Grigory Borzenko A world of amazing stories Issue three The Terror on the Ocean story

Grigory Borzenko
A world of amazing stories
Issue three
The Terror on the Ocean story

Sometimes such incredible events happen in life that even the smartest writer, endowed with wild imagination, could not have come up with them. Digging through the archives and documents of past times, I came across descriptions of such amazing cases that your humble servant had the idea to tell you about many of them, in such a calm and quiet environment. Trust me, these stories will captivate you. They are also important because they all actually happened.
I would call my first story “Horror in the Ocean.” Personally, I was struck not so much by the fact that truly incredible events happened, but by how differently, heroically or meanly, different people behaved in the same situation, the same for everyone.
The proverb “friends are found in adversity” can be called truly wise. Indeed: it’s one thing to sit in a cozy armchair, in warmth and not offended, to imposingly sip some tea and assure your interlocutor that you will “go through fire and water” for him if something happens, but it’s another thing to do exactly that when in fact In fact, you find yourself in such extreme conditions. Extreme is the best test of a person’s lice, showing what he is really worth.
At noon on June 17, 1816, a small flotilla set sail from the island of Aix, which was supposed to deliver an expeditionary force and a new governor to Senegal, which had just been returned to France. On the lead ship of the flotilla, the Medusa, were the future governor of Senegal, Schmaltz, the commander of the expeditionary force, Puenchignon, and a significant part of the corps’ soldiers and officers with their families—400 people in total. The ship was commanded by Captain First Rank Jean Duroy de Chaumaret, who received this position not so much for his success in maritime affairs, but for his personal devotion to Louis XV111 in his confrontation with Napoleon.
It all started so well: beautiful weather, fair wind - what else is needed in such cases?! But already from the first days of the voyage, mediocrity was evident in the command of the Shomre flotilla: according to all the written and unwritten rules of the sea, the vessels of the flotilla must stay together, so that in the event of an accident on one of them, the rest could help him - but the faster Medusa immediately left forward, breaking away from the rest! Soon, a delay with a man who had fallen overboard on the Medusa, who could not be found, allowed one of the ships to catch up with the flagship, and the captain of the ship, who knew these places well, signaled Shomare that there was a sandbank ahead and needed to be bypassed from the west. But he was only indignant: how dare someone lower in rank give him, the flotilla commander, advice, and ordered him to add sails! It is not difficult to guess how this stubbornness and pride of the captain ended.
After long and unsuccessful attempts to refloat, it was decided to abandon the doomed ship and independently get to the shore. But the ship had only six boats and that was for 400 people!!! It was decided to build a raft, work on which was immediately headed by the governor of Senegal. You may ask: why not the captain?! After all, he had to do this not only at the behest of his conscience, but also out of duty, according to the laws of the sea, which were sacredly observed in such cases in all the fleets of the world! Yes, because Chamarais acted as no captain of the French fleet had ever done before: the coward lost heart and resigned all responsibilities - I, they say, no longer want to command anyone and be responsible for anyone! This is an unheard of incident and probably the only one in the entire history of the fleet!!!
Soon, soldiers and sailors built and launched a huge raft measuring 20x7 meters. It is not difficult to guess that the “valiant” captain and other ship’s officers and servants took place in the boats, and the “rabble” had no choice but to sit on the raft. Only a few of the most conscientious representatives of “high society” turned out to be people of honor, and decided at such a moment to be close to their subordinates: they refused their seats in the boat and moved onto the raft. These are the geographer Correard, Lieutenant Lozak, the ship's doctor Savigny and the midshipman Coudin - he was seriously injured during the ship's crash in the leg and could well, with a clear conscience, take a place in the boat. But the midshipman acted nobly. In total there were 149 people on the raft, incl. and one woman. Such injustice could not but cause indignation among many of those who were on the raft, but they were reassured from the boats: the boats will tow the raft, so you, lucky ones, will not have to row - you will only rest!
