how many of us are terrified by open water is it the depth that frightens us nothing but a vast expanse of blue Fading Into A Dark Void below or is it the horrible thought of what might be lurking in the darkness monstrous creatures and other dangers that might suddenly appear with nowhere for us to hide for many no ocean dwelling Predator quite captures this Terror like sharks stories like that of the USS Indianapolis and many other wartime shipwrecks offer us a Grizzly Showcase of what happens to those unfortunate men who find themselves stranded in open water at the mercy of hungry sharks while their overall reputation as cold-blooded killers is largely unfounded the top three Usual Suspects in most attacks fatal or otherwise are the bull tiger and great white sharks great whites are by far the largest and most fearsome of all however amongst the world's vast seafaring community at least for the last century there have been more than a few Whispers of a far more terrifying kind of shark a relic from an ancient time whose endur during existence would defy all scientific explanation and yet the ocean remains very deep and largely unexplored As Told by adventurers fishermen and even Sailors in the US Navy these are their true stories of encounters with what they believed to be the Megalodon [Music] the Mist which hangs before you offers you a choice to pass through or to escape Beyond it are stories which defy explanation and fly in the face of what we know to be real it is a void of both reality and impossibility of both fact and Superstition you alone are left to discern what to believe as you pass through what we call fog War how many of us have ever really had the experience of being stranded in Open Water terrified about what might be lurking beneath us what an awful feeling that must be not knowing where to go or how do you even begin getting out of there but as terrifying as the thought is there's something else that can leave us feeling stranded and helpless hello if you don't man us this money right now we're gonna call the cops G to send you to jail you understand me we don't get debt credit card debt for one uh it was a car accident when I was 18 medical bills from that and then after I busted my face when I was 19 uh and then a credit card I took out to help pay some of those debts well that didn't get paid off and when I was working three jobs and barely making enough to stay afloat well none of that got paid it got sent to collections racked up thousands of dollars of interest and took me years to finally cleared out my record honestly felt like drowning at times but if only IID known that there was someone who could have helped me if you're struggling with credit cards personal loans collections or medical bills you need to check out PDS debt PDS provides a service to match you with debt solutions tailored to your financial situation they strive to understand your specific scenario and can help provide alternative solutions to becoming debt free stop waiting and start saving get a free debt analysis right now at PDS de. com slw wartime it only takes 30 seconds that's PDS de. com wartime all right back to the episode now Doo claimed up on me I come all the way out here to this bloody Island the hear the story your boys have been spreading around now I'm standing here asking look I'm sorry mate but all right at least just tell you how big it was it's hard to talk about I mean the bloody thing was massive a it's bad luck in it the more we talk about it the more it keeps coming back it's best not to mention [Music] it for many sailors taking to the high seas in the year 1918 the most feared Predator lurking beneath the surface was not biological it was man-made the infamous German ubo however it was not the sighting of a submarine that brought David Steed one of the era's most respected experts in the field of ocean study to the picturesque Seaside community of Port Stevens located on the coast of New South Wales stead was drawn to the humble Australian town after hearing a series of terrifying reports made by local fishermen while tending to the various lster traps placed along the coast they had seen something massive swimming below their boats determined to put a name to this unknown sea creature David stead arranged a meeting with some of the men who claimed to have encountered the Beast strangely he found the men difficult to speak with even though hardened by years of sailing and being well acquainted with the many Perils of the ocean David noted that this latest experience had left them deeply troubled if not trauma matized the men now flatly refused to venture back out onto the water and were even reluctant to describe to David what they saw finally managing to get them to talk as The Story Goes the fisherman told David they had set out to their usual spots the goal being to check on the many Lobster pots they had set the day prior just as they had reeled in the first pot filled to the brim with lobsters a creature unlike anything they had ever seen suddenly broke through the waves alongside their boat a massive white shark Far bigger than any shark the seasoned fisherman had ever encountered seized the entire meter-long pot in its jaws effortlessly crushing the wood and steel frame the fishermen caught off guard by the shark's arrival could only watch and stun silence as the Beast then disappeared beneath the churning Waters and that wasn't the last time it was seen according to the men the monster shark continued to prowl the town's fishing zones for several more days dining on more of their lobster filed cages before it finally seemed to have left the area still despite the Beast not making another appearance many fishermen remained apprehensive about getting back into the water when David asked the men about the size of the shark in question the responses they gave were quite frankly absurd somewhere in the range of 150 to 300 ft in length a true Fisherman's tail if ever David had heard one by comparison the biggest animal known to man the blue whale reaches lengths of only around 110 ft while he was certain that the measurements given by the frightened men were exaggerated David was unable to shake the thought that the Australian fishermen had no less witnessed an unusually massive super Predator a species long considered to have been lost to Extinction could it be possible he wondered that these men had actually encountered a Megalodon [Music] the port Stevens incident as detailed in David stead's postumus 1963 book sharks and Rays of Australian Seas is widely credited with igniting speculation that the prehistoric Megalodon could still be prowling in the world's oceans the story shook up the world's scientific Community the account carrying an inherent degree of credibility coming from one of the world's most renowned oceanographers but how could such a giant shark possibly endure into the the modern era the Megalodon's Reign is thought to have begun some 20 million years ago in the mayine era eventually becoming extinct in the mid pene era about 3.
56 million years before the dawn of man during its Heyday the Megalodon is considered to have been the ancient oceans Undisputed apex predator though thought to be similar in anatomy to the modern great white shark its overall proportions were far bigger even the largest great white is dwarfed in comparison and could easily be swallowed whole by the Meg the female megalodons spanning from approximately 44 to 59 ft in length with some scientists contending it could reach incredible lengths of 82 ft the Megalodon is believed to have prayed on prehistoric whales and other large fish in order to satiate its massive appetite while fossil evidence places these creatures all over the world it is theorized that the Megalodon fell victim to a number of changing environmental factors ultimately depriving it of its vital food sources the rise of new smaller shark species such as the great white better evolved to survive in the changing environment is thought to have ultimately driven the Meg into Extinction but what if they weren't science has said the same about other gigantic prehistoric fish species such as the cican until one was found alive in 1938 and just 10 years after the port Stevens encounter another story would rise from the Waters of the Pacific Ocean appearing to lend further Credence to the Megalodon's continued existence until [Music] today so there I was trying to angle for some big Mar I just heard about off rangiora and that's when I see it big square head these giant pectoral fins and a few white spots absolutely massive considerably longer than my boat which was about 10 to 12 M the kiwis with me saw it too we all thought it might be a whale shark but just looked nothing like it only the size of this shark was the same otherwise it was in no way way similar I've landed all manner of sharks world record Tigers nurses even a few meos which incidentally I've seen jump 15 ft out of the water when hooked but if one of them leapt over this it would just barely clear the tail fin on this giant shark it's unbelievable never seen the like of it when I figured out that that fish was not a harmless whale shark but one of the man-eating Monsters of the South Pacific then I was more frightened than I remember for a long time being one of the most prolific authors of American western novels it is perhaps ironic that Zane Gray's true love was the open ocean when not sitting behind his writing desk or maintaining his dental practice gray was setting sail on the waters around Australia and the South Pacific indulging in his passion for deep sea fishing in 1928 gray found himself casting his lines in the waters off the rangiora ATL in Tahiti drawn to the area by reports of impressively oversized Marlins and hoping to land one for himself standing on the deck of the 10 m long SS manganui zann his eyes scanning the waters for telltale signs of the prized Marlin suddenly noticed a huge shape drifting through the water alongside his steam ship as it broke the surface Zayn found himself gripped by both with fear and amazement seeing that this incredibly massive creature its modeled yellow skin covered in Barnacles bore the distinct outline of a shark during his time spent with Local Natives and Indigenous fishermen gray had heard many tales about monster sharks dwelling in Polynesian Waters now seeing one with his own eyes gray remembered stories about a mythical creature known locally as magu the lord of the deep seen as a sort of deity magu takes the form of a huge shark its massive Jaws capable of swallowing entire pahi sailing canoes whole in some tellings Islanders would make sacrifices to appease the Beast while some young men even ventured out into the Open Water to confront him in some sort of coming of age right Zane gray well accustomed to the largest animals in the Pacific Ocean had thought these Tales to be little more than local myth and Superstition but not anymore Bo I sure hope we get to see her I'm telling you son the Beast was huge unlike anything I've ever seen this here ship is what 10 m long right well this fish was bigger are you sure pop there are whales out here they get pretty big too don't they no no no this was no whale son sure a sunrise that was a shark maybe that could be your next book pop Wyatt her and the monster shark H well there's an idea but how do we get the sheriff out onto the water hi we got something over there where where stard side 500 y after returning home gray could barely contain his excitement over what he had witnessed eagerly telling his son about the specifics of his encounter Lauren Gray then at the age of 13 was more than a little skeptical his father was a fiction writer after all and certainly had the imagination to show for it perhaps Lauren thought he had simply mistaken a harmless whale shark for the animal in question Zayn however was certain of what he saw and it was no whale shark 2 days later still unconvinced by his dad's account of the monster shark Lauren would accompany father as they sailed back out to that same patch of ocean an outing that would confirm zay's story and become one of the most memorable events of both of their lives we saw birds flying erratically over a yellow colored patch of water that the patch was the giant shark swimming just beneath the surface and my father was right it was not a whale shark and just about how big would you say it was uh its tail stuck 10 ft out of the water so you moved the boat closer you got close enough to see it yeah I I looked right down at him and the head was it was as wide as a room and it tipped a tail and had to be at least 50 ft long Lauren Gray recounted This testimony in a 1994 newspaper interview just beneath the clear surface of the water being orbited by seagulls was the very monster his father had described an unbelievably massive shark in his 1931 book Tales of tahan waters Zay gray also elaborated on this second encounter describing the shark in great detail when the Great Brown Tail rose in the ship's wake I knew immediately that it was a monster shark the huge round head appeared to be at least 10 to 12 ft across if not more it was my belief that this huge yellowish barnacled creature must have been at least 40 or 50 ft long he was not a whale shark the whale shark has a distinctive white purplish green appearance with large brown spots and much narrower head so what was he uh perhaps a true prehistoric monster of the deep following Zayn and Lauren Gray's account not much appears to have been documented about massive shark sightings taking place over the following decades the ocean is of course very large and perhaps the appearance of these massive sharks is a rare sight but at the turn of the 20th century another group of men US Navy sailors found themselves sailing through the waters of the South Pacific this time closer to India and like the Australian fishermen they too would suddenly witness something unexpected water water water oh look more water it's uh it's almost like you're in the Navy or something oh my recruiter said I would see the world and look this is part of the world line said I would be a Navy SEAL H yeah I just never imagined I would find myself keeping security watch on an ocean didn't you ever watch Castaway Titanic Jaws never know what you might run into out here Japanese submarines slam two Torpedoes into side Chief we was coming back from the island of tinian Toady we just delivered the bomb well at least I know you've seen Jaws what was that H it's just that pot of dolphins that's been following us for a while W look at him go I wish I could swim like that my swim calls would be a lot easier huh something wrong I'm not sure never see dolphins act like that it's like they're running from oh my God what the hell is is that a [Music] whale sailing through the Indian Ocean sometime in the late '90s a US Navy petty officer found himself stationed on his ship's Forecastle with two other crew members together they scanned The Horizon as their vessel plow through the churning Waters and route to Goa located on the Indian coast after hearing a ser series of loud heavy splashes the petty officer peered over the deck railing his eyes locating a pot of dolphins breaking through the waves they had been following the ship for the past few days the Dolphins were a welcome distraction for the Lookouts the monotony of their watch shift now broken by the Dolphins playful leaping and jumping in the ship's wake however their graceful motions suddenly turned into panicked Maneuvers as the entire pod scattered from its tight formation then the men saw it looming beneath the foaming waves and making straight for the Dolphins was a massive shape at first believing it to be a whale because of its size the petty officer's eyes widened as the dorsal fin broke the surface a massive shark fin rising to a height that he estimated was at least 10 ft above the water he couldn't believe they were witnessing a shark of that magnitude it had to be some kind of whale maybe he thought wildly the Dolphins were being attacked by a pot of orcas but the fin looked nothing like that of a killer whale but then when the animal's distinctive head breached the ocean's surface a dolphin in its jaws the water now turning red with blood all doubt left his mind the whale Theory went out the window and I saw the head of this thing I grew up in the floor to keys I have seen tiger sharks bull sharks and so on this was a shark plain and simple the head of this massive shark resembled that of a tiger it came out of the water and we watched this thing munch it out a dolphin while the incident wouldn't go into their log books as an apparent whale sighting the petty officer would catch word that the Behemoth animal whatever it was had been picked up by the ship's underwater sonar an acronym for sound navigation and ranging sonar uses pulsing sound wave aves to map out underwater objects and terrain the initial suspect in the dolphin attack an orca whale typically maxes out around 9 M or 29 ft in length whatever was picked up by The Vessel sonar the petty officer said it came back with a reading that would put it at an astounding 25 M long or 82 ft from nose to tail while it is possible that the chaotic movements of the Dolphins attempting to flee the unknown Predator confused the sonar it is worth mentioning that 82 ft would place the mystery shark within the Megalodon's estimated growth range the petty officer still active in the Navy after 15 years of service shared his encounter in January of 2000 which was then featured on the website of the animal X cryptozoological TV show [Music] [Music] despite some intriguing testimony science argues that Megalodon at least as it once existed would be almost incapable of surviving in today's oceans even in the most remote depths of the Mariana Trench researchers are certain that it would be difficult if not impossible for a shark of megal on size to remain elusive in the modern era however there is always the possibility that they are wrong a story that many often point to in support of the Meg's continued existence is that of the HMS Challenger a British royal Navy ship that while on a scientific expedition in the 1870s drudged up two Megalodon teeth specimens from the seabed in 1959 Russian paleontologist Vladimir chaneski stunned the scientific World by declaring the teeth to be 11,000 and 24,000 years old respectively if his dating of the Megalodon teeth was accurate that would place the shark on Earth alongside early man then on the cusp of transitioning from the Stone Age into the bronze then again many were quick to criticize treesy's method of measuring the manganese dioxide coating on the teeth which has a habit of making fossils appear far younger than they actually are so if all signs point to the Megalodon being extinct then what could these Sailors and fishermen be encountering if not a prehistoric shark in 2003 filmmaker David rigs documented a scientific Expedition off the coast of Bremer Bay Australia the primary goal of the researchers was to tag as many great white sharks as possible with electronic markers similar in function to an airplane's blackbox recorder these tags harmlessly embedded in the shark's cartilage would allow the scientists to follow a shark's migration routes while also collecting data regarding the animal's depth and the temperature of its surroundings one of the great whites tagged as a part of this study was a healthy nearly 10t long female about 4 months after the Expedition the electronic tag attached to this shark was found washed up on the Australian Coast assuming the tracking device had merely fallen off when it was analyzed the data gathered by the tag both unnerved and intrigued the researchers one thing was certain the tag hadn't simply fallen off the data showed that the tag was maintaining a routine depth under 900 ft and at 4:00 a. m.
