No. The Cyclops carried coal with high sulfur content. In the subtropical humidity it would bleed dilute sulfuric acid, which weakened the ship's frames, making it more susceptible to breaking apart in rough seas. Plus her design maximized internal capacity over safety, and she lacked internal bulkheads to stem flooding. She sank like a rock.
@@petergray2712 Yep, Steam coal used in ships boilers (and being a 'collier' the type of coal she probably carried) is fairly high in sulphur, and given the Cyclops had only canvas covers over her hold, structurally she was older than her actual age. But the fact two of her sisters also vanished in the same are (over 20 years later in November/December 1941) that I'd attribute to mainly structural failure (her third sister'Jupiter' was converted to the US's first aircraft carrier USS Langley which was scuttled in May 1942 after being 22 years as an 'aircraft carrier'- possibly this 22 years without steam coal in her hold would have saved her- were she not attacked by Japanese aircraft)
@@efnissien I see someone beat me to mentioning Cyclops' sister ships and how two of them also vanished without a trace. If Kantai Collection ever adds Langley as a character, I want to see Cyclops, Proteus and Neptune as her abyssal counterparts.
The hurley museum did a followup video saying the shock of the warhead going off with crew underwater killed or knocked out all the crew in place all at once. Everyone was still in their positions. They even did some testing on the theory showing it as most likely explanation
I was wondering about that, the first thing that came to mind was some sort of a toxic gas leak, but I honestly knew nothing about the vessel. Thanks for this comment, I'll read up on it further, but that makes a lot of sense.
@@tomhenry897 I believe the charge had a delay fuse so the submarine could move away before the explosion occurred. It presumably just did not get far enough away before the charge detonated. Therefore being seen to move away is not inconsistent with the concept of the explosion rendering the crew incapacitated.
With the Hunley I thought it was determined that the crew had passed out and later asphyxiated due to carbon dioxide exposure, which is why their remains were all found at their stations.
The most recent theory behind the demise of the crew of the H.L. Hunley is CO2 toxicity caused by insufficient ventilation. Eight men working physically hard to propel the vessel would indeed consume much oxygen and expel much CO2. It is very likely that the airflow in and out of the vessel during the mission was insufficient to keep the air safe inside.
Makes sense. it would explain the lack of panic since hypoxia causes euphoria/calm. There's a video for instance of a pilot suffering from hypoxia where he literally states everything is okay even though he's about to pass out and his copilot had passed out already. (they survived side noteafter they got low enough to get air again.)
The very most recent theory is that Barnacle Bill the Sailor was on board, and as the song goes, "He cut a fart and blew it apart." Therefore it was methane, not CO2 that did it.
Other facts about the USS Cyclops, all of her other sisters disappeared in the triangle except for one. That sister went on to become the USS Langley, the navy's first aircraft carrier
The USS Cyclop's two sisters also sank, with the one survivor of the class being converted into one of the world's first aircraft carrier. What an eventful ship type! Edit: The fact that no one went out and saved the Baychimo amazes me.
Simon, I think the story of the lost sarcophagus of Menkaure would be interesting! It is about a ship full of artifacts (including the sarcophagus of an Egyptian pharaoh) that was lost in the Mediteranean sea in 1838. Even though the crew survived, the ship and all the artifacts on board were never found.
Your videos/channels are great. Thank you for the constant uploads. I keep your vids playing in the background like a podcast most days. Helps work fly by.
My father discovered that the shipyard (The Cramp Shipyard in Philadelphia, PA) that built the USS Cyclopes was owned by a distant relative of ours. Makes for some interesting conversations.
They determined that the H.L. Hunley was still attached to the torpedo when it exploded, killing all on board immediately from the blast shock wave. I just watched a documentary about it.
I can't believe you didn't even mention the most famous missing ship of all, the SS Minnow. It was a charter boat that set a sail from a tropic port for a three hour tour. They think it might have ran aground on some "uncharted dessert isle" As far as I know nobody ever heard from the skipper, his mate or the five other passengers after the fateful trip
As far as the Hunley a possible suggestion is that the crew may have been overcome with a gas, possibly carbon monoxide, due to issues with the ventilation system and were not conscious when it went down. No confirmed reason has been determined to explain why the crew seemed to have remained at their stations and made no attempt to escape.
Thanks, Simon and crew for the interesting topic! The Hunley came to visit our local college about 12 years ago on an educational tour and it was indeed a fascinating story!
TBH, that part sounded like it could be explained reasonably well with a problem of the Oxygen supply. Everyone passed out more or less simultaneously as it ran out and then some time later when the sub started sinking nobody was conscious, so there was no panic and nobody tried to use the emergency exit.
My favorite author, Clive Cussler, was the one with his fellow NUMA volunteers who found the Hunley. He named his group after the fictional government agency he created in his adventure novels.
@@timothy4131 oh thank god, I wasn’t sure if it was a joke or not. It definitely made me chuckle though. Thank you, I’m usually not all that good with witty comebacks.
In regards to the HUNLEY, I personally visited the museum some time ago. One theory proposed on why the crew didn't respond is that the blast wave reverberated throughout the submarine, thus knocking everyone out cold. With no one operating the sub, it was cast out to the sea, much farther away than researchers originally believed it would've sunk.
