Floating Churches

By the end of the 19th century, shipping was one of the main activities driving the growing American economy, and many cities became thriving port cities.  This also ensured that many sailors came to these cities. This led to the creation of a number of institutes that were dedicated to bringing the Word of God to these men and built floating churches. Such institutes were the Seamen’s Church Institute, founded in 1834 or The Seamen’s Church Institute of Philadelphia and South Jersey from 1843. The idea was that a sailor would not feel comfortable in a church on land in a foreign city. “In a floating church he knows he has a home,” it was said in Dwight’s American Magazine in 1845.

The Floating Church of the Redeemer, Philadelphia, 1849. Built by Clement L. Dennington of New York for the Churchmen’s Missionary Association for Seamen (x)

However, this idea was not new. As early as 1816-17, floating churches and the so-called Bethel movement began in England to keep the Napleonic wars vetreans from drinking and other impure lifestyles and to lure them towards the church. 

These Redeemer churches were built of wood in the rural Gothic style (also known as Carpenter’s Gothic). This architectural type was common for houses and churches in North America in the mid and late 19th century. Structures built in this style adopted Gothic elements such as pointed arches, steep gables and towers and adapted them to American lightweight construction.

Floating church, 1845, New York (x)

On the outside, the church carried a bell and sailing flags flying from its tall steeple. The interior of the church was painted in brownstone and featured magnificent frescoes and a fine pipe organ. The floating Church of the Redeemer in Philadelphia, for example, was considered one of the finest chapels and became so famous in the English-speaking world that a model of it was exhibited in the American section of the London World’s Fair of 1851. The ship was unpowered, it must usually have remained at its berth in each port, but it may also have been pushed and pulled along the river by early steam tugs (with paddle wheels). In this way, the floating place of worship became a familiar place for the people who lived along the rivers and harbours.

Seaman’s floating church “Church of our Saviour" at the foot of Pike Street (x)

Many of these churches were a typical sight in the ports until the early 20th century. However, the high instant maintenance costs of the churches made them increasingly difficult to maintain and many of them were abandoned or not rebuilt after a fire. The last church ceased its service in 1910. 

WHAT’S GOING ON IN RUSSIA RIGHT NOW

Some of you might’ve heard about the situation with the government vs opposition that we’re dealing with right now, but I’m gonna give a brief explanation, how it started / how it’s going so to say.

In August 2020 Alexey Navalny, one of the leaders of the russian opposition, was poisoned with a nerve agent “Novichok”, which was a clear murder attempt. He was transported to Germany to get proper care and over there, while recovering, he and his team had a series of investigations of his murder attempt and basically they proved that it was all organised by the government / FSB (Federal Security Service of Russia / P*tin. He’s posted videos about his investigation, here’s the one of him exposing the whole killer team. He also made another video where he undercover called one of the killers and that dude basically confirmed it all, you can watch it here, english subtitles provided on both videos. I know it all feels like some crazy tv show, trust me i’m still speechless.

Anyway, last week he announced that he’s ready to go back home to Russia. Thousands of people came to the airport to show their support, but the bunker grandpa (our joke of a president) was not happy with that and police was everywhere at that airport taking people for doing nothing but standing there. Right when the plane was about to land, they changed the airports (*pretends to be shocked*). They landed and at the customs Alexey was detained by police. The reasons: something that they imagined themselves but also Alexey has a probation and he wasn’t checking at the Moscow police station twice a month….. since he was in Germany recovering from a murder attempt.

The next day they somehow held a court hearing right at the police station which is literally against the law and he’s being arresting for 30 days. And that gives everyone a push. In his videos he asks people not to protest for him but to protest for themselves and their right to have a voice and for that voice to be heard and not be murdered and, if you’re not dead, be jailed because you have a different opinion. For years our country has been literally degrading, swimming in the corruption and lies just so Mr. Poo has his throne. Elections are being forged, at this point everyone knows about it but they frightened people enough to not say a word. The whole world thinks so low of us or scared of us because of the power that the Tsar holds and smart, reasonable people here are so fed up with that.

And the final part and what was the last drop of patience for lost of people here, Navalny’s team posted a whole film-investigation about the palace P*tin owns at the coast of the Black sea which was built with the stolen money. Just a few highlights about that palace: the approximate cost of it is around 100 billion rubbles / $1,4 billion, the size of it is over 17,6k square meters, it has tea/wine houses, wine gardens, amphitheatre, a hockey rink, casino, furniture with millions on price tags, hookah bar, bedchambers with jacuzzis, and people’s personal faves, aqua disco, $2k toilet brushes with toilet paper holders, a pole at the hookah bar and a room for dirt. You can watch the whole video here, trust me you won’t regret it. It’s smashing all the views records.

