Post by Catsmate on Feb 16, 2016 14:31:59 GMT
Keeping on my recent nautical theme here's another ship with an associated mystery, the Russian freighter Ivan Vassili.
Initially there was nothing special about the Ivan Vassili, it was a mundane steamer built in 1897 as a short ranged cargo vessel in the Baltic trade, carrying cargo from St. Petersburg to various destinations. Her construction was typical for the time, riveted iron plates with a wooden deck and superstructure; triple-expansion (piston) coal-fired steam engines drove her at a maximum speed of around eleven knots (about 21km/hr), with a range of about three thousand kilometres at eight knots (about two hundred hours cruising). This allowed a return trip without coaling. Her early career is said to be uneventful.
All that changed in 1904. In that year, thanks to numerous ongoing disputes, the Russo-Japanese War began
The Ivan Vassili was taken into Imperial service as a cargo ship carrying war materials to the beleaguered Russian forces in Vladivostok, a distance of about 27,000km. To achieve this the ship would need to refuel several times over a journey of three months or more. Additional supplies were loaded aboard for the crew and coal was stowed everywhere it could be crammed, even piled in sacks on deck. Her route was through the North Sea, around the Irish coast into the Atlantic. It had been planned to pass through the Suez canal but that little incident in the North Sea closed that route to Russian ships, so the Ivan Vassili (after coaling at Cadiz) steamed south along the west coast of Africa, coaling in Capetown before heading north along the east coast of Africa to Zanzibar. There more coal was loaded filling her bunkers and again stowing sacks of coal wherever they could be fitted for the trip across the Indian Ocean.
But something else was loaded at Zanzibar, something that would cause many deaths on the Ivan Vassili.
The nightmare began slowly, initially the crew enjoyed the climate of the Indian Ocean, a far cry from the cold and windy Baltic they were used to and the weather was pleasant.
But some of the the crew complained of feeling a presence on board. Things didn’t feel right, people were on edge. No-one could describe what exactly was wrong, but many did agree that something was wrong. Sailors claimed to have felt an invisible creature or entity walking amongst them. Some claimed to have felt a strange chill and a sensation of being watched, even when working alone.
This continued for over a week, and then things got worse.
Ten days or so after leaving port, the crew were just preparing to change watch at midnight when those on deck saw an apparition. It appeared human but it's face, and even details of it's clothes, were blurred and impossible to make out. It seemed to be encompassed by a misty halo, glowing slightly in the dark. The creature strolled across the deck and disappeared around a lifeboat. When the astonished crew investigated, nothing was to be found.
The apparition wasn't seen for the remainder of the ship's voyage, though the oppressive sensation of being watched continued.
The next way-point for the Ivan Vassili was the Russian naval base at Port Arthur where they were supposed to discharge some cargo and refuel for the leg to Vladivostok. Tensions were high as the base was under Japanese siege and the ship carried no radio, so the last news they had was what they'd been told by the consul at Zanzibar. Running without light and at speed, burning hoarded coal, the ship headed for the port. Early of the night the captain had planned to run for the port the next weird event occurred.
A few hours from the port a crewman on deck suddenly screamed horrifyingly; as if this was a signal the crew went berserk and a wild melee began with the men not knowing what they were doing. This episode ended as abruptly as it had begun, with one seaman (named Alex Govinski according to some sources) hurling himself into the ocean. The remaining combatants collapsed to the deck, injured and exhausted. The captain had witnessed the battle and could find no explanation, thinking it a result of hysteria from the tension of the journey, though wild stories of demonic possession spread among the more superstitious of the crew.
The vessel made port without further incident and didn't mention the fight to the naval authorities, just reporting one man lost at sea. After re-fuelling and re-provisioning the final leg of the voyage, to Vladivostok, got under way.
Initially on edge the crew were relieved when nothing happened after leaving Port Arthur. The, three days at sea, all hell broke loose. That morning most of the crew went on another screaming, hysterical rampage. Again it lasted only a couple of minutes and caused no major injuries, with those involved collapsing on deck afterwards. But in the melee another man had thrown himself overboard.
The rest of the journey to Vladivostok took four days. There twelve crew members abandoned ship, so afraid were they of whatever was aboard their ship that they risked the wrath of the military authorities by jumping ship, a few even before the cargo hatches were opened.
Alas there was a war on and the military rounded them up quickly and returned to the Ivan Vassili. The ship was placed under armed guard with few men allowed off her while they remained in port. Unloading the cargo and loading a fresh one for Hong Kong took a few days, and the ship was again crammed with coal for the 3,900km trip.
Again things remained quite aboard for the first few days of the eleven day voyage; some men breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that whatever had caused their troubles had been unloaded, to plague of the garrison of Vladivostok. They were wrong.
It started again on the third day, in the early afternoon another hysterical frenzy happened, and another crew member killed himself. But that night it repeated again, this time with the return of the glowing apparition; a fourth by suicide and a fifth man (a stoker) who seeming died from a heart attack in the engine room. Some said he'd died of fear.
The last week was tense, men jumped at shadows and several were injured in accidents caused by lack of sleep and inattention. But things were mostly calm until they reached the port of Hong Kong, where shore leave had been promised.
Just as the ship reached the port the captain (Sven Andrist) flung himself overboard and drowned. This time in the relatively calm waters of the bay his body was recovered but there was no obvious reason for his action. After docking nothing could keep the crew aboard; taking what pay was available (not even waiting for the Russian consul to arrive) they deserted en-masse leaving only the second mate (Christ Hansen) and five Scandinavian seamen on the ship.
Appointed captain by the ship's owners after an exchange of telegrams Hansen (who seems to have displayed an incredible sense of duty) hired a new crew for the Ivan Vassili. This time they loaded a small amount of cargo for Australia where they were supposed to load wool for the first part of the return voyage to Russia, via the United States and South America.
The voyage south to the Australian coast was free of apparitions, hysteria or mysterious deaths. Until, that is, a few hours before arriving in Sydney. In his cabin captain Hansen took out a revolver, property of the deceased captain Andrist, and shot himself three times. He died of the wounds.
Not unexpectedly, as word of the previous incidents had spread amongst the crew, this triggered another found of desertions. As soon as the ship docked most of the crew fled, pursued by the police who wanted to investigate the apparent suicide of captain Hansen.
Only a few men remained, the most senior being the boatswain, a Briton named Harry Nelson. The owners attempted, using him and the local consul, to recruit a crew byt word had spread and it took more than three months. No sailor wanted to go near the Ivan Vassili, so the men hired were the young, the old, the drunk and the desperate.
With the Russo-Japanese war now over, the vessel put to sea headed for San Francisco. The trip proceeded smoothly for a week; they another screaming melee happened. However there was no suicide this time but two seaman didn't recover an had to be confined.
The following morning, they were both found dead.
The next day the captain, selected for skepticism of the supernatural, put the same revolver Hansen had used into his mouth and pulled the trigger.
The crew had had enough and changed course, heading to Vladivostok. When they docked the entire crew left the ship and refused to return. Despite the offers of rewards and incentives (and some threats) nothing would convince them to return to the ship. Most found other berths but three are believed to have died in the city.
Word of the haunting had spread and no crew could be found; it was even impossible to hire men to stand watch on the docked ship. No-one would spend a night aboard her.
For two years the Ivan Vassili lay abandoned in Vladivostok harbour, until the winter of 1907.
After the ship was moved to a new berth, a number of minor incidents occurred, and the sailors of Vladivostock had had enough of the haunted ship. On a bitterly cold, clear night, more than fifty men gathered flammables and went to out to the Ivan Vassili in a dozen small boats. Operating in groups, never alone, and fortified with vodka, they set the ship ablaze and watched her burn. Eventually the authorities noticed and a tug was sent to drag the burning ship out to sea where eventually she sank after smouldering for a day.
Whatever was aboard the Ivan Vassili seems to have died with her.
