Was there a flying Dutchman submarine? Actors of "The Secret Fairway": how their fate turned out. Submarines. The enemy is above us

"SUBMARINE GHOST" - Everyone probably knows the "Flying Dutchman", but few people know that there was a similar ship in the Russian fleet, or rather, a SUBMARINE! So, after the Russian-Japanese war, the famous shipbuilder I. G. Bubnov developed two project: the small one was called "Lamprey", the large one - "Shark". Both boats were considered by the Marine Technical Committee "experienced, the construction of which should serve for the independent development of domestic underwater construction." On May 3, 1905, the "Sharks" project was approved at a meeting of the MTK. The project included equipping the boat with two gasoline engines of 600 hp. On September 25, I. Bubnov sent a memo to the chief inspector of shipbuilding, in which he proposed, due to the high explosion hazard of gasoline engines, to replace them with diesel ones. To maintain the design speed, it was proposed to reduce the width of the boat and abandon wooden lining. The proposals were accepted, and with the start of financing, the project went into construction. The boat was launched on August 22, 1909. And on July 11, 1882, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Gudim was born in the city of Bryansk, in the family of the hereditary Oryol nobleman Alexander Gudim. In 1902 he graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps. He graduated from the training aeronautical park in 1903. In November 1903, during the absence of M.N. Bolshev, he was appointed head of the temporary aeronautical station in Sevastopol. He took part in the Russo-Japanese War, serving on the 1st rank cruiser Rossiya. Also in 1904-1905. in Vladivostok he serves in the aeronautical park of the Maritime Ministry. In 1907 he graduated from the Officer's class of scuba diving. Commanded the submarines: “Skat”, “Perch”, “Dragon”, “Shark”. Since December 6, 1914, captain 2nd rank. In 1910 he was transferred to service in the Baltic Fleet. In 1910, together with the head of the Ksenia floating transport workshop, Boris Salyar, he proposed using a telescopic pipe for ship ventilation and extending the exhaust pipe from diesel engines (the prototype of modern snorkels). He died along with the submarine "Akula" when reaching Memel on November 15, 1915. But this important invention was "sheltered" During the First World War, the "Akula" made 16 military campaigns, participated in the laying of minefields, the first of the Russian boats used the tactic of searching for a target at sea instead of waiting for the target at a fixed position. On November 15, 1916, during the 17th mine-laying campaign near Memel, the boat was lost during a storm. It is assumed that the mines located on the deck shifted the position of the center of gravity upward and the boat turned over and then sank. So, in some ways this is not entirely true. N.A. Gudim was still able to install an RDP on the “Akula” with the help of the SRM workers and the crew. Allegedly, there are photos of the “Shark” with an RDP (Diesel Operation Underwater, the same thing - “snorkel”). And the boat went on its final voyage with a snorkel! Thanks to the RDP, the “Shark” successfully laid mines and began to retreat from the position. According to some sources, it was rammed by a destroyer and sank, according to others, it was blown up by a mine. What is known for certain is that a month after the disappearance of the Baltic Fleet radio station, they received a radio from the “Akula”: “Rise from the ground. I continue patrolling. Lieutenant Gudim." The radiogram was not given any significance, there was a war going on, and a possible provocation of the enemy was not ruled out. Then - revolution, and so on. There was no time for the fleet and its affairs. However, strange things began to happen - here and there, in fresh weather, the sailors began to meet the “Shark”, sailing with the hatches battened down without people on the bridge. Moreover, some meetings had documentary evidence in the form of entries in the ship's logs. It was precisely such records that served as the impetus for Alexei Tolstoy to write his famous story. In particular, the greatest confidence is in the record of the meeting of the “Shark” with the SovTorgFleet steamship “Mironych” in 1925. At one time there was an opinion that the boat that died along with its crew lay on the ground for some time, for some reason the fastenings of the keel ballast (design features of the Bubnov boats of the “Akula” and “Bars” types) came loose, the submarine surfaced, i.e. To. the seal was not broken, and now the dead one is simply drifting across the Baltic. Over time, the story died down. It received a new development with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, during the tragic Tallinn transition. At the time of the death of the legendary destroyer Novik, renamed Yakov Sverdlov in 1923, under the command of captain 2nd rank A.M. Spiridonov, who participated in the breakthrough of Soviet ships from Tallinn to Kronstadt on August 28, 1941, guarding the flagship cruiser Kirov " "Yakov Sverdlov" died, according to some sources - by blowing up a mine at Cape Yumindanina while changing his place in the order, according to others - at about 21:00. Having exposed himself to a torpedo from a German submarine, the commander of MO No. 202, I. Chernyshev, approached the site of the flooding to pick up the survivors. At that moment the German boat also surfaced. Chernyshev had no choice but to accept the battle, but in this case the sailors from Novik would have been doomed. Chernyshev in his book “On the Sea Hunter” (Voenizdat. 1972) recalls: “...Suddenly, water began to boil next to us on the starboard side and first the wheelhouse, and then the entire boat of a design unknown to me, jumped to the surface about 50 meters from us. (I. Chernyshev was only 25 years old at that time.) The hull and the surface of the wheelhouse itself were so corroded by rust that it was noticeable even through the film of the layer of fuel oil covering them, which spread over the water from the tanks of the lost destroyer. I immediately gave the command to the stern gun (45mm) to move the target, since the silhouette of the boat was not familiar to me, but I did not have time to give the order to open fire. The unknown submarine quickly picked up speed and turned in the direction of the “German”. She was also noticed on the enemy submarine; it was visible how the crew of the deck gun turned the barrel in her direction. The commander of the bow gun, foreman of the first article V. Poluektov, shouted: “This is the Shark!” "Shark"!" I ordered the crew of the bow gun and the crew of the right machine gun to open rapid fire on the “German”, the emergency party to continue lifting the sailors from the destroyer. At that moment, the Nazis opened gun fire on an unknown boat coming at them at full speed, and it was very noticeable how their shells hit its wheelhouse, without causing, to my surprise and some kind of evil joy, any harm. And the enemy submariners, seeing the ineffectiveness of their actions and suffering losses under our machine-gun fire, they began to quickly jump into the hatch - the “German” was preparing for an urgent dive. At that moment, a searchlight flashed on an unknown boat and a column of light ran straight into the control room of the German submarine. The unknown boat increased its speed even more, although it moved almost silently and rammed the enemy who had not had time to dive, literally cutting his hull in half. There was a distinct sound of a strong impact of metal on metal, and in less than a minute both boats disappeared under water. We finished accepting survivors from the destroyer on board, and with one engine (I kept the second engine in reserve in case of an emergency need to go full speed;) we went to catch up with the convoy. What kind of boat it was, I still don’t know; in the whirlwind of the terrible and difficult year 1941 for us, we didn’t manage to find out anything, and there was no time for that. They told different things - that it was the submarine “Akula” that had once disappeared without a trace during the Imperialist War, helping our sailors defend the Baltic from enemies...” During the war, the “Akula” was seen more than once, or twice, in different areas of the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland. And she always appeared precisely at the moment when our sailors were in mortal danger. With a hull corroded by rust, with the hatches battened down, the boat suddenly emerged from the depths and came to the rescue. She protected boats or minesweepers that had lost their speed from fire from the shore, leading behind her in the wake, showed passages in nets and barriers, and then just as quickly, quietly went under the water and disappeared without a trace. She didn’t care about booms, bombs, or minefields. This is the fundamental difference between this legend and the legend about the “Flying Dutchman”, who is seen before trouble or disaster, therefore meeting the “Flying” is considered a bad omen in all fleets. Probably the worst. The next time sailors started talking about Nikolai Gudim’s boat was in 1985, after the death of the roll-off ship “Mechanik Tarasov” from shifting cargo. Then, out of the entire crew (52 people), only four survived; the rest died from hypothermia, although everyone was picked up - partly by ours, partly by the Norwegians. Among the survivors, the 4th engineer S.A. Rudakov said that he and three other sailors from the Tarasov crew (those who survived) were taken onto the deck by a boat that suddenly appeared from nowhere, a very small one, so rusty that it it was simply amazing how she even floated on the water. The hatches were battened down and there was no one on the deck or bridge. The storm seemed to have no effect on her at all. The boat very quickly and silently picked up speed and, in the immediate vicinity of the Norwegian fisherman, went under the water again, leaving the sailors on the surface. But one thing was that the time spent in the water was minimal for them, and ultimately allowed the guys not to die from hypothermia..."And what about the submarine "Shark"? So, on November 15, 1915, during the 17th campaign mine-laying near Memel, the boat died. It was assumed that the boat died during a storm, having lost stability due to mines located on the deck. On June 21-22, 2014, searchers of the diving vessel "Deep Explorer" discovered off the coast of the Estonian island of Hiiumaa at a depth of 30 meters The wreck of the sunken Russian submarine "Akula". On June 29, 2014, a clear, well-preserved inscription "Akula" was discovered on the left side of the stern. Based on the results of the expedition to the wreck of the boat on June 29, 2014, the true cause of the death of the boat was established: an explosion by the bow on a drifting mine during passage on the surface. The bow of the boat is torn off and lies 20 meters astern, the surface compass is in its working position, the periscopes are removed, traces of the impact of an explosion from the outside are visible on the bow of the boat. The boat is heading from the Gulf of Finland. Near the boat at the bottom, 4 mines were found, which it was transporting on deck...

