Open Sea
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Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin Podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature two sailing horror stories. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Survivor's Guilt,

While sailors are known to have many "customs of the sea," there is one custom that is exceptionally dark, and once it begins, there's no going back. And that is the custom we will talk about in this story. And the second and final story you'll hear is called the "CAS 2," and it's about three friends' trip of a lifetime that turns into a nightmare.

But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please go through all of the Amazon Music Follow Button social media posts and be sure to correct all of their fans' spelling and grammar mistakes in the comments section. Okay, let's get into our first story called Survivor's Guilt.

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On the morning of February 6th, 1821, four young men stood on the deck of a small boat out in the Pacific Ocean. The sun was out, it was beautiful and warm, the water was crystal blue, but none of these four men were paying any attention to their surroundings. Instead, all of them were just standing there in total silence, staring at each other. Finally, one of the four men spoke up. His name was Owen Coffin, and he was 18 years old.

And Owen, like the other three men, had grown up on the water. In fact, all four of these men had grown up on this small island called Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts, where the main industry there was whaling. Which meant sailors like these four men would go out and hunt whales and slaughter them for their oil.

So, from the time Owen and the rest of these men were very little, they were out on the water learning how to sail, and they were also learning the customs of the sea. And there was one custom in particular that Owen wanted to talk about right now with the other three men. So, in a very serious and hushed tone, Owen asked the question of the other three men that sailors referred to as the "delicate question."

And after Owen asked the so-called delicate question, the other three men, who were already very serious and just kind of standing there in silence, suddenly their eyes started to go wide and their mouths went agape. And then again, all of the men just kind of fell into total silence. The only sound they could hear was the splashing of the waves against the side of the boat.

The captain of this vessel was a man named George Pollard. He was 28 years old, and he was actually Owen's older cousin. And what George wanted to say to Owen in response to his delicate question was no. But George didn't say that.

Instead, he just put his hands up over his mouth and stared kind of incredulously at Owen and the other two men who were also teenagers. Their names were George and Barzillai. And as he stared at these other three men, he realized that their answers to the delicate question was a resounding yes. They knew it had to be a yes. They had to do this.

And even though George could totally override them because he was the captain and so technically in charge, he knew in this situation under this particular custom, he couldn't overrule them. And so with his hands still over his mouth, George just nodded a yes. Yes, let's go forward with this custom. And so with a unanimous decision to move forward, Owen slowly reached down and pulled out the ship's logbook from underneath one of the seats behind him.

And then he opened up the book and he flipped to the back pages of the logbook, which were totally blank. And he grabbed one of the pieces of paper and he ripped it out of the book.

Then, Owen began to rip this piece of paper into strips. First, he ripped three identically long pieces of paper, and he held up all three at the same time to show the others that these are the three that are the same. And each of the three nodded their head, "Yes, we see that." And then Owen reached down, he grabbed the paper again, and he ripped a fourth strip out, and this one was dramatically shorter than the other three.

And so Owen held up this much shorter piece and he showed Charles, George, and Barzilai. And again, they all kind of nodded in agreement. Yes, we see that's the short piece. And so once the whole group was satisfied that they had their four strips, Owen took off his hat. He put all four of the strips inside, mixed it around, and held out his hat. It was time.

The first man to reach into Owen's hat was Owen's older cousin and the captain, George. He reached in, he pulled one of the strips of paper out, closed it in his fist so he had no idea which one it was, and pulled it back and held it close to his chest. And then one by one, each of the other men did the same thing, reaching in, grabbing their strip, not looking at it, and holding it against their chest.

And then once all the strips had been taken, at the exact same time, all four men extended their hands into the middle of the circle they were standing in, and they opened their hands palm up to reveal which strip they got. And George, Charles, and Barzilai all had the identical long pieces, and Owen, the 18-year-old, the younger cousin of the captain, the one who had ripped up the strips, he had the short strip.

And immediately when his older cousin, George, saw this, he yelled out, "No! Let me take that one!" But Owen said, "No. This is customary. I want this."

