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Eulogy for the Lost

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Something a bit different this time, I'll be surprised if this drawing gets much attention since I understand it's sort of a personal project of love and really requires nostalgia goggles to give a sh*t about. But if you're interested in some mystery, some detective work, and a little bit of creepiness stick around.

A little information, I grew up as a little boy in the 90s and around the same time I was absolutely crazy about the Titanic, I was also crazy about sunken wrecks in general. I remember watching Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster on VHS at LEAST once a week obsessively, that's the Auspergers you see! XD But aside from that, I also watched another documentary almost just as much which was also recorded on VHS straight off of the TLC channel back in 1996 entitled "Bermuda Triangle: Secrets Revealed" One of the best and creepiest of any TV documentary on the subject I've seen even to date. But what fascinated my young mind more then anything was the abundance of exploring old creepy sunken boats an planes on the bottom of the ocean complete with overly creepy music and the lifeless almost haunting narration provided by Richard Crenna, the whole show having a very creepy Unsolved Mysteries-like feeling.

I recently felt inspired to re-watch this old show from my childhood and dug up the VHS though it was so old and fuzzy and muffled I decided as of last year to order a brand new VHS copy of it from the internet and proceeded to upload it in parts to my youtube channel. Months later I discovered comments on the videos claiming the show's stories were off for one of the wrecks (the Piper to be exact) which inspired me to do my own digging online. It felt great doing my own detective work and discovering what really happened to these long since sunk boats and planes from my past. : D

Recently, with my new found respect for vehicles the want to explore what really happened to them only felt more noble. As strange as it might sound, it almost felt owed. These old boats and planes gave me so much fascination and thrill watching them as a child, it felt so noble to try and uncover their stories for myself. They may be gone, but in their death they can have someone grow up with and care about them enough to do research, I feel that they then didn't die in vane. Sounds pretty familiar to Pinky's mindset about her own life come to think of it. :)

If anyone is interested in watching this old documentary I've been talking about, again you can watch it on my youtube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETo492…

Below I talk about the group of boats and planes bound together in eternity by this old show, that this tribute is to, and what I found out about them. You'll probably find it interesting. ^^

While I was doing some of my research I was quite randomly listening to the
Blue Oyster Cult's: Don't fear the ReaperI didn't notice it at the time but listening to it later I noticed the song is pretty fitting, especially the first couple lyrics. It's also got a good retro feeling, just like the boats and planes themselves and even the show. Another song I found fitting that I was listening to lately is Bob Walkenhorst's Sinking Hour


TBM Avenger FT-87: (top left)
Appearance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCcWpm…
This was the first wreck looked at during the show, it was early on during segment where the crew lead by Oceanographer Graham Hawkes was searching for the legendary Flight 19. FT-87 was one of a cluster of 5 Avengers all wrecked in close proximity, naturally it was suspected to be of Flight 19. I don't think I'll ever forget seeing those close up shots of the cockpit underwater with the interior and pilots seat totally covered in algie and corroded, it was very haunting. During the segment they tried to find the bureau number for the plane which is the actual number unique to the plane that could identify it. Oddly enough, even thinking so as a little kid, the show just abruptly gives up after showing that they were having trouble finding the numbers.

It wasn't until a couple days ago when I had a really cool thing happen. I watched a relatively random documentary from the 2000s (<--- watch that part) which itself had a segment on flight 19. To my extreme surprise and boyish glee they made a return to ol' FT-87 in this new show! I know how weird it sounds, but it was almost like seeing an old friend from your childhood, I was even surprised to see the ol' boy looked just about exactly the same as I'd seen him back in 1996.. a real testament to the durability of those old planes. Graham Hawks was even around for it again this time, though funny enough by the sound of it he didn't even seem to remember having seen FT-87 before. XD Turns out the idiots back in the first show weren't even looking in the right place for the numbers! The numbers are on the tail which had snapped off apparently when FT-87 slammed on the ocean floor, but luckily it'd landed right there on FT-87's left wing, FT-87's true name turned out to be: NAV 23990 and from that they were able to dig up the accident report, here's a cliffnote version taken from the document shown on screen:

"LOST AT SEA - Oct 9th 1943 - Returning to Fort Lauderdale after bombing run
Crew -
George Swint III (pilot)
Slc Sam Treese
Slc J Lewulis

-Pilot was of the opinion that right main tank had plenty of gas in it for glide bombing maneuvers. When his engine cut, pilot had about 400-500 ft altitude and was traveling at 160 knots. He made new attempt to switch to another tank or to make use of the emergency fuel pump. Trouble Board believes the engine suffered a lack of fuel, and feels that the reaction of the pilot during the emergency was poor. He had time to switch to another tank and to make use of the emergency pump - an act which might have eliminated the loss of the plane.

Pilot's Note: I then gave my aircrewman the order to stand by for a crash landing. I made a belly landing on the water, and te plane stayed afloat a sufficient time to allow my aircrewman and me to escape."



Beechcraft A23 # N3647Q: (top right)
Appearance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEriUa…
Ah yes, N3647Q, this little guy also holds some good memories for me. It's the only sunken plane of it's type that I've ever seen, that being a small personal plane rather then a warplane. It's also the only time I think I've ever seen an ROV explore the interior of one, as ethically questionable as doing so might have been. This was also that one that someone had mentioned on youtube that the show had some faulty information on. I was able to find this lil' guys true story and the fact that I was able to do so with a simple google search when a professional show couldn't gives me quite the feeling of accomplishment. Either the show was really bad on its research, or it just made it's story up to make it sound creepier. They claimed that N3647Q was a Piper (which it's not) and that according to police it'd been stolen from th airport and assumed to have been used to run drugs having never been seen again. Ignoring that garbage, here's this plane's TRUE story:

N6347Q was a 1967 Beech A23, he was privately owned by a Mr. Jerry Stonecipher who was 32 at the time according to records. On Dec 27, 1969 he was piloting N3647Q from Fort Lauderdale intending to fly to Opa Locka Florida. I'm not sure if the records are exactly correct, but they propose that the crash was caused by pilot error, an improper level-off/touchdown and that the plane was trying to land when it lost control. How the plane ended up landing in the ocean is still a mystery, there's a remark in the report apparently from the pilot himself saying "L GR KNOCKED OFF.LDG SUCCESSFULLY ABORTED. CIRCLED ARPT FOR ABT 1HR.FURTHER DMG DURG NEXT LDG." It's kinda hard to understand with the heavy use of shorthand, but it sounds like he had landing gear trouble and tried to land twice and circled for an hour after the first try. If anyone knows pilot jargon let me know if I'm reading it right.

I will say that looking at the reports, the way they coldly say that N3647Q's status is: DEREGISTERED is just a little bit unsettling, considering it's actually under the ocean.



Scarab Speedboat: (bottom left) "Nice boat when it's smooth, but when it gets rough out there these... probably not the safest thing to be in..."
Appearance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCcWpm…
Oh this speedboat... oh boy! You know we all have our scary moments in our childhood, well this guy was one of them, Heck my mom probably remembers me telling her how creeped out it made me and me making her watch it to see what I man. It's definitely not the boat's fault even if it is sorta freaky looking to be honest, but for whatever reason the show decided to pull out ALL the punches when they looked at this boat. The most horrifying music you've ever heard in a documentary and perhaps even in movies, that coupled with the emotionless ROV controller talking about what he thinks happened and going on about "low water lines" oh god.. >-< *shivers* Just watch the link if you don't believe me!

