Titanic: The final messages from a stricken ship

By Sean Coughlan BBC News

The Carpathia was one of the ships that received the Titanic's calls for help

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On the night the Titanic struck an iceberg, a network of wireless operators on ships and land stations frantically communicated with each other across the expanses of the North Atlantic in an effort to mount a rescue mission. The surviving messages form a real-time record of the events of that night.

The story of the Titanic is barnacled with myths and legends.
It has become part of the popular imagination, a symbol for the most epic and glamorous failure. It is tragedy with tea dances.
But there is really only one first-hand, real-time record of what happened that night - the collection of wireless messages sent between the Titanic and the other ships which hurriedly tried to organise a rescue operation, during that freezing night in April 1912.
It is a telegraphic narrative showing how the Titanic had been given warnings of ice by other ships - and which records the increasingly frantic calls for assistance after the collision with the huge iceberg.
And to mark the Titanic's centenary, the BBC World Service's Discovery programme is broadcasting an unusual re-creation of these conversations.

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Find out more

Titanic - In Her Own Words, a Discovery special on the BBC World Service is presented by Sean Coughlan. Transmission times and dates can be found here.

Audio artist Susanne Weber has used speech synthesis software to translate these Morse messages into spoken words.

These are mechanical voices recreating the exchange of wireless messages, rather than actors performing a script, and it produces an eerie representation of how these overlapping messages crackled out over the airwaves.
It is something like hearing the urgent and confused text messages sent from a disaster.
Unlike in the Hollywood films of the tragedy, these wireless messages are stoically understated. Copied out in neat copperplate handwriting, and kept on the ships that had been in contact with Titanic, they are the actual words of the crew and passengers.
It's the Titanic in her own words.
Wireless was still a relatively young technology at the time of the Titanic's maiden voyage.
The Marconi company, the Edwardian equivalent of a top technology brand, had put its wireless operators on board some of the more prestigious ships.
The Titanic, as the showcase of an ambitious, optimistic era, had the biggest and best wireless equipment in the world.
It was still something of a novelty and much of the initial wireless traffic was from first class passengers sending messages to their friends, rather like text messages showing off about a glamourous trip.

Italian electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi's equipment was on board many prestigious ships

"Hello Boy. Dining with you tonight in spirit, heart with you always. Best love, Girl," read one message sent on to New York, the Titanic's intended destination.
A message sent on to Los Angeles said: "No sickness. All well. Notify all interested in poker."
"Fine voyage, fine ship," wrote another, unaware of the awful irony of how that might later sound.
The wireless operators sending these messages were independent young men of the modern age, who had been recruited with the promise of escaping "blind alley careers".
They chatted to wireless operators in other ships in a jaunty, mock public school slang, calling each other "old man".
As well as letting passengers send personal messages, they provided the first wireless news service for ships.
As the Titanic crossed the Atlantic, the news headlines were about industrial unrest on the railways and a high-profile murder in France.

A message from the Olympic reports that it has received word from the Titanic

But the wireless was also beginning to be used for more serious purposes.
Ships gave each other safety information - and the Titanic received detailed advice about the location of icebergs - or "bergs, growlers and field ice" as one ship's captain described them.
Investigations after the sinking would never satisfactorily establish why these warnings had been ignored.
The senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips, had still been sending passengers' messages when the ship struck an iceberg. The collision was described as sounding like the tearing of calico.
With only enough room in the lifeboats for half the passengers and crew, the Titanic's captain turned to his only lifeline - the wireless - and asked the two Marconi operators to call for assistance.

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The famous SOS

Wireless operators originally used Marconi's "CQD" distress signal. "CQ" was the signal to stop transmission and pay attention. The "D" was added to signal distress. In 1906 the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin created the signal "SOS" for summoning assistance. The letters were chosen for their simplicity in Morse Code - three dots, three dashes and three dots. While the "SOS" superseded "CQD" in 1908 Marconi operators rarely used it. It became standard after the sinking of the Titanic.

• Survivors of the Titanic - I was there

The distress signal used by Marconi operators - CQD - boomed out over the Atlantic. The wireless operators joked they may as well also try another new distress signal that had been introduced - SOS - because they might never get a chance to use it again.

While the lifeboats were lowered, with awful goodbyes between husbands, wives and children, the wireless operators stuck to their task.
"Come at once. We have struck a berg. It's a CQD, old man," the Titanic called to another ship, the Carpathia.
"We have struck an iceberg and sinking by the head," she told a German ship, the Frankfurt.
The Titanic's messages caused consternation and disbelief among other ships.
They called back to the Titanic struggling to grasp what was happening, then urgently forwarded the distress signals in the hope that someone would be near enough to help.
It was like trying to organise a rescue by Twitter, with operators trying to make sense of the stream of sometimes contradictory information.
"We are putting passengers off in small boats. Women and children in boats. Cannot last much longer. Losing power," said the Titanic as the situation grew ever more desperate.
"This is Titanic. CQD. Engine room flooded."

The Titanic's captain Edward Smith gave the orders for the distress signals to be sent out

In response her sister ship, the Olympic called back: "Am lighting up all boilers as fast as we can."
There were also flashes of anger in the confusion. "You fool... keep out," the Titanic barked at a ship almost 200 miles away who had interrupted to inquire: "What is the matter with you?"
The last recorded messages are increasingly desperate and fragmented - although a shore station officer following the exchanges reported there was "never a tremor" in the Morse tapped out by Jack Phillips.
"Come quick. Engine room nearly full," was sent from the Titanic only a few short minutes before the ship finally sank.
When the Titanic fell silent, the chasing ships carried on calling out for news, co-ordinating the rescue of the survivors.
And the wireless became the only way for survivors to contact their families.
"Meet me dock with two hundred dollars, underwear, cap, big coat - am well but slightly frozen," messaged one survivor from the Carpathia rescue ship.
"Completely destitute, no clothes," said one another. Words cost money - and a masterpiece of brevity reported: "Safe, Bert."

One of the messages sent by Jack Phillips says the ship is 'sinking fast'

These poignant, first-hand reactions to the disaster had been gathered in an archive by John Booth, a Titanic historian and expert on old prints. But many were sold off at auction in the early 1990s.
Jack Phillips did not survive the sinking. But his heroism, staying at his post after being released from his duty by the captain, became an enduring part of the Titanic story.
Not least because one of the most influential templates for all future Titanic stories came from Harold Bride, his junior wireless operator.
Bride survived on an upturned lifeboat and then sold his story to the New York Times.
His story was a global media sensation, setting the tone of heroic self sacrifice, with the first accounts of the band playing while the ship sank, with tales of selflessness and cowardice.
And he commemorated the role of Jack Phillips, unflinching, even when he knew better than anyone else that there was no chance of a rescue ship arriving in time.
"I will never live to forget the work of Phillips during the last awful 15 minutes," said Bride.
"I suddenly felt a great reverence to see him standing there sticking to his work while everybody else was raging about."

How Marilyn Monroe changed Ella Fitzgerald’s life

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If asked “Who  played an important role in the musical career of Ella Fitzgerald?” you might respond with names like Chick Webb, Louis Armstrong, Norman Granz, and Dizzy Gillespie.
The name Marilyn Monroe (who passed away 50 years ago this August), however, might not come to mind.
While touring in the ’50s under the management of Norman Granz, Ella, like many African-American musicians at the time, faced significant adversity because of her race, especially in the Jim Crow states. Granz was a huge proponent of civil rights, and insisted that all of his musicians be treated equally at hotels and venues, regardless of race.
Despite his efforts, there were many roadblocks and hurdles put in to place, especially for some of the more popular African-American artists. Here is one story of Ella’s struggles (as written in chicagojazz.com):

Once, while in Dallas touring for the Philharmonic, a police squad irritated by Norman’s principles barged backstage to hassle the performers. They came into Ella’s dressing room, where band members Dizzy Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet were shooting dice, and arrested everyone. “They took us down,” Ella later recalled, “and then when we got there, they had the nerve to ask for an autograph.”

Across the country, black musicians, regardless of popularity, were often limited to small nightclubs, having to enter through the back of the house. Similar treatment was common at restaurants and hotels.
Enter Marilyn Monroe
During the ’50s, one of the most popular venues was Mocambo in Hollywood. Frank Sinatra made his Los Angeles debut at Mocambo in 1943, and it was frequented by the likes of Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Lana Turner.
Ella Fitzgerald was not allowed to play at Mocambo because of her race. Then, one of Ella’s biggest fans made a telephone call that quite possibly changed the path of her career for good. Here, Ella tells the story of how Marilyn Monroe changed her life:

“I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt … she personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”

Learning from Ella
Ella had an influence on Marilyn as well. Monroe’s singing had a tendency to be overshadowed by dress-lifting gusts of wind and the flirtatious “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” not to mentions her movies and marriage to Joe DiMaggio. But years prior to the Mocambo phone call, Monroe was studying the recordings of Ella.
In fact, it was rumored that a vocal coach of Monroe instructed her to purchase Fitzgerald’s recordings of Gershwin music, and listen to it 100 times in a row.
Continued study of Ella actually turned Marilyn into a relatively solid singer for about a decade, but again became overlooked as her famous birthday tribute song to JFK in 1962 ends up being the vocal performance that is widely remembered.

We will never see this again

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House. The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri .. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there. When he retired from office in 1952 his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year. After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them. When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale." Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise." As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food. Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale (cf. Illinois ). Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!

December 7, 1941 A day which will live in infamy

Newly Discovered Mozart Piece Performed

A piano work experts attribute to Mozart as a child prodigy (it is believed to have been written when he was as young as 10) was performed for the first time since it was found last year after apparently being left in an attic for centuries. The lively 84-bar passage was played on the composer's piano in a room of his Salzburg home by virtuoso Florian Birsak.

The Mozarteum Salzburg Foundation, which staged the event, said the manuscript was found last summer as part of a 160-page book of handwritten piano music at the attic of a house in Tyrol was being cleared from centuries of detritus.

The Harrowing Lives of Child Miners in the Early 1900s

A young trapper boy inside Turkey Knob Mine in MacDonald, West Virginia. His job was to open and close the wooden trap doors for the mining cars being shunted through.

“Watch out!” the boy shouted as his workmate’s hand came into contact with the mouth of the coal crusher. Too late – the unfortunate lad’s hand got caught and sucked into the machinery. Three of those working the crusher jumped to help, pulling out the boy’s arm, but by then it had been ground to little more than a mangled, bloody mess.

“Shouldn’t have dozed off using the crusher,” said the foreman as men carried off the screaming victim. “Get back to it or you’ll be next,” he warned the ten other boys breaking coal who had momentarily stopped their labor. The breaker boys bent their aching backs over the tipple once more. “If he doesn’t make it, who’ll feed his mother and sisters?” one of them thought, blinking back tears.
The scenario just described may be imagined, but scenes just like it were the harsh reality for many people – not least young boys forced by poverty and circumstance into risking their lives each day in mines across the United States, many of them working thousands of feet beneath the surface.

Coal mining was closely linked to the Industrial Revolution – which continued into the early 20th century in America – as it was the energy generated from coal that powered the steam engines of the era. As mining developed, it became an industry based less on manual pick-and-shovel labor, instead relying more on machinery – like the coal-cutting machines invented the 1880s. Yet, while such inventions reduced the number of workers needed in the pits, for the men – and boys – left toiling underground, many hardships and dangers remained.
In the US, coal mining dominated regions like the Allegheny and Appalachian Mountains, both economically and culturally, and Wyoming, northern Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania were all notable for their coal-mining activities. As we can begin to see in these images of mining in the latter two states as well as Tennessee, the industry played on important part in shaping local identity and tradition in various parts of the country. However, as part of this, boys – valued down in the shafts for their small stature, nimble fingers and the lower wages they could command – had a mix of tough and hazardous tasks to fulfil.
Breaker boys, had the job of separating, by hand, lumps of coal from slate, rocks, clay and other debris. Among the very youngest of the boys set to work in the mines, they had to be 12 years of age – at least, officially they did, though the law stipulating this was only passed in 1885 in Pennsylvania. Moreover, submitting fake records, parents apparently sent boys to work who were as young as five or six. Bosses can’t have scrutinized the situation very closely, either – indeed, they too were known to forge documentation, eager for all the cheap labor they could get.

Despite working above ground, breaker boys were exposed to large quantities of coal dust, which settled everywhere from their faces, eyes and ears to their hands and lungs. What’s more, as we can see, the breaker boys’ working environments were far from well ventilated. And with dust in the air being breathed in constantly, serious and chronic respiratory illnesses were rampant.
Another of the occupational hazards faced by the breaker boys was known as ‘red tips’ – a skin condition characterized by swollen and bloody fingers resulting from repeated exposure to the coal’s sulfur content. Wearing gloves, which would have alleviated the problem, was not an option: employers believed that they would affect the boys’ dexterity, and thus their productivity.
As if damaged lungs and fingers weren’t serious enough problems, breaker boys also suffered from hearing loss as a result of prolonged exposure to the deafening noises of the machinery – especially the coal crushers. These same machines were also singularly dangerous in other respects: one careless movement could cost an overworked and exhausted young boy dearly, with fingers, hands and even lives lost in conveyor belts, gears and other devices. As one source describes it: “Occasionally a boy fell into the coal crusher and was ground to pieces.” A starkly chilling image.
The working conditions in the coal mining industry were clearly bad enough above ground. Underground, it was a living hell. Nippers, or trappers, had the apparently simple – not to say mind-numbing – job of opening the doors for the mining cars trundling through, yet the young boys were in grave danger of being run over by the cars in the dark should their attention lapse for a second.
Fifteen-year-old trapper boy Vance got paid $0.75 for a 10-hour shift at a coal mine in West Virginia. Photographer Lewis Hine says: “On account of the intense darkness in the mine, the hieroglyphics on the door were not visible until the plate was developed.”

Gary, a city in West Virginia – and site of some of the scenes shown here – was named after attorney Elbert Gary, founder of U.S. Steel. This company not only built the soon-to-be booming coal mining town around it but was also once the world’s biggest steel producer, controlling two thirds of steel production in 1901. Coal, by the way, is essential in the steel industry as a fuel used to extract iron from iron ore. And where there was coal, there were miners – and boys ripe for being exploited in these roles.
Mining in Gary, WV has historically been the largest local employer – shaping people’s lives and economic security. Over time, however, it suffered the same fate that has befallen many such mining towns. Since U.S. Steel closed down its Gary Operations in 1986, the area became plagued by poverty and high unemployment. Ironic that it was impoverished conditions which drove many of the young workers and boys down the mines in places like Gary in the first place.

James O’Dell,was a ‘greaser’ and ‘coupler’ at Cross Mountain Mine for Knoxville Iron Co., located close to Coal Creek, TN. Pushing the heavily loaded cars looks like backbreaking work, and Lewis Hine estimated O’Dell to be all of 12 or 13 years old.

Back in the day, a greaser’s job was to grease the axles of the coal cars, while couplers had to join together those same cars with coupling chains to form a train. Spraggers, meanwhile, kept the wheels of the mining cars going with long sticks. Often, however, rather than the stick, it was the limb of one of the boys that got entangled and severed in the spokes of the cars’ wheels. Dangerous? Wait until you hear of the more general mining dangers, which could strike at any moment.
Explosions resulting from the build-up of methane and carbon monoxide killed numerous miners, young and old, and the mere release of these same poisonous gases was enough to asphyxiate those unfortunate enough to breathe in the fumes. What’s more, underground fires often preceded or followed the explosions just mentioned, trapping those not killed in the blasts. Naturally, given such a state of affairs, sanitation wasn’t high on the agenda, and having to go to the toilet meant doing it right there, underground. This lack of basic hygiene, together with rat infestations, resulted in the spread of many diseases.
Those who somehow circumvented all the aforementioned subterranean hazards had to contend with yet another common danger: mining tunnels caving in and collapsing. Boys working in the pits stood little chance and could easily be left paralyzed or quite simply crushed to death. As one source has it: “Sometimes a young miner would be crushed to the ground so severely that his body would have to be scraped from the floor of the mine with a shovel.” Too gruesome to contemplate.
As one can imagine, with its growing demand for a workforce that suited the machines – rather than vice versa – the Industrial Revolution was not the best time for laws being passed that helped to improve working conditions – not least for children. In spite of this, part of the work of the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), formed in 1904, was to raise awareness about the conditions and risks that tens of thousands of children had to face every day in the United States alone.
The NCLC’s investigative photographer Lewis Hine (1874-1940) took on the important mission of traveling the United States to document the working conditions of children. Hine carried out this work from 1908 to 1924, with the 5,100 and more photographs he took creating a body of evidence about the dark underbelly of the Industrial Revolution – a period whose seeming success was based on the broken backs, lungs and lives of society’s weakest members, children.
Many of Hine’s photographs (like those shown here) were published in newspapers and other publications of the time. They thus helped to shed light on the dreadful lives endured by many young workers toiling underground and elsewhere. Yet although most people were shocked and outraged, they had to contend with the interests of the business owners, who did their best to keep the young workforce in place.
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, given what we have just learned, at least some of the young workers preferred the idea of slogging underground or within the walls of factories to the prospect of school. Historically, throughout the Industrial Revolution, many families found themselves without a male breadwinner owing to factors such as early death and abandonment, meaning the children had to chip in to help ease the financial burden.
Being a child in the 19th century meant growing up fast. At 13 or 14 years of age, adolescents were considered young men and women who had to earn their keep. In fact, as we have seen, many were sent to work much earlier, aged eight or even younger. For many, attending school and thus not earning was simply not an option. And if your role models were men who cheated death each day just by making it through work, sitting at a school desk into your mid or late teens was unthinkable – especially with college nothing more than a pipe dream for most.
In early 20th-century America, in large part thanks to the work of Lewis Hine, labor reforms were set in motion to raise the minimum age at which children could work and lower their working hours. There were setbacks, however, with a 1916 law deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court just two years after it had been enacted. After a long struggle, the Fair Labor Standards Act was finally passed in 1938. Under the terms of this act, schooling and health were prioritized for any children working below the ages of 15 and 16, while no one under 18 could be employed in treacherous jobs like mining. A minimum wage and limits on the number of hours children could work were also put in place.
Today, child labor is still rife in many countries around the world. Moreover, dismissing it as the problem of poorer nations is missing the point, as developing countries often produce goods for their wealthier counterparts. The fate of the world’s children – rich or poor – is intertwined. It is thus up to all of us to face the reality of the situation, and to be aware that children simply forced out of one kind of employment could easily find themselves in the hands of even less scrupulous employers and performing yet more dangerous tasks.

The Grinning Skeletons of Peru's 1000-Year-Old Nazca Cemetery

Screaming or laughing?

In a sand-dusted cemetery in the desert, 30 kilometers south of the city of Nazca in Peru, lie the skeletal remains of an ancient people. Inside the open tombs there are not simply scattered bones but whole human mummies, as well as archeological artifacts. Skulls leer up at those souls who venture down the dirt track that leads to this sepulchral site; skeletons in virtually the same ghastly poses in which they were frozen a millennium and more ago. If you ever wanted to see what you might look like after death, these figures – complete with hair – offer a glimpse. Do ghosts haunt this creepy South American burial ground? We wouldn’t be surprised.
Chauchilla Cemetery was discovered in the 1920s, yet the last time it was used was back in the 9th century AD. Moreover, the first use of the timeworn necropolis dates deeper still in the mists of time, as early as 200 AD. The length of time for which this place of death served its purpose – together with the important burials to be found here – only adds to the sense of intrigue that pervades the desert site.
Unfortunately the dead in this Peruvian graveyard – also known as ‘Death Valley’– were not permitted to rest in peace. Over the years, huaqueros – grave robbers, known for destroying archaeological sites – dug up the tombs, stole many of the treasures that lay therein, and littered the surrounding area with the remains of people and pottery fragments alike.
Whether the aforementioned raiders were cursed for their looting and destruction we’ll leave for your imagination to decide. What is certain is that the Peruvian authorities passed a law to protect the cemetery in 1997. Furthermore, those behind the restoration operation managed to find many of the ceramic objects and human remains and return them to their rightful resting places.
In keeping with the traditions of the Nazca culture from which they were born, all the remarkably well-preserved corpses face east and are positioned crouched and sitting up, as if eager to greet visitors – be they welcome or not. Amazingly, the heads of these long-dead individuals still have hair – lots of it in some cases – and even pieces of soft tissue remain, skin that has stayed intact over the centuries under the sun.
There are a number of reasons why the mummification process of those interred in Chauchilla Cemetery proved to be so successful. First and foremost: the bone-dry climate of the Peruvian desert itself. Among the most arid places on the planet, this environment aided in the preservation of the corpses a great deal, protecting them against the ravages of moisture and rot.
Notwithstanding the hot, dry natural conditions, the preparations for the dead employed by the Nazca also contributed to how well the corpses were preserved. These ancients embalmed the dead in a layer of resin, dressed them in embroidered cotton, and then buried them in special vaults built out of mud bricks. The textiles and resin used are both believed to have helped keep insects at bay while also limiting the speed at which bacteria would cause the bodies to decay.
Another archaeological site near to Chauchilla Cemetery might also hold some clues as to the preservation methods used. In Estaqueria, archaeologists have unearthed wooden posts that research suggests were used to dry out the dead bodies. It seems funeral rites and natural forces conspired brilliantly to make the mummification formula work so well.
Some sources refer to the bodies found at Chauchilla as those of shamans. These spirit-connected persons were highly respected in their communities and upon burial may well have been bestowed with precious earthly possessions such as stone tools and ceramics to take with them into the afterlife. One of the best-preserved mummies is sealed off by glass and surrounded by artifacts, though as we can see, many of the skeletons, pottery shards and fabrics have been left exposed to the elements.
Nazca culture itself thrived between 100 and 800 AD, but, like the cemetery itself, its history can be traced back much earlier in time. The Nazca created many wonderful crafts including ceramics and textiles, while some of their feats of engineering, subterranean aqueducts, incredibly still work to this day. Yet this was also a culture with a more macabre side. So-called partial burials of people were commonplace, for example, with sites discovered containing decapitated heads and dismembered bodies. Most of the people buried in Chauchilla Cemetery appear to have gotten off lightly.
Nowadays it’s said that local people call Chauchilla Cemetery the "tomb of horror and grief." Could this have to do with the fact that the graves were plundered and the bodies disturbed, such that the unwelcome guests had terrible events visited upon them? Some say it’s so. And yet, interestingly, even eerier happenings are apparently associated with this place…
Locals tell tales of bright lights and moving objects seen in the cemetery at night. The suggestion seems to be that these sightings are connected with paranormal activity of some kind – but whether ghosts or UFOs we can but guess. Then again, perhaps unexplained goings-on here shouldn’t surprise us. We are, after all, in the vicinity of the Nazca Lines – those famous giant designs, many depicting animals, etched into the ground and visible from the air.
Some might dismiss the strange activities purportedly witnessed in Chauchilla Cemetery as nothing more than trespassing treasure hunters – would-be grave robbers more likely to work at night. The fact that the events took place before the authorities took over and protected the site seems to lend credibility to this theory. And, of course, skeptics will always have their own standpoint…
In spite of any skepticism, however, the curious stories surrounding the location persist. One Adolfo Bniaval claims: "None of us can deny the existence of these strange lights. [There] were dozens of people [who] saw them on several occasions and there are a number of certificates stored in the municipality of Nazca which confirms the truth of these views."
What more could a visitor to Chauchilla Cemetery want (and all for as little as seven US dollars)? Mummies amid tombs, piles of bones, grinning skulls and tales of unexplained phenomena combine to make this place a must-see for anyone fascinated by the mysterious and the downright creepy. And who these long-dead people really were – how they lived and how they died – is difficult, if not impossible, to fathom.