The year before last turned55 years of creative activity as a film director and cameraman at the Odessa Film StudioVadim KOSTROMENKO.

For reference.Kostromenko Vadim Vasilievich. Honored Artist of Ukraine. In 1952-1957 studied at the camera department of VGIK, in the workshop of Professor B. I. Volchek. Since March 1957 he has been working at the Odessa Film Studio, first as a cameraman (directed 13 films), then as a film director (directed 12 films). Since 1996 - Director of the Cinema Museum of the Odessa branch of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine.

And a quarter of a century ago, Central Television showed a four-part film “The Secret Fairway”, filmed by V. Kostromenko based on the novel of the same name by Leonid Platov. To this day, this modest film is regularly shown on various television channels, and a new generation of viewers enjoys following the adventures of the commander of the Soviet torpedo boat Shubin, who managed to neutralize the formidable German submarine. But few people know that in “The Secret Fairway”, for the first time in world cinema, the passage of a real submarine under water was filmed.

The boat is gone, but the movie remains

The film takes place in 1944 on the Baltic Sea. While carrying out a combat mission, the commander of a torpedo boat, Boris Shubin, accidentally discovers the secret channel of an unmarked German submarine. An unforeseen incident throws him onto the Flying Dutchman and makes it possible to lift the veil of the strictest secret of the Third Reich that surrounds it.

Naturally, in a film where a submarine operates, it was difficult to do without scenes under water. At first it was assumed that the submersion and ascent of the submarine would be filmed in the famous swimming pool of the Odessa Film Studio. This pool was built for filming naval battle scenes. Water was poured into the pool so that it overflowed. Models of ships from different eras, mainly sailing fleets, were launched into the pool, and they were put into action using various devices. In the background there was a panorama of the Black Sea, creating the illusion of a distant sea.

Local masters of combined filming managed to stage quite believable naval battles. Today, reviewing these pictures, it is difficult to believe that in these scenes it was not real ships that were actually involved, but their very small scale models.

A mock-up of the submarine was also prepared for “The Secret Fairway,” but when the director saw the dive of a real submarine, he literally became obsessed with the desire to film this scene in real life.

“When a submarine dives,” Vadim Vasilyevich Kostromenko explains his decision, “such a whirlpool appears, such an amazing picture that it is simply impossible to create a similar effect in a pool.”

Although the plot of the film took place in the Baltic, underwater scenes were filmed in the Crimea, in Balaklava, especially since the water in these places was surprisingly clear. Filmmakers at that time were treated with respect, especially since the film was about the heroism of Soviet sailors, so everything that was required for the film crew was provided by the naval command without further ado and for free. (Under current conditions, such filming would cost millions of hryvnia, or even dollars). However, this episode didn’t go well at first.

The film crew was given a diving board, with a rigid ladder going deep into the water. The director decided that a cameraman would sit at the end of this ladder, suitably equipped, of course, and with a special camera for underwater filming. And a submarine was supposed to pass next to it.

And then the day of shooting arrived. The submarine arrived, but...

“I set a task for the commander of the boat,” recalls V.V. Kostromenko. - He looked at me and said: “Vadim Vasilyevich, we’ll both go to prison. Do you think I’m driving along the highway? I’ll swim underwater. Just a little wrong and your cameraman will get caught in my screws. And that’s all.” "Let's sit down. No, I won't do that!"

He turned his boat around and left.

The director had to go to Sevastopol to see the fleet commander.

“I understand him,” the commander said after listening to the director’s story. - We need a risky person here.

And he ordered to give another boat, with a different commander. The shooting went well and the expected effect was achieved. During our conversation, Vadim Vasilyevich admitted that he did not remember the name of the dashing submarine commander. He only remembers his unique first name and patronymic - Afrikan Afrikanovich. But, as we were able to establish, the sailor had the most simple last name - Popov.


And the captain-lieutenant Popov A.A. commanded the diesel-electric submarine S-296 of project 613, serial number 152. The first sailing of this boat was marked in 1955, and on October 1, 1990 the crew was disbanded. Apparently, during the following turbulent years, the boat was scrapped. But she managed to go down in the history of world cinema...

With fun and courage

Vadim Vasilyevich also recalls other interesting situations during the Crimean filming. We had to film several underwater scenes of the meeting between the two heroes. There is an unwritten law in cinema: during the filming of dangerous and important episodes, the director must be on the set. In this case, such a platform was the underwater kingdom, so the director had to quickly take a scuba diver course and even make the first test dive.

“But as soon as I dived in, the water filled the mask,” recalls V.V. Kostromenko. - I surfaced and said: “Guys, what kind of mask did you give me that allows water to pass through?” And they answer me: “Vadim Vasilyevich, the mask is not to blame, the mustache needs to be shaved off.”

- Well, I can’t shave my mustache! - the director continues, smiling, and says that when he once performed this procedure in his youth, he felt as if he was without pants.

This deadlock situation was resolved by the leading actor Anatoly Kotenev, who persuaded the director to stay on the shore, since this underwater filming was technically quite simple. Reluctantly, the director agreed. But the cats scratched their souls: after all, the actors had to film without scuba gear: they had to dive into the water and quickly emerge. However, quite a lot of time has passed, and no one has appeared from the sea. V. Kostromenko rushed about on the shore in horror, assuming that the worst had happened. Meanwhile, the actors simply decided to play a prank on the director. They quickly filmed the episode, then swam away from the director's eyes and calmly sunbathed.

“Now, of course, it’s fun to talk about this, but I can’t repeat to you what I said to the “jokers” then,” Vadim Vasilyevich smiles.


The leading actor himself recalled that the consultant of the film, an admiral, saw him on the set and asked: “You probably served in the navy? You have a naval gait and bearing.” Meanwhile, the artist had nothing to do with the fleet before. He served in the artillery, and also spent most of his service on stage, since he already had an elementary theater education. Sports activities helped, which were also useful during the filming of “The Secret Fairway,” where the actor had to jump with a parachute, swim underwater and stay afloat for a long time in the open sea. True, the artist admitted, for the most part one of my understudies swam underwater, the other jumped with a parachute, and the performer himself at that time ran in the catacombs, where he pretended to fight with the “German” - stuntman Peter Sherekin. But he had to spend an entire filming shift in the water.

“We found a long pier going into the sea,” the artist later said, “and they filmed from it against the backdrop of the sea.” I’m swimming there, pretending to be something, and from the pier they shout: “Tolya! Flounder a little! Now we’ll reload the camera!” And I see how the camera assistant clumsily climbs up the mountain towards the bus with the equipment. And I'm swimming. That's when I realized that as long as the camera was working, the actor would go into fire, into water... yes, he would do anything! And while I heard the loud crack of the Konvas camera, I selflessly floundered in the water.

But one day A. Kotenev wanted to personally jump with a parachute, although they were filming a long shot and he could well have been replaced by a double. However, the artist persuaded the director to give him the opportunity to jump, assuring him that he had experience in as many as five jumps. “It’s true,” the actor said, looking with honest eyes at the director, “I still have the documents about this at home.” The problem was that during the war, round parachutes were used, which forty years later were no longer in stock. With great difficulty they found an old round parachute, checked it carefully and finally gave consent to filming.

The command was given, the camera was turned on, and a lump flew out of the plane. He flew for a suspiciously long time and only almost at the very ground the parachute opened.


"Tolya, what happened?" - the concerned director ran up to the artist.

“Nothing special,” he replied, “with a blue eye,” “I just wanted to show you what a long jump is.”

Another funny episode happened during filming in the Baltic. The script said: “The flotilla entered the bay, the water was boiling with explosions.” To film this scene, pyrotechnicians spent the whole day laying explosive packages on a boat. But no one thought about the consequences of the explosions. And they didn’t have to wait long. For, as soon as the filming of the episode ended, thousands of fish corpses floated to the surface. And, as luck would have it, out of nowhere, a fisheries inspector appeared and demanded that the film crew pay a fine. But, naturally, there was no such item in the film’s budget. I had to have a conversation with the inspector about what kind of film it was. Who is starring in it, etc. Meanwhile, the sailors cooked a wonderful fish soup from the stunned fish, which the inspector could not refuse...

Interesting facts about the film

- Some episodes of the biography of the book hero Shurka Lastikov (closing a radiator hole with his body and the Ushakov medal among the awards) are drawn from the real life of a graduate of the Solovetsky school as a young man A.F. Kovalev (Rabinovich).

- In the film, the mysterious German submarine is U-127. This is indicated by the number stamped on the plate from which Shubin is fed on this submarine, and the number on the bent fork found in a pile of garbage in the ship cemetery in Pillau. The real boat U-127 was lost back in 1941.

- The river patrol artillery armored boat of Project 1204 “Shmel” was filmed as torpedo boats. The BM-14-17 multiple launch rocket system was dismantled from several Shmels, and dummies of tubular torpedo tubes were installed in the vacant space. After which, in their new form, the 73-ton Shmeli played the role of 15-ton G-5 torpedo boats in the film.

- The name of the commander of the Flying Dutchman is Gerhard von Zwischen. Translated from German, this means “Gerhard from between,” that is, from nowhere, and is an allusion to Captain Nemo (Nemo is Latin for “nobody”) from Jules Verne’s novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”

The secret of longevity is sincerity

Jokes aside, but, as the director believes, his film turned out to be prophetic to a certain extent. For in the last scene on the submarine, the fascist commander utters the following text: “It was crazy, bad Hitler who lost the war. And I want you to understand how easily and freely we will penetrate into the post-war world. We will enjoy the patronage of important people, we will preserve the national “socialism and we will carefully cultivate it on new soil.”


“I am saddened by the fact that in some places, even here, fascism is raising its head again,” says V.V. Kostromenko. - Our film is shown quite often on television, and I want to believe that these words will make someone think...

“The Secret Fairway” brought popularity to the leading actor Anatoly Kotenev. Now he is one of the leading artists in Belarus, has starred in 60 films and TV series and was even elected vice-president of the Belarusian Guild of Film Actors.

There is no need to introduce Larisa Guzeeva, who starred in this film shortly after the resounding success of “Cruel Romance.” She was interested in playing the role in military uniform. But some viewers were dissatisfied with the death of the heroine, and after the release of the film the director received many letters with an angry question: “Why did you kill such a beautiful woman?”

"The Secret Fairway" cannot be called a masterpiece of world cinema. Honest, high-quality work, which even a quarter of a century later still looks with unflagging attention. What is the secret of such longevity? Even the director himself does not know the answer to this question. Most likely, in the sincerity and sense of personal involvement with which V.V. Kostromenko shot the film - “Child of War”.

American filmmakers - for all their technical sophistication - only five years later risked filming a real submarine dive. So the laurels of pioneers remained with our filmmakers.

materials used
Roman Cheremukhin and Maxim Obod.

7.00 "The Secret Fairway" is a wonderful Soviet feature film in 4 episodes about the mysterious German submarine "The Flying Dutchman". For everyone who hasn't watched it, watch it.
The action takes place during the years of the Great Patriotic War in the Baltic Fleet and in the post-war period. During a combat mission torpedo boat commander Boris Shubin discovers a secret channel for a German submarine to pass through itat night on the surface. Shubin decides to continue observing the fairway, his expectations are confirmed - the next day an unmarked submarine surfaces between the islands. It is German, and German officers can be heard talking. The submarine is called the "Flying Dutchman", and its crew carries out top-secret missions for high command of the Third Reich.

Upon his return, Boris Shubin decides to find out as much as possible about this secret submarine, in this he is helped by the English sailor Neila, released from a concentration camp, he saw this German submarine off the coast of Brazil. Bye Boris Shubin does not even imagine that he will soon find himself on the Flying Dutchman.

Secret fairway. Episode 1

Secret fairway. Episode 2

Secret fairway. Episode 3

Secret fairway. Episode 4

Year: 1986
A country: USSR
Director: Vadim Kostromenko
Film Genres: adventure, military
Starring: Anatoly Kotenev Larisa Guzeeva Sergey Bystritsky Leonid Trutnev Vladimir Naumtsev Valery Yurchenko Uldis Dumpis Stanislav Rii Vidas Pyatkevičius Arunas Storpirstis

Fun facts about the film:

• The adult Shurka Lastikov, the main character’s pupil, is played by Sergei Bystritsky, who is only five years younger than the leading actor Anatoly Kotenev.
• The numbers stamped on the dishes used on board the Flying Dutchman indicate that the authors of the picture meant the U-127 submarine by the mysterious submarine, but in fact this submarine died back in 1941 and could not have been a participant in the events described.
• The Shmel river artillery patrol armored boats acted as torpedo boats. The multiple launch rocket system was dismantled from them, and in its place dummies of tubular torpedo tubes were installed.
• The name of the commander of the “Flying Dutchman” contains an allusion to Jules Verne’s famous novel about Captain Nemo “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”. Gerhard von Zwischen is German for "Gerhard of Between", which is a parallel to the name Captain "Nobody".
• During the Soviet Union, the film was always shown during the summer holidays.
• This was the fourth film by actor Anatoly Kotenev at that time, in all of which he played military roles.
• Some episodes of the biography of the book hero Shurka Lastikov (closing a hole in the radiator with his body and the Ushakov medal among the awards) are drawn from the real life of a graduate of the Solovetsky school as a young man A.F. Kovalev (Rabinovich).
• In the film, the role of the U-127 “Flying Dutchman” is played by the Soviet diesel-electric submarine Project 613.
• In the 2nd episode, the Sovinformburo reports on the radio: “The troops of the Karelian Front, continuing the offensive from the Petsamo (Pechenga) region, reached the state border of the USSR with Norway.” The USSR border with Norway was established in 1947 as a result of Finland transferring the territory separating these countries to the Soviet Union.
• At the end of the 4th episode, Shubin quickly escorts the intruder along the shore to the rowing boat, while a cassette of magnetic wire falls out of the latter’s pocket - one of those that he took from the safe of the underground base. Thus, not all audio recordings reach the Soviet authorities.
• The saboteur who arrived on the island uses a Margolin sports pistol, made in the USSR, as a weapon.

From generation to generation, sailors retold each other the legend of the Flying Dutchman. This image always made hearts beat faster. The mystery and romance associated with it excited the imagination. And for good reason: the legend is really very poetic.
Every year dozens of ships disappear in the world's oceans. These are not only fragile skiffs and dinghies, elegant yachts and pleasure boats - among the missing there are also passenger liners and bulk carriers.
What's happened? Where did you go? Any sailor will tell you that everything here is very simple and hopeless: they met the Flying Dutchman.

Legend has it that there once lived a Dutch captain, Van der Decken. He was a drunkard and a blasphemer. And then one day, near the Cape of Good Hope, his ship was caught in a strong storm. The crew immediately began to persuade the old captain to moor to the shore and wait out the storm. However, he was drunk, and maybe he had gone crazy. One way or another, he ignored the plea of ​​his charges. Moreover, he vowed to go around the cape by any means necessary. Fearing for the fate of the ship at the mercy of the crazy captain, the sailors and the passengers rebelled and started an uprising, with the goal of neutralizing the madman. However, he turned out to be more cunning and caught the leader of the rebellious. After a couple of seconds, he went to feed the fish.

The same will happen to anyone who goes against me,” the captain growled, turning to the frightened sailors, and kicked the navigator’s body. Apparently, this threat did not bring the crew to their senses, and the captain used the pistol again.

Since then, the Flying Dutchman has been plowing the seas, causing death and destruction. With a rotten hull, it nevertheless holds up well on the waves. The God-damned captain recruits his crew from drowned men, and the more vile and vile their deeds in life were, the better. As legend has it, the ghost of the Flying Gollan foretells certain death for a ship or part of the crew. Therefore, sailors feared him like fire, superstitiously nailing horse shoes to the masts.

“...And if in the clear morning hour Swimmers in the seas met him, They were forever tormented by an inner voice with a blind harbinger of sadness...”

This is a legend, imbued with mysticism, similar to a phantasmagoria. This myth must have some historical background. However, real facts also lose their outlines under the veil of time.

For example, there is disagreement about the name of the captain of the damned schooner. Some call him Van Der Decken, others - Van Straaten, others - simply Van. In all likelihood, the legend is based on a real story that happened to one of the Dutch sailors in 1641. The merchant ship intended to sail around the Cape of Good Hope in search of a suitable location for a small settlement that could serve as a transshipment point for the ships of the East India Company. A storm broke out, but the captain decided to get to his goal, no matter what the cost. The story ended badly. However, even here there was some myth-making. According to legend, a stubborn captain was so eager to get to the eastern side of the cape that he declared: “I will get there even if it takes me until the end of the world!” The devil granted him eternal life, and since then the ship has been floating on the waves near modern Cape Town.

There is another, very real precedent for the “Flying Dutchman”. In 1770, an epidemic of an unknown disease broke out on one of the ships. While in the vicinity of Malta, the sailors asked for asylum in a local port. The authorities refused due to security reasons. The ports of Italy and Great Britain did the same, dooming the ship's inhabitants to a slow death. In the end, the ship really turned into a floating island with a pile of skeletons on board.

On July 11, 1881, an entry appeared in the logbook of the British naval frigate Baccante, which was rounding the Cape of Good Hope: “During the night watch, our beam crossed the Flying Dutchman.” First, a strange reddish light appeared, emanating from the ghost ship, and against the background of this glow, the masts, rigging and sails of the brig were clearly visible.” The next morning, the lookout, who was the first to notice the ghost ship, fell from the mast and crashed to his death. Later, the squadron commander suddenly fell ill and died.

The Flying Dutchman has been seen many times over the past 400 years. Encounters with him most often occur south of the Cape of Good Hope.

Painted black and brightly lit, the ship always sails with its sails raised proudly, even in the most ferocious weather. From time to time a voice is heard from there, but experienced people do not answer the questions of the mysterious ghost, because they know that misfortune will certainly follow. Some sailors are convinced that simply looking at a ship is enough to find their death in a shipwreck.

Even the crews of German submarines during World War II were afraid of the Dutchman, which was seen many times east of Suez. Admiral Karl Doenitz wrote in his reports to Berlin: “The sailors said that they would prefer to meet the forces of the Allied Fleet in the North Atlantic than to experience the horror of meeting the phantom again.”

