Phantom Vessels - Ghost Ships, Missing Crews and Oddities of Sea and Sky

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Reports of identified flying outre un identified VERYO phenomena.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hoday think weapons being tested by our own or foreign governments.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
The Americans people are becoming most interested and in many
instances very alarmed by the UFO stories. So why do
you suppose that all of this has been kept from
the world exploring our past, our future, and the mysteries
of our universe?

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Where do we come?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Why can't you explain that everybody in uthology is screaming
for disclosure?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
The future is now. This is Micah Hanks.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
From the high Mountains of Appalachia and a bunker below ground. Welcome,
one and all. It is the Micah Hanks Program. Glad
as always to be getting into gear and going in
pursuit of the anomalous in our existence, as we do
every week listening to mad via podcasting apps everywhere, and
of course courtesy of our friends at the Unasked Radio Network.
So welcome. Hope you're all doing great out there, that

(00:59):
the dog days of summer haven't got your feeling too
bogged down, whether with a heat or maybe with just
a little of that good old fashioned summertime burnout. Yes,
while everybody else is taking vacations and spending quality time
in nature or with their loved ones. I've had so
much going on the last few days, and in so
many places. For instance, last weekend, I flew to the

(01:22):
West Coast for a filming project. I left on Thursday,
I got there that night, filmed on Friday morning, was
back on a plane Friday night, and then I flew
all night because I had to be back home Saturday
morning because I had company I was expecting Saturday night
that I had to cook for. And it's unbelievable how
when you've got to get things done, somehow you find

(01:45):
the energy, or at least I do. And so, after
getting maybe three or four hours of sleep on the
plane and traveling all night, I get home expecting I
want to take a nap, but instead I feel invigorated,
and so I start cleaning, and then I go work out,
and then I go do the yard work, and I'm
still feeling invigorated, so I go shopping and then I
come home and then I start preparing all of the

(02:07):
dishes that I'm going to be serving that night when
the guests arrive. I powered through the day and sure enough,
sometime maybe forty five minutes after dinner, the carbon take
and also the general exhaustion of the last forty eight
hours seems to have all struck at once. And I'm
sitting out there on my porch with my guests, and
suddenly I feel it happening. I'm finally starting to get tired.

(02:30):
But as always, I was able to power through it.
We had a wonderful time, and I had the next day, Sunday,
as the proverbial day of rest. And although I did
indeed get a little R and R N, I'm not
gonna lie. I actually was still compelled to exercise on Sunday.
You know, that's one of the things about the summertime.
It's all too easy to succumb to the heat and
start feeling sluggish. But as far as exercise goes for me,

(02:53):
that's not something I really have a hard time motivating
myself to do. The work part is where it gets tricky. Yeah,
you tell me I got to go lift weights for
an hour, great, no problem. I love that. I look
forward to it even on my days off. Tell me
I've got to go and sit down and crank out
four articles, plan for two podcasts, do an interview, and

(03:14):
also handle bookkeeping. And yes, when these summer months start arriving. Suddenly,
my attention seems to go right out the window into
the beautiful splendor of western North Carolina, which, of course
has made a full recovery after the cataclysmic events of
last September when we had a hurricane make its way
here into the Carolinas. Oh.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Add on that.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Note, MPR reporting here Hurricane Erin update. Oh, that's right,
the season is upon us and we now have Hurricane
Erin moving closer to the eastern seaboard. MPR saying that
it's bringing dangerous rip currents and flood risks that have
prompted evacuation orders and states of emergency in two North
Carolina counties. Fortunately, I am not near the east end

(03:58):
of the state where these concerns are currently underway. However,
they are saying that according to the National Hurricane Center,
Aarin as of Tuesday at least, was moving northwest at
ten miles per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of one
hundred and five miles per hour. And of course that's
a pretty big drop from what we saw yesterday with
one hundred and forty mile per hour winds. But as

(04:19):
of right now, experts are warning that this already fairly
large storm is expected to regain some strength and get
even larger. Now the storm is not expected to make landfall.
But again, what we learned last year is that in
light of things that are happening in our world right now,
sometimes the residual effects of those storms, in other words,

(04:41):
the rain that makes its way inland after the actual
storm has made landfall, that can be the part that's devastating.
And in my community, nobody really saw that coming. You
never would have thought that a little mountain town could
potentially be devastated by catastrophic flooding in the aftermath of
a hurricane. Yet again, I will emphasize we are not

(05:03):
currently being warned that this could be an issue right
now as a result of Hurricane Erin, but I will
remind you s Noah has said that this year could
be a stronger than average hurricane season. So I guess
here in the months ahead, we're going to have to
wait and see what happens. But I can tell you,
as we approach the one year anniversary of Hurricane Helene

(05:25):
striking the mountains here, I'm sure I'm not the only
person in my community who's a little on edge about
all this, I guess, With all that in mind, it's
really comforting to know that currently the acting chief at NASA,
Sean Duffy, is saying that NASA needs to focus on
space and shouldn't be paying attention to Earth science. Eric Berger,

(05:45):
reporting on this for Ours Technica, noting that with the
background as a US congressman, a reality TV star, and
television commentator, mister Duffy did not come to the position
with a deep well of knowledge about spaceflight. Add to
that that he already had plenty on his plate serving
as the Secretary of Transportation, a cabinet level position that
oversees fifty five thousand employees across thirteen agencies. All that

(06:06):
in mind, as the Arts Technica article reports, Duffy is
now putting his imprint on the Space Agency by seeking
to emphasize the agency's human exploration plans in space, including
development of a lunar base and ending NASA's efforts to
study Planet Earth and its changing climate. Now again, some
might say, well, that's a no brainer, because isn't that

(06:27):
what NASA is designed to do. NASA's job is to
explore what's out there. We're supposed to be sending humans
and robots into space. So why should we be training
the cameras on satellites and other technologies at NASA's disposal
toward things happening here on Earth. Well, a really good
reason that mister Berger points out there in the Arts
Technica article is the fact that, of course, ever since

(06:49):
its inception, NASA has always been tasked with looking at
Earth phenomena, specifically as outlined in the National Aeronautics in
Space Act of nineteen fifty eight. The article here notes
this charter legislation established quote the expansion of human knowledge
of phenomena in the atmosphere and space. So, according to

