatred as she fired shells below the waterline and sent the Britannia to the bottom of the ocean after two days at sea we found a waterlogged boat with four men in it it suddenly tipped over and they managed to turn it over and got back in this happened two or three times the commander agreed to take them on board the days at sea did affect some people after a few days one man put on his overcoat and threw himself overboard he had lost his mind from the stress of the whole affair the commander turned about to pick him up but it was too late his heavy clothing had dragged him down into the briny depths we had sharks with us virtually all the time they could smell the blood from the wounded and circled us with her fins protruding from the water it was nerve-racking they swam right up next to the boat sometimes and I could see their dead eyes staring up at us as they did it was horrible thinking that certain death was only a few feet away at any given moment after a few days without washing or access to toilets one or two people suggested that we have a swim they put oars across to hold on to in a couple at a time went over we were told to be alert and looking back we must have been mad I went in but I didn't swim as soon as I did so we were scared by a pot of whales which had these great whacking fins the Sharks were the worst but the sheer size of these whales was something to behold they could have smashed her lifeboat to smithereens with one flick of their tail I learned later that Officer Rowland's son was picked up off a raft by the K bode they harness a Spanish vessel and he in the French Baroness who was a passenger persuaded the captain to continue searching on Saturday the 29th of March we saw the cable de Hornos lit up and put up a flare that was spotted by a lookout we rode towards the ship which in turn made for our original position when we met up the lifeboat was going up and down with the swell but climb the rope ladder but we flopped when we got on deck and had to be carried to tables we wanted water as this has been greatly rationed in the lifeboat they then came round with sandwiches but took them away when we had one each it took a week or so to recover from the experiences which was the worst of the war for me but I thank God every single day that I survived as there were many poor souls who did not [Music] in 1981 American Mariner Steven callahan was taking part in a single-handed sailing race from Penzance in England to the Caribbean island nation of Antigua having studied as a naval architect callahan was an expert in the design and construction of all kinds of Seabourn vessels and it spent most of his life living on board racing and cruising ships yet not long into the race bad luck and even worse weather had damaged her sunk many of the participants boats including callaghan's own self designed Napoleon solo to his dismay he was forced to abandon the race but callahan was not a quitter not by any stretch of the imagination he was determined to complete the voyage even if the prize was no more than his own sense of satisfaction and so after making the necessary repairs to Napoleon solo he continued down the coast of Spain and Portugal and out into the Atlantic towards the Canary Islands several days later Callahan found himself sailing in gale force winds that had waves crashing over his small one-man boat the storm continued into the night with Callahan fighting to keep the vessel afloat suddenly among the darkness and howling winds of the Mid Atlantic something huge smashed into the side of the Napoleon solo the boat rocked into the ocean a huge hole in her lower compartment causing the boat to fill with seawater Callahan fought to keep his beloved boat from sinking but it was no good the small craft was overwhelmed by the crashing waves and strong winds Callahan was forced to abandon ship alone when dawn broke Callahan found himself drifting on the Atlantic in a small lifeboat but he was determined to survive a disaster just before the Napoleon solo had sank into the dark depths of the ocean Callahan had made several trips back onto the boat to secure several pieces of crucial survival equipment including a sleeping bag emergency rations a small spear gun pair of solar stills that would produce roughly a pint of clean drinking water per day being the experienced sailor that he was callahan had determined that his raft was drifting steadily westward due to ocean currents and trade winds trade winds being the pattern of surface winds that have taken ships from Europe to the Americas for centuries if he stayed alive he knew he would eventually drip back into the realms of civilization but staying alive would be no small feat it wasn't long before Callahan had exhausted the meager food rations he had managed to salvage from Napoleon solo he couldn't find an alternate source of food he would slowly and painfully die of starvation alone and afraid in the open waters but Callahan had no intention of dying in such a hideous manner he took the severe gun that he had managed to grab from his sunken vessel and set to work an interesting point about flotsam that drifts into the open ocean is that they often become small ecosystems in their own right barnacles that become attached to floating debris and the microscopic sea life they foster will in turn attract surface feeding fish such as mahi-mahi or triggerfish it wasn't long before Callahan found himself surrounded by an evolving ecosystem that would provide him with just enough food to stay alive Callahan must have been delighted to discover that feeding himself was much easier than he had first anticipated entire schools of fish presented themselves to be speared killed and eaten as a valuable resource of protein but wherever there are smaller fish larger fish are inevitably drawn Callahan awoke one day to hear a gentle lapping among the calm waters around him he emerged from the canvas shelter of his life raft expecting to see more of the mahi-mahi fish that were sustaining him so effectively but it was something else something which made his blood run circling the boat at almost perfect intervals were three large dorsal fins sharks were circling the life raft they could smell him as the Sharks drew closer Callahan could hear their sandpaper skin scratching against the thin nylon sides of the lifeboat the noise must have been terrifying to him a stark reminder that there were things in the ocean that were actively seeking to consume him to end his life and render all his efforts pointless what's more there was every chance that the Sharks would lose patience attack the wrath and cause irreparable damage to the only thing that was truly keeping Callahan alive he would have to go on the offensive taking the spear gun in hand Callahan must have been shaking with terror as he leaned over the side of the lifeboat and began jabbing at the circling sharks with a sharp point of the spear but sharks are tough and his spear gun was poorly made it wasn't long before the rubber propulsion Bandhan jagged spear tip had broken off rendering the spear gun useless but Callahan simply lashed a knife to the shaft of the broken spear and carried on his brave defense of his lifeboat yet it wasn't the sharks that would become the biggest threat to callaghan's life the largest of which would come from his own survival needs on the 44th day drifting aboard his lifeboat Callahan was fishing using his improvised spear when he caught a large mahi-mahi fish but as it wildly flailed during its dying movements the mahi-mahi caused the spear shaft to rip into the rafts bottom tubes seriously compromising the lifeboats buoyancy despite his best efforts the hole wouldn't stay patched in his endeavors to patch the boat up Callahan often had to reach under the lifeboat itself working with his arms under water to reach repairs this caused the sharks to return Callahan was forced to balance defending his lifeboats with the essential repairs it required the stress was too much for him and he snapped by his own admission he descended into a fit of rage and grief unable to accept that he would be torn apart in the open waters of the Atlantic by sharks that had been tracking him for weeks but then it hit him a small plastic fork and a boyscout mess kit he had managed to salvage could be stuffed into the nylon near the tear in the raft then bent inward to seal the tear to secure the vessel too weak to attempt the idea at the time Callahan tried for what little sleep he could manage in such a stressful situation resounding himself to try it in the morning it worked it was the victory of a lifetime he had come back from the brink of insanity and death to ensure that he would survive for that much longer that was until the solar stills on the life raft began to falter over the course of a few days Callahan watched in horror as the one thing that kept him from dying of dehydration began to pack up and cease to function by that time he had only three small cans of fresh purified water his body and mind were shutting down they began to hallucinate feeling as if though all those people lost at sea were surrounding him calling him to join them they simply had no more fight left in him then after 76 full days lost at sea Callahan saw a small fishing vessel on the horizon as a grew larger and larger he deduced it was headed right towards him attracted by the sea birds that circled over his lifeboat the fish guts he had thrown back into the sea after successful catches has caused the small ecosystem around his lifeboat to grow exponentially now including a small collection of whaling galls where there are sea birds there are fish and where there are fish there are fishermen as the fishing boat pulled up alongside the raft and they must have been amazed to see the skeletal figure of Steve Callahan lying half-dead before their eyes the men were from Guadeloupe Callahan had made it to the Caribbean just as he predicted by the time the fishermen reached and rescued him from certain death Calahan had lost 1/3 of his body weight he was so emaciated that it took six weeks before he could walk properly again bizarrely he claimed he doesn't regret his 76 days spent alone in that lifeboat drifting in the Atlantic Ocean in fact Callahan had been quoted as saying that he felt enlightened by what he went through that it changed him for the better in fact he once described the night sky unpolluted by the bright lights of big cities as being a view of heaven from a seat in hell [Music] the most deadly shark attack in recorded history began on July 30th 1945 the USS Indianapolis a portland class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy was taking part in a top-secret mission of the utmost importance it was tasked with carrying enriched uranium to the island of Tinian and the South Pacific along with other parts required for the assembly of the world's first deployable atomic bomb as history shows the crew of the Indianapolis were successful in their mission completing the delivery and record speeds that are unbroken even by modern naval vessels however as they sailed back towards Leyte for training before the invasion of Okinawa tragedy struck just after midnight on July 30th the Indianapolis was spotted by Japanese submarines without any escorts to defend her the Indianapolis was a prime target and the Japanese closed in for the kill and the Indianapolis did not have sonar to detect submarines they were completely unaware of the danger in which they found themselves at exactly fifteen past midnight to type 95 torpedoes smashed into the right-hand side of the vessel instantly killing dozens of American sailors and causing obscene amounts of damage to the ship's structure it took just 12 minutes of panic and terror for the ship to sink completely taking down over 300 of the crew along with her the surviving crew members slacking life jackets and lifeboats were set adrift among the waves almost complete darkness many thought the worst was over but their nightmare had only just begun naturally the sailors floating among the debris were expecting to be rescued in a matter of hours days at most but the horrible fact was that no one was coming to the rescue despite sending several emergency signals before the ship went down the Navy had somehow lost track of the Indianapolis nothing was made of the fact that the ship failed to arrive at Leyte and many of the emergency messages that were received by nearby ships and naval bases were completely ignored Declassified records later showed at one such commander in the Philippines was drunk and had told his staff not to disturb him another wrongly assumed the SOS calls were some kind of Japanese trap the roughly nine hundred men who had actually survived the torpedo attack were now exposed to a new perhaps even deadlier danger it was dawn when the survivors saw the first sharks in the waters around them the pure carnage and chaos of the sinking had attracted hundreds of oceanic whitetips and tiger sharks from miles around some were apparently as large as 15-foot long it must have been absolutely terrifying for the survivors seeing huge dorsal fins emerging from the water as the Predators began to surround them circling picking out the weakest links those too weak to struggle at first the Sharks focused on the dead bodies floating on the water many men had died from exposure salt poisoning or thirst and it was these corpses that provided the easiest meals for the circling sharks but soon the lifeless bodies among the survivors have been completely devoured by the hungry predators it wasn't long before they turned their attentions towards the living the survivors later reported that they were losing at least 3 or 4 men to the Sharks every single day at some point they counted twenty to thirty sharks in the water their dorsal fins breaking the waves to form an almost impenetrable barrier around the surviving sailors the Sharks would often swim towards the survivors bumping into them the tests for signs of life the sailors never knew exactly when the attacks would come and this took a serious toll on their sanity men would kick and pound the water screaming bloody murder in an attempt to deter the Sharks from attacking but this only served to attract more and more of the fishy fiends as it mimicked the thrashing of a wounded sea creature that served as a natural dinner bell for the hungry beasts every so often a shark would lose patience and strike without mercy rushing up from the briny depths to drag down a screaming survivor imagine it hearing the man next to you let out an ear-splitting blood-curdling scream before disappearing beneath the waves never to be seen again some survivors recalled that the elements were perhaps just as deadly as the circling sharks during the scorching heat of the daytime men would pray for darkness their faces blistering as the harsh Pacific Sun beat down upon them while at night the water grew so cold that their teeth would shatter as hypothermia set in someone kicked their legs and thrashed their arms and futile attempts to keep warm but again this only mimicked the death throes of a wounded sea creature making them a target for the circling sharks as the floating sailors fought to survive many of them succumbed to the horror of their experiences and began to lose their minds some men would even begin to hallucinate seeing islands that weren't there or claiming that they had heard rescue plane searching in the skies above one such surviving sailor recalls the heartbreaking moment that one of his shipmates finally lost his grip on sanity the man claimed that he could see the Indianapolis floating in the water just a few feet below them and that he could access the mess hall stores of purified water he made repeated trips beneath the surface inviting his comrades to come join him in drinking the cool fresh water that he had found but the man was drinking pure salt water he died shortly afterwards from the effects of saline poisoning then in the fourth day of their harrowing survival a Navy seaplane happened to be passing overhead when they spotted the groups of surviving sailors floating in the waters below one of the aircraft's crew members leaned out of the central hatch waving down at the men and that's when the tears came tears of pure relief and salvation they were saved but out of the crew of almost 1200 soldiers just 317 survived the ordeal but for some the horror pain and tragedy of the sinking would never end Captain Charles McVeigh commander of the Indianapolis was one of the last to abandoned the sinking ship in November of 1945 he was court-martialed for failing to order his men to abandon ship in time resulting in 300 or more sailors that sank with the ship to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean cleared of this charge he was instead convicted of hazarding the ship a naval term which describes the failure of a captain to properly maneuver his vessel to avoid the likelihood of a direct torpedo strike yet aspects of the trial were controversial as even the commander of the Japanese sub that sank the ship said that zigzagging the Indianapolis wouldn't have made a bit of a difference and then he did have always found a way to sink her the disgraced captain was cleared of all charges was reinstated to his position and retired as a Rear Admiral four years later in 1949 yet while many of the Indianapolis survivors agreed that captain McVeigh was not to blame for the ship sinking the sentiment was not shared by some of the grieving families of the Fallen soldiers captain McVeigh would often receive Christmas cards from the relatives