Was there a flying Dutchman submarine? History in facts

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.

February 1, 1960, Gulf of Golfo Nuevo, one thousand three hundred kilometers south of Buenos Aires. Harsh, inhospitable shores, where to this day the shadows of Magellan’s caravels hover, who with tenacity and perseverance sought a new - western - route to India. So, on that day, the sailors of the Argentine patrol ship Murature detected a half-sunken object using sonar - it was located at a depth of thirty meters, several miles from the ship. It is possible that these were the wreckage of a shipwrecked ship. Or maybe an unknown submarine: after all, a few days earlier, in a foggy haze, right at the horizon line, they saw a strange ship sitting deep in the water - only a superstructure similar to a gun turret stuck out on the surface; however, the unidentified ship soon disappeared from sight.

And the signal reflected on the Murature sonar screen once again confirmed this assumption. It was necessary to force the unknown submarine to surface. Training depth charges were used. Following this, dull echoes of explosions were heard, foaming the surface of the bay in many places. Then there was silence. And long minutes of waiting.
But the sea was deserted.

Meanwhile, the sonar of the Argentine patrol boat continued to intercept mysterious signals. The sailors on the "Muratura" were perplexed and confused: what kind of goal was this - unattainable, invulnerable. Well, it's a real ghost ship. What is true is true, only this time it turned out to be a submarine - the first “flying Dutchman” of the deep sea.

It was logical to think that the attacked submarine would try to escape to the open sea. However, in fact, she chose to seek refuge there, in Golfo Nuevo, even though the bay could become a trap for her.

The Ghost of Golfo Nuevo

The Gulf of Golfo Nuevo extends into the interior of the South American continent for a good hundred kilometers; Its shores are completely indented with sandy bays bordered by steep cliffs, behind which stretch undulating dunes. There is only one town on the entire coast, Puerto Madryn. In general, few people know this bay, but in just a couple of weeks many people learned about it, because it became a kind of stage on which one of the greatest tragicomedies that ever happened at sea took place.

And it began with the fact that one fine day a brigade of bombers with heavy bombs on board appeared in the serene sky above Golfo Nuevo. The pilots circled over the bay in search of a target - and from the outside it even seemed very funny. But the planes rushed to attack. And after that, the water surface seemed to boil - columns of foam and spray shot up into the air, which slowly scattered under the blow of a light wind.

Then the planes flew over the very surface of the bay, their wings almost touching the fading swell raised by the explosions of bombs. And suddenly a long, cigar-shaped shadow with uneven outlines flashed in the water. “We spotted a submarine at shallow depths,” one of the pilots later reported. “The length of its body exceeded one hundred meters. We saw missile launcher silos at the bow and stern.”

But the matter did not end there. The water above the boat began to foam and a spot appeared on the surface. Black, iridescent oily stain.

The submarine appears to have been hit. However, the next day, February 4, she surfaced and at full speed rushed to the exit from the bay, moving in zigzags so as not to come under fire from patrol ships, and then again went into the depths.

Two days later, the submarine made another attempt to break away from pursuit. The signal on the Argentine patrol sonars became weaker and eventually disappeared completely...

It just so happened that the events that took place in Golfo Nuevo gave rise to a legend: in a wild, deserted place, a mysterious, unidentified object suddenly appears - it either floats to the surface, then disappears under water, then appears again as if nothing had happened, and You can’t break through it with anything - neither bombs nor shells. While the object was lurking in the depths for several days, people in Argentina began to talk about some strange misunderstanding, or vision, or even an ordinary hoax. But then a clergyman appeared on the scene - Archbishop Mariatio Perez. One day he was driving along Golfo Nuevo in a car and suddenly noticed on the surface of the bay sparkling in the rays of the midday sun an elongated gray object, which walked at low speed for a quarter of an hour, and then plunged under the water.

The Argentine authorities were surprised: wow, a church minister, and yet he’s still talking about some kind of visions! But then we started thinking: what if it really was a submarine?