Interestingly, one of the representatives of the English royal family almost met with the Flying Dutchman. On July 11, 1881, the British ship Bacchae, carrying the young prince as a midshipman cadet, encountered a ghost ship. By the will of fate, the prince was destined to live many more years and become King George V. But the sailor, who was on patrol that fateful day, soon fell from the mast and was killed.

But the most amazing thing in this whole story is that the legendary ship was encountered even in the 20th century! So, in March 1939, his presence was witnessed firsthand by many South African swimmers. This event is documented, as all the newspapers wrote about it that day. A similar story happened with one of the German submarines during the Second World War. In the 60s of the last century, scientists tried to use the latest scientific data to explain the phenomenon of the Flying Dutchman. It was assumed that this was a mirage that appeared on the eve of a storm as a result of a special kind of atmospheric cataclysm. However, this hypothesis was not justified.

Ships sailing under full sail, but without a crew, are not at all uncommon.

Early on a sunny morning in 1850, the ship "Sea Bird" appeared off the coast of the American state of Rhode Island near the city of Newport. The people gathered on the shore saw that the ship was moving under full sail towards the reefs. When there were only a few meters left to the reefs, a huge wave lifted the sailboat and carefully carried it to land. The villagers who reached the ship were amazed: there was not a single living soul on the ship. A kettle was boiling on the stove in the galley, there was tobacco smoke in the cockpit, and plates were placed on the table. Navigation instruments, maps, sailing directions and ship's documents = everything was in place. From the ship's log it became known that the sailing ship was sailing from Honduras to Newport with a cargo of coffee. The ship was commanded by Captain John Durham.

The last entry in the logbook stated: “We went abeam Brenton Reef.” This reef is located just a few miles from Newport. The fishermen who returned from fishing that same day said that early in the morning they saw a sailboat at sea and the captain greeted them. The most thorough investigation carried out by the police did not explain why or where the people disappeared.

Some experts believe that one of the explanations for the disappearance of the team in some cases may be a sudden outbreak of an epidemic. At the end of 1770, a ship came to the island of Malta, the captain and 14 sailors of which were stricken with yellow fever. When this was reported to the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, he ordered the ship and 23 crew members to be towed from the port. The ship set off for Tunisia, but the local ruler was warned and he forbade the ship to be allowed into the port. The team decided to sail the sailboat to Naples. He was not accepted there either, for fear of an epidemic. The ship was not accepted in both France and England. In the end, the restless sailing ship went missing.

Another explanation is infrasound. What do we know about him? Infrasound is low-frequency elastic waves (less than 16 Hz) that are not audible to the human ear. During storms and strong winds above the sea surface, transverse and longitudinal vibrations occur in the air. At a wind speed of 20 m/sec, the power of the “voice of the sea” reaches 3 W per meter of water surface. A relatively small storm generates infrasound with a power of tens of kilowatts in the 6 Hz range, the impact of which on the body can result in temporary blindness, a feeling of anxiety, and attacks of insanity are not uncommon. During such attacks, people are thrown overboard or turn into murderers, after which they themselves commit suicide. If the radiation frequency is 7 Hz, the death of the crew occurs almost instantly, since the heart is not able to withstand such a load...

In September 1894, the three-masted sailing ship Aby Ess Hart was spotted in the Indian Ocean from the steamer Piccuben. A distress signal fluttered from its mast. When the sailors landed on deck, they saw that all 38 crew members were dead, and the captain had gone crazy. The faces of the dead, those that had not yet been so much touched by decay, were distorted with horror.

However, there are cases before which the mind gives in. Mysticism, and nothing more! People are susceptible to disease - this is true, but ships also become decrepit and do not live long without daily care.

In October 1913, a rescue team from the English steamship Johnson boarded a drifting sailing ship, on board of which the half-erased words “Marlboro” were barely legible. The sails and masts of the ship were covered with greenish mold. The deck boards are rotten. A skeleton reclined by the gangway, covered with decayed rags. Another 20 skeletons were discovered on the bridge and in the cabins. The pages of the logbook were stuck together, the ink had smeared, and it was impossible to read anything. A storm was approaching, and the captain of the ship, not having the opportunity or desire to take the ghost ship in tow, marked on the map the meeting place with the mysterious sailing ship and ordered to set a return course. At the port, the captain reported his discovery to the authorities. It quickly became clear that the Marlborough left the port of Littleton in New Zealand in January 1890 with a cargo of wool and frozen lamb. The crew was commanded by Captain Hird. He was known as an experienced and knowledgeable sailor. The last time a sailboat was seen was on April 1, 1890 in the Pacific Ocean near Tierra del Fuego. Incredibly, the sailboat wandered the seas for 23 years! This could not have happened, but the fact remained a fact.

To this day, the nature of the ghost ship remains a mystery to us. Who knows, maybe he is destined to remind himself more than once. Or maybe the Flying Dutchman is just a myth? Who knows…

In order not to end on too gloomy a note, let's end the story about The Flying Dutchman with a funny incident from the recent past.

In 1986, in the Atlantic Ocean, near Philadelphia, passengers on a sea pleasure ship spotted an old sailboat with torn sails. The deck was crowded with people in camisoles, cocked hats, and swords. Seeing a pleasure ship, they crowded along the side and began to shout, shaking ancient muskets. The tourists were clicking their cameras with might and main. On board the ship was a reporter from a popular newspaper. For a decent sum, he was allowed to convey information about the sensation to his publication. It was then that everything became clear. Hollywood was making another film about... "The Flying Dutchman". With a strong gust of wind, the cable holding the ship at the pier broke, and the ship, crowded with extras, “caught” the wind and rushed into the open sea. Well, let any meeting with the Flying Dutchman end just as happily.

Greetings, uv. Colleagues!
Today's post will be dedicated to clearing away the fog over the history of the U534 submarine.
I don’t know if this will be news to you, but it seems that, thanks to the efforts of various hoaxers, the most famous German submarines have long been U997 and U530. Their “glory” has long eclipsed Weddigen’s U9, Prien’s U47 and Kretschmer’s U99. What the 977th and 530th are not attributed to by various “masters of the pen” from journalism. Either they take the Fuhrer to Argentina, or to Antarctica, and each of them has more than one secret mission, the purpose of which the authors of these “stories” themselves cannot really explain. There is not enough imagination. However, this pair of boats is rapidly being overtaken in terms of the number of legends with which it is “overgrown” again and again by another “flying Dutchman” - U534. The “seeds” of mystification regarding this boat were thrown into the fertile “soil” of fantasy in the West, but they successfully sprouted here too, since the image of the “Flying Dutchman” from “The Secret Fairway” was firmly embedded in the minds of our “history buffs”.

So, according to Vedeneev, U534 was in the Atlantic in April, from where it was recalled to Kiel.

Quote:
"At the end of April 1945, when the outcome of the war had long ago become extremely clear, the captain of the German submarine U-534 Herbert Nollau received an encrypted order via radio to urgently arrive in Kiel, the main base of the navy of Nazi Germany.

Nollau was an experienced sailor and disciplined officer, brought up in the spirit of the best traditions of the German submarine fleet, which Admiral Dönitz, nicknamed “Papa Karl” by the submariners, diligently instilled in his subordinates. The submarine U-534 showed itself to be a good combat ship, and the captain wanted to preserve it, so he made long passages mainly at night - over the Atlantic, where the submarine was located, long-range aviation of the British and Americans dominated, diligently looking for German ships. The times when the Luftwaffe imposed its will on the enemy are long and irrevocably gone.

The submarine managed to reach Kiel quite safely, and Nollau already breathed a sigh of relief - to be honest, hanging out at sea in such conditions is not very pleasant. On the other hand, standing at the pier in Germany, already more than half occupied by troops from the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, is also not the best option. Especially if we take into account the terrible bombings of the Americans, who tried to sweep away with bombs from the face of the earth everything that lay far below under the wings of their “flying fortresses”.(With)

The above does not stand up to criticism.
U534, under the command of Nollau, set out on its first combat mission on the morning of April 27, 1944 from Kiel. Three days later she arrived in Kristiansand (Norway), where she stayed for a day to replenish her fuel supply. On May 6, she arrived in Bergen (Norway) and was delayed there for 2 days due to a diesel engine breakdown. After leaving Bergen, the boat went to the North Atlantic, where, according to the order, it was supposed to observe the weather and transmit weather data to headquarters. On May 26, Nollau sent the first message with a weather report. June 20th second. July 13 is the third and last. On July 20, the boat was supposed to begin returning to its base in Bordeaux (France). U534 arrived at Bordeaux on 13 August with U857 and 437, having withstood several attacks by Allied anti-aircraft aircraft on the approaches to the base. From August 14 to August 24, the boat underwent repairs at the shipyard.

During these days, the Allied forces approached Bordeaux and on August 25, U534, together with U857 and 437, left France, thus becoming the last German boats to leave Bordeaux. The transition to Norway under the snorkel took Nollau 2 months - U534 arrived in Kristiansand early in the morning of October 24, 1944. The next day, at night, the 534th, together with U518, 714 and 245, began the transition to the Baltic. On October 28, Nollau arrived in Flensburg. On November 1, the boat left Flensburg and moved to Stettin, where it went to the shipyard for repairs, which lasted until April 28, 1945. On April 29, the 534th moved from Stettin to Kiel.

After getting acquainted with the real history of the trips and movements of the Nollau boat in 1944, the “sigh of relief” of Nollau from V. Vedeneyev is simply perceived with a smile, since it is obvious that the return of U534 from the Atlantic to Kiel seems to be nothing more than a fiction. While V. Vedneev was “harassing” U534 in the Atlantic with long passages, she was actually undergoing repairs at Oderwerke AG in Stettin.

I would like to note how much the author of this story understands what he is writing about.
"Captain of a submarine" sounds as ridiculous as "chief of an infantry regiment." But I will leave this to the conscience of the author, like many other things, since he does not know that warships are commanded not by captains, but by commanders.

Quote:
"The cars were driven closer to the pier, and the sailors began to unload identical
size, hermetically sealed aluminum boxes. The load turned out to be
quite large, and its placement in the submarine compartments required
effort. The assistant counted about a dozen such boxes during loading, but
years ago cannot guarantee whether he noticed and remembered everything?
It is characteristic that identical boxes had different weights: some seemed
quite light, while others were handled with great difficulty by several
stalwart sailors." (With)

But as in the case of the “arrival” of the boat in Kiel from the Atlantic, everything quoted is completely inconsistent with reality. After arriving in Kiel, the Nollau boat spent no more than a day there, after which on May 2 it anchored in the Öresund Strait in the roadstead of the Danish city of Helsingor along with U3523, 3017 and 3503. The boats were transferring fuel to each other and were awaiting orders for further actions. It is very obvious that despite the “plausible” description of V. Vedeneev, U534 was not in Kiel and the story about loading some boxes onto it was invented by the author. Moreover, it is very difficult to imagine the loading process as described by V. Vedeneev. This is a very interesting point that deserves special attention. To be honest, I’m even a little at a loss to guess what the author knows about the design of a Type IX submarine, since with one stroke of his “pen” he placed large boxes in the compartments (!) of the boat within an hour! I dare to remind you that the compartments of the boat could be accessed through the wheelhouse hatch located on the bridge and three hatches on the upper deck: two torpedo loading hatches (each on both sides of the wheelhouse) and a galley hatch located in front of the deck gun platform. But in terms of their size, they were completely unsuitable for loading something oversized! In order to place cargo on the boat, she needs to visit the shipyard where such work was carried out.

Vedeneev further claims that Nollau was offered to release the entire crew ashore, offering him replacements with about 40 unknown individuals in overalls and masks with the assertion that this was a complete crew. Nollau himself was quite surprised by this fact and suggested that 40 crew members were too much for him.

Quote:
" The submarine captain opened the new envelope, read the order and was dumbfounded: he
was ordered to urgently write off its entire crew ashore and take it to
a new board, which will be provided to him by the Oberst and the major from the Abwehr. Of everything
of the old crew, only he should remain on board - the captain
Nollau...
“There are about forty of them, Herr Oberst,” he said.
Captain Nollau to the Abwehr colonel. - My submarine doesn't need
such a large crew. And in general, are there any sailors among them?
including experienced submariners? We need a navigator, first mate, acousticians,
torpedo operators, mechanics, helmsmen...
“The crew is fully equipped,” the Oberst interrupted him, raising his hand. — The rest of the people are your passengers. Carry out the prika h! " (With)

All this is amazing. Such actions with the replacement of the entire crew were probably supposed, in the author’s opinion, to create an aura of mystery and arouse in readers additional convictions about the secrecy of the U534 mission. However, of course, no one changed the crew on the boat, since there were no prerequisites for this. The standard crew of a type IXC-40 boat was 48 people. It seems the author had no idea about this. Thus, he was going to send a boat into the waters of the Arctic with an incomplete crew, and even with a commander who did not know the area of ​​​​the upcoming voyage..

Well, the last thing worth paying attention to from V. Vedeneev is the order that Nollau allegedly received from mysterious people from the Abwehr.

Quote:
"Much to the amazement of Captain Nollau and
his first mate, the opened package contained an order for U-534 to follow... to
the shores of the Soviet Arctic, in the Laptev Sea, with an intermediate call
to secret bases located in the fjords of Norway. The submariners were waiting
order to follow a course somewhere to Latin America, at least that
Uruguay or Argentina, and then the Arctic?!

Destination
The route included a secret base on Novaya Zemlya. There
it was ordered to unload all the boxes and wall them up in the specified location
arranging a hiding place. Then refuel with the same
route back to Kiel. What to do with passengers wearing masks will indicate
new first mate. Upon successful completion of the special
the secret mission of Captain Herbert Nollau and his crew had high expectations
Reich awards and promotions in ranks - this in the German armed forces
forces were given great importance. " (With)

It is extremely curious that the author, without hesitation, sends the boat to a place where its commander, who fought exclusively in the Atlantic, has never been, and at the same time gives him a completely unfamiliar crew, and even an understaffed one. And this is to complete a “secret” mission. Well, secret bases in Norway are a strong argument, that is, the Germans didn’t have enough non-secret bases in this country, they also built secret ones there. A Reich without secrecy is not a Reich. As far as I remember, A. Sergeev left one of the interesting descriptions of such bases in his book, indicating that such secret bases consisted of an awning and two barrels of fuel for seaplanes. Apparently Nollau had to use them. The topic of such secret bases in the Soviet Arctic has long been the subject of all kinds of speculation from pseudo-historians. What did they not “place” there? For example, a certain Artem Denisov went so far as to suggest the existence of launch pads for the V-2 (see. ) for them to fire at the United States. The ignorance in these matters of such dreamers and mystifiers, who present the Third Reich as a powerful technocratic civilization from Mars or the great empire of magicians of the “dark” Henry, has long ceased to be surprising. An action film like “Return to Castle Wolfenstein” took deep roots into the consciousness.

Separately, it is worth mentioning rewards and promotions in ranks if the task is completed. In this case, V. Vedeneev demonstrates not only poor knowledge of the history of U534, but of the Second World War in general. While, according to the author, boxes are loaded onto the boat, the crew is changed and packages are handed over, Admiral von Friedeburg signs the local surrender of North-West Germany, and a few days later the Reich capitulated completely. Presumably, the trip to Novaya Zemlya and back would have taken Nollau from one to two months. So who then would be waiting for Nollau upon his return to Kiel and promoting him in rank and presenting awards? For some reason, Vedeneyev doesn’t think about this, like about many other things.

As a result, it becomes clear that the information that V. Vedeneev provides in his book about U534 is nothing more than the author’s invention. There is no denying that the author in this case showed good imagination in order to create as much mystery as possible around the last trip of U534. His inventions about the boat being in Kiel for so long, the loading of some large boxes onto it, the replacement of the crew and the mysterious order should have created a special atmosphere of mystery, which one cannot particularly count on being revealed. After all, the boat was discovered many years later at the bottom and, according to Vedeneev, possibly destroyed by an explosion. It is worth noting that Vedeneev gave the history of U534 a special flavor, since similar “researchers” in the West were just toying with the idea that the Nollau boat was supposed to transport gold and senior party functionaries of the Reich, including Heinrich Himmler, to South America. This was facilitated by the information that the 17-year-old radio operator of the boat was from Argentina. But the author of a book about the secrets of the Reich presented a new version and decided to send Nollau to the Arctic. Apparently in the link :-)

As usual, Vladimir Nagirnyak pored over the analysis.