When building the raft, no one thought to place empty barrels under it, and now it has sunk almost a full meter into the water! Almost everyone on the raft had to stand: if anyone, tired, sat down, he found himself up to his neck in water! Kuden was placed on a barrel so that he would not get his wounded leg wet. At first, the strange flotilla, albeit with grief in half, moved: some boats had masts and sails installed and a fair wind was blowing. But when the wind weakened and the movement almost stopped, something happened that clearly contrasts with the expression “I will go through fire and water for you!” The two boats in front, one of which was commanded by the governor of Senegal, the second by the captain of the Medusa, got closer, the “high officials” held a short but meaningful “high-level council”, the result of which clearly did not meet the criteria of the highest morality. Having decided that their own skin was more valuable and they should not give a damn about everyone else, the commanders of both boats ordered the ropes connecting them to the raft to be cut off, after which both vessels quickly rushed forward. Left without the best sails, the rest stopped moving altogether. Officers in other boats, “inspired” by the “heroic” example of their superiors, also cut the ropes, leaving to the mercy of fate a half-submerged, motionless and uncontrollable raft with almost one and a half hundred people in the middle of the vast ocean!
It is difficult to describe what these people had to endure. Soon the poor fellows had to regret that in their haste no one thought about supplies of provisions. A box of soaked crackers, which were immediately eaten, five barrels of wine, and two barrels of pepper water - this was clearly not enough for such a huge number of people. In addition, there was no anchor, no compass, no sea chart on the raft. To top it all off, a furious storm broke out: some were washed into the ocean, others died because their legs were pinched between the logs of the raft. Twenty people died in one night alone!
The next night turned out to be even more terrible: the ocean became even more frantic and many sailors, anticipating the end, and trying to ease their death throes by drowning them in wine, drank themselves into unconsciousness. Inflamed by wine fumes, they decided to deal with the officers and civilians. A fierce fight ensued, in which sabers, knives and even teeth were used! And all this in complete darkness and in a terrible crowd, when the stronghold literally disappears from under your feet during each oncoming wave of water! One of the sailors, who decided to drown everyone at once, gave everything that was happening an even more terrible picture of madness, and began to cut the ropes connecting the logs of the raft! Before they had time to push the insane suicide into the water, another scream was heard, a woman’s: it was one of the soldiers who pushed the only woman on the raft into the water, the wife of a soldier like him! She was saved by the geographer Correar, who threw himself into the foaming sea. The madness and terrible bloody dump continued until the morning, during which sobering came: 65 killed and drowned, two barrels of wine and two of water, carelessly pushed into the ocean!
By the onset of the third night, the ocean had calmed down, but she, too, began to keep up with her predecessors and reaped her own, albeit more modest, harvest: 12 human lives! The fourth night reduced the number of sufferers by another two dozen! Each subsequent day and night claimed more and more victims. Those who remained alive presented a terrible sight: colossally exhausted, wounded, bloody people, with wounds corroded by sea salt on their legs and all over their bodies, with eyes sunken from fatigue, hopelessness and half-madness. These unfortunates were some kind of ghosts, the dead, rising from their graves or from the depths of the ocean.
On the twelfth day of this nightmare voyage, the sufferers, desperate to escape, were picked up by a ship that accidentally stumbled upon them. By that time, only 15 people remained on the raft, six of whom died immediately after rescue. Thus, only nine victims managed to survive all this hell - and this is out of 150 people!
Guided by common sense, we can assume that now that people have been found who can tell the whole truth about what happened, those responsible for this tragedy will be punished, especially the “heroic” captain. But everything turned out the other way around: those who should have been rewarded for heroism were punished. Savigny’s doctor, having returned home, sent a report to the Minister of the Navy, where he described in detail everything that had happened. It is unclear how excerpts from his report appeared on the pages of one of the newspapers the very next day. And a day later, Savigny was fired from the navy for “divulging state secrets” and “an act compromising France.” But Pig once again proved that he is a courageous and stubborn person. Together with the geographer Carrear, he wrote and published a brochure in which he honestly, with all the ugly truth, told the world about the disaster with Medusa, about the selfishness of the bosses who abandoned their subordinates in difficult times, dooming them to certain death. The book was immediately withdrawn from sale, and both “truth lovers” were put behind bars!!! Perhaps the poor fellows would have spent the rest of their days there if several copies of the brochure had not found their way to England, where it was republished and distributed throughout Europe.
There was such a huge uproar that the French authorities, willy-nilly, had to release both writers, and Chaumaret was brought to trial. A separate story could be written about how this “hero” pretended to be a simpleton in court, sincerely not understanding what we were talking about. But this did not help him: he was stripped of the rank of captain of the first rank and sentenced to three years in prison. The coward ingloriously ended his life alone in his ancestral castle of Lašno. His only son could not bear the shame that fell on the family, and while his father was still alive, he committed suicide...