April 20

Mary Celeste Redux?

Kaz II via CanadianContent

On 20 April, 2007, Australian authorities boarded a 9.8 meter catamaran off the northern coast. The boat, soon to be dubbed "the ghost yacht" by the press, had been spotted drifting with no sign of the crew on April 18 by a helicopter whose pilot reported it. Those who boarded the catamaran found everything normal and in order, just with no sign of the crew or what may have happened to them.

The yacht was named Kaz II, and not unlike the Mary Celeste, created a sensational mystery. It's condition when found was like a snapshot of daily life aboard. Food was set out on the table. A laptop was open and turned on. Although there were large tears in the sail, the engine was on and running. All the boat's systems, radio, GPS, etc. were fully functional. There just wasn't a crew.

Authorities quickly discovered the Kaz II had been crewed by her owner Derek Batten and his neighbors, brothers James and Peter Tunstead. Batten was a sailor with long experience and very safety minded, as were the Tunstead brothers. Forensic investigators found no signs of foul play. So what could have happened?

The Kaz II had left port early on April 15. Late that afternoon the yacht's GPS system showed her to be adrift. A video tape of footage taken by the crew and found on board had a date/time stamp for 10:00 am on the 15th, so it's fairly obvious the three men disappeared on their first day out.

The crew of the Kaz II via brisbanetimes

The coroner in charge of the inquest proposes a series of accidents based on conditions as seen on the tape. The seas were choppy and none of the men were wearing a life vest. Tunstead is seen fishing from the stern. Since a fishing line was found tangled in the propeller, the coroner proposed that one of the crew went overboard while trying to free it. Another, trying to help, either purposely or accidentally went overboard after the first man. Batten, who, on the tape, was at the helm, started the engine to come about and pick the others up, but then realized he would first have to drop the sail. When trying to do this the boom shifted, knocking him overboard, and the three were unable to catch and reboard the catamaran, which drifted away. While this is entirely possible and even plausible, it does seem to rely on a string of coincidences that are not entirely likely.

Other explanations include the yacht being stuck on a sandbar and the three being lost while trying to free it. Or a freak wave taking one of the crew and the others being lost while trying to rescue him. Or the possibility of the crew being taken off by another vessel. But to what purpose? And why not take the boat as well? Police ruled out a staged disappearance.

What happened is unlikely ever to be known. But at some point some critical happenstance struck the Kaz II, and her crew, unfortunately have joined the ranks of those who vanished at sea.

April 19

UFO Near the ISS, April 19, 2013

Today just these two videos, without comment.

April 18

An Aviator Vanishes

Damer Leslie Allen via Wikipedia

In 1912 aviation was still in it's infancy, and a risky proposition. That didn't stop most aviators, though. The Wrights first flew in 1903, a short hop of only 120 feet, and a mere six years later aircraft had developed sufficiently that the first air race was staged, in 1909. That same year Louis Bleriot became the first to fly the English Channel, in his Bleriot XI monoplane. Records were being broken almost on a daily basis. Newspapers offered cash prizes for the first pilot to accomplish this, that or the other aerial feat.

One thing that hadn't yet been done was to fly across the Irish sea. Robert Lorraine made the attempt in 1910, but crashed into the sea due to engine trouble. He had come so close, he was able to swim to shore afterward. Now, in April 1912, three young pilots- Denys Corbett Wilson, Damer Leslie Allen, and Vivian Hewitt- were vying to be the first.

Each wanted to have the best chance to succeed, so each chose the aircraft best suited for the crossing, and each chose the same aircraft. The planes selected were three identical Bleriot XIs, the plane it's creator had successfully flown across the Channel.

Wilson and Allen took off from Hendon early on the morning of April 17, (Hewitt's attempt began on the 26th) despite very strong winds. Allen reached Chester, but Corbett Wilson had lost his compass and had to land at Hereford. Allen, meanwhile had continued on to Holyhead, while Wilson was stuck at Colva with engine trouble.

The next day, April 18, 1912, Allen took off from Holyhead to make the crossing to Ireland. He and his plane were never seen again. It was assumed he crashed into the Irish Sea and died of drowning or exposure, but no body was ever found. He could have had engine problems, but the plane was performing perfectly up to his last takeoff. It is true that the weather was deteriorating, but it caused Corbett Wilson no problem, once his engine was set to rights.

Bleriot XI via Wikipedia

Could it have been an inherent problem with the Bleriot XI? In 1910 a series of accidents with Bleriot XIs occurred due to wing failure. Bleriot promptly solved the problem by strengthening the wing spars and the upper bracing wires. By 1912 all Bleriot XIs should have had this modification, but did they? Was Allen's plane an earlier model? If it was, could the heavy winds have overstressed the wings? The other two aircraft made the crossing quite well.

Oddly, Allen, at the time of his death, was being sued for the recovery of a Gainsborough painting which he had sold at Christie's for close to nine thousand pounds. At the time of his death his entire estate was worth only seven thousand. Could this have had anything to do with his disappearance? The court eventually found against him. Suspecting that outcome, might he have decided to go out a hero?

 

Vivian Hewitt, who successfully made the crossing the following week, gave his opinion that Allen simply didn't have enough experience to handle such a difficult flight. Yet Allen and Corbett Wilson had obtained their aviator's certificates at about the same time.

Damer Leslie Allen did not make the first heavier-than-air crossing of the Irish Sea. To the best of my knowledge, though, he was the first aviator to disappear under mysterious circumstances.

April 17

The Owlman

Mawnan Church via Wikipedia

June Melling's drawing
via Phantoms & Monsters

On April 17, 1976 the Melling family from Lancaster, England were in Cornwall on vacation. Vicky, 9 and her sister June, who was 12 at the time were walking in the woods near Mawnan church when they became frightened by a large winged creature hovering above the church tower. They ran to tell their father Don Melling, who decided to cut their vacation short, since the girls were so unsettled by the incident. Twelve year old June did a drawing of the creature.

Ten weeks later, on July 3, Sally Chapman, 14 and Barbara Perry were camping in those self-same woods near the church, when Sally, standing outside her tent, heard a strange hissing sound. When she turned to see what was making the noise she saw what looked like an owl as big as a man with pointed ears, red eyes and black talons. As both girls anxiously watched the thing leaped up and flew away. Other sightings the next day tallied with the girls' description, but added that the creature was silvery gray in color.

The beast was seen twice again in June and August of 1978, each time in close proximity to the church.

Researcher Jonathan Downes interviewed a young man to whom he gave the pseudonym Gavin, who saw the Owlman in 1989. Gavin and his girlfriend described the creature as gray and brown, about five feet tall and with glowing eyes.

Another sighting of the Owlman was by a woman tourist from Chicago in 1995. She described a man-bird with glowing eyes, pointed ears and a ghastly face with a wide mouth. She also mentioned the taloned wings.

British paranormal researchers Janet and Colin Bord suggest in their Modern Mysteries of the World that the sightings were of an escaped aviary bird. Some researchers suspect the eagle owl, which can grow over two feet long and have a wingspan close to six feet. Unfortunately the eagle owl doesn't tally very well with the descriptions and drawings given by the witnesses.

The last known sighting (of which I'm aware) was by a young woman in 2009.

April 16

An Actor's Ghost on an Army Post

Joint Base Lewis-McChord is an amalgamation of McChord Air Force Base and the Army's Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington. But back in 1927, it was just Fort Lewis. In fact, it hadn't even been that for long, since originally it was designated Camp Lewis.

The Red Shield Inn as it appeared in 1919
via HistoryLink

In 1918 construction started on the Red Shield Inn close on to Camp Lewis. It was run by the Salvation Army as an accommodation for the families and friends of the thousands of soldier staging through the camp in WWI. The 150 room inn was completed in August, 1918, three months before the war ended. The traffic through the post had fallen off by 1921, however, and the Salvation Army no longer had reason to maintain the inn. It was transferred to the Army Quartermaster Corps for the fee of one dollar. It continued to be run by the army up through 1972, when it's use as transient quarters ceased, due to fire and safety concerns.

In order to save the historically significant building from demolition, arrangements were made to turn it into Fort Lewis Military Museum, which it officially became in 1973. But all wasn't entirely well. In fact, if the stories are true, the Major-General commanding the post was led to call for an exorcism!

The story came out in April 16, 1987 edition of the Fort Lewis Ranger (at that time, the Fort's official paper). Something odd was going on in the museum. There were cold spots, unexplained sounds and alarms that would go off for no reason. Ever since the late 1920's people claimed seeing the sad (some said angry) ghost of a cowboy roaming the hallways. Things came to a head when guards reported seeing the ghost leave the building through a closed and locked door.

