Re: SCP-5862
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rating: +38+x

SCPF Internal Memorandum


FROM: Dr. Cezar Iliescu, SCP-5862 Head Researcher
TO: Mariana Almeida, Director - Department of Nautical Anomalies
DATE: 05/30/2012
RE: SCP-5862 historical record

As requested, I have concluded my research into the history of SCP-5862, and I hope that you are satisfied with the results.

The degradation of SCP-5862-A's hull was such that proper identification was at first uncertain. There were quite a few two-masted fifth-rate frigates built during the Anglo-Dutch wars, and most of the contemporary navies adopted frigates of various sizes. Additionally, privately-owned companies commissioned many of this ship type due to their versatility and manufacturing cost.

While not nearly as suited to carrying cargo as their larger cousins, frigates were fast and maneuverable. Many were built as courier vessels and fast transit cargo carriers in addition to filling the roles of convoy protection and privateer.

I remind you of this only to explain why identifying SCP-5862 based solely on her size and mast count would be virtually impossible. Not so much picking a needle out of a haystack as picking a specific needle out of a bundle of identical needles.

Any identifying characteristics that were first built into SCP-5862-A have long since rotted away. Without the protection offered by deep water and silt, any wood from the 1600s would have experienced a great degree of erosion by nature herself. SCP-5862-A has obviously withstood far worse due to whatever contagion it is that afflicts her and her crew.

A breakthrough came during one of SCP-5862-A's attempts to communicate with us. On May 20, 2012, one of the crew waved frantically at us for several minutes. We acknowledged their attempt to communicate by flashing the semaphore light several times. In response, the crew tossed a small case over the side. We retrieved the case via unmanned drone and it was sent to Site-86 for processing.

Once we had a name for the ship, finding out more about it was a matter of simply looking through the archives. I came across an entry from the Commission on Unusual Cargo1 that listed the ship as The Fearless Voyager, captained by Sir William Faulkner, a landed Knight and fairly low-ranking member of the British Peerage.

The Faulkners had experienced financial difficulties in the early 1600s, and Sir William invested the remnant of his family's fortune in purchasing an 80ft fifth-rate frigate for use as a swift merchantman/privateer. It is unclear when the ship was contracted by the Commission, though it was common practice at the time for the Commission to purchase the ship outright through an unaffiliated intermediary.

In July, 1673, the ship was declared lost by the Commission and was stricken from their records of available vessels. There is very little documentation in the record regarding the Voyager specifically, and the only other Commission record of note is a letter written in 1674 by one of the Commission's Stewards to the Commissioner, Othaniel Trower.

According to the archival records of the British Royal Navy, the HMS Nightingale was listed as a wreck and lost with all hands in July, 1674, with no further details available. Regardless of what happened to the Nightingale, I think that we can safely assume that whatever happened to the Voyager was a result of the crew accidentally ingesting whatever was in that Cargo.

After the declaration of loss by the Commission, we could find no further official records of the Voyager. However, there have been many sightings of so-called "ghost ships" over the years, and I believed it was entirely possible that some of these sightings were of SCP-5862.

After filtering out known SCP-class known anomalies and reports that did not contain an adequate description of the vessel in question, I was able to locate the following record printed on September 13, 1758 in Lloyd's List, a British maritime newspaper not normally known for sensationalist articles.

Aside from that, I found numerous mentions to "decaying" ghost ships, but none to that level of specificity. However, since that article specifically mentioned Captain Faulkner, I decided to run an additional search through the CoUC archive for the Captain, and I came across this entry from 1821.


And that's it.

There are lots of references across multiple sources for ghost ships, most of which could be described as "decaying", but there is simply no way to sufficiently verify that that reference is to the Voyager specifically. I think it is more or less impossible to track her movements across the seas.

It is interesting to note that the Commission decided at some point to "feed" the contagion aboard the Voyager. Without access to Trower, we may never know what the purpose was for such a move. Maybe it was out of a sense of guilt for what happened to Faulkner? It's also possible that the Board of Regents simply decided that "feeding" the Voyager was better than having it prey upon other ships. If giving Faulkner a bunch of spares was enough to keep him from sinking other ships, it was probably a win-win.

I heard that you are looking into possible connections with SCP-3862 as a potential avenue to developing an antigen. If this is indeed the same (or similar) disease, then I am grateful to Faulkner for keeping it off land for as long as he has.

Regardless, it is my recommendation that we continue to follow the Commission's example in this. If we can't cure it and can't contain it, feeding it might be our only option.

Respectfully,

Dr. Cezar Iliescu
Research Head, SCP-5862
Dept. of Nautical Anomalies

Act II: Exierunt ut Vinceret | In Memoria, Adytum

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