Yes, but whose? Washington responded to an official request from Buenos Aires that there was not a single American submarine near the Argentine coast. The closest one in February was two and a half thousand kilometers from Golfo Nuevo. The USSR also confirmed that at that time there was not a single Soviet submarine off the coast of Argentina.

Employees of the General Staff of the Argentine Navy were perplexed. The surest way to find out which country the mysterious boat belongs to is to make it finally float to the surface. And the then President of Argentina, Frondisi, never tired of repeating: “We must act...”, but against whom?..

The United States sent the most modern weapons and detection equipment to Argentina... As soon as the signal began to flutter on the sonar screens, planes immediately took off from the aircraft carrier Independence, cruising at the entrance to Golfo Nuevo. The surface of the bay swollen from bomb explosions - but all to no avail, except for a ton of stunned fish that floated to the surface.

It was then that all sorts of rumors spread throughout the country: the body of a scuba diver, they say, had been caught in the bay, who was killed just at the moment when he was repairing the hull of a submarine damaged by the explosion. And some even claimed that an unknown submarine landed a detachment of saboteurs on the shore in order to kill President Eisenhower during his upcoming visit to Argentina. Soon there was talk about obsessions...

On February 25, Argentine authorities announced that the search for the submarine had been stopped. But why would this happen all of a sudden? Has the boat gone away? Or for some other unknown reason? And yet - which one? As always happens in such cases, none of the questions posed was given an exact answer. But rumors spread throughout the country again. For example, the following: the Soviet government sent a secret note to President Frondisi. Curious to know what note it was? Perhaps it contained a decisive demand to close the case about the mysterious events in Golfo Nuevo?..

Who knows, who knows, but this matter never ended - it was further continued. Thus, the ghost submarine forever entered the history of secrets and mysteries associated with the sea.

On the way to escape

Many assumed that the mysterious submarine from Golfo Nuevo belonged to the Navy of the “Third Reich”, and that it had drifted to the shores of South America, far away, in search of a safe refuge - although a decade and a half had passed since Nazi Germany capitulated. Thus a legend was born, and it was based, like many legends, on very real facts.

In the early morning of July 10, 1945, off the Argentine coast, directly opposite the city of Mardel Plata, a submarine surfaced and at low speed headed towards the Belgrano maritime border guard ship. Approaching closer, she gave a light signal - a request for asylum in the Argentine port. It was the submarine U-530, commanded by Otto Vermouth. He stated that he left Kiel on February 19th. After waiting for some time off the coast of Norway, he broke into the Atlantic and crossed the ocean from north to south - so as not to fall into the hands of the Russians.

But was it only for this reason that Otto Vermouth ventured on such a long and dangerous journey? Most likely, there were actually several reasons. And the main thing - at least that’s what they said at that time - was something else. It was known that somewhere on the coast of Norway there was actually a secret division of German submarines based, which was at the complete disposal of the leaders of the “Third Reich”. And on July 16, The Times even suggested that one of them delivered Hitler to Argentina.

On July 17, 1945, two more submarines were spotted off the Argentine coast. On August 17, U-977 under the command of Heinz Schaeffer entered Mardel Plata - she was running low on fuel. U-977 and U-530 were not the only German submarines to leave the shores of Europe in the final days of the Second World War. In reality, there were many more of them, but many of them went missing, some were sunk, such as the famous U-853, loaded with gold worth a million dollars. And only a few managed to reach the distant shores, where they hoped to find the right refuge. Thus, on September 25, 1946, the captain of the American whaler Juliana II stated that he came across a submarine near the Falkland Islands, and its commander ordered the Americans to give up their entire fuel supply. According to other, unverified information, German submarines were seen off the coast of Patagonia even in the fifties. What if the Flying Dutchman that came into Golfo Nuevo was one of them? However, it is unlikely. Without a repair base, spare parts and, most importantly, fuel and food, not a single submarine could sail autonomously for so many years.

Be that as it may, German submarines from the Second World War made their presence felt in 1965. For example, on June 2, American diver Lee Prettyman discovered and photographed the wreckage of a large submarine at a depth of forty-two meters near New York, between Long Island and the coast. Presumably these were the wreckage of the famous "Surcouf".

It was officially believed that Surcouf sank on February 18, 1942 as a result of a collision with a transport ship. But not off Long Island, but three thousand eight hundred kilometers from New York and one hundred and forty kilometers east-northeast of the entrance to the Panama Canal.

At one time, Surcouf was the largest and most powerful submarine in the world - a real cruiser, with a huge wheelhouse, completely covered with the barrels of 203-mm cannons and anti-aircraft machine guns; the boat had ten torpedo tubes, in addition, a seaplane was placed on board and a crew of one hundred and fifty served.

This hulk was supposed to sow terror in the seas and oceans: for it was named in honor of the famous corsair, whose name, having survived centuries, became legendary. However, in 1939 - 1940, when the war began, Surcouf was destined for the role of a patrol submarine, which was supposed to accompany Canadian convoys. In June 1940, Surcouf was in a repair dock in the French port of Brest when the Germans raided there. The boat miraculously managed to go out to sea - and it safely reached Plymouth. It was there that her misadventures began. The English sailors tried to take possession of the Surcouf. The French objected. Threats followed from the British. A quarrel broke out. Revolvers were used. Two English officers and one French sailor were killed in the shootout...

Subsequently, re-equipped with funds from the Free France (Free France is a patriotic movement for the liberation of France from the fascist occupiers, led by Charles de Gaulle), Surcouf again went to accompany sea convoys. On February 12, 1942, he left Bermuda and headed for Tahiti - via the Panama Canal. Since then no one has seen him again.

On February 18, the American transport Thomson Like left Cristobal (Cristobal is a port in Panama, located at the exit of the Panama Canal, in the Caribbean Sea.) and headed to Guantanamo Bay (Guantanamo Bay is a bay on the southeastern coast of the island of Cuba.) that day It was cloudy and there was a slight swell in the sea.

Night was approaching. The rough seas increased. The running lights on the Thomson Laika are darkened for camouflage purposes: there’s nothing you can do about it – it’s war. On the bridge, surrounding the helmsman, three people stand silently - the captain and two watch officers; only one light is on - illuminating the compass card, and in its weak light the faces of all four seem unnaturally haggard. Intense gazes are directed into the night. Visibility leaves much to be desired.

At 10:30 p.m., a barely perceptible flash broke the darkness for a moment. Maybe the sailors' eyesight failed?
Or maybe this is an ordinary glow of the sea? However, it is possible that there is a ship directly ahead. A cry is heard: “Left aboard, quickly!”

The helm turns sharply on command - the Thomson Likee with all its weight falls onto the left side. The hull of the ship trembles under the blows of the waves and for a moment disappears behind a wall of foamy spray.
The seconds drag on for a long time, a very long time.

The captain and his subordinates stand with their mouths open in surprise, their eyebrows furrowed, their hands clenched into fists - the sailors continue to look with restless glances at the darkness, which is becoming even thicker, as if trying to hide the impending disaster. A faint hope appears on the faces of the sailors: what if they really dreamed of the ghostly fire...
But no! Here it is again - fire. It's already very close. There is no doubt: this is a ship. It seems to be just a stone's throw away.

The captain gives a new command: “Right steering wheel!” We must try to get around the unknown ship from the stern.
However, all efforts are hopeless. And in vain. A blow is heard - somewhere under the bottom of the Thomson Like. A dull thud - and a piercing echo throughout the ship.

What followed was pure hell: a huge pillar of flame shot up into the black sky, illuminating the rearing bow of the transport with gloomy reflections and blinding the sailors. The fire, which seemed to burst from the very depths of the sea, brought to the deck the acrid, suffocating stench of burning fuel.

Then there really was something resembling a vision. Something huge and black floated along the starboard side of the Thomson Like, looking like the wreckage of a ship sticking out of the water. The vision was followed by an explosion that shook the heavily loaded transport like a fragile boat; tongues of flame again soared into the air, merging into one fiery fountain, as if crowning the tragedy. When the flame, slightly weakening, sank to the deck, night and silence reigned on the sea again.

