Weird destroyer encounter last night

[Vaux]

September '42. I'm in that small sea just South of the Phillipines whose name escapes me right now. The weather is beyond crappy. Seemingly hurricane conditions. Lots of rain, wind and waves so high that they occassionally swamp my radar while I'm running on the surface.

I've just completed a patrol by the Phillipines and am heading due South, back home in my Salmon-class with 4 torps left in the front and 2 in the back. As I mentioned above, my radar keeps getting swamped, so I have to keep turning it back on. Suddenly, my radar picks up 3 contacts about 6 miles to the North West of me that are listed as "Stationary". Interesting. It's about 0800, so I decide to make a little detour and check it out.

I'm watching things unfold on my map and get within 2,000 yards of the first ship. No "Ship spotted" notification yet, but the weather's so bad I'm not really surprised. When we get to within 500 yards of the target and still no "Ship spotted", I decide to go topside.

Right there in front of me is a Japanese destroyer. A Suriyaba/Suribachi... something like that. Dead in the water. I can see the crew on her at their stations, my guys are on the bridge but it's like it's not there. It's not even showing up as a visual target on my map.

I don't want to waste one of my few remaining torps on a ghost, so I decide to get up right next to it. Nothing. I hear the "ship sinking" sounds when I get next to it. (I didn't think about SS until this was all over. Sorry.). I then decide to see if ramming does anything. Upon contact, I hear squealing and grinding, but I plow right over the thing with no damage to my boat.

Weird. I put it down as an anomally and head back south. When I'm about 6 or so miles away from them, I notice they are getting closer to me. I check and they are now heading my way at medium speed.

What the hell? They're gaining on me, so I pick a good spot and go to periscope depth. To shorten an already long story: When they got close, I heard "Ship spotted" and was able to sink all 3. Oh, well.

[TabbyHunter]

Sounds like someone was on the Sake.

[Vaux]

Originally Posted by TabbyHunter

Sounds like someone was on the Sake.

Unfortunately, it wasn't me (I love that stuff)...

[Armistead]

I've run into ships like that, but I get a contact and then they sink for whatever reason, probably a low rider and the storm floods it enough.
By a low rider, one of those that is running with it' deck almost under.


However, mine never came back to life to chase me. Are you sure it was the same ship?

[Vaux]

Originally Posted by TabbyHunter

Sounds like someone was on the Sake.

Originally Posted by Armistead

I've run into ships like that, but I get a contact and then they sink for whatever reason, probably a low rider and the storm floods it enough.
By a low rider, one of those that is running with it' deck almost under.


However, mine never came back to life to chase me. Are you sure it was the same ship?

Positive. I was monitoring them via radar and they were getting further and further away... suddenly they started getting closer and their "Speed" indication had gone from "Stationary" to "Medium".

[WernherVonTrapp]

I've had similiar encounters, and then some. I've actually sunk merchants only to find them again, almost in their exact positions, on the return trip. When I sink them the second time, I get no "She's Going Down Sir" confirmation and no credit shows up in the Captain's Log.

[subskipper53]

Originally Posted by TabbyHunter

Sounds like someone was on the Sake.

[L_DOG]

He was in
the Dragon's Triangle ,hehe

[rein1705]

Thats pretty spooky. Ghost ships of the IJN. The Dragons triangle for sure. Now just watch out for UFO-USO's
Some really strange things happen in this game fore sure. I'm still hunting for the Flying Dutchman myself.

[subskipper53]

Originally Posted by rein1705

... I'm still hunting for the Flying Dutchman myself.

Boy, have i got a story for you.

The exact date i forget, but i believe this was with my Gato, maybe my Balao, i don't remember. But i was just cruzin' along south of the Phillipines(?), long after dark, when the sonar man reports a contact verified as a warship. I call battlestations when i near and dive to periscope depth, set up an intercept course and a spread, and silently waited for it come near.

Didn't take long. Once it came within a few thousand yards, i raised the periscope to find this greenish translucent thing coming my way. The green ghost had two streams of plasma (??) streaking from its sails. I just thought, 'What the hell!?' i stood there looking through the eyepiece, dumbfounded. By the time i was able to make out what it was it was already heading away to our port side, making 25 knots. The identification was, "What the heck is this!?" in the PK. (I had accidentally left on auto-targeting)

I ordered ahead flank and gave chase. Lining up my boat directly behind it, i fired one torp out of my spread towards its screws with hopes of disabling it. The high-speed Mk-14 sailed clean through it.

I fired another fish; same result. the third one struck true, and it stopped dead in the water after about 5-10 minutes. I used the external camera to examine this ghost of the Flying Dutchman.

I saved the game after i positioned the boat a few hundred yards off its port bow. I fired three torpedoes at it. 1-2 missed and the other sailed on through its hull as if nothing was there. Another spread or two later and i was out of torps. The ship still hadn't gone under.

I reloaded my save and just decided to let it go. I returned to my original course, staying submerged until it was out of sight.

This was sometime in '42. My career is now in early-mid '44. Never saw it again.

This was my #1 strangest experience with TMO....

But was just about as funny (and creepy ) as anything i've ever seen!

[Armistead]

The Flying Dutchman, you can't sink it, so save your ammo....