It's a hell1 of a story and some elements of it may even be true, though while the tale is recounted in a number of books, I've found damn all primary sources to support it. There's even an article in the 'Chicago Tribune' of 21 April 1907 that tells a very similar story about a haunted Russian ship, called the Parrier, with some differences in details. That alleged vessel was abandoned off Santa Monica in California.
Whatever the truth of the story it's perfect for a Who scenario. Do the players arrive on the ship in a misdirected TARDIS (boring!) or are they pulled in by a mysterious force? Just what was loaded at Zanzibar, was it perhaps a artefact of some long vanished, or alien, civilisation2 that a sailor had bought (or stolen and killed for)? What is the creature? What are it's powers and intentions? Is it trying to communicate, only for it's telepathic influence to drive humans mad perhaps? How can it be stopped?
Add in a little wartime paranoia ("Just where did you come from?") and it's perfect for a fairly classic 'base in peril' game with possessed sailors (and PCs!).
Of course the problems might not have started at Zanzibar; perhaps the coaling disturbed something that'd been loaded back in Russia. An alien weapon being shipped for use against the Japanese navy perhaps?
Alternatively what if, years later, someone decides to investigate the wreck of the Ivan Vassili? It could be the Soviets, looking for technology useful to their psionic weapons research programme during the UNIT era or simply interested in a possibly alien weapon.
Or, after the USSR falls, UNIT might learn the truth about the events (secret Imperial Russian weapon experiment using alien technology?) and decide to salvage the ship. Of course they're not the only ones interested. Add some post-USSR intrigue (especially in the chaotic late 1990s) and a power-crazed oligarch with dreams of world domination for flavour3.
And then the whole thing might be a hoax, faked by a former KGB officer in the mould of the Hitler Diaries.
A GM could also relocate the sinking to another port entirely.
Links.
A webpage about the Chicago Tribune story.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. Pun very much intended.
2. The Fendahl, Osirans, Silurians, Exxilons and other pisionic races for example.
3. I recommend watching The Living Daylights, GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies for inspiration and local flavour.
maratime
Initially there was nothing special about the Ivan Vassili, it was a mundane steamer built in 1897 as a short ranged cargo vessel in the Baltic trade, carrying cargo from St. Petersburg to various destinations. Her construction was typical for the time, riveted iron plates with a wooden deck and superstructure; triple-expansion (piston) coal-fired steam engines drove her at a maximum speed of around eleven knots (about 21km/hr), with a range of about three thousand kilometres at eight knots (about two hundred hours cruising). This allowed a return trip without coaling. Her early career is said to be uneventful.
All that changed in 1904. In that year, thanks to numerous ongoing disputes, the Russo-Japanese War began
The Ivan Vassili was taken into Imperial service as a cargo ship carrying war materials to the beleaguered Russian forces in Vladivostok, a distance of about 27,000km. To achieve this the ship would need to refuel several times over a journey of three months or more. Additional supplies were loaded aboard for the crew and coal was stowed everywhere it could be crammed, even piled in sacks on deck. Her route was through the North Sea, around the Irish coast into the Atlantic. It had been planned to pass through the Suez canal but that little incident in the North Sea closed that route to Russian ships, so the Ivan Vassili (after coaling at Cadiz) steamed south along the west coast of Africa, coaling in Capetown before heading north along the east coast of Africa to Zanzibar. There more coal was loaded filling her bunkers and again stowing sacks of coal wherever they could be fitted for the trip across the Indian Ocean.
But something else was loaded at Zanzibar, something that would cause many deaths on the Ivan Vassili.
The nightmare began slowly, initially the crew enjoyed the climate of the Indian Ocean, a far cry from the cold and windy Baltic they were used to and the weather was pleasant.
But some of the the crew complained of feeling a presence on board. Things didn’t feel right, people were on edge. No-one could describe what exactly was wrong, but many did agree that something was wrong. Sailors claimed to have felt an invisible creature or entity walking amongst them. Some claimed to have felt a strange chill and a sensation of being watched, even when working alone.
This continued for over a week, and then things got worse.
Ten days or so after leaving port, the crew were just preparing to change watch at midnight when those on deck saw an apparition. It appeared human but it's face, and even details of it's clothes, were blurred and impossible to make out. It seemed to be encompassed by a misty halo, glowing slightly in the dark. The creature strolled across the deck and disappeared around a lifeboat. When the astonished crew investigated, nothing was to be found.
The apparition wasn't seen for the remainder of the ship's voyage, though the oppressive sensation of being watched continued.
The next way-point for the Ivan Vassili was the Russian naval base at Port Arthur where they were supposed to discharge some cargo and refuel for the leg to Vladivostok. Tensions were high as the base was under Japanese siege and the ship carried no radio, so the last news they had was what they'd been told by the consul at Zanzibar. Running without light and at speed, burning hoarded coal, the ship headed for the port. Early of the night the captain had planned to run for the port the next weird event occurred.
A few hours from the port a crewman on deck suddenly screamed horrifyingly; as if this was a signal the crew went berserk and a wild melee began with the men not knowing what they were doing. This episode ended as abruptly as it had begun, with one seaman (named Alex Govinski according to some sources) hurling himself into the ocean. The remaining combatants collapsed to the deck, injured and exhausted. The captain had witnessed the battle and could find no explanation, thinking it a result of hysteria from the tension of the journey, though wild stories of demonic possession spread among the more superstitious of the crew.
The vessel made port without further incident and didn't mention the fight to the naval authorities, just reporting one man lost at sea. After re-fuelling and re-provisioning the final leg of the voyage, to Vladivostok, got under way.
Initially on edge the crew were relieved when nothing happened after leaving Port Arthur. The, three days at sea, all hell broke loose. That morning most of the crew went on another screaming, hysterical rampage. Again it lasted only a couple of minutes and caused no major injuries, with those involved collapsing on deck afterwards. But in the melee another man had thrown himself overboard.
The rest of the journey to Vladivostok took four days. There twelve crew members abandoned ship, so afraid were they of whatever was aboard their ship that they risked the wrath of the military authorities by jumping ship, a few even before the cargo hatches were opened.
Alas there was a war on and the military rounded them up quickly and returned to the Ivan Vassili. The ship was placed under armed guard with few men allowed off her while they remained in port. Unloading the cargo and loading a fresh one for Hong Kong took a few days, and the ship was again crammed with coal for the 3,900km trip.
Again things remained quite aboard for the first few days of the eleven day voyage; some men breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that whatever had caused their troubles had been unloaded, to plague of the garrison of Vladivostok. They were wrong.
It started again on the third day, in the early afternoon another hysterical frenzy happened, and another crew member killed himself. But that night it repeated again, this time with the return of the glowing apparition; a fourth by suicide and a fifth man (a stoker) who seeming died from a heart attack in the engine room. Some said he'd died of fear.
The last week was tense, men jumped at shadows and several were injured in accidents caused by lack of sleep and inattention. But things were mostly calm until they reached the port of Hong Kong, where shore leave had been promised.
Just as the ship reached the port the captain (Sven Andrist) flung himself overboard and drowned. This time in the relatively calm waters of the bay his body was recovered but there was no obvious reason for his action. After docking nothing could keep the crew aboard; taking what pay was available (not even waiting for the Russian consul to arrive) they deserted en-masse leaving only the second mate (Christ Hansen) and five Scandinavian seamen on the ship.
Appointed captain by the ship's owners after an exchange of telegrams Hansen (who seems to have displayed an incredible sense of duty) hired a new crew for the Ivan Vassili. This time they loaded a small amount of cargo for Australia where they were supposed to load wool for the first part of the return voyage to Russia, via the United States and South America.
The voyage south to the Australian coast was free of apparitions, hysteria or mysterious deaths. Until, that is, a few hours before arriving in Sydney. In his cabin captain Hansen took out a revolver, property of the deceased captain Andrist, and shot himself three times. He died of the wounds.
Not unexpectedly, as word of the previous incidents had spread amongst the crew, this triggered another found of desertions. As soon as the ship docked most of the crew fled, pursued by the police who wanted to investigate the apparent suicide of captain Hansen.
Only a few men remained, the most senior being the boatswain, a Briton named Harry Nelson. The owners attempted, using him and the local consul, to recruit a crew byt word had spread and it took more than three months. No sailor wanted to go near the Ivan Vassili, so the men hired were the young, the old, the drunk and the desperate.
With the Russo-Japanese war now over, the vessel put to sea headed for San Francisco. The trip proceeded smoothly for a week; they another screaming melee happened. However there was no suicide this time but two seaman didn't recover an had to be confined.
The following morning, they were both found dead.
The next day the captain, selected for skepticism of the supernatural, put the same revolver Hansen had used into his mouth and pulled the trigger.
The crew had had enough and changed course, heading to Vladivostok. When they docked the entire crew left the ship and refused to return. Despite the offers of rewards and incentives (and some threats) nothing would convince them to return to the ship. Most found other berths but three are believed to have died in the city.
Word of the haunting had spread and no crew could be found; it was even impossible to hire men to stand watch on the docked ship. No-one would spend a night aboard her.
For two years the Ivan Vassili lay abandoned in Vladivostok harbour, until the winter of 1907.
After the ship was moved to a new berth, a number of minor incidents occurred, and the sailors of Vladivostock had had enough of the haunted ship. On a bitterly cold, clear night, more than fifty men gathered flammables and went to out to the Ivan Vassili in a dozen small boats. Operating in groups, never alone, and fortified with vodka, they set the ship ablaze and watched her burn. Eventually the authorities noticed and a tug was sent to drag the burning ship out to sea where eventually she sank after smouldering for a day.
Whatever was aboard the Ivan Vassili seems to have died with her.
It's a hell1 of a story and some elements of it may even be true, though while the tale is recounted in a number of books, I've found damn all primary sources to support it. There's even an article in the 'Chicago Tribune' of 21 April 1907 that tells a very similar story about a haunted Russian ship, called the Parrier, with some differences in details. That alleged vessel was abandoned off Santa Monica in California.
Whatever the truth of the story it's perfect for a Who scenario. Do the players arrive on the ship in a misdirected TARDIS (boring!) or are they pulled in by a mysterious force? Just what was loaded at Zanzibar, was it perhaps a artefact of some long vanished, or alien, civilisation2 that a sailor had bought (or stolen and killed for)? What is the creature? What are it's powers and intentions? Is it trying to communicate, only for it's telepathic influence to drive humans mad perhaps? How can it be stopped?
Add in a little wartime paranoia ("Just where did you come from?") and it's perfect for a fairly classic 'base in peril' game with possessed sailors (and PCs!).
Of course the problems might not have started at Zanzibar; perhaps the coaling disturbed something that'd been loaded back in Russia. An alien weapon being shipped for use against the Japanese navy perhaps?
Alternatively what if, years later, someone decides to investigate the wreck of the Ivan Vassili? It could be the Soviets, looking for technology useful to their psionic weapons research programme during the UNIT era or simply interested in a possibly alien weapon.
- It could even be earlier than that, during the Russian Civil War or World War 2. In fact a Civil War setting opens the possibility for British, American or Japanese salvage efforts during the chaos of the Allied intervention.
Or, after the USSR falls, UNIT might learn the truth about the events (secret Imperial Russian weapon experiment using alien technology?) and decide to salvage the ship. Of course they're not the only ones interested. Add some post-USSR intrigue (especially in the chaotic late 1990s) and a power-crazed oligarch with dreams of world domination for flavour3.
And then the whole thing might be a hoax, faked by a former KGB officer in the mould of the Hitler Diaries.
A GM could also relocate the sinking to another port entirely.
Links.
A webpage about the Chicago Tribune story.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. Pun very much intended.
2. The Fendahl, Osirans, Silurians, Exxilons and other pisionic races for example.
3. I recommend watching The Living Daylights, GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies for inspiration and local flavour.
maratime
