The Russian Ivan Vassili began its life in St. Petersburg in 1897.
It was built as a civilian steam freighter, carrying freight across the Baltic Sea from Russia to the Gulf of Finland.
It was relatively powerful, fast and reliable. It has done its job perfectly until 1903.
In 1903 relationships between Japan & Russia became tense, and Japan was threatening Russia with war and that was the time things turn into paranormal in Ivan Vassili.
As war is nearly at the door of Ivan Vassili turned into a military supply ship for the Russian Navy.
Something about the ship changed, when it made it stop in Cape Town, to resupply their coal reserves.
The crew constantly felt like they are being watched, they kept hearing footsteps, when there was no-one around, and cold spots out of no reason, there was so much negativity up in the air that crew started arguing for no reason .
Of course the tense could have been because the crew was out at sea for so long.
One of the crew members had a weird experience when was on look out duty and he told it to the captain.
A ghostly figure when a ghostly figure appeared in a glowing mist and with distorted features strode across the deck and disappeared behind a light boat.
Things got even scarier when the men suddenly and without warning flew into a wild fight, one of the men threw himself overboard to his death.
A couple of days later the same thing happened again, with another crew member jumping to his death.
Rumours started there was an evil entity in the ship, and it wanted to kill or harm them.
It was frightening enough that when they reached Vladivostok over a dozen crew fled to abandon the ship, some of them they jumped from the ship to swim to shore in panic.
The crew who left the ship were detained and placed under arm guards, and been forced to continue their journey.
When the Ivan Vassili left port on its way to Hong Kong, the fights and another crew member jumping to death repeated and another crewman would allegedly drop died because he was so scared.
When Ivan Vassili reached Hong Kong, the captain killed himself.
Now the crew was convinced and terrified and they ran off from the ship one more time.
The Crew was convinced that the ship was possessed, for the Russian government it was just a perfectly good ship, after a new Crew and Captain, the shop has been send to Sydney.
Well the ship made its way to Sydney without any incident but this time after its arrival to Sydney, the new captain pulled the gun to his head and killed himself.
Well Well the new crew also heard about the stories and the incidents, they refused to continue working, brand new a crew has been brought in.
It took months for the new crew to come and work.
This time destination was San Francisco, California, well if you are wondering what had happened this time, the Captain killed himself, half of the crew gone mental and locked into their rooms, and two of the crew member died and they had to go back to Russia..
Well after its arrival Ivan Vassilli had to retire and met it’s final destiny..
Ivan Vassili was burnt down..
This story is originated from now out of print 1965 book on the unexplained called Invisible Horizons, by Vincent Gaddis..