All this was reminiscent of a nightmare in which space and time were mixed - awakening was difficult and painful. On the Thomson Like, first one spotlight flashed, then another. Both beams, cutting through the darkness, fell into the sea. It was deserted - no wreckage, no boats, no hands of survivors raised above the waves. The only thing that was more or less clearly visible on the surface was a wide, iridescent oily stain.
The Thomson Like cruised until dawn, changing course every now and then - combing the ill-fated section of the Caribbean Sea mile after mile...

The time has come to assess what happened. The experts did this. After hearing the testimony of the captain of the Thomson Laike and crew members, the investigative commission came to a unanimous conclusion: the transport sank the submarine.

The death of the unknown submarine seemed absurd to many at the time - there was certainly some evil irony of fate involved. In fact, a submarine is capable of sinking any ship, cargo, passenger or military... and even winning the war. But on the surface, and even at night, it is quite vulnerable - especially if it collides with a surface ship, whatever it may be. Then the submarine goes to the bottom. And then - and this sometimes happened - the debris can resurface, like a ghost rising from the underworld.

In the case of the Thomson Like, there was no debris, and confirmation of this was a mysterious black object passing by the transport, after the explosion, sitting low in the water, which then disappeared without a trace. That’s why everyone decided that the transport ship sank a German submarine.

And this - that it was German - seemed quite incredible. Why? Yes, very simple. On December 11, 1941, Germany entered the war with the United States, and immediately after that, Third Reich submarines appeared off the east coast of America, from New York to Florida. At the beginning of January 1942 there were five of them, in July - seventy, and in September - already a good hundred. And they acted extremely effectively, which plunged the Americans into horror. Of course: from January to April 1942 alone, they sent one hundred and ninety-eight ships to the bottom, almost at the exit from the ports.

The Americans did not offer any resistance to the aggressors. Although, by the way, we would be glad - but with what? At the very beginning of hostilities, the American Coast Guard was armed with only a dozen patrol aircraft and a hundred wrecked aircraft, while under the circumstances, ten times more of both were required. Only a few decoy ships made intrepid raids into the Caribbean - and among them was one large yacht with a powerful engine, armed with heavy machine guns, bazookas, depth charges and equipped with reliable means of camouflage. And the yacht was commanded by a burly forty-three-year-old man with a short-cropped beard framing his high-cheeked face - in a word, none other than the famous writer Ernest Hemingway. He acted boldly and decisively - he allowed enemy submarines as close as possible and opened fire on them from all types of weapons that he had on board.

In the first years of the war, there were countless German submarines in the Caribbean. They pirated everywhere there - they robbed bulk carriers and oil tankers leaving Maracaibo and Curacao. And yet, between January and June 1942, the Germans lost twenty-one boats. What if it was one of them that was sunk by the Thomson Like?

As for the Surcouf, the American government made a completely official statement in connection with its disappearance, which, among other things, said that “the submarine Surcouf, which left Bermuda heading for Tahiti, should be considered missing, since it has been missing for quite some time.” doesn't make itself known...

The massive invasion of American territorial waters by German submarines after the United States entered the war was preceded by a period of long preparation. Some even claimed that a German boat had visited Newport Harbor more than once as early as December 1941. It was a large transport designed to supply other submarines. It was served by a French team. And he sailed under a tricolor flag.

And then one night, literally a few days after the outbreak of hostilities, this hulk was taken by surprise by an American anti-submarine ship (ASS) - just at the time when food supplies were being transported from it to another boat. The Americans opened fire - and the submarine sank instantly. Where did this happen? Just near Long Island. And a German sailor, an acquaintance of Lee Prettyman, claimed that this was the “Surcouf”, which one ill-fated day was captured by the Germans and transferred to the arsenal of the Navy of the “Third Reich” - only under the French flag.

Surprisingly, having touched this mysterious story, we seemed to have crossed the line between reality and fantasy. However, this time the fantasy outdid itself. After all, Surcouf, as you know, left Bermuda on February 12, 1942. Therefore, there was no way the Germans could have captured it before the United States entered the war—that is, until December 13, 1941.

However, even if we assume that the Surcouf was torpedoed by the Germans or by mistake by the Americans themselves, how could this happen near New York, if it lies much north of the Bermuda-Panama highway?

Of course, the most likely assumption was that the Surcouf sank as a result of a collision with a transport ship. But such an ordinary - albeit tragic - end of a giant submarine, of course, would not have satisfied anyone, and therefore its mysterious disappearance immediately formed the basis of a legend.

"Titanic" of the deep sea

In 1955, a revolution occurred in the submarine fleet. On January 17, the captain of one submarine sent a message on air for the first time: “We are going on a nuclear engine.”

From now on, there was no longer any need to replenish fuel reserves on a long journey - the energy of a small uranium rod was more than enough to circle the globe twenty times in a row. Now there was no need to even surface to calculate the coordinates - an automatic radio sextant that picked up electromagnetic waves from stars made it possible to determine the location in constant underwater mode. In addition, thanks to air regenerators, desalination and refrigeration units - for storing large supplies of food - the submarine could already remain at depth without surfacing for two to three months. For example, in 1960, Triton took only eighty-four days to circumnavigate the world autonomously underwater.

Soon nuclear submarines gained the reputation of being unsinkable. Such, for example, was the Thrasher, “the fastest, most reliable and most maneuverable submarine of the American Navy” - in a word, the “Titanic” of the deep sea.

On April 10, 1963, teletypes spread around the world a short - but absolutely incredible - news: “The American nuclear submarine Thresher went missing during a training dive.” What?.. Did this sea monster, as if resurrected from medieval legends and, thanks to its ultra-modern weapons, bring terror to surface ships, sank due to some trifling leak or mechanical failure? That can't be true!

Everything happened surprisingly simply - and this only aggravated the misfortune. On the eve of the tragedy, Thrasher left the Portsmouth arsenal, where it was repaired and rearmed, and went out to the open sea to undergo sea trials underwater. On April 10, it reached its maximum depth. The progress of the dive was monitored by the Skylark ship. Every quarter of an hour a voice was heard from the depths of the ocean through the hydrophone. The submarine was halfway to its maximum depth—one hundred meters remained until the critical dive point. Finally the maximum depth has been reached. At 9:12 a.m., a calm, slightly nasal, metallic voice was again heard in the hydrophone, sounding like a distant, distant echo, as if it was coming from the underworld itself: “We are experiencing minor complications. We switch to a positive elevation angle. We are trying to blow out the ballast. See you later."
Then there is silence.

A long, tense silence. Too long. And too stressful. The people on the Skylark were already losing patience. And then in the hydrophone, from the surface, a question sounded: “How is it with you - does the boat obey the controls?” It would seem like the most ordinary question - but how much anxiety there is in it! However, there was no answer...

Finally, through countless interference, fragmentary, inarticulate shouts came from the abyss: “Test depth!..”, and then something like: “... we crossed the permissible limit...” Then clicks were heard - and silence fell again. However, according to the testimony of the crew of the bathyscaphe launched from the Skylark, the silence was not dead - it was filled with thousands of distant, barely distinguishable sounds, which were soon mixed with a distinct crackling sound and then a strange roar, as if from an explosion. The giant "Thresher", the invincible, unsinkable "Thresher", was flattened at great depths, like a pathetic tin can, and shattered into many fragments, which slowly sank to the seabed.

Over the next few days, thirty-three surface ships searched for the wreckage of the Thresher—or at least traces of the wreck. The day after the disaster, a submarine picked up “distinct, sharp sound signals.” Where did they come from? Perhaps they were served by submariners who miraculously survived in some tightly sealed compartment of a dilapidated boat? But the United States Department of the Navy did not take this last hope into account: the Thresher did not have a transmitter capable of transmitting similar signals. So, “Thrasher” disappeared, without a trace.

And then a rather strange thing happened. More precisely, it was a mirage, similar to what sailors searching for sunken ships had seen more than once. One day, from the Skylark, which caught the latest messages from the Thrasher, an unknown ship of a “dirty gray color” was noticed. It moved, settled deeply in the water, there were no superstructures on it - only some strange triangular-shaped object above the bridge. What kind of item? One of the Skylark sailors later reported: “At first we decided that it was a submarine with a sail...” Miracles, and that’s all: a nuclear submarine with a sail!

However, jokes aside. There was, alas, no doubt that the Thrasher sank: in the place where the disaster occurred, oil spills and various objects that undoubtedly belonged to the Thrasher were soon discovered on the surface of the sea.

But why did the boat sink? Did the body fail? Well, it’s quite possible: after all, the Skylark’s sonar detected a noise similar to a crack. Yes, but in this case much more debris would float to the surface. Most likely, the waterproof bulkheads were cracking, unable to withstand the crazy pressure of water that poured into the boat into a leak that had formed under enormous pressure.

A little later, the bathyscaphe Trieste sank to a depth of 2800 meters, where the wreckage of the Thresher rested. The explorers on board photographed everything that remained of the submarine, which had fallen into pieces, and raised individual parts of the pipeline to the surface.

While experts meticulously studied the finds recovered from the ocean floor, rumors began to spread that the Thresher sank because it had been hastily repaired, that it had been the victim of sabotage, or that it had been attacked by a Soviet submarine. This kind of speculation was also supported by the report of the Boeing 707 crew: on April 11, the pilots, flying over the Atlantic, observed a strange whirlpool on the surface of the ocean; yes, but it happened 2500 kilometers from the crash site.

If the cause of the death of the Thrasher was more or less clear, the disaster of the Scorpion nuclear submarine remained a complete mystery - the greatest of maritime mysteries.

After training in the Mediterranean, Scorpion headed to its base in Norfolk, Virginia. The boat was supposed to approach the American coast on May 21, 1968, at 17:00 sharp. However, she never returned to base that day. What happened to her?

A vast square eighty kilometers from the coast - between the point where the last "radio" from the Scorpion came from and Norfolk - mile after mile was searched by 55 ships and 30 aircraft. However, there could be more or less of them - what difference does it make? The main thing that the sailors and pilots lacked was luck and luck.

After some time, 1,300 kilometers from the Azores, a search plane noticed an oily spot and a lone orange object on the surface of the ocean. But the rescue ships that arrived at the indicated location did not find anything similar to the object described by the pilots. Maybe it was a signal buoy released by shipwrecked submariners. Or maybe not. After all, a great variety of different debris drifts in the ocean, and each has its own story and secret.

But then one fine day some radio amateur from Yorkshire caught an incredible message: “Scorpio is in touch.” Our capacitor has failed. But we will try to reach the base.” However, the US Navy Department again just shrugged its shoulders. If the message was relayed through a distress beacon released from the Scorpion, it would have been repeated several times: distress beacons are programmed to constantly transmit a distress signal. So the highest ranks of the US Navy reacted to the news of the Yorkshire radio amateur with obvious distrust.

But, be that as it may, the hope of finding “Scorpio” has not yet disappeared. On May 31, another American submarine used sonar to detect an elongated, cigar-shaped object lying at a depth of fifty-five meters, one hundred and ten kilometers from Cape Henry. The scuba divers immediately descended to the indicated place - the “object” turned out to be the rusty hull of a German submarine, overgrown with algae and shells, which sank during the Second World War...

On June 8, Newsweek wrote that Scorpion was assigned a secret mission to monitor a Soviet nuclear submarine. The magazine further hinted that even in peacetime, such surveillance operations often end tragically. However, there are exceptions.

For example, in May 1974, not far from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a submarine surfaced, foaming the surface of the ocean. At first glance, it would seem that there is nothing unusual. But a few minutes later another submarine appeared on the surface in the same place. Perhaps both boats returned from a joint voyage? Nothing happened. The first of them - "Pintado" - was American. And the second is Soviet. And they watched each other. Moreover, the distance between them was so small that during the next maneuver at a depth of two hundred meters they simply collided. So another tragedy almost happened, which hardly anyone would have known about, especially since it would have happened at a considerable depth. However, thank God, this time everything worked out, the tragedy turned into a tragicomedy, and there were no casualties - both the Russians and the Americans escaped with only minor injuries. And the end of this story was completely funny: the boats turned their sterns towards each other and each went to its own base...