of his dead crew members but they did not have a remotely festive tone about them they would say Merry Christmas our family's holiday would have been a lot merrier if you hadn't have murdered my son read one card that McVeigh had received as late as the 1960s despite being clear to blame captain McVeigh never forgave himself for his failures as a commander even if it was during the most brutal and decisive war that mankind has ever known eventually in 1968 McVeigh picked up a small toy sailor that reminded him of his naval service walked out onto his front lawn and shot himself with the very same revolver that the Navy had issued to him upon entry into the service he was 70 years old over 23 years later the largest war in human history had senselessly claimed yet another life [Music] ever since man first took Seabourn vessels out onto the oceans and seas that surround us they have returned with tales of violent storms sea monsters and ghost ships the open water captured mankind's imagination in ways comparable to the way outer space has today the ocean represented the greater unknown but perhaps mankind's most potent fear is just that fear of the unknown perhaps the greatest maritime mystery of all time is that of the Mary Celeste yet there is another arguably just as curious event that took place mere decades ago just after the end of the second world war it is a story filled with intrigue terror and death in the tropical waters of Southeast Asia this is the tale of the Oh rang Madan the Straits of Malacca has a narrow 550 mile stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra as the main shipping channel between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean it is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world and is named after the Malacca sultanates that ruled over the archipelago between the 15th and 16th centuries in late 1947 and early 1948 a number of ships sailing through the Straits began to pick up a series of unusual radio signals divided into two separate parts Sandwich inge a cluster of indecipherable Morse code the message read as follows all officers are dead including captain lying in chat room and bridge possible that whole crew dead I died despite their best efforts radio operators found it impossible to determine the exact geographic source of the radio transmission nothing else was transmitted just those two clipped but haunting sentences to American merchant vessels picked up the cryptic radio messages and were compelled to investigate sailors feel a certain solidarity for their own but the mysterious messages must have piqued their curiosity even more driven them to try to uncover the truth with the help of British and Dutch listening-posts the coordinates of the vessels thought to be transmitting were triangulated after some deduction it was determined that there was only one ship that the messages could be transmitting from a Dutch freighter named the SS Oh rang Madan one of the American merchant ships by the name of the Silver Star was ordered to investigate the coordinates in question obviously given the nature of the distress call the captain of the Silver Star wasted no time in setting a new heading and steaming towards the potential rescue site it took several hours of hard sailing but eventually the lookout on board the Silver Star spotted the stricken ship in the distance it was indeed the o rang Madan no signs of life could be discerned when the rescue ship pulled up alongside her the crew screamed and bellowed with all their might trying to communicate with the unseen crew after no response was received it was evident that a boarding party would have to be organized in order to properly search the ship for survivors from the very moment that the boarding party climbed onto the deck of the o rang Madan it was clear that something was horribly wrong it was soaked with blood the entire upper deck of the ship more resembled a slaughterhouse than a sailing vessel the broken dead bodies of the Dutch crew were strewn about the seen their faces frozen and deaths masts pure terror their arms horribly contorted as if though they'd spent their final moments trying to fight off some mystery assailant even the ship's dog was unable to escape the carnage still snarling and death that would ever had massacred its master just as the emergency transmission had stated the captain was also dead lying face down in his private quarters in a pool of his own blood and guts hey too had an expression of complete and utter terror edged into his lifeless features almost as if he'd been witnessed to some kind of unspeakable horror in his final moments of life what little remained of the bridge officers and engineers was found in the wheelhouse and chartroom they had been completely torn apart and were only identifiable by the insignia and their gore soaked shredded clothing the ship's radio operator the very same crew member who had sent out the distress call in the first place was still sitting in a station radio handset still in his grip he was no exception the same terrified expression preserved in the rigor mortis that had set in not long after death as the boarding party searched the gore drenched ghost ship they began to notice several things that immediately struck them as odd or strange firstly during the time the Ourang Medan was found it was summer in the southern hemisphere outside temperatures were in excess of 100 degrees yet members of the boarding party noted that they had felt an ominous chill emanating from somewhere aboard the ship additionally the condition of the corpses were scarily unusual as they were decaying much faster than was expected even in the tropics what's more aside from the mess made of the bridge officers many of the victims displayed no visible wounds nor had the ship suffered any damage associated with the hostile boarding party the Straits