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Haunted & Cursed Ships

OldTimeRadio

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Hoodoo and Jinx Ships
In this fascinating discussion of ghost, hoodoo and jinx ships nobody's yet mentioned the American vessel SQUANDO and the Russian ship IVAN VASSILY. I'd like to know a great deal more about these two boats, since both stories seem to be "too bad to be true' and each of them, alas, lacks sufficent documentation to entirely satisfy me.
 
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The story of the phantom infested U-Boat was debunked years ago! Get a copy of "Lost at Sea" by Michael Goss and my friend George Behe; it is an excellent book!
 
DrPLee said:
The story of the phantom infested U-Boat was debunked years ago! Get a copy of "Lost at Sea" by Michael Goss and my friend George Behe; it is an excellent book!

Can you give us a short version of how it was debunked please
 
fishersghost said:
DrPLee said:
The story of the phantom infested U-Boat was debunked years ago! Get a copy of "Lost at Sea" by Michael Goss and my friend George Behe; it is an excellent book!

Can you give us a short version of how it was debunked please

I think - from memory - it was done by analysing the records of all the U-Boats used in the War. You could email George from his website:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Carpathia/
 
I read the haunted u boat story years ago in a book about submarines , the author went through the main points and showed how they where wrong but sadly , all i can remember is the "haunted" u boat was sunk by a submarine and the story was mixed up with another u boat that was found on the surface all the crew dead
 
I read some years ago (alas! I no longer remember where) that the printed source for the story of the U-65 was a sermon by a German Protestant (I think) pastor. published a few years after the end of the War.

But even if that report is true, it does not necessarily put the kibosh on the tale. German pastors have been known to tell the truth on occasion. <ggg>
 
I could go up into my attic and find the book on submarines that debunks the haunted u boat story,but i have battled the spiders and cobwebs to get this house is haunted down, and i am scared to go up there again....
 
When you check the enhanced images...here...although the face looks very creepy there's a line curving over the skull area. Is it a mask being worn?
 
I misread this as "Axe wedding ghost on a ship."

Which you've gotta admit implies a heck of a story...
 
Could you actually use the axe for anything other than a hammer or a club if you were holding it like that?
 
The only reason to think it's a ghost is the person says it is in their story.
 
Quite. Isn't it more likely to be some actual person sneaking about looking for stuff to nick? And who picked up a fire axe because they thought they were on their own and then they heard someone else sneaking about!
 
Hoodoo and Jinx Ships
In this fascinating discussion of ghost, hoodoo and jinx ships nobody's yet mentioned the American vessel SQUANDO and the Russian ship IVAN VASSILY. I'd like to know a great deal more about these two boats, since both stories seem to be "too bad to be true' and each of them, alas, lacks sufficient documentation to entirely satisfy me.

Vincent Gaddis went into the tale of the Ivan Vassily in his book Invisible Horizons.

Here is link I found to the story on the web.

http://www.underworldtales.com/ivan-vassili/

Hope this helps.
 
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Sydney, Sunday -MEMBERS of the crew claim that the ! ghost of a headless Nazi soldier in uniform walks the decks of the Norwegian ship Templar at night.

Text Added:

From: The Argus (Melbourne): 05 Nov 1951


"Headless Nazi Haunts Ship"

MEMBERS of the crew claim that the ghost of a' headless Nazi soldier in uniform walks the decks of the Norwegian ship Templar at night.

The ghost is seen most often in the sick bay and forecastle, they say. It has spoken to them in the dead of night, then turned and marched away to the nearest, cabin. At other times the crew have heard rattling noises, in various parts of the ship, which is in Newcastle harbor (sic). They are reluctant to visit some parts of the vessel at night.

First Mate Folkman said that the crew often showed fear when ordered to the sick bay or the forecastle. "They say they have seen a headless ghost, but I won't believe it until I see the ghost," he said. "Sailors at sea are very superstitious." But Bosun Johansin said that he saw the ghost a few months ago while sleeping in the sick bay. "I heard a German voice, and then a headless soldier walked into the sick bay from the bathroom," he said. Johansin said the ghost was that of one of the Germans who died aboard the ship during the war. The Germans seized the Templar when they overran Norway during the war, and used the ship for minelaying.


Source : http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/23089931?searchTerm=Headless Nazi
 
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Recall that many foreign names were transliterated in variant (phonetic) forms before standard spellings were adopted.

Would you prefer Boatswain?

It is odd in the respect I noted: an Australian publication of the 50s with harbor lacking a 'u'...
 
Love the story. But "Bosun Johansin"? Johansin must be Johansen. I need time to "translate" Bosun to a real Norwegian name.

Regarding the name of the boat. A boat called M/S Templar was built in Norway in 1962. It's not normal in Norway to reuse name of ships that already existed or exists. https://digitaltmuseum.no/011014269745/stabelavlopning-av-torrlasteskipet-m-s-templar-b-n-524-pa-akers-mek-verksted?aq=topic:"Kraner" owner:"NTM"&i=47
I found out Bosun means petty officer in English. "Petty officer Johansen".
 
Boatswain is abbreviated to Bosun.
Basically head of the crew and kit.
 
This summary appears on a WWII Norwegian nautical site:

M/S Templar Wilh. Wilhelmsen, Tønsberg 6749 gt
Built in Kiel 1929.
Pre war: Launched on Jan. 19-1929 by Deutsche Werke A.G., Kiel (Yard No. 221), completed March 25. 6749 gt, 4047 net, 12 475 tdwt, 461.4' x 60.6' x 29', Two 8 cyl. 4 SCSA oil engines totalling 7000 ihp by the shipbuilders, driving twin screws, service speed 14.5 knots. From 1953, two 5 cyl. 2 SCSA oil engines totalling 8000 ihp by Howaldtswerke A.G., Hamburg, driving twin screws, service speed 15 knots, 12 passengers.

WW II: Seized at Oslo by the Germans on Aug. 10-1940 and served as Sperrbrecher 17 from Nov. 23 (Kriegsmarine). ...

POST WAR: Retaken on May 17-1945, damaged, at Kiel and towed to Malmö for repairs before returning to service on July 5-1947. Suffered an underwater explosion on Jan. 10-1948 (believed to be a mine), position 52 48N 04 31E on a voyage from Macassar and Rotterdam to Oslo. Arrived Stavanger on Jan. 13 with deck and engine damage. Re-engined in 1953 by Howaldtswerke A.G. with M.A.N. oil engines. Sold on Dec. 15-1961 to Achilles Frangistas, Lebanon and renamed Katerina. Sold in 1967 to Rea Shipping Co. Ltd., Cyprus. Delivered to China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation at Shanghai on Jan. 20-1972 for demolition.

(Source: Wilh. Wilhelmsen fleet list by Michael Crowdy, World Ship Society, 1994).

This was the 2nd in a line of 4 ships by this name.

SOURCE: http://www.warsailors.com/homefleet/shipst1.html

Three photos of the ship are accessible from this webpage.
 
Hang on: the ghost is 'headless' in the headline, yet has 'spoken' to them in paragraph two.
Surely that requires some explanation!
It requires effort, but sphincter-muscles could be employed for the purpose.
 
Hang on: the ghost is 'headless' in the headline, yet has 'spoken' to them in paragraph two.
Surely that requires some explanation!

Note that the quoted text indicates a German voice was heard before the headless figure came into view. There's nothing else in the quoted text that explicitly mentions the headless figure speaking.
 
This thread is being established to contain stories about ships and vessels which were or are haunted.

This includes ships legendary for being "jinxed" where there was an insinuation of a ghost or entity associated with the vessel's bad luck / misfortune.

RELATED CASES WITH THEIR OWN DEDICATED THREADS:

The Queen Mary: Haunted?
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/the-queen-mary-haunted.26442/
 
The Ivan Vassily story has now been found to be a near-verbatim retelling of a story appearing in the Chicago Tribune in 1907. The major differences between the stories is that the 1907 newspaper version names the ship Parrier and claims it ended up in a California port.

The full text of the 1907 newspaper story can be found at this blog page:

http://strangeco.blogspot.com/2013/10/newspaper-clipping-of-day_9.html

Note the comment posted in November 2018:

I've tried researching this story and this is the earliest reference to it I've discovered. R. DeWitt Miller (a science fiction writer who occasionally dabbled in paranormal writing) wrote about the Ivan Vassili in several columns in the '40s and this version has survived to the modern day. I'd be curious to see how the ship's name and the story details changed, but the fact that a novelist/short story writer was most responsible for spreading it seems, erm, suspicious.
 
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