The Cursed Ship of World War II

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was born a whole new concept merchant ship that would be welded together from massive whole prefabricated sections on an assembly style production line this offered a quick way to manufacture at a low cost a much needed standardized class of merchant ship these liberty ships were produced between 1941-1945 and american shipyards built a staggering 2710 of them the average time to complete one of these ships was incredibly just six weeks this meant corners were cut and quality at times was questionable there were even instances of these ships falling apart at sea without warning in the midst of all this production chaos on october 11 1943 liberty ship the george m shriver identification number 1803 was launched at the bethlehem fairfield shipyards in baltimore it's rumored that while the ship was being constructed that a group of welders weren't accidentally sealed inside the hull crawl space during the welding process despite their screams for help and relentless banging on the inside of the hull they were not discovered until the next day by which time they had all suffocated to death just nine days after the ship was launched it was assigned to the free norwegian merchant shipping fleet and renamed the vigo hunts team in honor of a norwegian civil rights lawyer who had been executed by a nazi firing squad in 1941 the majority of those stationed on this ship were norwegian or canadian the ship's primary use was to travel throughout the mediterranean and into the indian ocean via the suez canal ammunition and other materials needed to create weapons were being transported the ship soon got a reputation for being cursed despite surviving several attacks by german aircraft and u-boats while doing convoy duties for things on board would creepily malfunction lights would flicker on and off for no apparent reason at all the radio would at random times angrily hiss out static like a soul and anguish and the ship's engines would constantly break down though no good reason could ever be found why this kept happening many of the crew would complain that parts of the ships would get eerily cold despite the ship starting to operate in the warmer climate of the mediterranean sea worse was to come when in may 1944 the ship was assigned near naples italy when a 28 year old canadian radio operator maude steen was brought aboard steen wanted to fight in the war but canada much like other allied nations would not allow women to fight so she joined a norwegian company that allowed women on ships within just three months of her arriving she was shot dead by another crew member while the ship was off the coast of italy the motive for the cruise members actions was never discovered and straight after the killing he mysteriously turned the gun on himself in what seemed to be a murder-suicide due to the horrific state of her death the military claimed that she died due to enemy fire fearing the repercussions if the true nature of her death was discovered the vigo heinstein would survive the war as did surprisingly most of her fellow liberty ships in fact just over 10 were actually lost during the war of the remaining 2400 most of them were sold off cheaply to commercial shipping companies greek entrepreneurs bought a staggering 526 of them after the war including the vigo heinstein in 1947 the ship was renamed yet again this time as the ss alchemos which means strong and greek but still her cursed reputation followed the ship around and crew members claimed they often saw terrifying ghostly apparitions when on board the ship's reputation was so bad that many thought it was haunted and often sailors would refuse to serve on her being too terrified of the evil spirits they thought dwelled there it wasn't helped when a sister ship of the ss alchemist the robert dale owen that had been renamed calliope sank it was operated by a greek shipping company the ship under its new name had hit a mine left over from the war and had unexplainably fallen apart immediately taking most of her crew to a watery grave the rest of the ss alcomos's career was plagued by bad luck on march 20th 1963 when the ss alchemos was off the coast of western australia just north of perth an ungodly storm appeared out of nowhere and drove the ship onto some nearby reefs the next day the ship had to be towed to the nearby port of fremantle where some basic repairs were done to keep the ship afloat the ship was under repairs for two months and disagreements over who was responsible for paying for the repairs arose even the ship caught fire randomly while in fremantle then the plan was to tow the ss alchemist to hong kong for a full overhaul but the ship had barely made it out of harbor when her towing line mysteriously snapped and it ended up beach just a few hundred yards from the shore some say the storm howled in triumph from the sea applauded having finally claimed the ship as her own the ss alchemist remained intact but was not able to float on its own it was forced to drop anchor and the lower decks were flooded on purpose in order to stabilize the vessel so it wouldn't break up and become a danger to nearby shipping the crew was then evacuated and a lone caretaker was placed on board the man stayed on the ship all alone for months and months some saying he went crazy by the isolation he claimed that there were strange sinister moaning that could be heard around the ship he even reported seeing fresh blood dripping from the walls the following year another attempt was made to tow the ship but this failed too as if trying to escape the ss alchemist mysteriously broke its anchor chain on a clear and windless night and drifted almost suicidally onto the nearby treacherous eglinton rocks as if it was trying to end its own life for the second time the ship caught fire randomly the ss alchemist was later inspected and it was deemed too heavily damaged to be repaired by now it was 21 years old this simply reinforced the decision that the ship should be scrapped it was way beyond its lifespan as liberty ships were originally designed to last just a mere five years during the attempts to start the salvaging process work had to be halted when a fierce fire suddenly appeared forcing the workers to evacuate eerily the fire started up every time they tried to reboard it so in the end a salvage crew refused to return to the ship as they now believed it was cursed many accounts claimed to have heard seen and smelled things while on board even being pushed a female caretaker fell while on board the vessel and suffered a miscarriage by 1969 all hope had been given up in salvaging the ship and the navy wanted submariners to take measurements of the propeller while on their way to the site all three men were killed in a freak plane crash then a local long-distance swimmer inexplicably disappeared while training near the wreck and his death was never solved many said that the ship had claimed him as the ghost ship needed him to be one of its ghostly crew it was even rumored his skull was later found in the engine room over 40 years since the ss alchemist was abandoned to the sea it now lies submerged just below the surface and at every low tide the top of her superstructure emerges once more like a specter rising from the grave as if to mock the world that even in death she is seemingly a ship that refuses to die [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Simple History

Views: 866,663

Rating: 4.9187713 out of 5

Keywords: The Cursed Ship of WWII, simple history, animated history, educational, education, SS Alkimos, Cursed ship, ww2, horror, scary, weird, strange, history, urban myth, unexplained, mysteries, unsolved mysteries, American shipyards, Liberty Ships, U-boat, Bethlehem-Fairfield, Norwegian, Suez canal, Viggo Hansteen, Merchant shipping, fleet, Maude Steane, Mediterranean sea, Canadian, radio operator, Greek entrepreneur, Greek, Robert Dale Owen, Kalliopi, anchor, caretaker, perth, australia, haunted, ghost

Id: czdLc38ocUs

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 29 2020