Excelsior Expedition
The Excelsior Expedition was carried out on the 16th of February, 2006. Tristan Miller and Aurgi set forth to investigate an anomaly viewed in PastVision: what appeared to be the remains of a ship, mired in swamplands.
The PastVision image that started the expedition
From this and other maps, it was clear that access to the wreck was going to be limited. When we arrived in the area, we discovered a dirt road leading around the huge fenced-off area that hopefully enclosed the ship. Well, it could only loosely be described as a dirt road - lumpy and soft earth interspersed with large rocks and scrub, barely wide enough to fit my car through in some places. Because of the strange terrain and the vast nothing in front of us, driving along here was like driving on the moon...hard to really get the feeling across in writing. After following the fence line around a corner, we suddenly noticed the silhouette of the ship on the other side. Parking the car, we set out on foot.
Lit only by the full moon, the increasingly sandy landscape was quite eery. Distant sounds of industry and the nearby chirping of various insects were important elements of this atmosphere. As we continued to walk along the fenceline, we discovered a doll's head amongst other rubbish. Apparently this remote location had been used for illegal dumping;the lack of broken glass or bottles amongst the debris indicating the absence of homies or other humanoid life.
Further along, the fence took another right turn, just as the sand was beginning to give way to mud. Here the fence abruptly ended, replaced with a series of grafitti-enriched concrete blocks. The purpose of these appeared to be prevention of vehicle access to the rest of the path, which stretched off back into civilisation, and to the interior of the fenced area. Wreckage of car was scattered around the blocks - perhaps somebody had conducted the age-old 'concrete vs car' experiment at some point.
Pressing on, we took a path that led back the way we had come, along the inside of the fence. This took us right up to the shipwreck. While considering a climb down to the water line, I noticed a large black beetle. It was a cellar beetle: usually found in old wooden buildings, wherever it is dark and slightly rotten. I didn't expect to see these here - I had looked for them in other places as they are quite easy to keep as pets. We spotted several of these over the course of the night
Cellar Beetle, from 212.84.179.117
The wreck was in an advanced state of decay, its rusting hull revealing its skeleton. The craft had been abandoned at this location in 1945, after diesel powered craft made its coal-ferrying occupation redundant. The photos don't really do the scene justice - unfortunately my camera is small and I had to do awful things to the images to even see the ship. In reality, the atmosphere, the clear night and the moonlight shining on the old ship made the scene quite unreal and beautiful. I suggest you go and check it out for yourself some time.
Relic of another time.
We ran some tests on its structural integrity, using some tennis balls. The result of pelting the balls at the hull was a dull metallic thud followed by the unsurprising sound of a ball falling into water.
Aurgi tests the structural integrity of the hull with a tennis ball.
The shrine. The doll's head faces away from the prow.
It was decided that this forgotten and abandoned vessel should have some words said over it. We constructed a shrine in front of the prow, using the doll's head and a few other objects, and Aurgi conducted the ceremony. That done, a thousand screaming souls flew out of the ship and disappeared into the night. We then went back to the car. In the subsequent drive we explored the maze of the reclaimed-earth trails, eventually finding our way back to where we started and beginning the voyage home.
Another mangled photo. It wasn't creepy as this photo might suggest.
Lower sections of the ship have rusted away
PastVision map of the area, post-exploration.