On March 19, 1975, the New York Times wrote that the Russians lost a nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean, 1,500 kilometers from the Hawaiian Islands, and it sank at a depth of five thousand meters. This happened in 1960. Then the sonars of American anti-submarine patrol ships detected a deep explosion in that area and established the exact place where it occurred.

Time passed and the Americans managed to lift part of the boat’s hull from the ocean floor. According to the same New York Times, the CIA organized a secret search expedition in the disaster area, codenamed “Operation Jennifer,” which was financed by Howard Hughes.

This expensive operation involved a ship equipped with special electronic equipment that made it possible to quickly decipher the classified identification codes of Soviet submarines.

After a long, careful preparation, the hull of the boat was finally, with great difficulty, hooked onto the hoists and began to be carefully lifted to the surface. However, during the ascent, it fell apart in half - and that part of the submarine, where the missiles, engines and communications center were located, sank irrevocably into the abyss.

Thus, “Operation Jennifer,” carried out in the strictest silence, was a fiasco: the nuclear heart, power and missile installations of the ultra-modern Soviet nuclear submarine, along with all the top-secret ship documentation, remained forever at rest on the ocean floor. But as a result, a new legend about the “Flying Dutchman” of the deep sea was born. And how many more there will be - only God knows.

Robert de Lac French writer | Translated from French by I. Alcheev

27 years ago, Central Television showed the four-part film “The Secret Fairway”, directed 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 boat commander,- recalls V.V. Kostromenko. - He looked at me and said: “Vadim Vasilyevich, we’ll both go to prison. Do you think that I’m driving along the highway? I’ll swim underwater. Just a little wrong and your cameraman will fall under 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,- said the commander 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 it, but I can’t repeat to you what I said to the “jokers” then,” Vadim Vasilyevich smiles.
The leading actor himself recalled that the film’s consultant, an admiral, saw him on the set and asked: “ You probably served in the navy? You have the gait and bearing of a navy".
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, - They filmed it with the sea in the background. 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.
"Is it true“,” the actor said, looking with honest eyes at the director, “ I still have 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,- “on a blue eye” he answered, - I just wanted to show you what a skydive is."

Another funny episode happened during filming in the Baltic. The script said: “The flotilla entered the bay, the water was boiling from 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 saboteur-scuba diver was actually played by special forces soldier Pyotr Pavlovich Sherekin. Master of Sports of the USSR in hand-to-hand combat. The first commander of the Republican Special Forces Detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR. The first absolute champion of Ukraine in karate-do.
Representative of tai-jutsu in Ukraine from the World Federation HOKU SHIN KO RYU BUDJUTSU. Life Member in JU JUTSU INTERNATIONAL, Member of the Black Belt Academy and House of Samurai.

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 pronounces 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 National Socialism and 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.

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 met 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.

More than thirty years ago, the serial film “The Secret Fairway” was released on television screens in the Soviet Union. The actors and the roles they played do not lose their popularity even today. It was filmed by director Vadim Kostromenko based on the novel by Leonid Platov.

The plot of "The Secret Fairway"

The film's duration consists of two segments: 1944 and 1952. The torpedo boat commander Boris Shubin, while performing a combat mission in the Baltic Sea, notices an unknown submarine without identification marks. Later, this same boat - the Flying Dutchman - saves Shubin when the plane he was flying on was shot down. Having an excellent command of the German language, the captain poses as a pilot from Finland and gains the trust of the crew members.

Listening carefully to the conversations that took place on the submarine, Boris understands that the Flying Dutchman is carrying out secret tasks for the main leaders of Nazi Germany. Shubin learns about their terrible plans for the start of the third world war. At the first opportunity, the captain escapes to report to management and prevent the enemy’s plans from coming true.

How the film “The Secret Fairway” was filmed

For filming about an underwater submarine, the film crew decided to use a mock-up of a submarine. All scenes were to be filmed in a swimming pool specially built at the Odessa Film Studio. However, after the director of the film saw with his own eyes the dive of a real submarine, there was no talk of any mock-ups.

The Ministry of Defense provided free of charge all the ships, planes, guns, submarines - all the props that were necessary to create the picture. Underwater scenes were filmed in the Black Sea. Filming of the submarine took place in Odessa. In addition, they were held in Leningrad and on the Baltic Sea. Despite the extensive geography of filming, the actors and crew of The Secret Fairway created the film in seven months.

Young Shurka Erasers

One of the main characters - a boy adopted by sailors, Shurka Lastikov - was played by Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Bogatyrev. He was born on May 27, 1972. At the age of fourteen, he starred in his first and only film, The Secret Fairway. After filming was completed, Vyacheslav’s mother dies. He stays with his father and two brothers.

The life of Slava Bogatyrev was dedicated to the sea. It is known that while serving, the director of the Sevastopol film studio approached him with an offer to act in a movie as the son of a groom. To which a categorical refusal was received: “I made my choice - the sea!”

It is difficult to imagine what the fate of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich would have been like if he had been offered to star in a film on a maritime theme. After finishing his military service, Vyacheslav remained with the sea, hiring himself as a sailor on civilian ships. On March 16, 2001, the life of the actor of “The Secret Fairway” - cabin boy Shurka Lastikov - was tragically cut short.

Submarine captain Boris Shubin

On September 25, 1958, in the beautiful Georgian city of Sukhumi, Anatoly Kotenev was born into the family of teacher Valentina Petrovna and driver Vladimir Vasilyevich. The future actor spent his childhood in the city of Nevynnomyssk, Stavropol Territory. Dreaming of the sea and sky as a child, young Tolya unexpectedly discovered the theater. His first tests as an artist took place in the city House of Culture.

While still a student at the Moscow Art Theater School, Kotenev began receiving offers to act in films. The debut of the future submarine captain took place in the film “The Unknown Soldier”. In 1986, filming of the multi-part television film “The Secret Fairway” began. In this film, Anatoly Vladimirovich played his favorite role. Military service and work in the theater helped the actor vividly embody the role of a torpedo boat commander.

After filming, the artist starred in several more films, got married, and moved to Belarus. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Anatoly returned to Moscow, where he has been successfully filming to this day. He has more than one hundred and ten roles to his credit.

The captain's wife - Victoria Mezentseva

Larisa Andreevna Guzeeva played the role of the woman whom Captain Boris Shubin loves. The actress was born on May 23, 1959. Larisa Andreevna did not know her own father. The future meteorologist Victoria Mezentsova was raised by her mother and stepfather, who kept the girl with a tight rein. Despite such a strict upbringing, Larisa dreams of becoming an actress. After school she enters the Leningrad Theater Institute. The artist became famous and popular after the main role in “Cruel Romance.”

After auditioning for the role of a meteorologist, the director did not want other actors to audition for this place in the film “The Secret Fairway.” And the roles in it were different, but he saw only Larisa as the beloved woman of Captain Shubin. Guzeeva in the image of Victoria Mezentseva in the film very believably and sincerely played a woman during the war years. During such a difficult test, she had the opportunity to experience love. The tragic death of Victoria greatly amazed all the spectators and touched them to the depths of their souls.

Interesting facts about the film “The Secret Fairway”

For filming in the film, the Soviet diesel-electric submarine S-376, which was built in the fifties of the twentieth century, was used. In the film, the mysterious German submarine is U-127, as evidenced by the numbers on the cutlery. The film takes place in 1944, and the real boat U-127 was lost in 1941.

The name of the commander of the German submarine is Gerhard von Zwischen. The literal translation means "Gerhard from Nowhere".

In the original work, there is no close relationship between commander Boris Shubin and meteorologist Victoria Mezentseva. But to reflect real feelings, the scriptwriters added this storyline to the film.

The actors of “The Secret Fairway” very reliably and believably conveyed the content of Leonid Platov’s book. Thanks to the director's and cameraman's talent, the film captivated a wide audience of all ages and generations.