during the summer of 2011 a commercial dive team encountered a mysterious sonar contact straddling the sea floor in the northernmost reaches of the baltic sea since it was discovered this object has continued to defy all attempts to uncover its origins what exactly is the baltic sea anomaly [Music] [Music] the ship's progress out to the dive site had been hampered by poor weather conditions and rough seas and now as it took up its pre-arranged position the tension amongst the crew was palpable on the deck technicians worked quickly to get the rov unloaded and in working order
ever conscious that the window for its deployment was limited below deck peter lindbey and dennis orbe stared intently at the sonar screens looking for confirmation that they were in the correct location after a short time a pair of large familiar shapes finally appeared on the screen but there was little time available for either relief or celebration too much fuel had been expended in getting them to the location and the approaching stormfront suggested they might only get one decent pass over the target after a few minutes word came down from the deck crew confirming that the
rov was now in the water as the operator's screen finally came to life the members of the ocean x team crowded around it in anticipation of the first high definition video footage of their discovery a smothering silence fell across the control room with its occupants each staring intently at the monitor as the depth counter on the side of the display steadily increased much as they had expected the visibility in the waters beneath their vessel was poor with the twin spotlights mounted at the front of the robotic probe struggling to penetrate the sediment filled depths through
which it was descending then as the readout indicated that the drone had passed the 70 meter mark things began to clear up off in the far distance the rough outline of something unusual resting upon the sandy seabed came into focus its outer line slowly began to move together linking to form the outline of a large circular shape but then just as the depth counter passed 80 meters everything went wrong the readout from the rovs on board compass suddenly began to go haywire at the same instant the video feed went black somewhere somebody swore and efforts
were immediately directed towards regaining contact with the device from up on the deck someone shouted down that the drone's control line was snagged on something and they could not retrieve it an eternity seemed to pass the rov's controller explained that he could not get an accurate reading from any of its instruments and that he had no idea what had happened to it then just as suddenly as it had been lost the feed from the device's camera reappeared on the monitor there on the screen was the image of what appeared to be a stone staircase directly
in front of the rov over the next couple of minutes as other systems on board the ship mysteriously failed and then rebooted themselves the ocean x team documented as much detail of the target as they could before the order to recall the rov was given nobody spoke each crew member was wrapped up in their own personal thoughts they were still no closer to identifying what it was they had found and had only further questions to show for their efforts ocean x is a swedish maritime expedition company which first came to public attention in 1992 when
they successfully located the long-lost remains of an american b-17 bomber submerged in the waters off their countries eastern coast emboldened by this success they began to research records of other boats and aircraft which had disappeared off european coastlines finally settling on the story of a transport ship which had been sunk in the baltic sea during world war one as dawn broke on the 3rd of november 1916 the german submarine u-22 was patrolling the waters in the vicinity of the finnish coast when it encountered a supply convoy attempting to slip into the port of rauma with
little hesitation captain carl sherb had attacked the long line of cargo ships successfully sending three of them to a watery grave one of the victims of the german ambush that morning was a swedish schooner named zhongshiping which had been carrying a cargo of expensive champagne and brandy destined for moscow's metropole hotel the wreck eventually settled on the sea floor at a depth of approximately 200 feet with its precious cargo still relatively intact and near perfectly preserved in the cold dark conditions following a lengthy search ocean x subsequently located the hull of the zhongshanping in 1997
and were able to bring it back to the surface using a 560 ton floating crane the team were able to recover approximately 3 000 bottles of champagne and 14 barrels of cognac before poor weather conditions closed in and aided the sea in reclaiming the wreck forever the bounty they had retrieved was then auctioned off to private collectors as a means of funding future diving expeditions the summer of 2011 saw ocean x personnel conducting operations in the gulf of botnia a stretch of the baltic sea which is located between the coastlines of sweden and finland the
team were in the process of carrying out sonar grid scans of the sea floor in search of other potentially high value shipwrecks when something unexpected appeared on their monitors below their ship at a depth of roughly 300 feet was a large circular object lying on the seabed the sonar signature did not resemble any recognizable ocean-going craft or known geological feature and was located well away from any established shipping routes but as excited as the swedish explorers were at the time of the discovery they were not equipped to dive on the site and were instead forced
to return home where they could better analyze their provisional findings on viewing magnified versions of the sonar imagery ocean x founders peter lindbey and dennis orbe found themselves faced with even further questions the unknown contact was roughly 200 feet in diameter and unlike anything they had ever encountered before there were clear lines and striations across its surface which almost seemed to resemble the layout of corridors and rooms and behind it a thousand foot long runway had been flattened in the sand seeming to indicate that the object had slid down to the point where it now