(07:10):
its own language, phenomena occurring in Earth's atmosphere, ie here
on this planet or within the planetary bubble literally proceeds
the study of things happening in space in the National
Aeronautics in Space Act of nineteen fifty eight. So studying
the Earth has always been a part of the space
agency's core mission, and to meet that mandate, mister Berger

(07:30):
tells US NASA has typically spent about ten percent of
its budget annually on Earth science, including key missions to
observe the planet's atmosphere, monitor weather study, land use changes,
and more, And so the idea of moving away from
prioritizing earth science could potentially violate the very law that
created the agency. But then again, I don't expect mister

(07:53):
Duffie probably knows that, Nor do I expect that mister
Duffie has very much concern about the potential data, crucially
important data that NASA could be collecting, in fact, about
weather systems that could gravely impact regions, including those like mine,
which are not typically expected to be among those that
end up being impacted by extreme weather events. So, with

(08:16):
this news of NASA's new proposed direction in mind, I
guess there's some comfort, at least in knowing that we
still have NOAH, and that NOAH and its programs and
missions and its ongoing studies of our environment those efforts
haven't been whittled back yet. Oh wait, never mind, Well,
then I guess we can just hope for the best, right.
We aren't panicking yet, But indeed, I'm seeing a lot

(08:38):
of indications that the current direction in terms of science
more broadly, that our government is going could mean not
only some setbacks, it could also potentially be dangerous. But
then again, that's just me, a guy who reads science
news headlines literally every single day, and reports on these
things over at my website, the debrief dot org. Speaking

(09:00):
of things over at the Debrief that are relevant to
what I'm talking about, these environmental issues. I did a
feature there at the website recently that looked at something
that happened back in nineteen ninety six. But it was
a what of a kind of event out in Yosemite
Valley and you can file this one in the anomaly folder.
In fact, I actually learned about this in the writings

(09:21):
of William R. Corlis, who was that longtime chronicler of
scientific anomalies. And this involved a rock fall that occurred
at Yosemite Valley in nineteen ninety six that was so
powerful that it led to a supersonic air blast that
propelled a granite cloud into the air with such strength
that trees were either broken in half or pushed to

(09:44):
the ground. One hiker lost his life during this incident.
But the force with which these rocks struck the ground
after they came down, and also the speed at which
they traveled and the resulting air burst that was generated
caused a sonic boom be heard for miles. As I
wrote there at the debrief in this article. This landslide

(10:04):
released more than one hundred and sixty thousand tons of
rock and debris it speeds exceeding one hundred and sixty
miles per hour. The resulting rock fall not only shook
the surrounding terrain, but also produced hurricane force winds that
propelled this massive granite dust cloud through the air. Although
pictures are available online and in fact, one video of

(10:25):
the aftermath of this rock slide, which was made available
by the National Park Service online, I've got that video
featured in the article. But this incident was unlike most others.
It's not every day, in other words, that you've got
a granite block possessing an estimated volume of seventy eight
thousand cubic yards detach itself from cliffs and fall to

(10:46):
the ground. And when you have something that enormous slide
down a steep rock shelf before then free falling more
than eighteen hundred feet before it hits the valley floor, Yeah,
you're gonna get a sonic boom. You're gonna get a
two point one magnitude earthquake. That's actually what was registered
at the UC Berkeley seismograf Station and so when you

(11:06):
have a rare event like this, even in the absence
of weather, that can potentially impact a region where an
actual hurricane and its residuum struck a place like Asheville,
North Carolina. Yeah, back in nineteen ninety six in the
Yosemite Valley there were hurricane force winds that impacted a
portion of the park as a result of a rockfall.

(11:27):
Not the kind of thing that most seismologists would ever
have expected, and hence why many decades later this one
still remains a bit of an anomaly. And then you
add to that all the weird stuff that happens out
there at Yellowstone Park. You know, I'm going to be
there in a few weeks, and Yellowstone has a long
history of unusual happenings there in the park, including strange
rumbling sounds that occur around its lakes. These noises are

(11:49):
probably associated to some of the underground phenomena occurring there
at Yellowstone. And most of you are probably aware that, yes,
although it is currently inactive, there is a super vulcan
you know, operating under Yellowstone Park right now that is
expected eventually to erupt. There isn't any kind of eminent
threat from that, but certainly volcanologists remain very interested in that.

(12:12):
And there are other things too, very interesting stories about
other phenomena happening in the park that I've heard from
a few of the park rangers, a few of whom
I hope to meet while I'm out there, maybe ketchup,
have a cup of coffee and exchange some data points.
And of course, when I return, if I find out
anything of particular interest to my dear listeners, you can
expect a full report right here on the podcast. Just

(12:33):
a couple more news items I'm tracking here before we
get to our discussion this week about some strange disappearances
phantom vessels seen at sea, and also the relationship between
some of these famous cases that remain unsolved, and also
strange phenomena occurring in our skies, some rather bizarre connections
in fact. But speaking of the ever interesting phenomena occurring

(12:57):
in our skies, I got an interesting report there at
the UAP Sidings Reporting System the other night describing an
observation by hundreds of witnesses in a campground of a
strange swirling light that they saw in the sky. Now, naturally,
when you have a multiple witness observation of something unusual
in the sky. Those are the kind of reports that

(13:19):
tend to attract the attention of UAP trackers like me.
And in this case, the witness also managed to provide
a really good photograph of the object that they and
many others had been observing that night while they were
engaging in some outdoor recreation in Pennsylvania. And so, sure enough,
looking at the photograph, it became evident to me what
we were most likely looking at. And so the first

(13:40):
thing I began to search for was not UFO sidings
over Pennsylvania. No, it was sightings of rocket launches that
would have been visible on the night in question. Sure enough,
we have Action News out of Philadelphia reporting that people
who had been looking at the Percy and Meteor shower
on Tuesday night last week ended up some of them
at least seeing something else, although it wasn't a meteor

(14:02):
in this case, nor was it a UAP. Now, this
was the Vulcan rocket that was launched by the United
Launch Alliance. It took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, just
before nine pm last Tuesday. This rocket had been carrying
an experimental navigation satellite on behalf of the US military,
and indeed, as it made its way skyward, the strange
swirling pattern of its exhaust as seen from Earth did

(14:24):
indeed attract the attention of a lot of observers, one
of whom filed a report with my very own organization.
Of course, it also helps when you are a science
and aerospace journalist like me, and the United States Space
Force often sends news releases about these launches directly to
my email inbox. So alongside the UAP report that I received,
I also had a memo from the US Space Force

(14:46):
discussing the launch of this Vulcan rocket, thereby further corroborating
the eyewitness siding with an own rocket launch. But of course,
if you're out there listening and you may have seen
something interesting in the sky, or you know a story,
or you have a involving UAP that you'd like to share,
always please consider heading over to uapsidings dot org. That's

(15:07):
the website I run for the UAP sidings reporting system
uapsidings dot org. You can log on online file a report.
Who knows, maybe you've seen something that will offer a
data point that could be useful in for the UAP investigations.
When we come back in a moment, Phantom ships on
the horizon right here on the Micah Hanks program.

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Speaker 1 (16:51):
Throughout maritime history tales of ghost ships, of unsettled sailors
and captivated storytellers. Vessels found a drift on open waters,
abandoned but intact, carry an atmosphere of unresolved fate, as
if the ocean itself had swallowed their crews without a trace.

(17:12):
From the famous flying Dutchmen of legend to real life
derelicts discovered drifting across the Atlantic, ghost ships embody both
the perils of seafaring and the mysteries that remain when
human presence suddenly vanishes. Among these cases, none as lingered
in the imagination quite like the Mary Celeste. Launched in

(17:34):
eighteen sixty one as a merchant brigantine, the ship seemed
destined for routine voyages. Yet in November eighteen seventy two,
while carrying a cargo of industrial alcohol from New York
to Genoa, the vessel met its strange fate. A month
into the journey, the Merry Celeste was found drifting off
the coast of the Azores by another merchant ship, the

(17:55):
Dei Gratia. Her sails were partially set, her hull still sound,
her cargo largely untouched. Personal belongings remained neatly stowed, and
there was no sign of violence or piracy. But the captain,
his wife and child, and the entire crew of seven

(18:16):
had disappeared without a trace. Speculation flourished in the absence
of answers. Some suggested a sudden water sprout or a
freak wave had swept the crew overboard. Others imagined an
explosion of alcohol vapors forced a panic to evacuation. There
were the conspiracy theorists, of course, who whispered of mutiny, piracy,

(18:38):
or even UFO abduction. Yet none of these theories withstand
close scrutiny. The ship's lifeboat was gone, but the weather
had been fair. The crew, it seemed, had abandoned ship,
but without a clear reason, leaving behind a floating riddle
that endures more than one hundred fifty years later. Welcome

(19:00):
Back the Mary Celeste in her strange story, became a
legend not only because of the mystery it involved, but
because it tapped into an older fear of the sea
that in the vast silence of the ocean, people can
just vanish as if they were never there, leaving only
their vessel behind as evidence. Of human fragility. Today, historians

(19:24):
and scientists still debate the fate of the crew, and
the Mary Celeste remains arguably the most famous ghost ship,
a drift between fact and folklore, and a reminder of
the unanswered questions that still haunt the world's oceans. Arguably,
among all the mysteries that one could ever explore, the

(19:44):
idea that an entire crew aboard a ship could somehow
go missing has to be pretty high on the list,
doesn't it. I mean, it's the kind of thing that
just invites you to want to speculate, and it's because
of that that historians, scientists, journalists, storytellers and many others
remain so fascinated with these stories. But unlike a lot

(20:06):
of legends out there, the story of the Mary Celeste
is actually grounded in truth. We know that the ship
was built in eighteen sixty one in Nova Scotia. It
was actually built under a different name. It was called
the Amazon at first, but it was later renamed Mary
Celeste after changing hands. It also underwent a lot of
trouble early on. There were collisions and it was driven
ashore and other mishaps that earned her a bit of

(20:28):
a reputation for having bad luck. Perhaps as a result
of some of these issues, it was refit in eighteen
seventy two to make her larger and more seaworthy for
international trade well. The Mary Celeste would eventually find herself
under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, and experienced and
respected captain as well as a devout Christian who was
traveling with his wife Sarah and his young daughter Sophia.

(20:50):
They were joined by a mostly German crew of sailors
who were described as peaceable and first class. The crew
left New York on November seventh, eighteen seventy two, bound
for Genoa. With no less than seventeen hundred and one
barrels of industrial alcohol on board. They set sail, although
the crew aboard the Marry Celest would never be seen
alive again. Fast forward to December fourth, eighteen seventy two,

(21:14):
when the Canadian brig de Gracia found the Marry Celeste
adrift near the Azores Islands. Although the sails appeared to
be damaged, the ship was mostly seaworthy. However, the lifeboat
was missing. There was also about three feet of water
in the hold, but that's not unusual. However, if this
had been an instance of piracy, one would imagine that

(21:35):
whatever had been on board might be gone. Quite the contrary,
the cargo was largely intact, all the provisions on board
remained untouched, and there was no sign of struggle or violence.
In fact, all the personal belongings of each passenger remained
untouched as well. Nonetheless, the logbook stopped nine days earlier,
so it had been more than a week since whatever

(21:56):
had transpired and led to the disappearance of the crew
before the newly anointed ghost ship would be discovered on
December fourth. Now, as investigations ensued, courts initially suspected that
foul play had been involved. Maybe it had been mutiny
on part of the German crew, maybe there had even
been insurance fraud, and even darker possibility was put forward

(22:16):
by Attorney General Frederick Sally Flood, who pushed the idea
of a conspiracy involving murder. But like other theories about
what might have happened, these inconclusive hearings only helped to
fuel the mystery's legend. While eventually, in the absence of
evidence of any kind of wrongdoing, theories involving accidents or
natural phenomena also began to be put forward. One theory

(22:39):
involved the idea that the cargo of alcohol on board
might have begun to leak, and although of course there
was no evidence of an actual explosion, this could have
led to fears that one might happen, and so the
crew might have evacuated temporarily in order to escape the
dangers of a potential explosion, but inadvertently put themselves at
risk and were swept away in the lifeboat. That actually

(22:59):
made a plausible theory to this day. But other ideas
included the notion that a water spout or maybe even
an earthquake, or false readings from the sounding rod aboard
the ship could have led Captain Briggs to believe that
the ship had been sinking.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Well.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
As retellings of the Mary Celeste mystery made their way
into popular books over the years, even more outlandish ideas
were put forward that included the strange effects of the
mysterious Bermuda triangle, a possible attack by a monstrous sea
creature like a giant squid, or even a UFO abduction.
And yet here again there was absolutely no evidence that

