Sea Me Now

"Welcome to the sea themed podcast! Where Cristina talks about our ancestors (maybe) and Chelsea talks about a ghost ship that also may or may not have existed."

Presented by: Cristina
Category: Scientific Theory

First developed by Max Westenhöfer (who didn't believe humans were apes) in the 1940s, the aquatic ape hypothesis is the idea that humans evolved as adaptation to living semi-regularly in water. Westenhöfer dropped up theory, which was picked up by Alister Hardy in the 1960s. He believed that humans hunted on and in the shore, unable to compete with other apes. The evidence of this theory includes:


 * Largely hairless bodies.
 * A layer of fat
 * Webbed hands and feet
 * A weak sense of smell
 * Bipedalism
 * Trachea in the throat
 * Tears and sweat
 * The missionary position

The hypothesis is not popular within the scientific community. They point out, for example, that other apes gain fat in captivity. Some of the points while true, are erroneously stated as only in existing in humans and aquatic animals. All of the pieces of evidence can be explained from the accepted model. One thing that came of the aquatic ape research is the understanding that the savannah landscape we think of ubiquitous to our early evolution didn't develop until after bipedalism.

Takeaway: Obvious beliefs aren't always set in stone.

Presented by: Chelsea
Category: Historical Mystery, Conspiracy

At some undetermined point in time in the something in the 1940s. The ship was found in the Straits of Malacca after a telegram reading, "“All officers including captain are dead, lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead." After some undecipherable code, the final message was, "I die".

The location was determined and the S.S. Silver Star went to investigated. When hailing the ship failed boarding party discovered the crew dead and strew about the ship. All of their eyes were open and upward and some of them had expressions of terror. The ship was cold, but the bodies were already decaying. They could find no damage to the ship itself.

The boarding party's attempt to tow ship were aborted when the smelled smoke. They barely escape the ship before he caught fire, exploded and sank.

There's nothing to suggest the Ourang Medan even existed at all. There is no ship manifest or any records of it existing (though the Silver Star did exist). If it existed, it's suggested that the Ourang Medan was carrying chemical weapons from Japan's Unit 31 after WWII. If this is true, it's possible that the chemical leaking killed everyone and the events were covered up.

Takeaway: Lumberjacks make up the best cryptids, but sailors make up the best ghost stories.

Trivia

 * Cristina proposes the episode that would become Flat Earth Showdown.