The Mystery Of Bouvet Island

the year is 1964. you are lieutenant commander alan crawford aboard the royal navy's hms protector bound for one of the most unique places known to man embarking from a south african harbor you've braved the frigid southern ocean and its tumultuous temper all for the end goal of surveying a newly formed plateau on the icy shore a promising development for a government seeking to establish a weather station in this valuable location upon reaching your destination you are greeted by three days of persistent high winds preventing you from making the journey to the shoreline [Music] eventually on the 2nd of april you and your team are helicoptered in but immediately you spy something unsettling there nestled in the lagoon floats an abandoned lifeboat it's outside stripped of all markings and signifiers and no sign of its former occupants under normal circumstances this would make for a passing curiosity but this discovery is far more perplexing for this is bouvier island the most remote island on earth [Music] but first a history bouvet island was first discovered by its namesake jean baptiste charles bouvey delozier in the year 1939 he believed that it represented the tip of a yet undiscovered large southern continent terra australis and named the peninsula that he spotted cape circumcision after the feast celebrated on the day of its discovery it was then subsequently lost due to inaccurate plotting by the aforementioned bouvet until 1808 a mere 69 years later where it was rediscovered by james lindsay who correctly preserved its position it was declared for the british crown then promptly annexed by norway in 1927 and renamed bhuvatoya which just means bouvet island in norwegian it was in 1955 that the south african government expressed an interest in establishing a weather station on the island and sent the transvaal to scout out a suitable location this was not to be as there was simply no area wide and flat enough to support such an installation it wasn't until 1958 when it was reported that a small volcanic eruption had occurred and created a sizable plateau that crawford and the protector were sent to investigate arriving in 1964 to witness the lifeboat anomaly now there were several things beyond the mere existence of the boat that were caused for confusion not only was it relatively intact it was found floating in a lagoon 30 yards inland from the shore on the rocks a hundred yards away was a 44 gallon drum and a pair of oars with pieces of wood and a copper flotation or buoyancy tank opened out flat for some purpose after conducting a brief search of the surrounding area crawford and his team could find no survivors let alone the remains of a camp or any habitation at all with no sign of the boat ever possessing a sail or engine and only one pair of oars it was unthinkable how it could have traveled any significant distance over the open ocean why was the boat not dragged further inland and used as firewood or shelter and why was the copper tank pressed flat unfortunately for crawford he and his team only had a brief window to investigate collect samples off the plateau and survey the area as if to punctuate the mystery of it all the next vessel to visit the island in 1966 made no mention of the marooned vessel despite being occupied with the very same lagoon so we are left stranded perhaps much like the theoretical occupants of that ill-fated lifeboat with scant few lifelines to follow to our rescue thankfully we have the internet with all its intrepid theorists and investigators piecing together all the plausible causes of this wildly unlikely occurrence many possible solutions have been suggested each with their own supporters and naysayers a marooned lifeboat an unfortunate research vessel left stranded or as is tradition victims of an alien abduction dropped off in the wrong place unlike most mysteries this one might have an answer as late as mid-2016 a credible solution was found as it turns out the soviet union were in the habit of sending a whaling fleet to antarctic waters every year and coincidentally not in the habit of informing western nations about their comings and goings after some expert sleuthing user qualis libay or libbet on reddit managed to dig up records that indicate a ship that was part of one such fleet the slava nine visited the island in november of 1958 a group of sailors landed near cape concision but the weather turned sour forcing them to stay on the island for three days eventually being rescued by a helicopter hence the abandoned boat the lack of any camp or signs habitation probably means they took any supplies they had back with them when they departed besides the boat and the pair of oars which were too heavy or unwieldy some questions have to be answered with our best guesses however for example the conspicuous absence of the boat upon the next documented visit to the island perhaps the southern ocean finally swallowed up what evidence remained of that landing or maybe the soviets returned to finally clean up their mess a less likely explanation as for the flattened copper flotation device here we can turn to the comments on mike dash's excellent article on the subject for inspiration it's possible that it was hammered flat as some sort of makeshift signal but we now know the slava fleet was very aware of the sails presence on the island so going to their trouble would be unlikely another explanation is offered by user beau who mentions the possibility of it being used as a grounding system for a ham radio used by one gus browning a ham radio enthusiast who went on an expedition to bouvet island in 1962. not only did browning make contact from bouvet island but the timestamp lies within the time frame required for our mystery bow makes note that this adventure was documented in a ham radio monthly magazine named 73 magazine but it seized publication in 2003 and the issue that it was mentioned in was published naturally 44 years ago amazingly the author of the original article mike dash managed to get a hold of our publication stored in the library of congress and found the article in question browning's description of his landing spot a flat area about the size of two football pitches sounds exactly like the plateau which was around the spot that the lifeboat was found not only that but get this he had a large drum of petrol approximately 50 gallons with him as well both these stories combined give us a very plausible origin of what crawford found on that day in 1962 there are more details and eccentric characters surrounding expeditions to this island but i have stolen enough from mike's article i thoroughly recommend reading it and following the chain of comments as the mystery slowly unrevels to some the combination of these two theories is enough to explain the mystery but to others the idea of a lone sailor marooned in the loneliest place on earth is far too tragically romantic an idea to abandon

Channel: Mind Mask

Views: 30,937

Keywords: Unsolved Mysteries, Mysteries, Documentary, Crypto, Bouvet Island, Cryptids, Spooky, Unsolved Cases, Reading, SCP, Creepypasta

Id: V9Ieaq5KjMU

Length: 9min 49sec (589 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021