The ghost was said to be that of a silent movie actor who had been murdered  in his room at the Red Shield Inn in 1927, while The Patent Leather Kid was being filmed on the base.

Barbara Bower, the museum director at that time, told the Fort Lewis Ranger, "Things weren't getting done. Everybody was talking about the ghost. Something had to be done."

At some time between 1977 and 1980, Major-General Richard E. Cavazos supposedly authorized an exorcism. According to the legend, three Catholic priests performed the ceremony, and the ghost wasn't seen again. 

The problem is that the museum's current director can find no record of an exorcism ever being done, according to the Northwest Guardian, the post's current official paper.

Could there even have been a murder? After diligent research I could find no mention of one. I did find something odd, though. All the actor's in the film had filmographies going past 1927, save one.

Could this be John Kolb? via Tacoma Public Library

There is no record of actor John Kolb beyond 1927. Indeed, he only appeared in one film after The Patent Leather Kid, and that was a minor uncredited part in Three's A Crowd. The two movies were released days apart, so his minor bit in Three's A Crowd could have been filmed prior to his work at Fort Lewis. Unfortunately I have been unable to find out when and where and how he died. All records of him seem to vanish after 1927. Could Kolb have been the ghost?

I have seen The Patent Leather Kid, but have been hard pressed to find any stills from it. There are a few in the excellent image archives of the Tacoma Public Library. One particularly caught my eye. It is an unidentified actor leaning on part of the set. He strikes me as similar in appearance to Kolb, but the definition is just too poor to say one way or the other. And there the matter rests, with more questions than answers.

April 15

The Ghost in the Cellphone

Enlarged portion of Davis Photo via Houston Chronicle

At four in the afternoon of April 15, 2013, Marcella Davis was trying to get a shot of her nephew at Cleveland High School. He turned away when she tried to get the shot and she didn't take any others.

Ms. Davis wasn't familiar with the smartphone she used to take the picture, so her daughter was showing her how you could zoom in and out. That's when they noticed they had captured more than they thought.

In the background, behind the chain link fence, is the transparent figure of a man in 70's style clothing. Behind him, but less clear, is a figure of what appears to be a woman.

There are apps such as Ghost Cam designed to alter cellphone photos, but Ms. Davis claims to have no knowledge of how to use them. 

"I can promise you I did not make that picture up", she was quoted as saying.

Also on this date:

In 1987 respected economist Federico Caffee leaves his home at via Cadlolo 42, Montemario, in Rome early in the morning and vanishes. He is declared dead October 30, 1998, but no clue to what happened is ever found.

April 14

The Lady and the Loch

Mrs. Aldie Mackay via BBC News

It was a beautiful day, April 14, 1933. The afternoon was clear, cool and calm along the newly constructed A82 motorway near Abriachan. John and Aldie Mackay were on the road from Inverness heading toward their home in Drumnadrochit, where they ran the hotel. It was a very scenic route, since the road followed the rustic shore of Loch Ness. 

At 3:00 o'clock John was driving and Aldie was gazing out over the waters of the Loch. She soon noticed something big rolling and plunging in the water, and yelled for her husband to stop the car, which he did, but not soon enough to see anything but ripples.

As the couple watched, however, a large wake began to cross the Loch toward the Aldourie Pier on the opposite shore. They soon spotted two humps of something Mrs. Mackay described as "having a body like a whale…black, wet, with the water rolling off  it." It appeared to be about 12 to 15 feet in size. After observing the two humps moving along in an undulating manner for about a minute, it abruptly turned left until it had described a half-circle, and, with considerable churning of the water, sank from sight. The Mackays waited a half-hour in hopes of seeing the thing again, but the Loch remained calm, nothing disturbing the surface.

The Hugh Gray photo via Loch Ness Monster

Upon returning home they told their story to Alex Campbell, who was the water bailiff for the Loch Ness Fisheries Board and a part-time reporter. Since he had also seen the thing and the Mackay sighting details supported his own observations, he passed the story on to the Inverness Courier in May. It was the first well publicized sighting of the Loch Ness Monster in modern times, but certainly not the last.

As it turned out, 1933 was a banner year for Nessie since, just seven months later, the first photo appeared. It was taken by Mr. Hugh Gray, who was taking his usual walk after church when he spotted something rising out of the water. It only appeared for a few moments, then sank out of sight.