When Flying Saucers Attack!

[sdreid]

As I mentioned to Jeff years ago, there was a ship wreck of a sort less than a half mile from my current residence. The riverboat Columbia sank in the Illinois River in 1918 killing nearly 90. If I remember correctly, there were about 400 on board. Was it a WWI Germans attack? The official cause was, it struck a submerged object.

[Mike Covell]

Hi gang, sorry I have not been around much, I took delivery of Nick Pope's Open Skies Closed Minds recently and it's an interesting read. Pope worked on the Ministry of Defence's UFO Desk many years ago, and was dubbed "Britains Mulder"

I also finally got hold of a copy of The Ripper File by Jones and Lloyd, and I am addicted, it's a fun book, and I got it quite cheap!

Paranorm-Hull has been launched, feel free to peruse the website, of note to ripperologists is the article by Stephenson entitled "Dead or Alive" presented with maps, photo's and newspaper reports!

http://paranorm-hull.webs.com/

Hope all is well

[Celesta]

Stan, I came across these. The one with book has a few photos, but the text from the book is so small it's hard for me to read it. I was thinking at first this was the Christmas tree boat. There's probably more out there on it.

http://www.usgwarchives.org/il/tazewell/tazeboat.htm

http://genealogytrails.com/ill/tazewell/news_lastsurvivor_columbia.html

Mike, Congrats on the new paranormal site. I loved your holiday pics. Tom was passing through, and I called him over to look at them with me. He really enjoyed the photos of the wreck. But really what's the deal with the plughole thing? The bolts didn't look rusty so it's been used for something.

[sdreid]

Thanks Cel! Yes, I remember when that final 106 year-old survivor died right after the memorial plague was unveiled. It was quite poignant and fitting somehow.

A couple of hundred people were on the dance floor on the upper deck when the boat struck the object, whatever it was, around midnight. The vessel then lurched violently to one side and threw many of them into the water. These mostly drowned and accounted for most of the deaths. The upper part of the boat remained above water when it settled onto the bottom.

I see that there were about 500 on the boat when it sank.

[Mike Covell]

Mike, Congrats on the new paranormal site. I loved your holiday pics. Tom was passing through, and I called him over to look at them with me. He really enjoyed the photos of the wreck. But really what's the deal with the plughole thing? The bolts didn't look rusty so it's been used for something.

Hi Celesta, we discovered the wreck was a former medical ship, it was made of iron, but covered in barnacles and other sea creatures, it was lovely. The surrounding area was strewn with debris, and rock pools had formed, which where full of life, and Alyssa and I had great fun, whilst susan complained about the sand in her toes!

I am not sure about the plug hole, this was one of three, and they looked recent, but we asked the locals and they didn't have a clue either! I think it's probably a sewage system of sorts.

[Celesta]

Stan, what a tragic and bizarre thing to happen. So many drowned.


Mike,They probably are drain holes of some sort. Seems an odd place though. Wasn't there a dike or some sort of flood control structure there? Maybe they had something to do with that. It looks like an area of really high tides.

[Mike Covell]

They were on the concrete walkway going out towards the sea, when the tide comes in, they are submersed, so I have no idea what they are for, although I did tell Bradley it was a giant plug hole to let the sea out!

[Celesta]

Ahhh....I was thinking there might be some kind of instrumentation down in there having to do with...well...letting the sea out.

[Ron Beckett]

Mike's Pirate Grave

Hi to all. In your post about standing next to the grave with the skull and crossbones,Mike, are you sure it was a pirates. I'm sure you know that the skull and crossbones is/was originally placed on freemasons graves. The practice supposedly started with the flags of privateers who were British,mainly raiding Spanish ships and the Skull and Bones was their flag as they weren't officially English.
I may have some of this a bit mixed up but Hollywood has a lot to answer for in this case. I think after reading 'Holy Blood,Holy Grail' I noticed some pictures of the gravestones with said markings.
I finished the book I mentioned in my last post,'Prince Jack,' and it was about a bunch of Aussie mediums who toured Britain in about 1999. It had some interesting stuff,especially as they seem to have no prior knowledge of JTR history. Worth a look, especially for those with an open mind on mediums.
Hope everyone has battled through their medical problems. I have my own, plus daughter problems!

[Celesta]

Stan,

Got the NRA training class this weekend. I hope I don't make a fool of myself.

Ron, the name of the book was Death of a Prince, right? It sounds like the kind of thing that would be fun to read, even if you didn't believe all of the theories. I hope the daughter problem gets worked out soon.

[sdreid]

Good deal Cel. Women are usually better natural shots than men. Guys get too excited at first and can't hold the gun on the target.

[Mike Covell]

Hi Ron, It's a genuine Pirates Grave all right. There are several records available at the Museum regarding the grave and the practice of burying pirates. At one point the East Coast was known for them and Whitby had several large guns, and lookout posts along the harbour, in case any of the ships got too close to the port.

The graves are different to every other grave in the cemetery. The rest are typical upright stones, with inscriptions. The Pirate graves are small blocks, knee high, with nothing written on them, just the skull and cross bones.

[Celesta]

Stan,

All done! I did great! I couldn't believe it! Got a nice certificate. Long class, but the instructor and his assistant were excellent! Out of 38 shots, 32 were in the 4 inch circle and the rest in the body. Both teachers were very happy with both me and my hubby. I never even expected to hit the target.

[sdreid]

Hi Cel,

Good work! Are you an NRA member? If so, that makes two of us.

[Celesta]

Not yet. It's their certification though. Got a nice logo at the bottom. They really do stress the safety aspects and the proper use and care, etc. I was impressed. We still have a lot to learn. This guy gives you a little copy of the certification. You use it at his range and he is authorized to continue to teach you. I told myself I was not going to be intimidated. I didn't even pay attention to any recoil. Of course, this was a heavy pistol so there wasn't much. Just concentrated on what he taught us. It makes a tremendous difference. Need more training on the other types of handguns that we didn't get a chance to try. The course ran from 10:30 until 6 PM. I have the NRA website bookmarked though. If you sign up on it, they send updates and stuff. What a day!