rested the following year equipped with improved sonar technology and rovs the team returned to the site they quickly set about trying to obtain high quality imagery of the unknown object but soon found that this task would not be as easy as they had hoped as soon as they attempted to deploy any form of sensor or photographic equipment in the immediate vicinity of the discovery the technology they were using would suddenly fail on them rovs sent down to photograph the anomaly would inexplicably cut out satellite phones were found to be drained of power despite having only
recently been charged and the sonar operators discovered that mysterious electrical interference would somehow prevent effective scans of the site pressing on with their investigations ocean x sent down divers who used more conventional equipment to closely document the object in addition to the lines and grooves which run along its exterior at certain points perfectly circular holes had been bored into the surface all of which indicated to the dive team that what they were examining could not have been created by any natural phenomenon there were sections which clearly resembled a series of steps leading from one level
to another and what seemed to be a domed compartment jutting up and out from the main body of the structure as their work continued further surprises lay in store other unnaturally shaped items were uncovered lying on the seabed near the main object such as perfectly carved rectangular blocks and stone monoliths when some of these edifices were examined in closer detail it was found that they were sunk deep into the ground with passageways and tunnels potentially running deep beneath them eventually having achieved all they could in light of their persistent equipment failures all that remained was
for the ocean x team to gather samples of the anomalies they had found at the site and then returned to port when this material was later examined by staff from stockholm university the results prompted no small degree of debate due to their basaltic nature having been found in an area with no known volcanic activity recorded since the proterozoic era at the time of writing ocean x is believed to be in the process of raising funds for further explorations of the anomaly site and speculation regarding its background remains both persistent and varied to some observers the
object which the swedish explorers have found preserved on the seabed is definitive evidence that alien life has previously visited our planet to others it is potential evidence of a long lost and highly advanced terrestrial civilization it should perhaps come as little surprise that the explanation seized upon by most media outlets is that the anomaly may be the remains of a downed ufo the fact that it is circular in shape appears to have come sliding down onto the sand centuries ago under some degree of controlled or powered flight and possesses something which resembles a cockpit atop
its superstructure all conveniently play into such a narrative but as romantic as the notion is that this ancient ufo came to settle on the seabed after a catastrophic crash landing the wider detail of the materials which were recovered by the divers largely discredits this there is no escaping the fact that whatever the object is it comprises mostly of terrestrial mineral deposits commonly found here on earth with no trace of metal anywhere to be found at the site if we work on the principle that a highly advanced species would probably not have used stone to construct
a spacecraft are we then pushed further towards the idea that this is instead evidence of a secretive human civilization after all the anomaly allegedly sits atop buried tunnels and structures is covered in what could be interpreted as the remnants of walls and staircases and appears to have been constructed using human building techniques is this a temple or other significant structure built by a lost society such as atlantis so what was the object's intended purpose all those millennia ago are we looking at an underwater companion to stonehenge is this perhaps the remains of some interdimensional portal
such questions might seem only marginally less fringe than those pertaining to extraterrestrial visitors and in turn lead on to an even more provocative theory for some commentators this mysterious object may be far more recent in terms of its construction dating back to world war ii the third reich was renowned for its willingness to employ any and all efforts to win the conflict however flawed they may have been in their conception is it possible that what ocean x has uncovered is the remnants of yet another unsuccessful but secretive nazi military project those who subscribe to this
theory point to the fact that if the lines in the surface of the object were the boundaries or corridors and rooms then what has been found may be the remains of some form of communications or observation bunker this structure may have been carved out of the sea bed or constructed above the waves and then lowered down the fact that it apparently possesses the ability to scramble radio and electronic signals of any vessel which approaches could be indicative that the construction might have been an anti-shipping weapon it may also be the beginnings of a supply base
which was never completed if so like many other secretive nazi projects the truth behind it may now be long lost to the hands of time naturally there are those who seek to explain away the origins of the anomaly using much more grounded hypotheses some believe it is a sculpture or model which fell from a ship whilst in transit there is also the possibility it is a naturally occurring geological feature of some kind either compacted into the ground or conveyed from elsewhere by the gigantic glaciers which carved out the baltic sea many millennia ago allegations persist
that the anomaly could be nothing more than an elaborate hoax with the ocean x team having manufactured the sonar data and alleged videos from the site there are also suggestions that the object is little more than a rock bed its appearance misinterpreted due to operator error or the substandard equipment of those investigating it whether it is the product of some volcanic process a meteor which has fallen from the skies or the fantastic creation of some unknown intelligence the baltic sea anomaly continues to inspire debate and speculation in addition to possessing the power to defeat all
efforts to investigate it the object also has the ability to polarize any public opinion surrounding it we live in an age of terrifying technological advancement and so it is inevitable that the truth about this puzzling discovery will eventually come to light but the possibility remains that the more we learn about the anomaly the more questions may arise [Music] [Music] do [Music] um [Music] [Music] so bedtimes