Man.. well, anyway, unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything on this boat's story. Unlike planes which are pretty obviously numbered and extensively tracked, boats seem to be a lot harder to find identification for. The only writing I could find on the thing was a marking of "US-1" which might point that it used to live right off of US-1 highway, a coastal highway on the east side of Florida. As for the drug-running angle the show was pushing, for all I know it could be true, speedboats are notorious for being used to run drugs with their high speed and ability to avoid radar. But that epic gold centipede looking decal on it's side looks like it might have been a custom job, leading me to think it had an owner who cared about it, not some drug runnner just wanting a fast boat. Unless the boat was stolen, which is a possibility, but who knows. Heck this is the first one in this picture where I honestly don't know if it was a fatal sinking or not. Someone on youtube kept going on about that when these boats are used for drug running they usually meet another ship outside of international waters, unload their cargo, and then the speedboat is sunk purposely. So because there are signs the sinking happened at night that could be what really happened. But I don't think we'll ever know for sure, and honestly the mystery keeps this boat a bit creepy.

I had NOTHING to go on when trying to look up this boat other then it was a speedboat. I thought finding the model of the boat would help find records on it but alas no. But I didn't. Amazingly I was able to find out what kind of boat it was, and even more shocking, I found out that it's actually like the Christine or Herbie of the boat world! It's a 1987 Wellcraft 38 Scarab KV, which turned out to be a model of boat made famous for being in Miami Vice!
fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp7UIU…



30' Sportcraft Sportfisherman 300 Big Mom: (middle) "her name was the big mom, the trail ended there..."
Appearance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCcWpm…
One of the most haunting when you first see her, you're not expecting to see her and then suddenly bam and the way she looms out of the dark surrounded by merky dirty looking water, the way she just sits there elegantly almost looking like she's sailing on the ocean floor right towards you.. it's pretty surreal! The show kinda helped me here outright saying she was a Sportfisherman, but it still took a while to find her exact model. She seems to be a deluxe version with a second floor deck above the bridge, I haven't been able to find any others online with that feature. But I HAVE found her look alike here:
images02.olx-st.com/ui/6/78/73…
images02.olx-st.com/ui/6/78/73…
images01.olx-st.com/ui/6/78/73…
destin.olx.com/30-sportcraft-s…

While I wasn't able to find any interesting or contradicting story for the Big Mom, I am able to debate and possibly take some of the mystery out of her. The show seems to be pushing that it's weird that her rudder and steering gear were 'missing.' But if you look at the pictures for that type of boat, the rudders are up underneath the rear-end and wouldn't be visible the way she is sitting on the ocean floor. On top of that, it very much looks like she sank rear-end first or at least hit the bottom rear-end first, notice how her bow isn't buried at all in the suilt while her rear has a big blown out crater behind it. She probably slammed into the bottom relatively hard, bending the rudders up forwards and thus causing the steering mechanisms to be pulled aft and punched out through the body, that's probably what you see cracked out of the back of the rear. They also make a big deal about the captain's chair in the engine hatch, but I believe the engine hatch is directly behind the steering controls, if she landed rear-first the seat might have just snappd off and landed back in there. The engine door being open might be evidence she had engine problems though, but it could have just as likely been blown open by air pressure.

I honestly am very interested to find out what happened to Big mom though, and to know if he crew survived. If anyone knows where to look up records on her let me know.



Fishing Trawler Michael J.: (bottom right) "It's a big trawler, a big net dragger, I'd say she's about 120 feet long.."
Appearance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEriUa…
Another one that I couldn't find anything on as much as I wanted to. I even looked up the numbers seen on the side of the bride there, but nothing. Though I might have gotten the wrong numbers, it's hard to make them out because there's a handrail in the way in the shot. The Michael J's home port was in Corpus Cristi Texas, If the show is to be believed, he was returning to Texas when he ran into a sudden storm. According to the show the crew survived the sinking, and he may have sunk due to human error, the outriggers being left in the raised position making the ship unstable. I don't have a lot go on, but he definitely takes a place for being one of the biggest wrecks explored in the show. He also looks like he was quite adored by his owner, the custom paint-job and the fact that he was named after the owner's son.


Alright, I'm done talking, you can go now.
Image size
2521x1900px 1.43 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon MX880 series
© 2014 - 2024 Half-dude
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with living vehicles,it only gets scarier.
what is going on in the Bermuda Triangle?
what terrors did they witness before disappearing?