of Malacca are known for Malay pirates that attack in small fast speedboats equipped with grappling hooks and grenades but there was no indication that piracy was to blame since it is common practice for hostages and cargo to be taken yet nothing was missing when the boarding party completed their search and returned to the Silver Star the captain made the quick decision to tow the Arang Madonn back to port for salvaging purposes but it was only once the ships had been tethered together that smoke was discovered below the Iran madhan's deck this confused the men who had been part of the boarding parties since they searched the boats intensely and no sign of fire was discovered the crew of the Silver Star rushed into action quickly severing the ropes keeping the two ships attached before disaster could strike just minutes after the O rang Madan exploded with enough force to lift it clean out of the water before sinking to the bottom of the sea the first official accounts of the incident were recorded by the United States Coast Guard in May 1952 in addition to the witness testimony which detailed the sorry state of the crew themselves the published account added that they were all found with their frozen faces up turn to the Sun staring as if in fear the mouths were gaping open and the eyes staring but many naval historians argue that the Oh Ranma Don never even existed and officially speaking it didn't at the same time the Arang madam was supposed to have suffered it's terrible faith in the Straits of Malacca the Silver Star was operating under another name entirely the Sun Tawana the grace line shipping company had bought rights to the ship and renamed it way after the late 1940s in contrast there are some that insists that Oh Ranma don was a real ship and insists that she was registered in Sumatra Sumatra is a Dutch colony that formed part of what was known as the Dutch East Indies in Indonesia Iran means man and Madan is the largest city in the island of Sumatra hence the registered name o rang Madan literally means man from Madan however no records have been produced to prove this claim even the uk-based Lloyd shipping registers and the dictionary of disasters at sea 1824 to 1962 has found no mention of the o rang Madan but there may be a rationale albeit horrific explanation for the lack of official records a strong theory that attempts to explain the bizarre demise of the crew of the SS Sarang Madan is related to biological weapons designed and manufactured by Japanese scientists led by Japanese bacteriologists Shiro Ishii he was the head of unit 731 a secret Japanese military facility that performed insidious experiments on mostly Chinese test subjects these tests were even more sinister insidious than the Nazi experiments at Auschwitz included creating dangerous biological and chemical weapons to help Japan eliminate its enemies it is believed that in the aftermath of the war these biological and chemical weapons had to be shipped back to the United States to be studied however some high tier government agents must have decided that these were best shipped secretively and civilian vessels in order to avoid possible interception by the soviet KGB there could have been an incident involving their secret of cargo unleashing the full force of the nightmarish arsenal on the unsuspecting crew the truth behind what really happened on the Arang Madonn has been buried since the 1950s and it is entirely possible that we will never ever know the real story or if the ship ever existed in the first place but it is not the first maritime mystery to capture the public's imagination and doubtless they will not be the last [Music] it is Saturday morning in the affluent Australian suburb of Brighton just over five miles from Melbourne city centre Brighton is well known for its Dendy Street Beach the location of 82 colourful Beach boxes 16-year old Sam Kazon a has been playing soccer and his feet are sore so he decides to take a walk down to the beach to soothe his aching feet he spends half an hour in the cool and shallow waters listened to music and feeling the pain and his swollen feet slowly ever way but as he wades out of the water to retrieve the sandals he feels a strange sensation on his feet and ankles almost like pins and needles when he looks down he sees they're covered in blood which drips onto the golden australian sand sam walks back into the ocean hoping to wash away the blood and allowed the saltwater to disinfect the wound but on his return he finds his legs will not stop bleeding his father rushed him to the nearby Dandenong hospital as Sam sat patiently in the hospital waiting room he was driven to blood continued to pool beneath his feet from the thousands of tiny pinprick wounds that dotted his legs and feet to his family's horror no one at the hospital could identify exactly what was the issue hospital staff contacted numerous toxicity and marine experts throughout the city of Melbourne but none of them could shed any light on the nature of Sam's injuries however it is not just sharks that hunger for flesh in the waters around Australia and one solid suggestion was made sea lice known by their Latin name as lycée Anna said amphipods sea lice are marine parasites that feed on the mucous epidermal tissue and blood of hosts marine fish they are somewhat related to shrimp and prawns but are smaller in size ranging from 6 to 13 millimeters they are not venomous and their bites do not cause any lasting damage Sam's injuries were consistent with those made by the small might like creatures when devouring organic tissue but marine experts claimed that there was no way that such tiny organisms were responsible for such extensive tissue damage Sam's father had an idea that same day he took a net down to the section of beach where Sam had suffered his mysterious wounds in that Nets he placed some slices of