And so after a few moments of the men kind of collecting themselves and calming down, Charles then grabbed the logbook again, flipped to the back of it, pulled out another blank page, and he ripped it into strips again, except now he was only ripping them into three strips, two long that were identical and one short. And once again, as he ripped them, he held them up to show the other men, to show this was a fair process.

Then, Charles took off his hat, put the three strips inside, and extended it to George and Barzilai. Owen was not a part of this round.

And so George and Barzilai, one by one, reached in, took their strip, held it to their chest, and then Charles, he would take the last strip, he would hold it to his chest, and then once all the men had their pieces, they held their hands out into the middle of their now smaller circle, they opened their hands, palm up, and this time it would be Charles, the man who ripped up this second round, who would discover he had the short strip.

And as soon as Charles saw this, he threw it on the ground and he ran to the other side of the boat and began screaming, I can't do this. I can't do it. Meanwhile, Owen, George and Barzilai didn't even move or flinch. They just stood there waiting for Charles to calm down because they knew he knew this was a very important custom. And once you begin doing it, you can't just stop. Charles would have to come back over and play his role.

And so after a few minutes of Charles still kind of calling out that he couldn't do this, he couldn't do this, tears are coming down his face. He finally wiped the tears, he calmed himself down, and he walked back over to the group, who again, they hadn't moved. George, Barzilai, and Owen, they're just standing there waiting to continue this custom. And so as Charles began coming back over, looking ready to continue, George, without even saying anything, reached down and unlatched a door on the side of the boat,

He opened it up, he reached in, and he pulled out this long object that was wrapped in canvas. And then he handed this object to Charles. And then once Charles had possession of this object, Owen, the man who had first drawn the short piece of paper, said to the group, "Now it's time for a moment of silence." Even though at this point, none of the men were talking.

But still, they formed a tight circle with Charles holding this object, and they all bowed their heads, and they just stood there in total silence. And then, once Owen raised his head, the other three did as well, and Owen, one by one, touched the shoulders of each of the men and reminded them that this had been a fair process.

Then, without saying another word, Owen turned away from the group, he walked over to the edge of the boat looking out over the water, he got down on his knees, he made sure his posture was good, and he looked out over the water. Owen had always loved the ocean, even though his own father had died out at sea. But this particular whaling expedition that Owen had been on, he thought went extremely well, and he was very proud of what they had all accomplished.

And Owen was especially proud to be a part of this particular custom. This custom was one that so few people ever took part in, but all sailors knew about it. It was kind of like the forbidden custom. And here he was playing a central role, which really required a lot of strength. And so feeling very proud of himself, Owen, after looking out over the water for a few more moments, he bent down and put his chin on the edge of the boat.

which signaled to Charles it was time. And then once Charles saw that Owen was in position, he stepped away from George and Barzilai and walked over to Owen, carrying this object wrapped in canvas. And then once he was right behind Owen, without saying a word to him, he unwrapped the object, and it was a rifle. And once the rifle was uncovered, he placed the barrel against the back of Owen's head, and then he fired a shot.

And instantly, Owen slumped to the ground, dead, and Charles kind of staggered back and fell on the deck and let out the strangled scream. He couldn't believe what he had just done, but he knew there was no other choice. Once they decided to do this sacred custom, they had to take it to the end.

And so George, who had just witnessed the execution of his younger cousin, was deeply troubled and pained, but he too knew they had to bring this custom to the finish line, which meant it was George's turn to step forward and play his part. And so George walked up to his now dead younger cousin, and George pulled out a serrated knife and cut off Owen's head.

And then once Owen's head was removed, he placed it on the deck so Owen's face was looking away from the other men, like he couldn't see what they were going to do. And then once the head was in place, George went back to Owen's body and began cutting him open and pulling his organs out and handing them to Charles and Barzilai. George also began cutting off long strips of Owen's flesh, creating sort of like fillets.

And then, even though there was a spot on the boat to have a fire, the three men decided they just could not wait. And before long, the only sound that could be heard on board this little boat floating out at sea on the Pacific Ocean was the sound of Charles, George, and Barzilai tearing into Owen's raw flesh with their teeth, turning their beards bright red with his blood.

The "delicate question" that Owen asked the other men at the beginning of this story was one of the most feared questions amongst sailors. And it was only asked if there was a shipwreck or some sort of emergency that happened out at sea, which meant the group had almost no chance of survival. Only in those circumstances was the delicate question appropriate.

