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 |   Here you will find my daily journal of small stones and inspiration! |
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| It was a foggy night in mid-December, 1900. The three lighthouse keepers at Flannan Isles lighthouse has just settled into a round of poker after checking the beacon lights at the top of the tower. They could hear the waves smacking against the rocks. It was a mesmerizing sound and the keepers struggled against the heat of the fire and the hypnotizing noise to stay awake. They needed to ensure the light stayed glowing to guide the ships through the seas. Just as James folded out of the round and Donald raised his bet, they heard the noise. The noise started low, like a moan and then rose, like a song. The three men dismissed it, thinking it was the wind beginning to blow in from the sea. Thomas won the hand, took the matchsticks from the center of the table and got up to stoke the fire. Sparks flew as he stirred the ashes and threw another log onto the fire. He poured three mugs of coffee and grabbed a bottle of Scotch as James dealt the cards. Each man put a matchstick in the ante and picked up their cards. Again, they heard the noise. Only this time it was several voices that they heard, or so they thought. Each voice singing her own song, but yet only one song. It was beautiful. The men put down their cards and went to the doorway, knocking down a chair as they went. Opening the door, they felt the cool sea air press against them. Now, there was no wind yet the songs continued. Each one coming from a different direction. James grabbed the lantern and the three men went into the night. Soon the voices reached a fever pitch and could be heard getting closer to each other. They sounded like women, but certainly there were no women on the island. There were only the three men. Holding the lantern higher, James noticed a figure near the shore on one of the jagged rocks. She was naked, with her long hair billowing behind her. Within minutes she was joined on the rock by two other women, who had seemingly jumped from the waves onto the rock. The men were astonished and at first, thought the Scotch had caused the vision, but then they had yet to open the bottle. As Donald gazed at the images, one of the women beckoned to them. Soon, the song began again. The men believed it was the most beautiful song they had ever heard. Overcome by the singing and the sight of the women, they entered the water. The waves crashed over the men, throwing them against the rocks. Bones were broken as the weakened men tried to reach the rock where the women continued to beckon them. The song continued as each man lost his life. Their bodies, bloodied and mangled, drifted out to sea, never to be seen again. The sirens on the rock stopped singing and began to wail, waiting for another opportunity to sing their song again. word count - 508 The Flannan Isles Lighthouse Disappearances In 1900, three keepers of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse off the west coast of Scotland disappeared under the strangest of circumstances. The lighthouse was manned by a three-person team (Thomas Marshall, James Ducat, and Donald MacArthur), with a fourth man rotating in from shore. On Boxing Day (December 26) of 1900, the relief keeper arrived to find none of the lighthouse keepers present. The only sign that anything was amiss was an overturned chair near the kitchen table. No bodies were ever found, which has led to endless speculation. Theories range from drownings to abduction by foreign spies, a ghost ship, or a giant sea monster. Whatever happened back in December 1900 at the Flannan Isles Lighthouse, we may never know. So, tell us what happened to the lighthouse keepers! |
| 28 August 1887 We have been on the Island of Flores for 15 years now and no one suspects a thing. I have been told the story of how we arrived here but it seems surreal. Father died on the lifeboat, along with two of the crewman, or so I am told by my mother. We had been on the Mary Celeste, traveling to Genoa with a shipload of riches. No one in New York realized how priceless the cargo aboard the ship had been. Jewels were hidden in the galley, jewels headed to the Vatican, secured by the Sicilian mafia. My father and his crew were headed to Genoa to hand over the fortune to the Italian mafia, who in turn were to personally deliver it to Pope Pius IX. However, my father had other, better ideas for the fortune. One evening, around 1 December, 1872, my father loaded the lifeboat with the jewels, the crew, my mother, and myself. He left the ship at partial sail and set off onto the night. My mother has told me on numerous occasions that the ship looked as if we were all taken from her with no struggle, perhaps by a monster from the depths. According to mother, the seas were smooth until the third night, when waves crashed over the edges of the the small raft. Two crew members were lost that night. Over the edge they went, my mother says it was the waves that carried them, but a fortune split among 6 is greater than one split by 8. She tells me that my father was lost due to illness just as the Azores came into view. However, she never cries when she tells of this horror, and Uncle Pete, one of the crew, who happens to live with us, grins as she tells the story. ~Sarah word count - 309 Ghost Ship: The Mary Celeste On December 4, 1872, a British-American ship called “the Mary Celeste” was found empty and adrift in the Atlantic. It was found to be seaworthy and with its cargo fully intact, except for a lifeboat, which it appeared had been boarded in an orderly fashion. But why? We may never know because no one on board was ever heard from again. In November 1872, the Mary Celeste set sail from New York bound for Genoa, Italy. She was manned by Captain Benjamin Briggs and seven crew members, including Briggs’ wife and their 2-year-old daughter. Supplies on board were ample enough for six months, and luxurious—including a sewing machine and an upright piano. Commentators generally agree that to precipitate the abandonment of a seaworthy ship, some extraordinary and alarming circumstance must have arisen. However, the last entry on the ship’s daily log reveals nothing unusual, and inside the ship, all appeared to be in order. Theories over the years have included mutiny, pirate attack, and an assault by a giant octopus or sea monster. In recent years, scientists have posed the theory that fumes from alcohol on board caused an explosion that, as a result of a scientific anomaly, did not leave behind signs of burning—but was terrifying enough that Briggs ordered everyone into the lifeboat. Give us your opinion of what happened. Maybe you were even there? |
| In the 1930's, on the outskirts of Pomerania, Poland, a young entrepreneur had an idea to start a business in the midst of the Great Depression. He decided to plant a grove of pine trees in the hopes of selling them to local villagers for a small fee at Christmas. He thought he had considered everything it would take to build his enterprise. He researched how many acres he would need, how many feet apart the trees would need to be, the irrigation system needed for the area,and when to plant the trees to make sure he had purchasable trees each season for years to come. What he hadn't planned on was the bears and the bears ended up being the one thing he should have considered. He planted the saplings in rows at the distance recommended in the books he had read. They stood straight in the sunlight, and barely swayed when the spring wind blew. They grew healthy and strong until the summer of the second season. That was when he noticed that the trees were bent at the trunk. Just about two feet above the ground, they each had a bit of a bend. He tried to surmise what caused the trunk to bow out. He gathered strong stakes and tied the trees but the next week when he went to check on them, sure enough, the stakes were broken and the trees were bent. No one in the town could figure out what was happening but he worried about the future of his investment. One day he ventured out to the grove in the very early morning, when the dew was just lifting off the underbrush. That was when he encountered the bears. They were at his saplings, and they were the ones bending them. The bears were scratching their bare bear bums on the trees. As they rubbed up and down,side to side, wiggling their behinds, they were bending the trees. Our young entrepreneur was so delighted at the sight of these innocent creatures that he left them be. That is how the Crooked Forest became the home of the bent trees, and the bears come each summer, not just to scratch their bums but to sit in the old crooked trees. 377 word count The Crooked Forest Location: West Pomerania, Poland This Polish forest lives up to its name, with hundreds of peculiar pine trees. Several hundred pine trees were planted there in the 1930s and grew with an almost 90-degree bend at their base, making them look like fishing hooks. Some believe that a technique or human tool was actually used to make the trees curve this way, while others speculate that a winter snowstorm or some other damage could have given this fascinating forest its interesting shape. Give us your own creative reason why the trees are this way. |
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