Sailors, Divers, Ocean Enthusiasts Share Strange Sea Encounters

From a formerRedditor:

The preserved body of "Whitey" or "Grampa" rests in the engine room of the SS Kamloops. The ship sank in Lake Superior in 1927. Cold water and low oxygen kept the body from decomposing. He drifts down there.

Divers report the body follows them while they swim by.

Click here to see the image

From Redditor u/Linxysnacks

My father worked as a sub-sea engineer. He handled pipelines and cables. This job sometimes required him to ride in small submarines for inspections. He spoke about the strange things he found on the ocean floor...

[One was] a skeleton wrapped in chains found in the north Atlantic. The submarine pilot stopped the cameras when he saw it. When my dad asked why, he replied, "Trust me. This whole cable project will pause for a year while they check this."

From Redditor u/HardpointNomad:

A US sailor here.

On our trip to Sydney, Australia last year, I monitored the ship's stern for anything. It was a dull watch. Then, the headset called me to look right. I raised my binoculars and spotted a house.

Yes, a damn house.

This was a person's run-down shack floating in the Pacific. No one knew if anyone was actually inside the small shack.

This is one of the weirdest things.

From Redditor u/hosdan:

One day while fishing for grouper/snapper off the coast of North Carolina, the bite suddenly stopped. Everything vanished off the scope, and then silence fell.

Then all the rods bent at once. We all had something huge on our lines.

After fifteen minutes of slowly raising our lines, we found bull sharks over fifteen feet long. They remained calm; no thrashing occurred. The weird part? Below them, a wall of bull sharks swam. Hundreds, maybe. They just swam in circles.

We released them, and they slowly swam back with the huge school. We left.

From a formerRedditor:

An empty lifeboat drifts in the ocean with only people's clothes; nothing else.

From a formerRedditor:

We found an empty lifeboat holding someone's supplies floating miles off the coast of Sydney.

Someone was either rescued or not. It felt creepy.

From Redditor u/Bred_Stix:

Two years ago, I was about 150 miles offshore from Long Island, NY, in a 31-foot boat. We were trolling for yellowfin tuna.

In the distance, we saw two large fins break the water, so we headed toward them, thinking they were sharks. As we drew nearer, we saw it was one big shark.

It cruised slowly at the surface, not reacting at all to our approach.

We got next to it and saw this shark was almost as big as the boat. It needed to be at least 25 feet long and several thousand pounds. I felt total shock passing it. I had never seen a shark that large. I saw whales, turtles, dolphins, sharks, and crazy things out at sea. Never a predator this big. This thing was a killer. It was not a whale shark.

It was a tiger shark, but the internet claims they don't get that big, so I don't know. I wanted a picture, but I froze. I could not move. I will never forget that moment.

The ocean is an incredible place.

From Redditor u/zwiiz2:

Last summer, I did a double-handed overnight race. I spoke with my grandfather for 45 minutes while on watch.

I was alone on deck. My grandfather had died three years prior.

Hypothermia, dehydration, low blood sugar, and exhaustion likely played a role. It was very strange.

From Redditor u/smileedude:

I am a marine biologist. While at university, I took a scientific cruise into the deep ocean.

We trawled about 800 meters. We pulled up the catch and found a hermit crab. It lived in a hard anemone, not a mollusk shell.

The anemone had a hard, hollow bottom perfectly fitting the crab. Two clusters of stingers sat on top. The anemone gave the hermit crab shelter and protection. The crab probably moved the anemone for food.

I tagged and bagged it for another scientist. I did not track what happened next. I searched for any discovery. I found nothing. It might have been a unique find.

From Redditor u/John_Don_Bama_Bond:

I am a former commercial fisherman. Sharks circling oil rigs are quite harrowing. Mostly hammerheads, but the sheer number makes you tense up.

From Redditor u/kinkyp3ach:

When I was about 19 or 20, my mom's boyfriend took us out on his boat one afternoon. We swam far from the shore to lounge in the ocean. We were excited; the water was turquoise, completely clear, and the perfect temperature that day. We found what seemed like a perfect spot, dropped anchor, and ate a snack.

Hundreds of giant, milky white jellyfish surrounded us. They filled the water; we could not see clear water. Their bells reached five feet across, perhaps more. We did not swim that day.

From Redditor u/Prs_mira86:

I scuba dived near Key West around age ten. My father jumped in the water before me; it kicked up much sand underwater. I dove after him and saw he pointed at something right in front of us. I looked at him again; he waved his hands, signaling us to back off. The water cleared, and then I saw it.

A three-to-four-foot barracuda came within arm's reach. For a few tense seconds, the barracuda and I just stared. I felt it was sizing me up. Then, it flicked its tail and bolted out of sight. This felt both exciting and scary.

From Redditor u/1kz_akl:

A mate on a tuna boat found an airplane emergency life jacket floating. It sat about 200 miles from the east coast of New Zealand.

From Redditor u/FFG36:

I was stationed on the USSUnderwoodIn the Persian Gulf, the water was flat. We steamed along with no land visible. We passed a sheep bobbing in the water. A deceased sheep floated in the ocean.

We all laughed.

From Redditor u/Ginkgopsida:

I was on a motorboat in a large lake. A hot air balloon came down right above us. They ran out of gas, so we towed the balloon to the harbor. They were lucky they were there; otherwise, they would have had a long swim.

From Redditor u/HistrionicSl--

You fall in, and waves push your body. Something touches your leg. You look down but see nothing. You think it is just anxiety waiting for a rescue. You get pulled back onto the boat, look at the water. It moves.

From a former Redditor:

Waterspouts! I have seen many in the Gulf of Mexico since starting work in the oil field. Seeing them is strange; I have not gotten used to it.

See it here.