And what it was, was do we draw lots to determine which one of us dies so the other can eat them in order to have a better chance at survival? And so during that first round, when Owen had drawn the short strip of paper, that determined he would be the one who was murdered and eaten. And then in the second round, when Charles drew the short strip of paper, that meant he would be the one to kill Owen.

On February 6th, 1821, the day that Owen posed the delicate question, he and the other three men had been lost at sea for the past three months after a whale had struck the side of their whaling boat and left them adrift with almost no food and no water.

There had been other men on board the Essex who had died from starvation and exposure, and their bodies had been consumed by the surviving sailors until on February 6th they were down to just these four men and no more bodies to eat, which is why they decided it was time. They had to ask the delicate question.

17 days after Owen sacrificed himself so the others could eat him, another boat happened to drift past, the stranded Essex boat, which now only contained Charles and George. Barzilai had died of starvation five days after they killed Owen, and Barzilai had been eaten by George and Charles as well.

And as this other ship passed by the Essex and they looked on board, all they saw were skeletons of the men that had died and been eaten. And Charles and George were on opposite ends of the boat, curled up in a ball, chewing on human finger bones, trying to get the last bits of flesh off. And their bodies were totally emaciated, their hair and their beards were wild. They looked totally feral.

And then when this boat actually came up alongside the Essex and boarded to rescue Charles and George, Charles and George looked terrified. It was like they had totally lost their grip on reality.

They had been lost at sea for 94 days and had consumed all of their friends, and so it makes sense they might go kind of crazy. But after this crew was able to get Charles and George fed and get them water and cleaned up, they kind of regained their composure and their sanity, and they were very thankful and happy to be alive.

The story of what happened to the crew of the Essex quickly spread all around the world. And in fact, it served as inspiration for Herman Melville to write his classic American novel, Moby Dick. ♪

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If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news. We just launched a brand new Strange, Dark, and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome.

The next and final story of today's episode is called The Kaz 2.

A little after 7 a.m. on the morning of April 15, 2007, three men launched a 35-foot white catamaran called the Kaz II from a marina in northeastern Australia, kicking off what was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. The captain of the Kaz II was 56-year-old Des Batten, and for months he'd been training for this trip.

And the two friends that Des was bringing with him on this trip were Jim Tunstead, who was 63 years old, and Jim's brother, Peter Tunstead, who was 69 years old. All three of the men had spent a lot of time plotting their actual course they'd be going on, which was from this marina on the northeastern side of Australia, up and around the north side, and then down the western coast to Perth, which was their final destination, and where all three men lived.

In total, this trip was supposed to take eight weeks. And all three men were absolutely giddy with excitement at the prospect of spending an entire two months basically just drinking beers and fishing. Now, Des, Jim, and Peter were not the types to blow off responsibility to go party. I mean, they were devoted family men. All of them had been married for 30 plus years. Des had two kids, Jim had four kids, and Peter had five kids.

But they were all either retired or nearing retirement, and this trip was going to be kind of a way to celebrate the end of an era. And while all three of them had gone on other big sailing trips, this one easily was the biggest one in terms of the distance they were covering and how much prep went into it and how expensive it was. I mean, this was like 10x the scope and scale of any other sailing trip they had done.

And so on April 15th, 2007, shortly after the three men had launched their boat and kicked off this big trip, Peter's wife would call him just to see how it was going. And she would say, you know, Peter was in great spirits and she could hear the other two men laughing in the background. And it sounded like they were about to start fishing and maybe have a couple of beers. And so it seemed very much to Peter's wife like this trip was going as well as it could be so far.

And so eventually, Peter told his wife that he had to go. He told her he loved her, and then they hung up. Now, Dez, who was the captain of the Kaz-2, was adamant about safety being the top concern for this trip.

Even though all three men were relatively healthy and had a lot of sailing experience, and even though Dez was a member of a volunteer marine rescue group and so literally could be called on to go perform rescues at sea, despite all this experience and know-how, before they kicked off this trip, Dez made Jim and Peter go through all these man overboard drills on the Kaz-2 to make sure they knew how to do it if for some reason, you know, an emergency arose out at sea.