(23:35):
supported any of these ideas. But really there was probably
nothing that really helped to cement the story of the
Mary Celeste in the public imagination quite like an eighteen
eighty four fictionalized version of the story written by none
other than the creator of Sherlock Holmes himself, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle. In fact, his rendition of the story and

(23:56):
the alternative spelling for the name of the ship that
he introduced would influence not only the public imagination, but
also misspellings of the ship for decades to come. But
perhaps one of the strangest things about the story of
the Mary Celeste is the fact that, despite the disappearance
of its crew, it actually returned to service. In fact,
it went on to change owners several times and was

(24:18):
eventually deliberately wrecked in eighteen eighty five as part of
an actual insurance fraud scheme. One of the very early
theories that have been proposed as to what could have
happened to its original missing crew. Well, the name Mary
Celeste would eventually become a byword for unexplained maritime mysteries.
It would inspire countless novels, plays, films, television programs, articles, podcasts,

(24:43):
and yes, even hoaxes, and still today, modern experiments including
recreating alcohol vapor explosions have shown that there are some
plausible natural explanations that could explain this enduring maritime mystery.
Still none of them. Conclusive mysteries, and especially missing persons cases,

(25:03):
have a lasting appeal. They naturally invite speculation, and I
too have been swept up in the mystery of people
who just vanish seemingly off the face of the earth.
The ghost ship enigma is a little different in the
sense that we have in some instances like those of
the Mary Celeste and others will look at entire crews

(25:24):
aboard sailing vessels that go missing. Further, there are also
sometimes tangent relationships to other unexplained phenomena that on occasion
make some of these incidents all the more baffling. Take,
for instance, another early archetype of the ghost ship mythos,
the famous Flying Dutchman, which really might be one of
the most famous of all alleged ghost ships, and this

(25:46):
one an actual spectral vessel said to be cursed and
never able to make port since it's doomed to wander
the seas for all eternity. This legend is thought to
have probably originated sometime during the seventeenth century and the
era of the Dutch East India Company, and therefore also
the height of Dutch maritime power as far as its
early origins. The first known print reference to the ship

(26:07):
appears in Travels in Various parts of Europe, Asia and
Africa during a series of thirty years and upward from
seventeen ninety by John MacDonald, where he wrote quote, the
weather was so stormy that the sailors said they saw
the flying Dutchman. The common story is that this Dutchman
came in the cape in distress of weather and wanted
to get into harbor, but could not get a pilot

(26:29):
to conduct her and was lost, and that ever since,
in very bad weather her vision appears unquote interesting to note,
of course, that they're describing some sort of unusual phenomenon
seen during a storm by sailors. Along similar lines, we
have another literary reference that appeared in chapter six of
a voyage to Botany Bay from seventeen ninety five. This

(26:50):
passage attributed to George Barrington, who wrote quote, I had
often heard of the superstition of sailors respecting apparitions and doom,
but had never given much credit to the It seems
that some years since a dutch Man of war was
lost off the Cape of Good Hope, and every soul
on board perished. Her consort weathered the gale, and arriving
soon after at the cape, having refitted and returning to Europe,

(27:12):
they were assailed by a violent tempest nearly in the
same latitude. In the night watch, some of the people
saw or imagined they saw a vessel standing for them
under a press of sail, as though she would run
them down. One in particular affirmed it was the ship
that had founded in the former gale, and that it
must certainly be her, or the apparition of her. But

(27:33):
on its clearing up the object, a dark, thick cloud disappeared.
Nothing could do away the idea of this phenomenon on
the minds of the sailors and on their relating the circumstances.
When they arrived in port. The story spread like wildfire,
and the supposed phantom was called the Flying Dutchman. Of course,
it's easy to see how early accounts like these would

(27:54):
give themselves to the legend of a ghost ship. But
then we have more intriguing examples, such as a reference
to the legendary Dutchman that comes to us from Prince
George of Wales, the future King George the Fifth, who,
while on a three year voyage in eighteen eighty with
his elder brother Prince Albert Victor of Wales and their tutor,
John Neil Dalton, recorded the following very unusual observation that

(28:16):
was made in the early morning hours on July eleventh,
eighteen eighty one, off the coast of Australia. The Prince writes, quote,
at four a m. The flying Dutchmen crossed our bows
a strange red light as of a phantom ship, all
aglow in the midst of which light the masts, spars
and sails of a brig two hundred yards distant stood
out in strong relief as she came up on the

(28:36):
port bow, where also the officer of the watch from
the bridge clearly saw her, as did the quarter deck midshipman,
who was sent forward at once to the forecastle. But
on arriving there was no vestige, nor any sign whatever
of any material ship was to be seen, either near
or right away to the horizon, the night being clear
and the sea calm. Thirteen persons altogether saw her. Descriptions

(29:00):
intriguing because more than an actual ghost ship, what it
describes is a sighting by thirteen people on board a
sailing vessel in eighteen eighty one of a strange red
light seen at sea and in fact in a part
of the world where, nearly a century later, another ominous
series of events would unfold, leading to the disappearance of

(29:21):
the crew aboard a vessel. In this case, on the
evening of October twenty first, nineteen seventy eight, twenty year
old Australian pilot Frederick Valentich vanished while flying a rented
Cessna one eighty two over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne.
This case is long stood out to me, not only
because it involves a missing person, but of course because
of what the pilot described, because about forty five minutes

(29:44):
into his flight, which was a training flight to King Island,
he radioed Melbourne air traffic Control to report being shadowed
by what he basically described as being some kind of large,
unidentified aircraft. According to transcriptions of the communication with air
traffic Control in Melbourne, the descriptions were somewhat vague, but
Valentach seemed to describe something that was very brightly lit

(30:05):
and having a metallic surface that moved at incredible speeds,
orbiting his aircraft as it flew along chillingly. The final
words recorded during that transmission had been Valentache saying Melbourne,
the objects directly above me. It's above me, and it's
not an aircraft. And this was followed by seventeen seconds
of unexplained metallic scraping sound. There was no trace of

(30:29):
Valentich nor his plane ever found, despite extensive searches.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Over the years.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
I've spoken to relatives of mister Valentich and also other researchers,
both in Australia and in other parts of the world
who have looked into this case, and it remains not
only a landmark case in terms of the disappearance of
in this case, the sole member aboard an aircraft, but
also one of the most compelling UAP sidings in history.
But when we come back, we'll look at some of

(30:56):
the more speculative cases involving phantom vessels and much more
when we return. Right here on the Micah Hanks program.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.

Speaker 5 (31:14):
Honestly, Will I didn't plan any trips, but I did
switch to T Mobile with their new Family Freedom offer.

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That's not the itinerary we're following.

Speaker 5 (31:25):
Well, I'm departing from AT and T and embarking on
a new journey with T Mobile. They paid off my
family's four phones up to thirty two hundred dollars and
gave us four new phones on the house.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Bon voyage introducing Family Freedom, our lowest cost will switch
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more at tmobile dot com. Slash Family Freedom up to
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Speaker 1 (32:46):
The Phantom Vessels, ghost Chips, Strange Tales of the Sea
and the Sky, and also strange visitors. Welcome back. We've
been long overdue for a deep dive into this subject
and of course, I'm always open to hearing from you

(33:07):
out there. If you've got an idea for a case
or a subject you'd like to hear us dive into
on this program, you can reach me info at micahnks
dot com. Also, don't forget that just in a few days,
X subscribers will get additional commentary and I think we're
going to really go down the rabbit hole for X
subscribers this week. You'll find out in the final moments

(33:28):
of this show what exactly the X podcast will be
dealing with. But of course, if you don't ever want
to miss an episode, all you've got to do is
subscribe over there at micahnks dot com Forward slash X.
It's just seven dollars a month and that gets you
weekly additional podcasts and also the periodic Enigmas specials, plus
all of the shows on your own special RSS feed

(33:50):
and yes, also the ad free listening experience, So I
have that link there for you in the show notes
as always. But getting right back into things, what is
arguably one of the most chilling stories involving a crew
that not only vanishes, but in fact dies leading to
the story of a ghost Ship, first appeared in the

(34:10):
Daily Mirror on Friday, November twenty second, nineteen forty and
in fact, I quote now from that article which read,
A rescue party that answers in SOS and boarded the
steamer oraang Medan off the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean,
found bodies of sailors lying about the deck. We could

(34:31):
find no sign of a wound on any of them,
said an officer of the rescue party. Yesterday, death seemed
to have taken them by surprise at their posts. It
was terrifying. On the captain's bridge, we found the body
of the second officer. We counted twelve bodies, three of
them of deck officers. We decided to search the captain's quarters,
but at that moment we heard an explosion in the ship.

(34:53):
We abandoned the ship immediately and rode back to our own.
The explosions were repeated. Soon nothing was left after the
orrang Madan but a blazing hulk. The next day, the
fire burned itself out, and the steamer went under, taking
her secret with her well. The article concludes, noting that
the orrang Madan had sent out an SOS in the

(35:14):
message quote send doctor urgent unquote the steamer was told
that help was coming, but immediately the request for a
doctor was canceled. A subsequent message reportedly simply said send
a warship. A ship of the British Merchant Marine was
the first to arrive on the scene. And of course
now we know the story that those individuals told. This

(35:37):
is an actual newspaper story that appeared in the Daily
Mirror in nineteen forty, and this, as you've heard, introduced
what is now known as one of the most notorious
maritime stories and one of the greatest mysteries of the
twentieth century. Now, as far as what precisely might have
happened in this strange and unsettling incident, a lot of

(35:58):
questions remained because there are differing versions of the primary details,
including the distress call itself. In the version of the
story that we just heard from the Mirror back in
nineteen forty, initially they had said send a doctor, but
then they cancel that sos and say send a warship.
Pretty ominous. But another version of the story had the

(36:19):
sos from the Orang Madan saying Captain an Officer's dead,
with the final words being simply I die. Still, other
versions of the story reportedly tell of a more complete
distress call, something along the lines of SOS from the
steamship rang Madan begged ships with short wave wireless get
touched doctor Urgent. This was followed by a chilling transmission

(36:43):
probable second officer dead, other members crew also killed, disregard
medical consultation, SOS urgent assistance warship Well. After providing the
ship's position, the final message in this version was cut short.
All that could be heard was crewe has and then silent.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Well.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
In any case, most versions of the story would then
tell that when rescue vessels attempted to respond, the ship
offered no further reply, and so boarding parties, once they
finally find the ship, eventually board and they find the
vessel listing in the water, with crew members discovered all
dead at their posts before further investigation could be made.
As we heard in the nineteen forty article, a few
moments ago, explosions suddenly ring out from somewhere within the ship,

(37:25):
forcing rescuers to retreat as they watched the vessel erupt
into flames and eventually sink beneath the Pacific well. By
nineteen forty eight, the story had taken on even darker embellishments.
In this new version, two American ships, the City of
Baltimore and the Silver Star, among others, passing through the
Straits of Malacca, again receiving distress signals from the Dutch
freighter rang Madan. A radio operator aboard the stricken vessel

(37:48):
is said to have sent out the following desperate Morse
code message SOS from Orang Madan. We float all officers
including the captain dead in chart room and on the bridge,
probably whole of crew dead. A few incoherent dashes followed,
and then the chilling words I die. But yet again
this in morse code. According to this version, well, when

(38:10):
the Silver Star locates the vessel, it appears undamaged, but
the scene on board, as you can imagine, was one
of horror. There are corpses littering this ship, including the
body of a dog, and the crew was found sprawled
on their backs, their faces twisted in terror, mouths agape,
and eyes staring blankly upward, as though frozen in their
final moments of fear. There are no survivors found on board,

(38:32):
and a curious addition to this version is that there
are no visible injuries on the bodies. While as the
Silver Star crew prepares to tow the freighter away, suddenly
a fire breaks out from the number four cargo hold,
forcing them to abandon the ship. And as in earlier retellings,
the ship then sinks and of course leaves behind only questions.

(38:52):
And yet there are still other versions of this story
that would circulate in the years. In fact, one addition
to the legend that would emerge many years later would
be the claim of one lone survivor. According to this account,
one sailor, a German in fact, manages to escape and
is rescued near Teungiato and the Marshall Islands by locals
in an Italian missionary before he died from his injuries.

(39:15):
This man allegedly confessed that the Orang Madan had been
transporting a poorly stored cargo of oil of vitriol in
other words, sulfuric acid, which began to leak, producing deadly
fumes that killed the crew. He then claimed that the
ship had sailed from a small unnamed port in China
en route to Costa Rica, deliberately avoiding official authorities along

(39:36):
the way. So, as you can see, we have very
different accounts, in fact, sometimes conflicting accounts that appear in
the various retellings of the ill fated Oorg Madan, a
story involving an alleged ghost ship that would be told
and retold time and time again and eventually become one
of the most widely discussed mysteries of the twentieth century.

(40:00):
But considering the conflicting accounts of an incident that occurs
in either the Straits of Malacca or maybe the Solomon
Islands or maybe the Marshall Islands, as well as reports
appearing in Italy in nineteen forty, the United Kingdom also
in nineteen forty, but then Dutch newspapers by nineteen forty,
and then making the rounds again in nineteen fifty two,
it makes its way to the US coast. Rather obviously,

(40:23):
the strange story of the Oraang Madan begins to take
on many of the qualities of folklore. Now add to that,
of course, the fact that in that version that has
a soul survivor who explains what happens. This crew member
happens to be a German sailor and what does he
say happened aboard the ship? That there were vapors that
began to leak from improperly stored sulfuric acid on board

(40:46):
the ship. If that sounds familiar at all, again, think
back to the story of the ill Fated Mary Celeste
and the speculations about what might have happened to that ship.
It was carrying alcohol, and one theory had been the
there might have been a leak of alcohol vapors which
caused the crew aboard, which of course were primarily German sailors,

(41:07):
to become concerned about the possibility of an explosion, and
so they abandoned the ship at least temporarily to escape
a possible explosion and apparently are swept away in the
ship's lifeboat. Yes, something tells me it's not a coincidence
that a story of vapors escaping told by a German
sailor would eventually make their way into the story of

(41:28):
the ill fated Orrang Madan. But there are further problems
with this story being one of the most widely retold
stories involving an alleged ghost ship of all time. First
of all, there was no confirmed registration or record of
a ship called the Orang Madan the Silver Star, which,
according to the one retailling with the sole survivor involved

(41:48):
was a real ship, but its logs actually show no
such record of rescue. You'd think that a ship's logs
would certainly have recorded the rescue of a sole survivor
aboard a ghost ship, had that actually ever occurred. Anyway,
based on all of the aforementioned, most historians view this
tale as a sort of ca mystery hoax, possibly sensationalized journalism.

(42:10):
And trust me, a long deep look at the history
of newspaper hoaxes will reveal an awful lot of those,
especially during periods when there isn't very much interesting news
to report, and there were a lot of cultural reasons
that drove journalists, especially in the earlier part of the
last century and in centuries past, to do that sort
of thing. In fact, some of those newspaper hoaxes of

(42:31):
the nineteenth century would give us the very earliest accounts
involving alleged objects that fell from space and later disappeared
after the military became involved in searches for them. But that,
of course, is a story for another time. But the
next story of a phantom vessel that we'll look at
is by no means a newspaper hoax. It is confirmed

(42:52):
to have happened, and it is perhaps one of the
most baffling of them all because it wasn't a sailing
vessel at sea. No, this one was a limp whose
crew vanished in nineteen forty two. On August sixteenth of
that year, residents of Daily City, California, witnessed something truly extraordinary.
Imagine if you were standing in the street and you

(43:13):
saw a US Navy blimp with its engines still humming
along as it drifts down into a residential street with
its cabin intact, its doors standing wide open, and as
it drifts down warden comes to a landing in the
street and sits there with its doors open. Eventually people
begin to wonder what's happening, and so gradually they approach
the landed blimp, only to find that its entire crew

(43:36):
is gone, and the mystery as to what happened to
the two airmen aboard remains to this day unsolved. Originally
built as the Civilian Ranger NC ten a for Goodyear advertising,
this particular blimp was taken over by the Navy after
the incident that occurred at Pearl Harbor. It was repainted
and redesignated L eight, part of the L class patrol

(43:59):
airships of that area, and it was stationed at Moffett
Field with a thirty second squadron of the third Naval
Air Wing. So the blimp was used for submarine patrols
and coastal defense, and even on one occasion carried out
a special mission farrying parts to the USS Hornet before
the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in April of nineteen forty two,
well as far as the events of August sixteenth, nineteen

(44:19):
forty two. L eight took off from Treasure Island that's
the actual name, located in the San Francisco Bay. It
lifted off at six oh three am. The crew aboard
was Lieutenant Ernest Cody, twenty seven years old and Charles
Adams thirty eight ordered a patrol west of San Francisco,
near the Farrellan Islands. At seven forty two am, Cody
radioed siding of what he said looked like an oil

(44:42):
slick on the water, a possible sign he thought of
a submarine. The last words during his radio dispatch had
simply been stand by. In other words, they see something
out there in the water. They can't identify, and they say,
hold up, we've got something stand by.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Well.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Ships and planes reported the blent dropping flares between nine
and nine forty five am, suggesting during that period that
it was still manned. By ten twenty, a PanAm clipper
sighted L eight drifting at high altitude, seemingly uncontrolled, and
a little less than an hour later a fisherman near
Daily City also saw it drifting toward land. It grazed

(45:17):
rooftops on its way down, also colliding with power lines,
before eventually coming softly to a landing on Bellevue Avenue.
Crowds and firefighters rushed to the scene to find out
what had happened to the seemingly out of control blimp,
whose gondola door was still open, but upon entering there
was no sign of cody or atoms of the radios,
the weapons, the maps, everything else was intact. The engines

(45:40):
were cut. Keep in mind they had still been running
when the blimp went down. In fact, the throttles were
still set forward, as though the men were engaged in
piloting this aircraft when whatever happened that led to their disappearance.
Even the depth charges on board the blimp were still intact,
although a note one act did fall off earlier, but

(46:01):
it fell harmlessly. Everything else appeared normal, except for the
fact that the two crew members had vanished, and so
what could have possibly happened to them. Theories, of course
involved the idea that they were captured by an enemy submarine,
that they may have inexplicably deserted the blimp, that there
could have been a mechanical failure, maybe some sort of

(46:23):
a carbon monoxide accident, and yes, of course, eventually theories
would begin to proliferate, especially in the popular men's adventure
magazines of the sixties and seventies, that it might have
been an alien abduction, a secret weapon, or some other
kind of alleged paranormal phenomena that led to the men's disappearance.
There's also the possibility that it was an accidental fall

(46:43):
that maybe they had leaned out to observe the suspected
oil slick and one of the men had fallen, maybe
the other had perished trying to rescue him. In any case,
by the time the blimp made its way back down
to land, the crew was gone, and questions remained to
this day as to what their fate had actually been
as we wrap things up. When we come back, we'll

(47:04):
be looking at an even stranger legend involving a ghost
ship and conspiracies that accompany it. Here on the Micah
Hanks program.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.

Speaker 5 (47:20):
Honestly, will I didn't plan any trips, but I did
switch to T Mobile with their new Family Freedom offer.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
That's not the itinerary we're following.

Speaker 5 (47:31):
Well, I'm departing from AT and T and embarking on
a new journey with T Mobile. They paid off my
family's four phones up to thirty two hundred dollars and
gave us four new phones on the house.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
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Visit your local T Mobile in Newburg or learn more
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Speaker 1 (48:33):
Off the misty coastlines of southern Chile, sailors whisper of
a ghost ship known as l Kliuch, a spectral ship
said to haunt the waters of the Chilaway Archipelago. This
vessel of music and light is said to appear only
at night, blowing brilliantly before vanishing into the fog. According

(48:56):
to legend, at least the ship is crewed by witches
or super natural beings who lure sailors with enchanting music
and dazzling lights. Those who fall under its spell may
be taken aboard, doomed to servitude, or perhaps just madness,
their faces turned backward as a mark of the encounter.

(49:16):
The Kalaiuchi itself is said to possess extraordinary powers. It
can sail at incredible speeds, vanish in an instant, or
disguise itself as a floating tree trunk or a rock
to evade detection. Its crew are said to be shape
shifters as well, even able to transform into sea lions, dolphins,
or birds. Some tales depict the Caliuche as a sinister

(49:41):
vessel responsible for kidnappings and raids, while others describe it
as a merry merchant ship, ferrying sorcerers who trade goods
with locals or throw extravagant parties at sea. In Chilawe folklore,
sudden prosperity has often been attributed to secret dealings with
the ghostly crew, rumors of merchants growing rich from illicit

(50:03):
pacts they made with the phantom ship and those aboard it.
Beyond commerce and revelry, the Kalaiuch is also tied to
the c deity mill Lobo, who commands it to sail
the oceans and watch over marine life, and some stories
the drowned are taken aboard, transformed into eternal crewmates, destined

(50:23):
for a life of revelry and music upon the spectral vessel.
And despite the place it is long cemented in the
folklore of the Chillaway Archipelago. To this day, fishermen in
southern Chile still claim to hear the sounds of chains
or music or anchors at night. Some also say they
see lights at sea, all signs. They say that the

(50:46):
ghost ship has returned. Unlike the ill fated oraang Madan
there are at least a few clues, at least in
terms of etymology, as to where the idea of El
Kaliuchi comes from. One involves the world word kaliotun, which
means to transform or change condition, as well as che,
which simply means people, or perhaps from the word khalul,

(51:09):
which means human body added to chay meaning people. Possibly
it's linked to the seventeenth century Dutch ship Calleche, which
had been lost at sea, and that when taking into
consideration what has already known all too well about mariners
in their affinity for Dutch ghost ships, and similar to
some of its folkloric forebears, El Kaliuche also bears similarity

(51:32):
to the traditions involving those like the Flying Dutchman. A
brightly illuminated ship, sometimes producing sound likened to music, certainly
producing lights, and allegedly crude by supernatural sailors, if not
something more sinister, maybe even witches and demons. The ship
seems to be able to disappear instantly and can transform

(51:52):
itself into other objects or even come ashore when it
needs to, and most importantly, it is said to be
able to sail at extraordinary speed well One of the
most intriguing things to me about the legend of El
Kaliuch is the fact that there have been sightings of
the alleged ghost ship, which at least date back to
nineteen oh nine, if not earlier. According to a letter

(52:13):
written by Augustine Pratt, second in command of the Chilean
naval vessel huemul Key, and other crew members observed what
they described as quote two large white lights, each about
the size of a lantern unquote, hovering just a meter
above the water's surface, with no vessel in sight. The lights,
they said, eventually merged into a single column of flame

(52:33):
and moved across the sea at an estimated speed of
seven to fifteen miles per hour. Doesn't sound very much
like an actual ship to me, although the description of
luminous phenomena is intriguing. We have another account that followed
in nineteen eleven, which was recorded in the archives of
the Port Authority in Valparaiso. In this instance, both the

(52:55):
guard officer and the lantern lighter aboard the ship COPIAPO
reported seeing a lumine vessel glides silently past them. The ship,
they said, ignored all attempts at signaling never stopping or
making a sound as it drifted by. So here again
we have a luminous object that passes silently by, interpreted

(53:15):
at very least by these observers as having been some
kind of sailing vessel, albeit one that is illuminated and
makes no sound. Very intriguing. Indeed, we have another sighting.
This one emerged in a personal statement provided by a
mister Paradis to researcher Ral Nuniez in nineteen ninety three.
It reads quote, I was a fisherman in ChIL Away

(53:36):
from nineteen forty two to nineteen fifty four when I
saw the ghost ship El Caliuce with my own eyes.
It sailed in front of my boat, and I heard
its music. I never went back to sea. I know
what I saw, and I am not lying unquote. So
either there is a very rich folklore involving an alleged

(53:57):
ghost ship aluminous silent sailing vessel, silent except of course,
for these strange music it produces that is frequently reported
down there around the Chilawa Archipelago, or there is indeed
something very strange happening in that region, and many sailors
appear to have observed it as far as the origins
of the Calliuche legend itself. However, this is a little

(54:18):
more debatable. Some researchers suggest it could be a Chilean
adaptation of the European tale of the Flying Dutchmen. Again,
there are some obvious similarities. Still, others argue it could
stem from a real historical event. Maybe it is related
to the disappearance of the Dutch ship we mentioned earlier.
Kaleiche also known as El Klanche sounds pretty familiar, right,

(54:39):
and that ship, at the time of its disappearance had
been commanded by Vincent van Ute in the early sixteen hundreds.
But another interpretation, and yet again one that might be plausible,
is the idea that the story began as a convenient
cover for actual smuggling operations that were occurring in the
Chilawa Archipelago, which gradually took on supernatural dimensions that endure
to this day. Now that might sound a little outlandish,

(55:02):
but even here in rural Appalachia, you will find locations
that have very unique names like Booger Hill or Boogeyman Haunt,
Boogieman Hollow, and things like this that seem to refer
to the presence of a monster or quite literally a
boogeyman in various localities. The origins of those names actually

(55:23):
date back to the Prohibition era, when there were moonshiners
operating stills and illegally producing alcohol, and so to try
and ward off any unintended visits either by locals or
authorities alike, they began to develop stories about alleged monsters
that lurked in the areas around these stills to create
a supernatural air about them and to keep people from

(55:44):
coming and visiting. So, in fact, illicit opportunities have long
been associated with the paranormal as a means of trying
to ward off discovery of the illicit activity in question.
But coming back to the legend of Elkliuch, there are
also scientists in folklores who have proposed other explanations for
some of the reports. Some attribute the phenomenon to natural sources,

(56:06):
such as phosphorescence on the ocean's surface, or maybe colonies
of bioluminescent organisms the likes of Noctalusa, scintilands and others,
which actually do occasionally produce luminous displays in the ocean
that could look very much like some kind of a
glowing vessel under the water, when in fact you're seeing
a mass of much smaller glowing organisms. Some have also

(56:28):
said atmospheric electrical discharges and things like ball lightning might
be at work here. But then there are others who
hear these strange stories of a glowing vessel seen in
the area, and they ascribe this to phenomenon that is
known by different names in other parts of the world.
In Latin America, they would be called os nis or
objetose submergiblaze no identificados, in other words, unidentified submerged objects

(56:53):
or ofniyes objectos floatantes no identificados or unidentified floating objects.
Of English counterpart for this would be USOS or unidentified
submerged objects, which are just one of several subtypes of
what now are commonly known today as UAP or unidentified
anomalist phenomena. But this brings to mind some of the

(57:13):
more interesting sightings of El Caliuchi from over the years,
like the following one from around nineteen seventy, as told
by a man named Pedro Ignacio Herrera, whose encounter was
recorded in October nineteen ninety nine and documented again by
researcher ral Nuniez. The story reads that quote being the
son of a fisherman when I was fifteen and he

(57:33):
was forty five at the time he told this. I
recall having been fishing near Punta Tayamar, near the locality
of Ubtaioh. It was evening and we were getting ready
to return to the coast when I saw a strange
vessel pass in front of our barge. It looked like
a large tourist yacht, modern and nearly glowing white. But
when our eyes adjusted to the glow and we overcame

(57:54):
our initial stupor, we realized that the yacht was not
on the water line, but some meters above it. In
other words, it floated and traveled quickly over the waterline.
It moved silently, and there was no crew visible, nothing
beyond an unusual sense of majesty. My father never mentioned
the subject to me again. Many local residents told me

(58:14):
jokingly that maybe we'd seen an upgraded modern version of Elkaliuchi.
I've never forgotten this unquote. So in the case of
the alleged ghost ship El Calliuch, we have a number
of very unique features emerge. There are fairly modern accounts,
some as recently as just a few decades old, where

(58:34):
fishermen and others in the area claimed to have seen
this object. Most describe it as resembling a ship. Most
described it as moving along silently and producing a lot
of light. In some cases, like the one we just
heard from mister Herrera, the vessel is able to move
not through the water but above it. And the fact
that there is what appears to be at times a

(58:55):
technological dimension to the sightings of El Colliuch with again
look residents even jokingly telling mister Herrera maybe he and
his father had seen an upgraded modern version of El
Caliuch just this does seem to raise the question of
whether these people are indeed just sharing in a rich
cultural tradition involving folklore about a ghost ship, and in fact,

(59:17):
whether some of the sightings we're hearing about are actual
real life representations of some kind of phenomena that these
sailors had observed. Even more curiously is the fact that
in that region we also have one of the most famous,
or i should say anthamous South American urban legends about
a mysterious island inhabited by beings with Caucasian features said

(59:39):
to be located in the Chonos Archipelago off the coast
of Chile. It's intertwined with tales of UFO sidings as
well as speculations about a religious sect and possible connections
even to escaped Nazis, as well as speculations about extraterrestrial visitors,
and it is known as the story of Friendship Island.

(01:00:00):
Talked about Friendship Island for years on this podcast, but
there was a time where this story deeply fascinated me.
Even though it is most often characterized as either folklore
or a hoax or a conspiracy theory, but there are
some strange aspects to this story, no less, among them
the ongoing sidings of a supposed ghost ship around the

(01:00:20):
Chilaway Archipelago. Basically, the legend describes the residents of this
island as having blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing unusual
clothing that suggests they're either foreigners or maybe from very
far out, possibly not even of earthly origin. The islanders
supposedly main contact with the outside world, primarily through radio
and a single boat that they travel in, keeping a

(01:00:42):
distance from other people. According to some accounts, the island
is rumored to contain a mine of rare metals. Strange
and very advanced technologies are also said to be in
use on the island, and beginning really in the nineteen eighties,
the story began to gain traction due to alleged UFO
sidings the area, with many of these stories focusing on
individuals like Ernesto de la Fuenta and a few others

(01:01:03):
who claim to have had direct contact with the islanders themselves,
and so it's been speculation over the years. Could these
have been a strange religious sect, could they have been
escaped Nazis? Could this have been a secretive group in
Area fifty one type operation occurring on an island off
the coast of Chile. There was even a Spanish language

(01:01:23):
film made about this in recent years, appropriately enough called
Alien Island, and although I haven't seen it, I understand
that it explores some of the myths in the folklore
surrounding the alleged island out there off the coast of Chile,
and although largely considered to be a hoax, the reason
it still fascinates me is because, staying down to earth
with speculations here, some of the aspects involving the Friendship

(01:01:46):
Island story are reminiscent of some of the post war
realities of South America, things like Nazis escaping to various
countries and other secretive operations that occurred up until recent decades.
It's more on that for x subscribers for the hear
and Now that wraps up another instulment of the podcast.
As always, thanks for being here you guys, Take care,

(01:02:07):
and as always, stay strange out there.