Just in comparison to the cost of only that palace, our pensions for people of age are around 10k rubbles / $130, our standard salaries are around $300 a month and that if you’re lucky, in the regions it can be twice less. During the pandemic the government gave people n o t h i n g that could’ve helped even a tiny bit. But golden toilet brushes at the Black sea cost are always provided.

Tomorrow, January 23rd, there are going to be mass protests all across the country where people want to show their civil position, to scream for the rights that are being taken away from us with every day passing with more and more ridiculous laws, to show support to Alexey and his family and ask for his freedom, and just to show that people want to see their homeland get justice, respect and love it deserves. Chances of things getting messy are very high since the government doesn’t allow us to have peaceful protests (unless its allowed protests which like…they never allow them so here’s another way of silencing us). I’ll be posting things about it as soon as I know, the ways to help and just spread information about what we have to deal with.

For now I’m gonna leave a link to an FBK site / Anti-Corruption Foundation, which is a non profit organization that investigates corruption cases in Russia. They also have a donation page which could always use some help, especially on the eve of protests (e.g. provide free lawyers to help people get out of police in case of arrests on protests).

https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2021/jan/23/russia-protests-police-pelted-with-snowballs-in-moscow-video

Surprisingly there doesn’t seem to have been violence, even after protestors hit the police with snowballs. Hopefully it remains that way.

Hi! I suggest you check out my post here, I’ve explained what actually happened and how it was handled with police and stuff. There was plenty of violence, thousands of people were arrested and dozens were hospitalized because of all of injuries police gave them.

Over here a very few media outlets can be trusted since, unsurprisingly, everything is corrupted. For example, when the governmental officials are saying that there was only 4000 people protesting in Moscow, but independent sources are saying that there were up to 40k people. And from the pictures and from the words of people who attended, there were definitely more than 4k people.

I hope foreign press which is reporting on the events investigates everything more because yeah, like I said, officials are lying everyone in their faces and aren’t ashamed of that.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident

The Dyatlov Pass Incident is a case concerning the mysterious deaths of nine skiiers in the Ural Mountains. The hikers original intentions were to climb Mount Otorten. They ascended first over Kholat Syakhl through a nameless mountain pass that was later named after the expedition leader, Igor Dyatlov.

After realizing the hikers had passed their supposed date of completing the climb without contact, a search team was sent out to find them, presuming the hikers lost.

Their tent was eventually found, the side being cut open, and the search team found multiple pieces of clothing and shoes in the tent. Numerous footprints, some of bare feet, were leading away from the tent toward a wooded area. Diaries and cameras found around the site and with the bodies that were found recorded their last date as February 1st, 1959.

The hikers had set up their tent on a slope of Kholat Syakhl, and despite the freezing temperatures, decided to forgo a fire. This leads some theorists to believe the hikers eventual deaths may have been a result of hypothermia, which causes delirium and confusion, explaining the lack of sufficient clothing and wandering from the tent.

The first five bodies found, including that of Igor Dyatlov, could have supported this theory, though there multiple small abrasions and bruises on the bodies, as well as evidence that Dyatlov had frantically tried to climb the tree he had been found underneath. The final four bodies were not found until later, and their state gave rise to multiple questions.

The last four bodies were found in a shallow ravine after two months of searching. Each had multiple bruises and abrasions, but one had a heavily fractured skull, and two had heavy internal concussive damage around their chests, that of which would require “impressive force” similar to that of a car crash. One of them was missing her tongue. Their injuries could not be satisfactorily explained.

Other hikers from a large distance away that night, as well as other witnesses throughout the month, also described seeing suspicious large, orange-yellow spheres in the sky. While this event was explained as Soviet rocket testing, most are unwilling to rule out UFO involvement.

Theories range from hypothermia and avalanches, a creature, aliens, and Mansi natives of the mountains. The deaths themselves are simply described as being caused by an “unknown compelling force.”

Sorry for the length, and this isn’t even all of it! I tried to condense as much as I could. It’s a really interesting case.

kbye

╳

In 2012, the state of Pennsylvania seemed to be a hotbed for reporting mysterious encounters with frightening creatures. According to researcher, Stan Gordon, who investigated three such encounters, one of those encounters occurred on April 23, 2012 in Washington County.

The witnesses of this strange creature sighting, a man and woman, stated that they heard a noise outside their home between 12:30 and 1:00 am. “The sound was a level growl or screeching sound that he listened to for about five minutes.” The man’s wife saw what she believed to be a deer standing in the middle of a creek that was about 20 feet from the house.

The husband reported that he saw a “dark brown” creature that may have been “larger than a deer” since it was “peering over the retaining wall”. The animal had golf ball sized eyes that were amber glowing.

As the man started to go outside for further investigation, he reported that “the creature took one step, and took off into the sky at a 45 degree angle and was gone. The witness stated, ‘the speed was insane. I never saw anything move that fast.’ He also stated that he never saw a bird that big and that he saw no signs of wings flapping.”

Gordon continues his investigation on the incident.

I’m going out tonight

I really hope no creeper comes near me

Keep reading

Germany’s famous unit of immortal soldiers pose with their heads in their hands, 1921. The Immortals, ordinary men resurrected from death by a process as yet unknown, served with honour in the First World War until they were liquidated (by being burned to death, the only way they could be killed) by the Weimar Republic in 1924.

What the fuck what the fuck SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME

The description basically says it all. 

The man on the far left is Oberleutnant Hans von Pommen, the commander of the unit. In the last month of the Battle of Verdun he was stabbed 18 times, shot twice by French snipers and stepped on a land mine. The land mine was the hardest thing for him to recover from, but he eventually grew back his missing legs.

Third from the right is Feldwebel Ulrich Mannstein, who single-handedly (ie both by himself, and with only one arm) stopped a charge of Mk V Females on the Somme.

I’m sure there are some other famous ones there. The description doesn’t mention that the French eventually had dedicated flame units to deal with the Immortals. The unit was originally 150 strong.

some pertinent quotations regarding the Immortals:

“Coming back is like waking up from a deep sleep, a sleep that fills you like quicksand. When you wake up it’s like breaking the surface of a scummy pond. I’ve never felt as energized or strong as after I’ve come back.”– Oberleutenant Hans von Pommern, Belgium 1914

“I feel good. I feel fine. After a few times you don’t even notice the pain anymore.” – Gefreiter Georg Steinbrenner, after having his spine broken in three places and one arm severed by a shell impact. France 1916.

“We don’t need weapons anymore! We don’t need tools of any sort, we are invincible, we’re fucking gods on Earth!”– Unteroffizier Wilhelm Eichelberger, France 1915

“How did I do it? Focus, that’s all. Focus is really all you need.”– Feldwebel Ulrich Mannstein, on how he knocked out four Mark V Females with nothing but a sharpened shovel and grenades

“I can’t do this anymore, please don’t wake me up I’m not going back I’M NOT!”– unidentified Immortal, German aid station, 1917. The words were recorded in the war diaries of Hauptmann Friedrich Ritter von Sternberg, the attending surgeon, who later wrote that “such plaintive screams, coming from a man whose entire face was a wet and bloody pulp, cut me to my very core”

“Their demeanour was strange, almost cheery, as we started up the flamethrowers. Quite unsettling were their guttural cries as they burned, strange animal shouts of pleasure and joy. We had all heard the stories of how they became unhinged towards the end. I hope the government has the good sense not to re-start a project like this.”– unidentified Provisional Reichswehr officer who witnessed the burning, 1925

“The jerries walked right through our lines. Can’t have been more than a platoon. I saw only one of them fall, an FT had blasted him with its cannon and took the top half of his body off. If I hadn’t known better I’d say he kept crawling. It was then that I noticed the French were bringing up some guys who had the weirdest apparatus attached to their backs. Looked almost like they were wearing some sort of deep sea suit. Heavily armoured with two tanks on the back, carrying a pipe which had a cable streaming out from the tanks. I don’t know what was more terrible, the Germans who didn’t die, or the weapons the French used… I’m still haunted to this day.” - Corporal Alan Michael, American Expeditionary Force recounting an incident in 1918

I call bullshit. Theres no way that this is real.

look up “They Wouldn’t Die: Memoirs of An Investigation into Germany’s Most Secret Military Unit” published 1931 by CPT Jacob Klemenz, USMC. Klemenz came face-to-face with members of the Immortals during the Great War, and afterwards embarked on a decade-plus research project to find out why and how they existed. his account is for sure on Project Gutenberg, it’s a little dry but makes for fascinating reading

Wait… so zombie Nazis are real?

not zombies technically, and not nazis either (Reichswehr) but yes

To the Führer’s infamous Geisterbeschwörergruppe, the distinction between ‘zombie’ and ‘ghoul’ was academic; battlefield dominance was all that mattered.

I’m fairly certain that by 45 they were using haphazard mixtures of both; zombie combat units being led by ghoul officers. zombies were cheaper and easier to create, but impossible to control. Ryan mentions the horrific wounds sustained by the Fifteenth Army during the retreat from Belgium, wounds which he claimed had resulted from the zombie auxiliary units attacking their own

In the 1840s, Germans founded the Colonia Tovar in Venezuela, and it was in the waters of the Caribbean that they first encountered the dangerous Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas). Decades later, injury-resistant chondrocyte cells derived from shark cartilage were incorporated into a serum that some historians theorize was part of the “unknown process” that created the Unsterblichen. If these stories are to be believed, and if there’s any credence to the theories of “DNA memory”, it’s possible that the zombies’ unpredictable “cannibalistic” actions on the battlefield were what shark biologists would describe as a ‘feeding frenzy’.

Amazing read

fantastic and amazing

Now this is history!

are the olsen twins cryptids?

They’re close, but I think they’re too high def to be cryptids…not blurry enough