And so the men got really comfortable using all the life-saving equipment and going over all the procedures. And then also when they charted their course, Dez stressed that at no point should they be sailing into open water. They needed to stay close to shore the whole time just because it was safer. And so when Jim began filming a video around 10 a.m. on the day they set sail for this trip, you can clearly see the shore in the background of this video. So they're following the course they had planned.

But a couple of hours after Jim had shot that video on the day they left, a woman named Isabel Wheeler, who did not know Des, Jim, or Peter and had never seen the Kaz-2 before, she was fishing in an area called Champagne Bay when she looked out into the water and she saw the Kaz-2, a white 35-foot catamaran sailing east to west across the horizon.

And then at some point, as Isabelle was watching this boat, which really meant nothing to her, she just happened to be watching it, she saw it make a quick 90-degree turn and began sailing out towards the open ocean away from the coastline.

Now, remember, Isabelle knows nothing of this boat or its occupants and so has no idea that Des, Peter, and Jim had been so clear about at no point will we sail into the open ocean. It's too dangerous. Stay close to shore. She didn't know that. And so she just saw a ship turning and sailing out to the open water and she thought, okay, whatever. You know, so she didn't go and report what she saw. It was only later on when details emerged about what happened on the Kaz-2 that she

that she would later come forward and say, hey, I saw that boat and this is what they did.

The next day, April 16th, two more people would spot the Kaz-2. These were two men who also did not know Des Peter Jim, they didn't know Kaz-2, they didn't know Isabel. In fact, these two men didn't know each other, but independently on this day, they looked out near Champagne Bay and they saw the Kaz-2 sailing east to west in the exact same spot that Isabel had seen it the day before.

Now, remember, the Kaz 2 was traveling from that marina on the northeast side of Australia all the way around to Perth. It was a point A to point B trip. There was no reason the Kaz 2 would ever double back and be in the same place 24 hours later, but here we were 24 hours later, and two more people are seeing the Kaz 2 in the same place that Isabelle had seen it, and so that made no sense.

But again, these two men who saw the Kaz-2, they just saw it and thought nothing of it because they don't know anything about this boat. It wasn't until later that they eventually came forward with what they saw.

Then one more day after that, on April 17th, there were these fishermen that were out in their boats a little farther north of Champagne Bay where Isabel and the two other men had seen the Kaz-2 on consecutive days. And these fishermen, they spotted the Kaz-2. And again, these fishermen do not know the Kaz-2. They don't know its occupants. They're just seeing the ship. Except this time, the fishermen, when they saw the Kaz-2, they thought something was wrong.

because they saw the Kaz-2 from a distance navigating its way fairly close to shore in an area that these fishermen knew was full of coral reefs. It's a very dangerous area to be piloting any ship. In addition, the sail of the Kaz-2 was totally ripped to shreds.

And so the fishermen, they're looking at the ship, wondering what they're doing. But the pilot of the ship looked so in control as he's navigating his way through the coral reefs that the fishermen thought, okay, he knows what he's doing. So, you know, leave him alone. But again, later on, they would report what they saw.

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Because on April 18th, a Coastwatch surveillance helicopter was flying over the Great Barrier Reef, and they looked down and they saw the Kaz-2 with its badly damaged sails piloting all around this very dangerous part of the water to be piloting. And so the crew onboard the helicopter attempted to radio down to the Kaz-2 to see if they were okay, but no one from the Kaz-2 called back to the helicopter.

And so as they're waiting for a response from the Kaz-2, the helicopter crew is watching the pilot of the Kaz-2 clearly, you know, navigating the boat in between coral reefs. And it seemed like, you know, despite the damage to the sails, he knew what he was doing. And so to the crew on the helicopter, this didn't really look like an emergency, but it seemed like something worth flagging.

And so they called the Marine police and said, hey, we have the ship here that's not responding. We think they're OK, but you might want to come take a look. And so the Marine police, they would come out to the area where the helicopter had said they had seen the Kaz 2. And when they got there, the Kaz 2 was gone.

At this point, the Marine police got some information about the boat, Kaz II, and discovered who owned the boat and who was on this trip. So Des, Peter, and Jim. And the police would get in touch with all of their families. And they would all tell police that besides Peter's wife, who talked to Peter on that morning they left, no one had heard from any of the men. They had gone totally silent since that first day.

And so when police heard this, they knew this had to be some kind of emergency. And so a search was launched to find the Kaz-2.

And 48 hours later, a rescue helicopter that was part of the search was about 80 or so miles off the northeastern coast of Australia when they looked down and they spotted the CAS-2. And it still had all torn up sails and it was kind of spinning listlessly in the water. And from the helicopter, they couldn't see anybody on board the ship. It was totally vacant on the deck.

Now, at this point, authorities really have no idea what's going on with this boat or its occupants. It was possible that maybe they had been hijacked, and so Des, Peter, and Jim could be held hostage down below, along with the people that took them hostage. Or maybe the boat just got stolen, and Des, Peter, and Jim are not on this boat, and that it's just the criminals on board, and again, they're down below, hidden from view. You know, so authorities, they don't know.

But they decided to take a risk and just send somebody down to get on that boat and just see what was going on. So a rescue officer on board the rescue helicopter named Corey Benson was lowered by a rope where he was dropped into the water. And then Corey swam by himself over to the CAS-2 and he climbed up the side of the boat and he stepped onto the deck. And right away, he noticed it was kind of like eerily quiet on board the boat.

There was nobody he could see, and there was no sign of any disturbance, minus the sails of the ship being all tattered. And for a second, Corey thought about maybe calling out for Des, Peter, and Jim to see if they were down below and could come up and solve this mystery. Then he also worried that if he called out, there could be some bad people on board this boat, and he didn't want to draw their attention. And so Corey was quiet and just began walking towards the front of the boat...

And as he did, he began to notice signs that people must have recently been on board this boat doing normal things. Like, for example, there was a fishing rod that was cast out into the water that was anchored to a post on the side of the boat that looked like it had just been operated minutes ago. There was a blue mug of coffee that was just sitting on a table that looked like maybe someone had been drinking from it

recently. There was a neatly folded t-shirt on another chair with a set of glasses on them. I mean, there was just all these kind of tells that this was a boat that was being used recently. And when Corey actually got to the front of the boat where the captain would stand, he saw the engine was actually still on. It was idling. And so Corey turned it off.

Now, at this point, Corey knew his next step was going down the stairs and opening up the door that led into the cabin down below to see if Des, Peter, and Jim were down there. But he also knew when he went down there, despite there being backup up in the helicopter and more people making their way out here, Corey would be all alone if there were criminals or bad people down there. But this was his job. And so after taking a deep breath, he turned...

and walked down the few steps and he got to the door that led to the cabin. He grabbed the handle and he opened it up. And the room he was walking into was kind of like a half living room, half kitchen area. And he saw there was this table and on it was a newspaper that was dated April 15th. So the day the Kaz set sail. And then on the wall behind the newspaper was a calendar where days had been marked off all the way through April 14th. April 15th was not marked off.

But also nearby on a table was a computer that was still plugged in and on and looked very much like someone had just been using it. And also there were plates of food that were out that didn't look that old that also seemed like people must have just been eating from them. And then also Corey could see past this common area into the bedroom and very obviously the bunks inside of there had been slept in.

And so basically everything seemed like it was where it should be. There was just one problem. Dez, Peter and Jim were not on the ship. There was no sign of where they were. They were just gone. And there was nobody else on board the ship. It was just completely abandoned with no sign of what happened. Dez, Jim and Peter were never found. And so we have no idea what actually happened to them.

Nor do we have any idea why they were seen by Isabel and the two men and the fishermen doing all these weird things like randomly piloting out towards open water, which totally went against their plan, which was stay close to shore, be safe. Or, you know, why on that second day they were seen in the same spot near Champagne Bay, indicating they had doubled back after going towards open water. You know, that went against their plan, which was point A to point B. Why are they doubling back around?

And so unfortunately, this whole thing is just one big mystery that has yet to be solved. A quick note about our stories: they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. This podcast, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, and also Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, and Redacted. Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts to find all of these shows.

To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya.