Ghost Ships
 

So i m about 200kms from the straits of Gibraltar and i get a radio report that a task force is comming towards me at a bearing of SSE and comming fast. So i head that way. My Watch Officer reports warship spotted so we dive down to PR depth and go silent. I listen using the Hydrophones and i got nothing, not engine sounds, nothing. So i put up the Scope and take a look. Again nothing found. Now its rainning and the waves are rolling but there is good visibibliy, just a rainy, windy day, but no fog. So i surface and prepare to crash dive. I did a 360 and again saw nothing. about to kill my WO i dive down to 20meters and shut the engines off and listen with the hydrophones. I do about 5 rotations with them and nothing. I found nothing. I was pissed so i made my way home and on the way i hit a convoy with 2 Flowers and 1 DD, sunk those and headed in, i got about 5 merchants then i noticed the Fuji Cruiser and took that out. I left the Convoy (no Ammo/Torpedos), they had 4 small merchants left. So that made up for the "ghost" ships.
Does anyone else have this problem? Trying to find ships that r right near u but cant be seen or heard?
O another Plus, on return to base i was promoted to Kapitänleutnant, or Lieutenant Commander after my 7th patrol, pretty good right.

It happened to me with a single large cargo. I saw it in the uzo, got closer, dived to PD and put the scope up, nothing there.
I think it's some kind of a bug.:doh:

Maybe the Allies finally finished the "Philadelphia Experiment" and is now using that on merchant ships. haha

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm

One day I found a small convoy in stormy weather and decided to go to PD to close the distance. As soon as I went to PD I could not hear them via hydrophones. I finally found them and I solved the mystery: Because of the weather they had all stopped. The same thing might have happened to you TF.

Well that would be interesting, and logical to stop enngines during a bad storm. But my father who was in the US Navy and was an Electrian's mate (PO 1st class) said that even though the ship has stopped, the engines never fully "stop", they are the ship's power source. So im wondering if the SH3 devs team thought of this. Even though the screws r not turning there should be a faint sound being made from the engines and the boilers. Anyone care to comment?

I don't think the hydrophones of that era would pick up engine room noises from much of a distance.

I am new to this game, but I had a similar experience. Made contact with a single merchant by sonar. Tracked it for ever by sonar while zigzagging across the ocean to spot it. Finally spot it and watch it for many 3:15's to get its course. Maneuver around it to avoid being spotted and get into perfect daylight attack position, submerged, 600m off its course. Wait forever for it to arrive. Shoot. Ship vanishes before torpedoes reach it.

I suspect that ships spawn and run on certain waypoints, and then eventually disappear from the game. My ship must have reached its last waypoint while the torps were heading in. At least that's what I told BDU.

Reports out of London suggest the Tommies have finally perfected their Cloaking Device...:yep:

:rotfl:

Ships do disappear at last waypoints but they shouldnt disappear until very close to the shore

Hydraphones do pick up stationary ships too
Try port raiding
" Stationary contact 036 moving away "
:rotfl: