Today I'm going to tell you a story that has been told many, many times with lots of variations over the past hundred years or so. But the version of the story that I'm going to tell you is actually the original version that was published in 1907 in the Chicago Tribute newspaper. Now, since its publication, lots of people have taken this original story and kind of embellished details and made it more spooky. But in my opinion, it's this original version that is by far the most terrifying because it really happened. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place, because that's all we do, and we upload once a week.

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One evening in the middle of March of 1907, a sailor named Nels Nelson stood at the bough of this big russian steamboat called the Perrier, and he looked out over the Pacific Ocean with a very worried look on his face. The sun was starting to go down, and Nells was afraid of what the night might bring. About a month earlier, the perrier, the boat that Nells was on, had left Hong Kong and begun its long journey to California, where Nels and the rest of the crew would offload all their hemp and machinery. And just that day, the Perrier had passed by Honolulu, Hawaii, which meant they were nearly to their final destination. Now, their long voyage thus far had been quiet, but now Nells just couldn't help feeling like their luck was about to run out.

Nells had been a sailor his whole life. He was originally from Sweden, but he'd traveled all over the world. And a few years back he had linked up with the Perrier in Hong Kong. And now, other than the captain of the Perrier, who was a Russian named Kavinsky, Nells was the longest serving member on board the Perrier. And what that meant was Nell's and the ship's captain were the only two currently on board the Perrier who knew the ship's dark secret.

Now, Nells and the captain had not told anyone this secret and didn't intend to. Now, this wasn't something they planned. Like they weren't trying to keep it a secret. Instead it was just kind of this unspoken agreement that we're just never going to talk about this. But at the last port in Hong Kong where the ship was dogged, the previous entire crew of the Perrier, minus Nell's and the captain, had all deserted because of this secret.

And so now Nell's and the captain were left to kind of keep this information to themselves and go out and solicit a new crew to come on board the Perrier to go to California. But they did it without telling these people about this dark secret, and they'd managed to do it. Nell's and the captain had found this kind of ragtag bunch of sailors to come with them on this journey. But as a result of recruiting basically anybody with a pulse who was willing to go on this voyage, the crew they ultimately recruited was kind of an untrustworthy, sketchy bunch. On this night, it was Nells'turn to stand watch, which means, basically, you would stay up and kind of patrol the boat and look out for problems or emergencies.

It was just a way to make sure the crew was always safe, even when everybody was asleep. And even though Nells was not exactly thrilled to be staying up all night to stand watch, in a way, he actually was kind of relieved to be in charge of this task. He figured he'd rather be awake and miserable than asleep and vulnerable. Suddenly, another sailor came up to Nells, and Nels hadn't heard him. And the sailor slapped him on the back and said, hey, how you enjoying your sunset cruise tonight?

Nels turned around and saw it was another crew member just kind of pulling his leg. And so Nels attempted to put on a smile and kind of go along with the joke and make it kind of lighthearted. But he was really struggling because he was looking off to the horizon, and he could see the sun had nearly set. For the next couple of hours, Nell's and this other sailor would stand by this railing in the cold night air, and they would just talk about what they're going to do when they get to California and what they plan to do with their lives generally and just kind of small talk, normal stuff. And for a little while, Nell's did forget about all this extreme anxiety he was having about nighttime.

But at some point, as Nels and this other sailor were just chatting away, there was this warm breeze that kind of came across the deck of the ship. Now, remember, it had been very cold all night, and so this warm air really stood out. And the second Nels felt that warm air, he knew his worst fears were about to be realized. And so Nels was so scared about what was about to happen that he just kind of froze. He couldn't even turn and tell his partner what was happening.

And his partner was totally oblivious because his partner had never been on the perrier before and didn't know the ship's dark secret. And so this other sailor just kept on blabbering away, totally oblivious. But then, as Nels is frozen to the spot with fear from down below in the ship where the crew was all sleeping, they heard this loud, guttural scream, like one of the crew members was being tortured or something. And right away, the guy next to Nels, the other sailor who had been with him, he stopped talking because now he knows there's a problem. He doesn't know what it is, but obviously something's wrong.

Now, Nels was still frozen with fear because he knows what's happening. He knows what's going to happen. And so he was just standing there, and the other sailor is like, nels, what's going on? We gotta go down there. But it wasn't until more screams began coming out of the birthing area down below that Nell's kind of snapped out of it.

And he was like, all right, come on. We got to go. And the two of them, they went bombing down the steps, down into the birthing area, and they went into the first compartment where these screams were coming from. And when Nells and his partner walked into this room, they looked, and they saw two of their crew members were sitting on one of the bunks, just completely rigid, as if they were totally stiff. And the two of them were just screaming as loud as they possibly could in perfect unison.

But it was like they weren't there. It's like their eyes were staring off into the distance, and they couldn't control their bodies. Now, Nells knew what was going on here, but the partner didn't. And so the partner's looking at Nell's like, what's going on here? And Nels just turned to him and said, look, I think we can quarantine them.

Help me move them. And so this partner has no idea what Nels is doing. He doesn't understand what's going on, but he kind of jumped into action with Nels and Nels and this guy. They grabbed these screaming crew members who were totally stiff, and they remained stiff as Nels and the other sailor dragged them out of the room down the hall, and they put them in what's called the hold, which is kind of like a jail cell on board a ship. It's where sailors who misbehave get sent to.

And so it's a place you can put things and lock the door and they don't come out again. Nell's thinking, know if we can take these affected crew members and quarantine them in the hold, maybe, just maybe, this won't spread to the rest of the crew. But as soon as Nells had shut and locked those two men inside of the hold, it was like the entire ship erupted with screams as the entire crew, minus Nells and his partner, just began screaming like mad. It was like the ship was total chaos. And so Nells and the crew member, they began running down the hall, trying to figure out where the screaming was coming from.

But before they knew it, the rest of the crew were streaming out of their rooms into the hallway, just screaming and running their way upstairs to the top deck. And so Nels began telling know, stay calm. It's okay. It's not happening to you yet. But then it felt like someone had reached up inside of Nels'chest and was squeezing as hard.

As hard as they could. It was like his body was being possessed by something. And then he felt this pressure building up inside of him. And then it was like, without even trying, suddenly, the loudest scream that had ever come out of Nell's came out of his mouth, and he was completely powerless to stop it. And seconds later, Nell's screaming at the top of his lung, along with his partner, who was also screaming, they joined the stampede of other screaming crew members running their way up to the top deck.

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You and when Nells and his partner reached the top deck, as they were screaming and screaming and screaming, Nells looked around and he took stock of what he was seeing. Again, he's literally screaming this entire time and can't stop it. And he's seeing. That's what everybody else was dealing with. There were sailors who were clawing at their faces, almost like they were trying to stop themselves from screaming, but that wasn't doing anything.

Others were holding their throats, attempting to stop the screaming. Some others were running into walls and grabbing and fighting with each other. I mean, it was absolutely chaos. And so Nels, he's kind of taking stock of this whole situation, still screaming. And then he notices one sailor in particular.

And Nels knew exactly what was going to happen, that one sailor who Nells did not know well, he was one of the sketchy crew members who were picked up in Hong Kong. He stopped screaming. And Nell's could tell because there was this look of absolute calm over this sailor's face. And he was down on all fours, almost like an animal, right out in the middle of the top deck. And Nells, as he continued to scream, watched as this young, now very quiet sailor started to move across the deck like an animal.

And as he did, he got faster and faster, like he was galloping on all fours and he was headed straight for the railing of the ship. Now, Nell's in his conscious mind, he knew what was going to happen next, and he wanted to stop it. But just like he couldn't stop his own screaming, he was powerless to stop what was about to happen to this young man. And sure enough, Nells watched in horror as this galloping young sailor went full speed to the railing and then just leapt clear over it and splashed into the water below. And the second he hit the water.

It was like everybody on the ship broke out of their trance. The screaming stopped, and it was eerily quiet. And one by one, each of the crew who had kind of broken out of their trance now began looking around, having no idea how. They just wound up on the deck and what was even going on. And they looked at each other to try to figure out, like, do you know what just happened?

But nobody knew. And then this very tense silence was broken when one of the crew members who had seen that young man gallop and leap over the side, this crew member, he yelled, hey, man overboard. Someone jumped over. And it was like that was the thing that everybody was going to focus on. We're going to forget about this absolute craziness that just happened, and we're going to try to rescue this guy.

But despite lowering down rowboats and paddling around for nearly an hour and yelling out for this guy and turning their ship around over and over again, they never found him. He never made a single noise, nothing. He just vanished into the night. And that was it. And so after about an hour of searching, the search was called off.

And this sailor who had leapt over the edge was declared dead. And once he was declared dead and the rest of the crew were all back on board, the perrier standing on the top deck looking around like, what just happened? Nell's and the captain looked at each other and nodded because they knew they would have to tell the crew what just happened. They would have to share this ship's dark secret. And so Nell's and the captain told the crew the big secret, and the crew was obviously horrified.

But considering they had just been through the entire experience, they weren't exactly surprised. They just hoped know this night was the only night this craziness would happen. But the following night, the same thing happened. Everybody screamed, went crazy, ran up to the deck. Somebody leapt overboard.

The next night, same thing happened as well the next night. So four nights in a row of this, the captain just could not take it anymore. And when he heard that first scream echo through the ship, the captain grabbed a pistol, put it to his head, and fired. In early April, the Perrier finally reached San Francisco, California, where the crew was supposed to offload their hemp and machinery. By this .1 of the sailors, whose name was Padaman, had assumed command of the ship.

But by this point, the crew were very close to mutiny. They did not want to be on the ship anymore. They didn't care who was in charge. And in fact, once the Perrier got even just within sight of land. There were nine sailors still on board the perrier who stole one of the rowboats, lowered it down to the water, and just paddled to land to get away from the perrier as fast as they could.

They didn't even ask to be paid. They just wanted to get away. Nells and the few remaining crew members on board the perrier docked it in San Francisco, California. They unloaded the hemp, and then the crew actually got back on the perrier and set sail again and sailed to Santa Monica, California, which was not a very far distance where they would offload the machinery. So the rest of their haul.

And actually, on the morning that they were supposed to actually dock in Santa Monica, the crew's cook leapt overboard to his death at 02:00 a.m. And the crew barely reacted, because by this point, this was just commonplace on board the Perrier. People going crazy and jumping over to their deaths. And so once the perrier was docked in Santa Monica and all the cargo was offloaded, nells and the rest of the crew just left it there. They totally abandoned it and just left.

And the Perrier would remain totally abandoned in this dock in Santa Monica until a reporter from the Chicago Tribune newspaper found out about what had happened on board this ship and the fact that now it was totally abandoned, which seems so creepy. And he decided to dig into this, and ultimately, he published the story that I'm telling you right now. Here is the Perrier's dark secret that both nells and Captain Kavinsky knew all too well. Three and a half years earlier, on a night in the fall of 19 three, the perrier docked in what was then called Bombay, but what is now known as Mumbai, India. And on this particular night, some of the crew members of the Perrier decided they wanted to leave the boat and go have some fun.

So a few sailors and an officer hopped on one of the rowboats on board the perrier. They lowered it down to the water, and they paddled to shore. And apparently this group of guys had a great time on shore. But at some point, the officer apparently killed a guy on land. Who knows what it was about?

Nobody knows. The reporter from the Chicago Tribune couldn't figure it out. But the rumor goes, the officer killed someone. And when they came back to the ship that night, the officer was bragging about killing this person and even making jokes about it. Now, we don't know if this story actually happened, and we also don't really know if this is the seminal event that prompted what would become the dark secret of the Perrier.

But very shortly after, that officer had killed someone. The Perrier had left Mumbai, and they were out at sea, and it was very cold. But then suddenly, the crew remembered this warm air wafting over the boat. And then screams rang out from inside as the crew began going totally crazy. This was the first appearance of the Perrier's dark secret, which sailors on board the Perrier actually just referred to as the thing.

Nobody ever saw the thing or felt the thing or heard the thing. The only thing they experienced before all hell broke loose is a warm breeze would come across the ship. And then seconds later, it was absolute pandemonium until one of the crew members died. And usually it was like the thing inhabited one of the sailors, like that young man who ran like an animal and leapt over the edge. And this thing would basically inhabit these sailors and cause them to take their own lives.

Over the next few years, more crews would join the perrier and go out to sea. And over and over and over again, this thing, the dark secret, would take over, and many of the crew would end up dying. And so by the time the crew had come to port, the crew would totally mutiny and disappear. Nobody wanted to be anywhere near this ship. That was why Nell's and Captain Gavinsky were the longest serving members on board the perrier, because they were the only ones who were willing to come back.

All told, the thing or the dark secret of the Perrier claimed the lives of 23 sailors. 20 of them, after screaming like maniacs, suddenly just went quiet and leapt over the railing into the ocean and drowned. And the three others that passed away were the ship's captains, who all killed themselves after the perrier was abandoned in Santa Monica, California. It's unclear what actually happened to it, but we know it never sailed commercially again.

One night in a cemetery in Alabama, this woman was visiting her sister's gravesite, and her sister had passed away when she was only six years old. And so this woman had really never gotten over that. And so as she's sitting by the gravesite, she begins to hear what sounds like kids laughing and playing and singing songs. But it's the middle of the night, and she's in a cemetery. And so she was very confused by this, and so she decided to go investigate.

So she got up and began walking through the cemetery towards the sound of these voices. And sure enough, on the other side of the cemetery was a kids playground, and it was full of kids playing and singing and laughing. And this woman is like, what are these kids doing here? It's the middle of the night. But before she could figure out what was even going on, she heard a scream behind her.

She turned around and saw nothing. But then when she turned back around, all the kids were gone. And so this woman is totally horrified. She fled the cemetery. And then that night, when she was laying in bed, kind of going over what happened at the foot of her bed, she thinks she sees something moving, and so she looks down her bed, and slowly the head of a child appears at the foot of her bed and stares directly at her.

To hear what happens next and hear the rest of this terrifying story, you gotta go check out the latest episode of Ballin'studio's, new amazing podcast called Runful, hosted by Rodney Barnes. And that episode is called Dead Children's Playground. You can find runful on any podcast platform anywhere. It's free. And new episodes of Runful drop every single Tuesday.

So go wherever you find your podcasts. Look up runful and check out dead children's playground. So that's going to do it. If you enjoyed today's story, be sure to check out our podcast called the Mr. Ballin'podcast where we have hundreds of stories, a lot like this one, but many of them are only available on the podcast.

Again, it's called the Mr. Ballin podcast, and it's available on Amazon Music.