The X-Files episode "Død Kalm" airs 1995

One of the first episodes of the X-Files I ever saw, Dod Kalm, aired March 10, 1995, is still one of my favorites.  As usual with X-Files, an eerie, seemingly paranormal or science-fiction setting has a factual conclusion.  But they can make anything creepy.

When a U.S. naval ship disappears in the Norwegian Sea, survivors are picked up several hours later, having aged considerably.  Only one survives the trip back to the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland but no one will tell Scully what happened.

Mulder manages to get them on a boat, the captain is the only one who will take them to the last place the ship was known to be.  They find the ship (although satellites and search boats cannot) in dead calm waters.  The ship's captain is still alive but extremely aged.  The bodies of the crew are mummified and the vessel is in advanced stages of corrosion, as if it has been at sea for decades instead of months.

Soon, Mulder and Scully get symptoms of aging and they realize they have little time to figure out what is happening, if they are to get out alive.

Ghost Ships: True Stories of Nautical Nightmares, Hauntings and Disasters by Richard Winer

The cover of Winer’s Ghost Ships trumpets him as the New York Times best-selling author of The Devil’s Triangle, released in the early seventies. A quick search on Amazon.com shows not many works since then until Ghost Ships, copyrighted in 2000.

Although Winer cites one ‘ghost ship’ incident in 1998, the remainder of paranormal episodes in his 33-chapter, 265-page chronology occur prior to 1978. The lion’s share of the spooky events takes place between the beginning of the twentieth century and the completion of World War II. The one post-1978 story is about a ship that disappeared without a trace in 1998 during Hurricane Mitch, one of the most powerful and deadliest hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic basin. Gasp.

It seems as though Winer conducted his research into the ghost ships immediately after the success of The Devil’s Triangle, but never carried through on the project. Until now. I got the feeling that Winer needed to publish again after a long dry spell, so he pulled his notes from long ago, threw in a couple of recent incidents and released Ghost Ships.

The book focuses on vessels found with no one on board or that vanished without a trace. Only a handful of the stories actually chronicle paranormal phenomenon.

Winer’s work has few surprises and no scares but is rich in history. Although the book doesn’t deliver on ghosts, it does have a number of interesting chapters in maritime history, including a number of WWII tales that weren’t mentioned in the history books.
If you’re looking for ghosts or horror, search elsewhere. Unsolved mysteries? This can be the place.