According to some myths that have been doing rounds of folklores around the world since time immemorial, and these myths say that the entire world is dotted with hundreds of treasures from the ancient times something, that if found will change the world entirely. Numerous people have tried their luck to find some of these famous treasure spots in the search for riches from the ancient times. When seen from a historical point of view, there's no question on the existence of these treasure troves as these stories have stemmed from the abrupt disappearances of great civilizations like that of Atlantis, that is said to be among one of the greatest civilizations that is said to be submerged in the Atlantic ocean at its fall. Similar were the tales of the kingdom of Dwarka, the mythological city of Lord Krishna that is also said to have been submerged down in the Arabian Sea, at the end of its existence span. It is not just these fallen civilizations but numerous instances of shipwrecks that too have been subject to speculations of containing incomparable wealth and articles of historical importance that do fetch a handsome amount in the international market of antiquities.
Adrian, a student at the University of Wisconsin, was doing his majors in Oceanographic studies when he came in contact with Professor James D. Barrey. He was considered an expert in the field of ocean mapping, and was also a notable personality in the field of marine exploration for shipwrecks under the vast expanse of the open seas and oceans in the Pacific. Though, most of these shipwrecks are considered to be from ocean liners that have been unlucky enough to get caught in the nature's fury, and got sunk down to the floors of the vast oceans. Some of these shipwrecks have stories revolving around them that point to a possibility of these shipwrecks being caused by mysterious characters in the seas and ghosts.
And it was during one of these lectures of Prof. Barrey that Adrian got to interact with him, and the subject matter the professor was talking about attracted Adrian's attention towards these mythical stories behind shipwrecks around the world. What made him more interested in these stories were the eerie similarity among these stories of shipwrecks that all of these mysterious stories revolved around unexplainable characters in the high seas, some attracting the sailors through their beauty and charm, while others did their work on the pretext of causing damage to the sailors and their vessels. Ghosts, and beautiful sea mermaids have prominently found a place in these folklores of shipwrecks in the high seas. One of these stories, from the folklores was told by Prof. Barrey during a lecture about the Infamous shipwreck of Osterocus, about 100 nautical miles off the eastern coast of the Hawaiian peninsula. According the folklores, as told by the professor during the lectures, the ship Osterocus had set sail in October of 1778. Renowned as one of the fastest sail driven ships of its times, Osterocus is said to be a magnificent piece of marine engineering.
The times were not very good, but the sailors are said to have had gathered a huge stockpile of treasures aboard the ship, along with a crew of more than 100 men on the large ship. It is said that two days into the journey, due to some thunderstorms, the crew lost its way and had drifted miles away from their original route only to reach a remote lonely island right in the middle of the vast ocean. The story says that as the crew was nearing the island, they all were mesmerised by melodious music that was there in the air. Music that titillated their senses so much so that dozens of the sailors are said to have jumped down into the open seas under the hypnotic influence of that melodious music. As the sailors kept jumping, the music never ceased and the ship was slowly drifting towards the island. When the day broke, and the remaining of the ship's crew came back to their senses, they found their ship stuck in a vast expanse of sea weed that had immobilized their ship. Bodies of their shipmates were all floating on the surface of the ocean, and there were bodies all over. Nearly half of the crew had jumped down the ship into the ocean and died. More than anything, they found that almost all of their treasures which consisted of precious metals, figurines and coins made up of gold and silver, had vanished when there was no way someone could have taken that huge a treasure at such a place.
According to the professor, the folklores say that the Osterocus was found sailing by itself almost a year after it had set sail, around a rather busy shipping route, by other ships navigating on the route. When repeated calls were ignored, the ship was mounted by some crews of these shipping vessels only to find that the ship had been abandoned, and while almost all of the treasures vanished, the food supplies, water, and the barrels of alcohol, were almost untouched as if these were placed on the ship and the crew never got onboard the ship.
An elated and spellbound Adrian had now found a new interest in the field of maritime research and wanted to explore further the secrets of the ocean.
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
No comments:
Post a Comment