There's nothing mysterious about the fate of the crew of the H L Hunley though it, admittedly, takes a bit of sideways thinking to understand it. The direct cause of death was asphyxiation due to carbon dioxide poisoning, but the rabbit hole goes deeper than that. As with most all experimental 'bleeding-edge' advancements, it is common to underestimate (or be wholly ignorant of) the way various forces interact, even if the forces involved are generally understood individually. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is perhaps the best-known example of this - engineers well understood oscillation, harmonics, wind shear, and the like but it was the unanticipated synergism between these forces which earned the doomed bridge its infamous nom de guerre of "Galloping Gertie". underestimated how far the concussive force of the torpedo would carry underwater - the forcefulness of the blast caught them unawares, still potent enough to instantaneously render the entire crew unconscious. In fact, the concussive force was so potent that it stopped Commander George Dixon's watch at the instant of detonation. Though some have speculated that the blast itself was fatal, this is not true either - the Hunley was undamaged by the blast, though it most certainly would have sustained considerable damage were the shockwave sufficient to have killed the crew. Despite decomposition, the thick silt which had accumulated within the Hunley would have preserved at least some evidence that the blast was immediately fatal but no such evidence was ever found. Some skeptics argue that it would take at least 30 minutes for carbon dioxide levels within the Hunley to build to dangerous levels, which is technically correct, but the major flaw in their argument is starting their 'countdown' from the time the torpedo was detonated. A far more realistic conjecture would place the torpedo detonation closer to 20-25 minutes within this window - their approach towards the Housatonic would have necessitated the utmost attention towards stealth, so meaning that they would have expressly avoided using the air cycling pumps. Even a few minutes of being stunned by the torpedo detonation would have been sufficient time for CO2 levels to reach levels which would prevent any of the crew from regaining a functional state. As with the Apollo-13 mission, it was a synergistic combination of lesser events rather than a ubiquitous 'smoking gun' which caused the demise of the Hunley crew.
This isnt true: if you do a simple google search on underwater explosions, then you'd understand that the torpedo didnt need to specifically do damage to the Hunley to kill the crew. By the acutal force of the shockwave transmitting itself into the hull, it overpressured the cabin crushing lungs and organs, maybe even possibly causing instant brain death from the sheer pressure. Imagine the entire weight a 135lb explosive charge going off next to this pressurized ship right? Basically the shockwave wanted to crush the ship, the ship was too pressurized to crumple, and so the two forces acting against one another wouldve caused the air pressure within to increase by like fourfold. So, boom. They were either immediately knocked unconcious with massive internal damage, or basically killed straight off. Look up how people die from Hand grenades and mortars without being hit by a single piece of shrapnel. Well, the largest mortars still arent packing 135lb of explosive. More importantly, there wasnt a reason to NOT run the air pumps, see.....nobody had EVER seen a Submarine before, and they didnt have any real defences against them. The Civil War would see the worlds first Sea Mines, and they were barely functional most of the time, Depth Charges wouldnt come around until 1916. Also the Housatonic was FAR too large to make a quick course adjustment away from the Hunley even if they had seen the bubbles. Keep in mind that during this attack, it wasnt ANYTHING about stealth as we know submarine warfare, they just needed a way to deliver explosives without their opponents being able to bring cannons to bear against them.
Simon, it's a bit of a misrepresentation to say that the Cyclops disappeared near St Kitts if it was in the Bermuda triangle. The two are some distance from each other ....
@@MrSantiagoo99 He is . . . talking about Simon pronouncing a U.S. ship with the British pronunciation as opposed to the American pronunciation. He also butchered the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.
Arthur C Clarke suggested that if the ancients had fully appreciated the technology in the Antikythera Mechanism they could potentially have landed on the moon within 300 years.
What an asinine, redundant statement. I love ACC, but stuff like that is just bollocks. .. I suppose in a purely metaphorical sense it might have some semblance of meaning but very loosely.
Only if they could, therefore, have uncovered how to make steel and other advanced refined metals, refined oil, etc. Not impossible, looking at how quickly technology advanced between the mid-1600s and mid-1900s. But I doubt the Antikythera Mechanism would have made the difference. It's an amazing bit of tech, but was based on faulty observations of space that would not be remedied for several hundred years with the invention of the telescope.
The Le Griffon is still one of the Holy Grails of Great Lakes shipwreck hunters. One problem is that there are about 7500 know wrecks on the bottom of the lakes, and sorting out the one that is the Griffon is going to be very difficult. They keep trying though.
The Cyclops seems pretty much cut an dried - two of her three sister ships Proteus and Nereus also vanished in the same area within a month of each other in 1941 (there was no U-boat activity in the area at the time- and the US was still neutral). Apparently Proteus class vessels suffered from a litany of problems. Metal fatigue and bad handling in rough seas among them (although given the Cyclops relatively 'young' age at the time I'm not sure metal fatigue would be that much of a factor). Cyclops arrived at her last stop at Bermuda which was unscheduled and was reported to be sitting low in the water - with water over the plimsoll line - indicating either overloading, or she was shipping water. She was recorded as being loaded correctly in Rio, Brazil, so my guess is shipping water and as the covers for the cargo hold were only canvas water could easily gain access to the hold. The manganese she carried was particularly corrosive to the structure and when exposed to water turned into 'sludge' making the vessel even more unstable in rough weather and vulnerable to capsizing (like the 'herald of free enterprise') My guess is that the Cyclops was hit by a sudden tropical storm, her starboard engine was out of order (as reported by Cdr.Worley before departure from Salvador, Brazil) and following her unscheduled stop in Bermuda when she was already sitting low in the water, the cyclops made way only to be hit by a storm. Possibly the port engine failed, leaving her without power just long enough to be hit broadside by a series of waves that, in conjunction with the manganese slurry caused the Cyclops to capsize.
One of my relatives was on the HMS Triton which was lost around Malta. Afaik it has never been found. It’s why one of my grandparents was an only child 😢
Showing a snow covered mountainous forest when referencing Barrow, Alaska at 5:13 is incorrect. As someone who lives in the Alaskan Arctic, I can confirm there are no trees, and that it is completely flat. The nearest trees or mountains are in fact hundreds of miles to the south.
Legend says it was denied entry into the humid, seaweed covered cave, and is cursed forever to seek relief by rubbing itself against the sea rocks known as Hannah's Five Sisters.
Simon, I hate the end of your videos. Because that means there's no more content and I have to wait until tomorrow for your next video. Keep up the good work!
Fun fact: the island at the mouth of Green Bay is now part of Door County, named for the phrase French explorers used to describe the area: Porte des Morts. Death's Door.
Drain the Oceans had a segment on the Confederate sub. They came to the conclusion that the crew fell victim to carbon dioxide poisoning because ya know, early sub, meaning primitive life support and very limited time for each use. Basically, they fell asleep at their posts and never woke up again. It was the most logical conclusion based on the evidence of how the crew was found and the other factors you outlined...so not really a mystery anymore.
Actually, the Cyclops has been found, but for some reason that point is never mentioned. It has been found among the ships of the Skeleton Coast where many ships have ended up over the years. It is well inland, as are many of the ships there; a matter of blowing sands having reshaped the coastline over the years. When found, Cyclops was badly rusted, and its deck superstructures had entirely collapsed. It still contained the manganese it was carrying in its hold. No trace of its crew were found aboard, though that doesn't mean that the crew had abandoned ship as the bodies (if any) could have been consumed by animals living in the desert. So much time had passed that pretty much everything which could have rotted away had. The most likely thing to have happened was that something had happened to the ship's crew leaving the ship adrift on the ocean, where it eventually was washed ashore on the skeleton coast in the Namib. Once there, the shifting sands did the rest of the work as it did with so very many other ships which can easily be seen on Google earth in that area. There are literally hundreds of ships which have met their end there, and you can see them Google Earth images of the area. Even a few timbers from old wooden vessels have been found there. It is a veritable ship graveyard, and is an interesting feature to see in Google Earth.
@@dukerrr Skeleton Coast is in AFRICA!!! There's no way the Cyclops sank there. It wasn't that far off course! Someone's pulling your leg and might be referring to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." There was all kinds of BS put in that film and some people still don't realize it's all Hollywood! The nearest thing they found was a wreck that LOOKED like the Cyclops lying on its side; this was outside of Cape Charles, east coast of the US, NOT the Bermuda Triangle (which is also BS)! This is believable. The sighting of that wreck was back in 1968, around the time the US Navy was searching for the USS Scorpion which had gone missing. There was a report of a possible sighting of the Cyclops by another ship traveling off the east coast of the US. There was a storm in that general area and it's likely that's where the Cyclops sank. Unfortunately, years later (circa 1980?), when they DID try to find that wreck again, it wasn't there. They found another wreck nearby but it wasn't the one the diver saw so who knows?!? They didn't have GPS back when he originally found it. It's possible they were off by miles because of inaccurate coordinates. (The coordinates given for the Titanic's sinking were off by 10-13 miles!) They didn't have the precision we do today with satellite triangulating ship positions.
@@Sideprojects there's definitely enough "Simon" content to pull it off like ESPN fantasy does. Maybe not enough to break it down into individual shows but if combined their is certainty enough for 24 hrs of content
Right? Or even with enough oxygen, just a build-up of carbon dioxide will make everyone drowsy and send them to sleep long before they're struggling to breathe from lack of oxygen. They probably just, as you say, stayed down too long (they may not even have known how long *was* "too long," and/or failed to take into account how much more oxygen they'd have used up/carbon dioxide they'd have produced, when the adrenaline from the situation hit, than just from even the hard work of managing the ship.
I wonder if the shockwave from the explosion of the spar torpedo rendered the crew of the Hunley unconscious long enough for them to suffocate when the air ran out and the sub drifted until it sank.
You should do a megaprojects episode on the Monitor-class ironclad during the American Civil War and a side project on the hunt for the C.S.S. Alabama.
I saw a program on the PBS program NOVA that compared a similar sized ocean area to the Bermuda Triangle for ship wrecks. The analysis showed no difference in the rate of shipwrecks between the Bermuda Triangle and the compared area.
Simon I'll throw in a little bit of more strangest. The Cyclopes had 3 sister ships. One was renamed the Langley. The first united states first aircraft carrier. They other two ships named prothies, and meridies. Were also lost in the Bermuda triangle
Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt at the end of the 1st Century AD, built his epicyclic mechanism to explain retrograde motion of the planets. It's well-documented, so it's not entirely true that the Antikythera mechanism was unique in antiquity nor that is was somehow centuries ahead of it's time.
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view!" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?
Great vid! (2:35 when talking about a sailing ship with cannon, please list her guns! What was she packing? It's both customary and it sounds cooler. 😉)
Mr. Whistler: I am riveted by this topic, partly because it involves U.S. history, and partly because of the mysterious nature of the losses, not to mention the losses in the Great Lakes and Northern Canada, OK, the ancient Greek computer, Antiklethera. Thanks. Warmly, Yada, Yada, Yada.
@00:8, it's mentioned that, "according to Unesto, (whatever THAT, is) there are over 3,000,000 ships, at the bottom of the ocean". As a part-time, shipwreck enthusiast living by the Atlantic ocean my whole life, I HIGHLY DOUBT those numbers, are accurate!! I'd need PROOF (and not just their word) of that statement. On the first ship, the "GRIFFIN", he says it's never been found. If you've ever seen the film "THE DEEP", it's depicted sunken down in the Caribbean (as a fact). How could these two places, be vastly distant from, one another? Not to mention, the Great Lakes DO NOT, connect to any salt water. So, how did they get it from the Hudson Bay region, to the Great Lakes 🤔??? With the story of "USS CYCLOPS", the part of it transporting naval prisoners, was left out. Some speculate there was a uprising of these, and caused the ship, to sink.
Sir Simon! Can you please make a video in regaurds to how absolutely fabulous Southern Iowa is? The people must know! 😬🙄😊 love your channels hun, keep it comin
I'd enjoy seeing a video on the Asiatic Prince. New cargo vessel that vanished in the 1920's Only saw a brief mention of the vessel in a obscure book in the 1960's.
The crew of HL Hunley were most likely rendered unconscious by the detonation of their torpedo on the Housatonic, then suffocated in the confined space without regaining consciousness. The concussion from 130 pounds of powder exploding 20 feet away would be considerable, and the sub had no air processing, scrubbing, air bottles, nothing. Small and cramped, the crew would have had only a few minutes to get away and surface for air. The fact that the sub had killed 2 previous crews should have been the first clue that it was a death-trap.
I paused at the 3 second mark because when I saw the thumbnail I immediately said to myself "Hey! That's the Cyclops!" So I am looking forward to the rest of this video. 🙂
The USS Cyclops is no mystery it was a top heavy flat bottom ship. Tests were done with a scale model in a wave tank showing it would roll and capsize easily. If it was hit from any place other than straight ahead by a medium sized rogue wave. OR it might have been Aliens! lol
About the Bermuda Triangle and the Antikythera mechanism I say "It's good to keep and open mind. Just not so open that your brains fall out !". Examine all sides of the issues and come to a logical conclusion.
The Antikythera mechanism was not mechanical computer but a mechanical calendar. It's like a mechanical clock but it shows days and months instead of hours and minutes.
Dolphin-class. Not sure the dolphins agreed with that assessment... didn't look much like one of their own and it didn't seem to eat fish either. I'm guessing they must have thought it a right weirdo. Those ship classes remind me of Race to the Edge and Dragon Riders of Berk though... minus the dragons. Only, there it was more along the lines of Stoker Class, Strike Class, etc... My guess is the Bay Chimo is now run by sharks, dolphins and possibly seals.
There's one more weird thing about the USS Cyclops. There were four ships of its class originally, and THREE of them vanished (Cyclops in 1918, Nereus and Proteus both in 1941). The only one we definitely know the fate of was the Jupiter, because it ws converted into the carrier USS Langly and scuttled after taking severe damage from japanese aircraft in 1942.
@@vintagethrifter2114 well, Dirk Pitt was an allusion to one of Clive Cussler's iconic characters. While Mr. Cussler didn't find the cyclops, he DID find the H. L. Hunley from another book featuring Dirk Pitt ;)
What happened on the submarine was probably just CO2 poisoning after something in the air supply broke. It wouldn't be noticed by anyone until it's too late, which would explain why everyone was still in their stations and nobody made an attempt to escape.
In the case of the H.L. Hunley, I've read somewhere - years ago - that it has been theorized, that it was air polutant poisoning, aka. they ran out of oxygin slowly or some that the oxygin was replaced with another gas from a chemical reaction from the ships components and the exhaust Co2, making them feel a certain high, before falling asleep and slowly suffocating... Can't quote a source or anything...
0:50 - Chapter 1 - Le griffon
2:40 - Chapter 2 - USS Porpoise
3:55 - Chapter 3 - SS Baychimo
6:20 - Chapter 4 - The antikythera
8:10 - Chapter 5 - The merchant royal
9:50 - Chapter 6 - USS Cyclops
11:55 - Chapter 7 - HL Hunley
It's pretty obvious what happened to the USS Cyclops - I'd abandon ship as well if it was heading to Baltimore
True that
No. The Cyclops carried coal with high sulfur content. In the subtropical humidity it would bleed dilute sulfuric acid, which weakened the ship's frames, making it more susceptible to breaking apart in rough seas. Plus her design maximized internal capacity over safety, and she lacked internal bulkheads to stem flooding. She sank like a rock.
BA DA BUM BUM TSHSHSHHSHSHSHSHHSHSHSHSHSHSHH
@@petergray2712 Yep, Steam coal used in ships boilers (and being a 'collier' the type of coal she probably carried) is fairly high in sulphur, and given the Cyclops had only canvas covers over her hold, structurally she was older than her actual age. But the fact two of her sisters also vanished in the same are (over 20 years later in November/December 1941) that I'd attribute to mainly structural failure (her third sister'Jupiter' was converted to the US's first aircraft carrier USS Langley which was scuttled in May 1942 after being 22 years as an 'aircraft carrier'- possibly this 22 years without steam coal in her hold would have saved her- were she not attacked by Japanese aircraft)
@@efnissien I see someone beat me to mentioning Cyclops' sister ships and how two of them also vanished without a trace. If Kantai Collection ever adds Langley as a character, I want to see Cyclops, Proteus and Neptune as her abyssal counterparts.
Simon can you make a video about the first scientific confirmation of the existence of Rogue Waves
Hes not one to take requests... lolol not his thing, typically.
@@kassassinprawn516 IDK what you mean. He takes requests constantly.
@@kassassinprawn516 um, he takes requests all the time...
@@kassassinprawn516 no thats your mom youre thinking of
Someone has a report due 😏😏🤣🤣
The hurley museum did a followup video saying the shock of the warhead going off with crew underwater killed or knocked out all the crew in place all at once. Everyone was still in their positions. They even did some testing on the theory showing it as most likely explanation
I was wondering about that, the first thing that came to mind was some sort of a toxic gas leak, but I honestly knew nothing about the vessel. Thanks for this comment, I'll read up on it further, but that makes a lot of sense.
Wasn’t there reports seeing it moving away from the attack?
@@tomhenry897 I believe the charge had a delay fuse so the submarine could move away before the explosion occurred. It presumably just did not get far enough away before the charge detonated. Therefore being seen to move away is not inconsistent with the concept of the explosion rendering the crew incapacitated.
With the Hunley I thought it was determined that the crew had passed out and later asphyxiated due to carbon dioxide exposure, which is why their remains were all found at their stations.
I was reading it was the shockwave from its own torpedo.
@@shark50401 I heard that one of the crew named Barnacle Bill cut a fart and blew it apart.
@@Chompchompyerded 🤣🤣🤣
The most recent theory behind the demise of the crew of the H.L. Hunley is CO2 toxicity caused by insufficient ventilation. Eight men working physically hard to propel the vessel would indeed consume much oxygen and expel much CO2. It is very likely that the airflow in and out of the vessel during the mission was insufficient to keep the air safe inside.
Makes sense. it would explain the lack of panic since hypoxia causes euphoria/calm. There's a video for instance of a pilot suffering from hypoxia where he literally states everything is okay even though he's about to pass out and his copilot had passed out already. (they survived side noteafter they got low enough to get air again.)
The very most recent theory is that Barnacle Bill the Sailor was on board, and as the song goes, "He cut a fart and blew it apart." Therefore it was methane, not CO2 that did it.
I think it would be a cool vid to cover the Edmund Fitzgerald. It was a big search and the dives used cool tech. Also it's just a really cool story.
Yes!
I believe he's covered that on one of his channels, maybe Geographics?
I believe he has, Ask a Mortician has also done a nice video on the wreck
@@cleverusername9369 Simon's got a cool video on that already, IIRC ...
Oh great. Now I have Gordon Lightfoot’s, “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” in my head...Lol
Other facts about the USS Cyclops, all of her other sisters disappeared in the triangle except for one. That sister went on to become the USS Langley, the navy's first aircraft carrier
The USS Cyclop's two sisters also sank, with the one survivor of the class being converted into one of the world's first aircraft carrier. What an eventful ship type!
Edit: The fact that no one went out and saved the Baychimo amazes me.
Simon, I think the story of the lost sarcophagus of Menkaure would be interesting! It is about a ship full of artifacts (including the sarcophagus of an Egyptian pharaoh) that was lost in the Mediteranean sea in 1838. Even though the crew survived, the ship and all the artifacts on board were never found.
Your videos/channels are great. Thank you for the constant uploads. I keep your vids playing in the background like a podcast most days. Helps work fly by.
My father discovered that the shipyard (The Cramp Shipyard in Philadelphia, PA) that built the USS Cyclopes was owned by a distant relative of ours. Makes for some interesting conversations.
The least surprising discovery on the Hunley was the sticker reading "Re-Elect Strom Thurmond"...
LOLIMON (Laughing Out Loud In [the] Middle Of [the] Night)!!
They determined that the H.L. Hunley was still attached to the torpedo when it exploded, killing all on board immediately from the blast shock wave. I just watched a documentary about it.
I was looking for some one to mention this because that's what I thought had been concluded and quite a while ago.
I can't believe you didn't even mention the most famous missing ship of all, the SS Minnow. It was a charter boat that set a sail from a tropic port for a three hour tour. They think it might have ran aground on some "uncharted dessert isle" As far as I know nobody ever heard from the skipper, his mate or the five other passengers after the fateful trip
I heard they were rescued after many seasons ...errrrr I mean years.
Seriously the best comment I'v read in months!
I've heard of the SS Minnow disaster...very sad!
I'm disappointed this was missing as well. You should look into this, Simon.
Was the island tasty?
As far as the Hunley a possible suggestion is that the crew may have been overcome with a gas, possibly carbon monoxide, due to issues with the ventilation system and were not conscious when it went down. No confirmed reason has been determined to explain why the crew seemed to have remained at their stations and made no attempt to escape.
Thanks, Simon and crew for the interesting topic! The Hunley came to visit our local college about 12 years ago on an educational tour and it was indeed a fascinating story!
TBH, that part sounded like it could be explained reasonably well with a problem of the Oxygen supply.
Everyone passed out more or less simultaneously as it ran out and then some time later when the sub started sinking nobody was conscious, so there was no panic and nobody tried to use the emergency exit.
My favorite author, Clive Cussler, was the one with his fellow NUMA volunteers who found the Hunley. He named his group after the fictional government agency he created in his adventure novels.
He explained the Cyclops too!
The Dirk Pitt books?
I love it when Simon talks about ships.
Simon can pretty much talk about anything and make it interesting.
Do you like it when he scratches his ass too
@@timothy4131 I mean, if anyone could make it interesting Simon could.
That was a joke good come back!
@@timothy4131 oh thank god, I wasn’t sure if it was a joke or not. It definitely made me chuckle though. Thank you, I’m usually not all that good with witty comebacks.
In regards to the HUNLEY, I personally visited the museum some time ago. One theory proposed on why the crew didn't respond is that the blast wave reverberated throughout the submarine, thus knocking everyone out cold. With no one operating the sub, it was cast out to the sea, much farther away than researchers originally believed it would've sunk.
There's nothing mysterious about the fate of the crew of the H L Hunley though it, admittedly, takes a bit of sideways thinking to understand it. The direct cause of death was asphyxiation due to carbon dioxide poisoning, but the rabbit hole goes deeper than that.
As with most all experimental 'bleeding-edge' advancements, it is common to underestimate (or be wholly ignorant of) the way various forces interact, even if the forces involved are generally understood individually. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is perhaps the best-known example of this - engineers well understood oscillation, harmonics, wind shear, and the like but it was the unanticipated synergism between these forces which earned the doomed bridge its infamous nom de guerre of "Galloping Gertie".
underestimated how far the concussive force of the torpedo would carry underwater - the forcefulness of the blast caught them unawares, still potent enough to instantaneously render the entire crew unconscious. In fact, the concussive force was so potent that it stopped Commander George Dixon's watch at the instant of detonation.
Though some have speculated that the blast itself was fatal, this is not true either - the Hunley was undamaged by the blast, though it most certainly would have sustained considerable damage were the shockwave sufficient to have killed the crew. Despite decomposition, the thick silt which had accumulated within the Hunley would have preserved at least some evidence that the blast was immediately fatal but no such evidence was ever found.
Some skeptics argue that it would take at least 30 minutes for carbon dioxide levels within the Hunley to build to dangerous levels, which is technically correct, but the major flaw in their argument is starting their 'countdown' from the time the torpedo was detonated. A far more realistic conjecture would place the torpedo detonation closer to 20-25 minutes within this window - their approach towards the Housatonic would have necessitated the utmost attention towards stealth, so meaning that they would have expressly avoided using the air cycling pumps. Even a few minutes of being stunned by the torpedo detonation would have been sufficient time for CO2 levels to reach levels which would prevent any of the crew from regaining a functional state.
As with the Apollo-13 mission, it was a synergistic combination of lesser events rather than a ubiquitous 'smoking gun' which caused the demise of the Hunley crew.
This isnt true: if you do a simple google search on underwater explosions, then you'd understand that the torpedo didnt need to specifically do damage to the Hunley to kill the crew. By the acutal force of the shockwave transmitting itself into the hull, it overpressured the cabin crushing lungs and organs, maybe even possibly causing instant brain death from the sheer pressure. Imagine the entire weight a 135lb explosive charge going off next to this pressurized ship right? Basically the shockwave wanted to crush the ship, the ship was too pressurized to crumple, and so the two forces acting against one another wouldve caused the air pressure within to increase by like fourfold. So, boom. They were either immediately knocked unconcious with massive internal damage, or basically killed straight off. Look up how people die from Hand grenades and mortars without being hit by a single piece of shrapnel. Well, the largest mortars still arent packing 135lb of explosive. More importantly, there wasnt a reason to NOT run the air pumps, see.....nobody had EVER seen a Submarine before, and they didnt have any real defences against them. The Civil War would see the worlds first Sea Mines, and they were barely functional most of the time, Depth Charges wouldnt come around until 1916. Also the Housatonic was FAR too large to make a quick course adjustment away from the Hunley even if they had seen the bubbles. Keep in mind that during this attack, it wasnt ANYTHING about stealth as we know submarine warfare, they just needed a way to deliver explosives without their opponents being able to bring cannons to bear against them.
Simon, it's a bit of a misrepresentation to say that the Cyclops disappeared near St Kitts if it was in the Bermuda triangle. The two are some distance from each other ....
And some of these ships aren't missing..... now.
I love how everytime I get on RUclips, Simon seems to have another channel.8 so far..I'm not mad😂
What the Internet needs is a mash-up of Simon's mispronunciation of common English words, such as porpoise.
I’m sure he doesn’t do it on porpoise! 🐬
And you are....?
@@MrSantiagoo99 He is . . . talking about Simon pronouncing a U.S. ship with the British pronunciation as opposed to the American pronunciation.
He also butchered the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.
I can only understand Educated American English .
Simon is amazing just found all of his channels and have been binging all his content. Keep the amazing work up.
There are more planes in the sea than boats in the sky
For the Cyclops, if you've read the Clive Cussler book, you'll know what happened...
Oh yea Dirk Pitt in da haus
As a BBlazer it always comes as a rude shock whenever I watch your other channels Whistlerman.
Simon: "Seven missing ships..."
Me: "Seven? This isn't TopTenz, then?"
Ah well, it's got Simon in it, so settle back ...
This is SideProjects, so no need to make it 10
@@PeterJohnson1289 - I know that NOW, but I didn't then: saw it was by Simon and auto-clicked.
So glad the Bermuda triangle was put in "context"
Fuckin' RUclips...
I am now protected from misinformation and evil
Its the same picture too, of the thumbnail lol
@Robert Sears Same here, and fuck youtube.
Arthur C Clarke suggested that if the ancients had fully appreciated the technology in the Antikythera Mechanism they could potentially have landed on the moon within 300 years.
What an asinine, redundant statement. I love ACC, but stuff like that is just bollocks. .. I suppose in a purely metaphorical sense it might have some semblance of meaning but very loosely.
Only if they could, therefore, have uncovered how to make steel and other advanced refined metals, refined oil, etc.
Not impossible, looking at how quickly technology advanced between the mid-1600s and mid-1900s.
But I doubt the Antikythera Mechanism would have made the difference. It's an amazing bit of tech, but was based on faulty observations of space that would not be remedied for several hundred years with the invention of the telescope.
At least these lost people will be remembered forever
The Le Griffon is still one of the Holy Grails of Great Lakes shipwreck hunters. One problem is that there are about 7500 know wrecks on the bottom of the lakes, and sorting out the one that is the Griffon is going to be very difficult. They keep trying though.
A show on ghost ships would be cool.
The Cyclops seems pretty much cut an dried - two of her three sister ships Proteus and Nereus also vanished in the same area within a month of each other in 1941 (there was no U-boat activity in the area at the time- and the US was still neutral). Apparently Proteus class vessels suffered from a litany of problems. Metal fatigue and bad handling in rough seas among them (although given the Cyclops relatively 'young' age at the time I'm not sure metal fatigue would be that much of a factor). Cyclops arrived at her last stop at Bermuda which was unscheduled and was reported to be sitting low in the water - with water over the plimsoll line - indicating either overloading, or she was shipping water. She was recorded as being loaded correctly in Rio, Brazil, so my guess is shipping water and as the covers for the cargo hold were only canvas water could easily gain access to the hold. The manganese she carried was particularly corrosive to the structure and when exposed to water turned into 'sludge' making the vessel even more unstable in rough weather and vulnerable to capsizing (like the 'herald of free enterprise') My guess is that the Cyclops was hit by a sudden tropical storm, her starboard engine was out of order (as reported by Cdr.Worley before departure from Salvador, Brazil) and following her unscheduled stop in Bermuda when she was already sitting low in the water, the cyclops made way only to be hit by a storm. Possibly the port engine failed, leaving her without power just long enough to be hit broadside by a series of waves that, in conjunction with the manganese slurry caused the Cyclops to capsize.
One of my relatives was on the HMS Triton which was lost around Malta. Afaik it has never been found. It’s why one of my grandparents was an only child 😢
Sad loss for your family.
No one has found them because they have all read "How To Avoid Massive Ships"
😎 “How to Avoid Massive Ships”
-Move to Kansas
A classic of the massive-ship-avoiding genre!
allegedly
Ah yes, the lesser known successor to How to Avoid Huge Ships by Captain John Trimmer.
Not sure if this is a call back to another video on another channel, but if so, bravo.
I love the fact that you guys never fail to find interesting subjects for videos across all the channels
You just have the best voice.... bingeing your videos is pure joy !!! 💗💓💕💖
Very cool! I love these stories! And love when you hear all the aboslutly ridiculous theories people come up with.
It is always aliens no matter what they say
Showing a snow covered mountainous forest when referencing Barrow, Alaska at 5:13 is incorrect. As someone who lives in the Alaskan Arctic, I can confirm there are no trees, and that it is completely flat. The nearest trees or mountains are in fact hundreds of miles to the south.
Hey!...Finally did a video on the Northwest Passage. Awesome!
what ever happened to The Inferno.. One eyed Willies ship?
Legend says it was denied entry into the humid, seaweed covered cave, and is cursed forever to seek relief by rubbing itself against the sea rocks known as Hannah's Five Sisters.
Are there enough modern missing ships for another episode. I enjoyed this one.
The Cyclops was an ugly, malevolent-looking ship.
Simon, I hate the end of your videos.
Because that means there's no more content and I have to wait until tomorrow for your next video. Keep up the good work!
Excellent Video. - thank you for producing and sharing!
Fun fact: the island at the mouth of Green Bay is now part of Door County, named for the phrase French explorers used to describe the area: Porte des Morts. Death's Door.
Drain the Oceans had a segment on the Confederate sub. They came to the conclusion that the crew fell victim to carbon dioxide poisoning because ya know, early sub, meaning primitive life support and very limited time for each use. Basically, they fell asleep at their posts and never woke up again. It was the most logical conclusion based on the evidence of how the crew was found and the other factors you outlined...so not really a mystery anymore.
Actually, the Cyclops has been found, but for some reason that point is never mentioned. It has been found among the ships of the Skeleton Coast where many ships have ended up over the years. It is well inland, as are many of the ships there; a matter of blowing sands having reshaped the coastline over the years. When found, Cyclops was badly rusted, and its deck superstructures had entirely collapsed. It still contained the manganese it was carrying in its hold. No trace of its crew were found aboard, though that doesn't mean that the crew had abandoned ship as the bodies (if any) could have been consumed by animals living in the desert. So much time had passed that pretty much everything which could have rotted away had. The most likely thing to have happened was that something had happened to the ship's crew leaving the ship adrift on the ocean, where it eventually was washed ashore on the skeleton coast in the Namib. Once there, the shifting sands did the rest of the work as it did with so very many other ships which can easily be seen on Google earth in that area. There are literally hundreds of ships which have met their end there, and you can see them Google Earth images of the area. Even a few timbers from old wooden vessels have been found there. It is a veritable ship graveyard, and is an interesting feature to see in Google Earth.
source?
@@dukerrr Skeleton Coast is in AFRICA!!!
There's no way the Cyclops sank there. It wasn't that far off course! Someone's pulling your leg and might be referring to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." There was all kinds of BS put in that film and some people still don't realize it's all Hollywood!
The nearest thing they found was a wreck that LOOKED like the Cyclops lying on its side; this was outside of Cape Charles, east coast of the US, NOT the Bermuda Triangle (which is also BS)! This is believable. The sighting of that wreck was back in 1968, around the time the US Navy was searching for the USS Scorpion which had gone missing.
There was a report of a possible sighting of the Cyclops by another ship traveling off the east coast of the US. There was a storm in that general area and it's likely that's where the Cyclops sank.
Unfortunately, years later (circa 1980?), when they DID try to find that wreck again, it wasn't there. They found another wreck nearby but it wasn't the one the diver saw so who knows?!? They didn't have GPS back when he originally found it. It's possible they were off by miles because of inaccurate coordinates. (The coordinates given for the Titanic's sinking were off by 10-13 miles!) They didn't have the precision we do today with satellite triangulating ship positions.
Unless you have a source, this is BS. Can;t find anything online about it.
Yes but can you see shipwrecks in the namib on Google Earth? You've barely mentioned that
Yeah right....as if they had enough coal to get their or the intention to go to South Africa instead of USA. I call BS
The Corinth Canal would make a great Side Project. Story has Emperor Nero, Nazis and bungee jumpers.
SIMON! YOUR PURPOSE IS TO MAKE A STREAMING SERVICE, "SIMON STREAM" WITH ONLY YOUR CHANNELS!
Then we'll get multiple channels with the same topic, Tylenol murders being my example
This would be fun. But I know about as much about how to make something like that as I do about Lord of the Rings.
@@Sideprojects there's definitely enough "Simon" content to pull it off like ESPN fantasy does. Maybe not enough to break it down into individual shows but if combined their is certainty enough for 24 hrs of content
Wait a minute the submarine doesn't seem like a very big mystery, probably down there avoiding enemy ships, and ran out of oxygen and went to sleep.
Right? Or even with enough oxygen, just a build-up of carbon dioxide will make everyone drowsy and send them to sleep long before they're struggling to breathe from lack of oxygen. They probably just, as you say, stayed down too long (they may not even have known how long *was* "too long," and/or failed to take into account how much more oxygen they'd have used up/carbon dioxide they'd have produced, when the adrenaline from the situation hit, than just from even the hard work of managing the ship.
He did a video on the Hunley and explains exactly what happened. We know how they died. I don’t know why he listed the sub here.
Appropriate recommendation today. Just watched Lake Erie destroy a dozen boats in the docks about 20 minutes from me
I wonder if the shockwave from the explosion of the spar torpedo rendered the crew of the Hunley unconscious long enough for them to suffocate when the air ran out and the sub drifted until it sank.
You should do a megaprojects episode on the Monitor-class ironclad during the American Civil War and a side project on the hunt for the C.S.S. Alabama.
hey Simon, if you haven't already, could you do a video on the most brilliant military strategists in history? that would be interesting
Love the content on this new channel
I saw a program on the PBS program NOVA that compared a similar sized ocean area to the Bermuda Triangle for ship wrecks. The analysis showed no difference in the rate of shipwrecks between the Bermuda Triangle and the compared area.
Simon I'll throw in a little bit of more strangest. The Cyclopes had 3 sister ships. One was renamed the Langley. The first united states first aircraft carrier. They other two ships named prothies, and meridies. Were also lost in the Bermuda triangle
About the USS Cyclop. Magnesium does react poorly with water. It could have been the reason of a quick demise.
O Great Bearded One. What about a video entailing the tragedy of the Thresher, the submarine whose maximum depth ability remains classified even now.
I'm really enjoying these *Side Projects* and it's giving me a fine binge-watching experience! 💯%✓✓
Yessss do more mysterious stuff videos. I love these
Nice vid! Very much like the Flying Dutchman story here off the Cape in South Africa.
Always great content.. how about a video on the Turtle submarine of the civil war
I'm here to request a supercut of Simon saying "Porpoise."
Please and thanks.
You are easily amused. No doubt some of your pronunciations are amusing.
I want to hear him say “Tortoise”
Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt at the end of the 1st Century AD, built his epicyclic mechanism to explain retrograde motion of the planets. It's well-documented, so it's not entirely true that the Antikythera mechanism was unique in antiquity nor that is was somehow centuries ahead of it's time.
The biggest difference is probably the material used.
For some reason the story of the SS Baychimo is creepy as hell. Gives me goosebumps.
Just wait till you hear the story about the USS HITLER.
If you do a follow up of more missing ships, I suggest the SS Waratah be included
former wreck diver from the Island of St. Vincent. Love those wrecks and all the storys
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view!"
Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam."
Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!"
Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..."
Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!"
Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky."
Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction."
Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?
Sometimes you could feel sorry for Basil. Other times, not so much
@@dwlopez57 SORRY WE'RE FRESH OUT OF WALDORF'S
@@fredflintstoner596 its Manuel's fault. Hes from Spain
@@dwlopez57 I DID ASK THE WAITER
WELL HE'S USELESS
YOU MIGHT ASWELL ASK THE CAT
Great vid!
(2:35 when talking about a sailing ship with cannon, please list her guns! What was she packing? It's both customary and it sounds cooler. 😉)
Mr. Whistler: I am riveted by this topic, partly because it involves U.S. history, and partly because of the mysterious nature of the losses, not to mention the losses in the Great Lakes and Northern Canada, OK, the ancient Greek computer, Antiklethera.
Thanks.
Warmly, Yada, Yada, Yada.
It’s baffling how knowledge is lost for thousands of years within our civilization.
Simon on autopilot for this one. Probably his 8th of the week.
@00:8, it's mentioned that, "according to Unesto, (whatever THAT, is) there are over 3,000,000 ships, at the bottom of the ocean". As a part-time, shipwreck enthusiast living by the Atlantic ocean my whole life, I HIGHLY DOUBT those numbers, are accurate!! I'd need PROOF (and not just their word) of that statement. On the first ship, the "GRIFFIN", he says it's never been found. If you've ever seen the film "THE DEEP", it's depicted sunken down in the Caribbean (as a fact). How could these two places, be vastly distant from, one another? Not to mention, the Great Lakes DO NOT, connect to any salt water. So, how did they get it from the Hudson Bay region, to the Great Lakes 🤔??? With the story of "USS CYCLOPS", the part of it transporting naval prisoners, was left out. Some speculate there was a uprising of these, and caused the ship, to sink.
My boy was part of that diving crew that raised the Hunley.
Please do a video on the Bristol Brabazon. An aircraft out of time.
Simon has so many channels. He must be a RUclips millionaire.
Sir Simon! Can you please make a video in regaurds to how absolutely fabulous Southern Iowa is? The people must know! 😬🙄😊 love your channels hun, keep it comin
I’ve travelled many times to southeastern Iowa, very pretty area.
Simon is working with the History Channel to cover up aliens being among us.
Does anybody else think Simon Whistler should take over as host of Jeopardy?
I'd enjoy seeing a video on the Asiatic Prince. New cargo vessel that vanished in the 1920's Only saw
a brief mention of the vessel in a obscure book in the 1960's.
The crew of HL Hunley were most likely rendered unconscious by the detonation of their torpedo on the Housatonic, then suffocated in the confined space without regaining consciousness. The concussion from 130 pounds of powder exploding 20 feet away would be considerable, and the sub had no air processing, scrubbing, air bottles, nothing. Small and cramped, the crew would have had only a few minutes to get away and surface for air. The fact that the sub had killed 2 previous crews should have been the first clue that it was a death-trap.
I paused at the 3 second mark because when I saw the thumbnail I immediately said to myself "Hey! That's the Cyclops!"
So I am looking forward to the rest of this video. 🙂
The USS Cyclops is no mystery it was a top heavy flat bottom ship. Tests were done with a scale model in a wave tank showing it would roll and capsize easily. If it was hit from any place other than straight ahead by a medium sized rogue wave. OR it might have been Aliens! lol
About the Bermuda Triangle and the Antikythera mechanism I say "It's good to keep and open mind. Just not so open that your brains fall out !". Examine all sides of the issues and come to a logical conclusion.
My great uncle Leon VanderWhite was the pharmacists assistant on the Cyclops, he was like 22.
The Antikythera mechanism was not mechanical computer but a mechanical calendar. It's like a mechanical clock but it shows days and months instead of hours and minutes.
Dolphin-class.
Not sure the dolphins agreed with that assessment... didn't look much like one of their own and it didn't seem to eat fish either. I'm guessing they must have thought it a right weirdo.
Those ship classes remind me of Race to the Edge and Dragon Riders of Berk though... minus the dragons.
Only, there it was more along the lines of Stoker Class, Strike Class, etc...
My guess is the Bay Chimo is now run by sharks, dolphins and possibly seals.
There's one more weird thing about the USS Cyclops. There were four ships of its class originally, and THREE of them vanished (Cyclops in 1918, Nereus and Proteus both in 1941).
The only one we definitely know the fate of was the Jupiter, because it ws converted into the carrier USS Langly and scuttled after taking severe damage from japanese aircraft in 1942.
At least as I sit down to watch this I can assume that there will be no mention of aliens or time travel.
Simon, the ''Antikythera clock'' was built by Archimedes of Syracus. It is supposed that he built two of them. (Good luck Danny.)
further, they still have no clue exactly how it works, since they can't take it apart without destroying it.
Baychimo still sets sail in my heart.
It's not called Victoria Island Simon, common man... It's called "Vancouver Island"!!!
I think you're wrong about the cyclops Simon, Dirk Pitt DEFINETLY found it ;)
Next you're going to say that Steven Spielberg found the SS Cotopaxi in the Gobi Desert.
@@vintagethrifter2114 well, Dirk Pitt was an allusion to one of Clive Cussler's iconic characters. While Mr. Cussler didn't find the cyclops, he DID find the H. L. Hunley from another book featuring Dirk Pitt ;)
What happened on the submarine was probably just CO2 poisoning after something in the air supply broke. It wouldn't be noticed by anyone until it's too late, which would explain why everyone was still in their stations and nobody made an attempt to escape.
In the case of the H.L. Hunley, I've read somewhere - years ago - that it has been theorized, that it was air polutant poisoning, aka. they ran out of oxygin slowly or some that the oxygin was replaced with another gas from a chemical reaction from the ships components and the exhaust Co2, making them feel a certain high, before falling asleep and slowly suffocating... Can't quote a source or anything...
Excellent Side Project