Great Disappearances

[PaulB]

They were swept away by an exceptionally large wave or waves.

As with Mary Celeste, where the mystery is not so much what happened to those on board as why they left a seaworthy ship, the mystery of the lighthouse keepers is not what happened to them, but why they were out in a storm (and why one was in his shirt sleeves and left his post in contravention of the rules).

[Mayerling]

Now, the vanishing Lighthouse Keepers, on the other hand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles

Hi Harry,

Actually I thought Dr. Who solved that as an alien invasion which he defeated. Only the island's name was changed to "Fang Island".

Jeff

[PaulB]

The 'mystery' of the Mary Celeste is kind of lost on me. The classic ghost ship story was the result of an alcohol leak which caused the crew to abandon ship, whereupon they were cut adrift. A few months later two rafts were found off the coast of Spain containing five decomposed bodies, one wrapped in an American flag, most likely part of the missing crew.

Now, the vanishing Lighthouse Keepers, on the other hand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles

I dont think so, Harry.

[Graham]

Part of Amelia Earhart's plane ID'd

http://news.discovery.com/history/us...ane-141028.htm

I kind of lean towards acceptance that Earhart and Noonan crash-landed on Nikumaroro (Gardner Island), but not because of any 'evidence' that bits of the Lockheed Electra have been found; more because of what has been found on land. I would have to say that both flyers survived the crash-landing (assuming that's what it was) but could not survive a very hostile environment, with little or nothing in the way of supplies, and no fresh water. The only fly in the ointment is that the island was inhabited by British personnel looking at the possibility of establishing a flying-boat station there. The British were there only a few months after Earhart's failed round-the-world flight, and as far as I'm aware reported nothing untoward in terms of aircraft wreckage, artifacts, human remains, etc., etc. TIGHAR has claimed that parts of the Electra, human remains, and pieces of personal belongings (shoes, cosmetic jars, etc) have been found, but these claims are disputed at the highest level (eg, the Smithsonian). This case has fascinated me for years, but I've long had the suspicion that all is not what it might seem with regard to investigations since 1937.

You can Google TIGHAR.

Graham

[GUT]

Part of Amelia Earhart's plane ID'd

http://news.discovery.com/history/us-history/aluminum-fragment-appears-to-belong-to-earharts-plane-141028.htm

[Harry D]

The 'mystery' of the Mary Celeste is kind of lost on me. The classic ghost ship story was the result of an alcohol leak which caused the crew to abandon ship, whereupon they were cut adrift. A few months later two rafts were found off the coast of Spain containing five decomposed bodies, one wrapped in an American flag, most likely part of the missing crew.

Now, the vanishing Lighthouse Keepers, on the other hand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles

[Mayerling]

G'day Jeff

The story goes that in 1915 in Turkey during the Gallipoli Campaign some NZ soldiers on scout duty saw a company from the Norfolk Regiment march up a Hill shrouded in mist and cloud.

As they marched into the cloud they disappeared from view.

As the last of the company entered the mist it rose, leaving nothing to be seen they had simply, if you accept the account of the Kiwi's, vanished.

After the war the British asked the Turks if they were prisoners or had been taken in battle, the answer was no.

It has been claimed that they were taken in battle, one account claims by the Germans another by the Turks, however if the NZ soldiers are to be believed this seems impossible the lifting cloud would have had to reveal something.

Thanks GUT for clearing up the background for me.

There are a number of vanishing incidents in both World Wars that are settled with weakness. In 1918 the USS Cyclops vanished supposedly in the Bermuda Triangle with the loss of over 300 men. It was possibly badly stored with ballast and materiel, or top heavy (it had a curious structure), or hit by a rogue wave, or manganese in it's cargo may have eaten through the hull, or it was turned over by it's skipper to the Germans (the skipper was a German-American), or it hit a mine or was torpedoed. But there was supposedly no record in Germany of the sinking of the Cyclops by German sub or mine. I find this hard to believe. There seems to have been a state of desperate hate in some German U-Boat commanders towards allied ships. Only a month or so before the Cyclops was lost a U-boat literally murdered lifeboats full of doctors and nurses in the sinking of the Llandovery Castle in the Irish Sea by ramming the lifeboats. If that was possible, the sinking of the Cyclops could have been covered up too.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

There was an episode regarding Stardust about 15 years ago on NOVA, I think. It's also known as the "STENDEC" incident because that was the ship's mysterious last message in Morse code; actually sent three times. A popular theory is that the plane crashed while being menaced by a UFO and that the message was somehow related to that. That's the most fun explanation.

Hi Stan,

I recall a similar story on NOVA a year or two back about the discovery in recent years of a missing airliner's wreckage from the Andes - the plane had vanished in the late 1940s. It seemed to have a similar problem about the final message sent.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

I grew up reading Frank Edwards! I don't think it was so much a disregard for the truth, as that he normally worked from memory, without going back to check sources. Still, the man knew how to tell a tale!

Hi Ginger,

Edwards' book "Stranger Than Fiction" was (with Ripley's "Believe It Or Not!" series) the first odd story books that crossed my attention. But I've seen so many of these stories debunked over the years that I realize they should be classified under fiction more than fact. Edwards was a newspaper man, so he certainly knew a story that would catch attention.

Jeff

[Ginger]

I feel Lang did not exist either. I first came across his fate in a book by Frank Edwards, who many students of mysteries feel liked to tell a good sounding story whether it was true or not.

I grew up reading Frank Edwards! I don't think it was so much a disregard for the truth, as that he normally worked from memory, without going back to check sources. Still, the man knew how to tell a tale!

[sdreid]

There was an episode regarding Stardust about 15 years ago on NOVA, I think. It's also known as the "STENDEC" incident because that was the ship's mysterious last message in Morse code; actually sent three times. A popular theory is that the plane crashed while being menaced by a UFO and that the message was somehow related to that. That's the most fun explanation.

[PaulB]

deleted post

[GUT]

G'day Jeff

The story goes that in 1915 in Turkey during the Gallipoli Campaign some NZ soldiers on scout duty saw a company from the Norfolk Regiment march up a Hill shrouded in mist and cloud.

As they marched into the cloud they disappeared from view.

As the last of the company entered the mist it rose, leaving nothing to be seen they had simply, if you accept the account of the Kiwi's, vanished.

After the war the British asked the Turks if they were prisoners or had been taken in battle, the answer was no.

It has been claimed that they were taken in battle, one account claims by the Germans another by the Turks, however if the NZ soldiers are to be believed this seems impossible the lifting cloud would have had to reveal something.

[Mayerling]

G'day PaulB

Do you mean the "Norfolk Regiment".

What did happen to them, I've never seen any convincing answer. I know that at one stage the Turks were asked, just after the war I think, know that a military historian claimed that they had simply been decimated in battle, but his work was not really persuasive [though there may be other work I haven't seen].

Hi GUT,

I take it this disappearance/massacre was in some engagement in the First World War between the British and the Ottoman Empire (it's not at Gallipoli, I feel, but during the Mesopotamian River Campaign disaster possibly?). Otherwise it is some incident that was covered up during the Crimean War that Britain and the Ottomans (then allies against Russia) had to cover up together. Please explain it to me.

Jeff

[PaulB]

Hi
They were shot. The bodies were dumped in a ravine, from where they were recovered after the war. I covered it in a Fortean Times article and my book Into Thin Air. There was another book about it which accompanied a TV drama. I'll try to get some more details tomorrow.