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.
H |
K |
F |
Course |
Heading |
Remarks for Sunday, Sept 25, 1672 |
1 |
5 |
218 |
NNW |
N |
21st day out of port, and all is well. At our current speed, we [Illegible], then shift our heading more westerly for a few hours before [Illegible] In the night we finished our passage through the Straight, and now we are in the Atlantic. We made excellent speed around Spain, and if the Lord wills it, we shall make good time upon our journey North. |
2 |
5 |
218 |
NNW |
N |
2nd bell - Nothing to report |
3 |
4 |
211 |
NNW |
N |
3rd bell - Nothing to report |
4 |
5 |
219 |
NNW |
N |
4th bell - Cook has come up to tell me that there are certain supplies that are running low as a result of some [Illegible]. I have given him permission to break into our reserve stock, as we should be a few days out of Porto Faro. Salted fish will be a nice change of pace from salted pork. |
The remainder of the documents were so badly damaged, that the researchers at Site-86 were only able to discern a few pages via extensive magnetic resonance imaging.
H |
K |
F |
Course |
Heading |
Remarks for Tuesday, Sept 27, 1672 |
1 |
1 |
198 |
NNW |
N |
23rd day out of port, and we have encountered a small issue. [Illegible], and I am certain that it was because of something that we ate. Cook has taken a solemn oath that it was naught what he prepared that has [Illegible]. I shall endeavour to explore this matter further once he awakens. Further, our favourable wind that had so far guided us north has abated, and our sails have slackened. The crew mutter amongst [Illegible]. I pray that we reach Porto Faro before this illness claims [Illegible] |
2 |
1 |
198 |
NNW |
N |
2nd bell - No change of note |
3 |
1 |
198 |
NNW |
N |
3rd bell - The wind has yet to return with any real force. I will let the crew sleep a bit more before I [Illegible]. We shall put out every inch of sheet the spars will hold. The Faithful Voyager has never failed to reach port on time, and I'll be damned if I allow it to do so now. |
4 |
1 |
198 |
NNW |
N |
4th bell - I have the crew up. The boatswain went to pull more cloth to hang and he returned with unpleasant news. Mr. Radcliff will not be pleased to know that we ate some of his salted fish. We are new to the Commission, but I am sure that they will recompense Mr. Radcliff's client for whatever cost was inadvertently lost due to consumption of some of his Cargo. |
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 Cargo 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.
The R. H. Commission on Unusual Cargo
Authorized by the Board of Regents of said Commission
Manifest # 285
Curator: Hon. Elling P. Radcliff
Preliminary Notice:
The R.H. Commission on Unusual Cargo vessel "Faithful Voyager" has been contracted by the Honourable Elling P. Radcliff (On behalf of an unnamed client) to transport a certain object. We shall be sailing from the Port of Marseilles, France to the Port of Amsterdam, Dutch Republic.
Storage Instructions:
The Cargo is enclosed within a large transit cask. This cask has been secured by a Commission-employed cooper and is not to to be handled by anyone other than Mr. Radcliff. Each day, Mr. Radcliff will inspect the Cargo to insure that the seal has not been tampered with.
The cask was to be placed within a secondary hold and secured there alone, but as the Faithful Voyager only has a single storage hold, Mr. Radcliff has agreed to store it in the primary hold. I have assured him that this will be of no consequence, and the Cargo shall remain undisturbed.
Cargo Description:
The Cargo is a cask of a certain size, filled with dried fish and packed in salt.
The unusual aspects of this Cargo is that each fish contains the remnants of a single human finger. Mr. Radcliff has declined to give further details on the unusual nature of this Cargo.
Manifest Remarque 1
The Cargo has been transported aboard in an adequate and satisfactory manner. There was no issue in placing it within the specified hold, and it has been successfully secured to the floor.
This is to serve as my official complaint regarding the fact that Commission was unable to accommodate the shipping requirements that I specified upon before setting out on this voyage. My client will be greatly displeased and I intend to file a formal complaint upon arrival in Amsterdam.
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.
The R. H. Commission on Unusual Cargo
Authorised by the Board of Regents of said Commission
From The Honorable Sir Franklin Dickson, Steward
To The Right Honourable Comissioner Othaniel Trower
February 14, 1674
Right Honourable Sir, our loves in all dutiful affections remembered, etc.,
May it please you to understand that I have received word regarding the fate of the Faithful Voyager and the Honourable Elling P. Radcliff. It is with the utmost concern that I must relay to you that the ship has been sighted by the Marquessa in September of last year. The captain was unable to give sufficient detail to fully comprehend the immensity of this discovery, as he was forced to turn and proceed at all speed away from the Voyager. I fear that whatever fate has befallen the Honourable Mr. Radcliff, the Voyager has clearly turned privateer. I have enlisted the aid of Captain Elsworth Pennywether of the HMS Nightingale in an attempt to capture her.
As this letter finds you I am in expectation of my arrival in London within a fortnight, and I would most urgently request that we speak together on this matter. Then as now I remain your humble, and obedient,
Sir Franklin Dickson
Company Steward, British India
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.
Lloyd's List
No. 19220 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 13 1758 MARINER DAILY P.2
The Ponticheri, from Port L'Orient, Burthen 1000 Tons, was taken by the Dover Man of War, after an Engagement of four Hours, in which the French loft their fecond Captain and 42 Men, and is carried into Cork.
The Neptune, of Glasgow, from London for Amsterdam, is believed to be lost. The Concord, from Maryland, for Amsterdam, sighted her on the 14th of March, and followed her for safety. On the 15th, a frigate of peculiar design approached her and an exchange of cannons was seen.
The Concord, with 16 Guns, reported bravely advancing on the rogue Privateer. Despite both vessels having fired on the Privateer, no damage was observed on the Privateer and the Concord was forced to abandon the Neptune to her fate. |
HMS Falcon Fires Upon The Mystery Ship
The Concord reported that the crew of the Privateer board the Neptune shortly after she began to sail away. The crew of the Privateer appeared to take the entire crew of the Neptune on board, including several crew members killed during the firefight.
The Strangest aspect of the Concords testimony relates to their description of the Privateer vessel. They reported it being partially constructed out of a white Material, akin to bone, and claimed to have heard several loud groans emanating from the ship. |
The Newton, Barlow, from London for Wales, is carried into Dieppe.
The Prince, a Danifh Ship, from Topfham for Leghorn, is taken by the French and carried into Marfielles.
Irifh and Forgeign Ports.
Dublin — Arrived from
5 Sept. M Gerty, Kyle — Lisbon
Doheny, Lorcan — ditto
Morrin, Riley — ditto
Murray, Ruben — ditto
Hanneen, Brendan — ditto
Skerrett, Daire — London
Quinlevan, Evan — ditto
McElroy, Alan — ditto
O'Mullan, Jake — ditto
Nyland, Evan — ditto
O'Hickey, George — ditto
Belfaft — Arrived from
6 Sept. Ryan, Oadhán — Villagarcia
Hanvey, Caolán — ditto
Jenningf, Shane — ditto
O'Doral, Tiarnán — ditto |
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.
The R. H. Commission on Unusual Cargo
Authorised by the Board of Regents of said Commission
From The Honorable Reginald Fieldstone, Steward
To The Right Honourable Comissioner Othaniel Trower
October 14, 1821
Right Honourable Sir, our loves in all dutiful affections remembered, etc.,
May it please you to understand that I have completed the mission set forth by the Board of Regents in regards to the Faulkner issue. As was stipulated in the agreement set forth between the Board and the erstwhile captain, we did such deliver a barge's worth of repair material to the region indicated in your last missive. To whit, 12 tonnes of hull planking, 4 shaped keel trunks suitable for a fifth-rate frigate, 14 trunks suitable for spar and beam, and 1000 yards of sailcloth.
As requested, we lingered in the region in an attempt to contact the Captain to insure the shipment was sufficient to maintain them without the need for further privateering, but we were unable to locate them. After 14 days, the barge simply vanished. Our crew, being a superstitious lot, were unable to sustain the fortitude necessary to remain, and I was forced to sail for home. Then as now I remain your humble, and obedient,
Reginald Fieldstone,
Company Steward, HM Royal Navy
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