beefsteak he lowered the thing into the water and waited when he pulled the net out he discovered something horrifying hundreds of tiny crustaceans were clinging to the raw meat and they weren't just devouring the flesh they were draining the raw steak of its blood the marine experts were wrong it was indeed sea lice that had attacked Sam's feet and legs and they had done so in their thousands Sam's father recorded the video footage of the lice devouring the slices of steak and took it straight to the hospital where his son was receiving treatment but the details surrounding the manner in which these organisms feed is simply terrifying and the creatures infancy sea lice are not aggressive and produced food via a process that occurs inside the creatures own body but once it finds a victim the organism begins to grow and change as it accesses a valuable source of protein its victims flesh adult sea lice especially females are aggressive feeders and in some cases feeding on blood in addition to tissue and mucus this explains why the injuries to Sam's ankles and feet were so incredibly severe the wounds stunned marine biologists dr. Walker Smith it's impossible he disturbed a feeding group but they are generally not out there waiting to attack like piranhas but Jeff we're the executive director of the Australian Dolphin Research Institute said he too had suffered a similar experience the marine biologists had taken parts in a night dive and was taking pictures under a nearby pier when he found his forehead and cheeks were bleeding profusely when he surfaced but he frankly admitted that Sam's case was the worst that he had seen in his entire career these are very important little critters that live in the water just like garden Slater's in the garden that clean up the breaking down debris these things are a really important part of the Ecosystem it's a bit annoying for the young lad he must have been there for quite a while and not realizing he's getting nipped away it's not life-threatening but it's a great tale to tell but before you go thinking you're safe if you don't live down under you might want to hear this a series of itchy experiences down in the Virginian beach area had caused a panic among frightened locals and tourists alike over a so-called sea lice beachgoers posted numerous social media updates over the course of a week describing tiny bites and itching and bathing suits and all over their arms and legs many rushed from water to the closest shower but were horrified a report that the itching lasted longer many rushed to local hospitals terrified they were contracting something horrible some unknown disease but thankfully the tiny creatures responsible for the itching commonly referred to as sea lice aren't actually lice at all they're actually blue crab larvae one day destined to grow fat and large potentially winding up on a plate at your favorite crab feast the virginia aquariums vice president of education christopher Witherspoon tells us the so called sea lice are a larval form of the blue crab called the mega lops it looks like an alien lobster and its pincers are just big enough to irritate people's skin and maybe cause a rash he explained getting sea lice in your bathing suit is uncomfortable but harmless encounters with the larvae are expected around summer time mainly due to the timing of the blue crabs life cycle in late spring eggs hatch at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay before surface currents pushed the tiny larvae out into the ocean where they transform into Megillah pie those interns sink to the bottom of the ocean and ride bottom currents back into the bay where they need to be to develop into young crabs megalo Paille are not to be confused with sand fleas tiny crustaceans that live in the beach sand and also make vacationers itchy Witherspoon says we should welcome crab larvae back to the bay not fear them he went on to explain that it takes millions upon millions of larvae for enough to survive the journey and avoid predators for us to have adult blue crabs to harvest without Megillah by appearing along shores and in the bay each summer there would be no blue crabs here sam Kazon a's encounter with the flesh-eating parasites may have been an incredibly rare occurrence but it illustrates just how little we know about what lurks beneath the waves how we well and truly roll the dice when venturing into unknown waters how the planet's oceans are just as brutal and nightmarish as the densest jungles or driest deserts hey friends thanks for listening be sure to subscribe and click that notification bell to be alerted of all future narrations if you got a story be sure to submit them to my subreddit our let's read official and give and receive feedback from the community and maybe even hear your story featured on the next video and join my discord to interact with me and other listeners directly and if you want to support me even more grab early access to all future narrations for just $1 a month on patreon and maybe even pick up some let's read merchandise on Spreadshirt and check out the let's read podcasts where you can hear all these stories and long compilation form and save huge on data located on both Spotify and Apple podcasts links in the bio thanks so much friends and I'll see you again soon

Channel: Lets Read!

Views: 365,657

Keywords: true ocean stories, ocean horror stories, true scary stories, true beach stories, scary stories, scary true stories, true horror stories, horror stories, true stories, stories from reddit, asmr reading, lets not meet, true creepy stories, scary horror stories, reddit, true scary stories from reddit, true horror stories from reddit, subscriber submissions, reddit scary true stories, lets read, asmr sleep, ASMR, creepy stories

Id: ysV4dZLaRVo

Length: 59min 4sec (3544 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 30 2019