Mysterious Containers

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Container mystery deepens after dive team comes up with nothing but water and a few fish

After years of rumour and weeks of speculation a Royal Thai naval inspection team sent to probe the contents of at least one of eight shipping containers lying mysteriously on the sea bed off the coast of Sattahip allegedly discovered nothing of interest to anyone or anything, except maybe the local fish population. After claims the containers might well hold the skeletal remains of people killed during the May 1992 uprising against the Suchinda regime in Bangkok, or possibly toxic waste dumped illegally at sea, a press conference led by the Department of Special Investigation said all they found was sea water and some marine life, none of which wanted to be photographed without obtaining a release. While suggesting there was nothing suspicious, the official charged with notifying the press of the dive team’s findings did admit they had no idea how the container came to be dumped on the sea bed. Since it is claimed the cost of each days operations runs to around 500,000 baht it is not known whether the other seven containers, lying even further offshore, will now be looked at. Naturally, the fact the container inspected holds absolutely nothing might actually deepen the mystery as to why it was dumped in the first place.

Pattaya One News Online - Our News Is Always New
 
Mystery solved: Undersea container holds ladder, big fish

After months of mystery and wild speculation, one of eight shipping containers discovered submerged off the Sattahip coast was found to contain nothing more exciting than a ladder and a big fish.

A diver takes samples from around the opening of the container.
In the first step of an 8 million baht project to determine what secrets the mystery containers held, divers from the Royal Thai Navy’s Removal and Demolition Section inspected and cut open the box, then used a camera to inspect its contents. The result proved to be anticlimactic.
The container, one of eight known about by local fishermen since the early 90s, became front-page news last month when divers near Juang Island, 30 nautical miles off Sattahip, found a number of human skulls around the containers. That fueled widespread speculation the cargo boxes contained everything from bodies felled in the deadly 1992 Black May uprising in Bangkok to toxic waste to illegal cargo dumped overboard by shipping companies.

Divers inspect the outside of the sunken container.
As it turned out, divers found no chemicals or radioactivity outside the container and then, after cutting a 50 cm hole in the side, peered in to find a metal ladder hanging on one wall with a humpback grouper standing guard. With the spotted fish posing no danger, media divers were allowed to visit the container to see for themselves.
The costly plan to find and drill open the containers had been protested by local fishermen afraid the Navy operation could release toxic chemicals into local waters, destroying their livelihood and damaging tourism. Samaesan village officials had been shut out of a June 6 planning meeting where officials mapped out an inspection strategy and promised to sue the company behind the dumping of the containers should they be found to contain toxins.
Despite the cost, officials said the other containers will still be inspected. However, strong currents and storms are delaying further operations. Navy officials urged curious residents to be patient.

Pattaya Mail - Vol. XVII No. 25 - Friday June 19 - June 25, 2009 News

Got to ask the question if the human skulls did not come from the containers, where did they come from?
 
a press conference led by the Department of Special Investigation said all they found was sea water and some marine life, none of which wanted to be photographed without obtaining a release.

Imagine that...finding sea water and marine life at the bottom of the ocean......and I can never get them to sign a release either....seems those little fins do not hold a pen very well.

John
 
Call me cynical or what, but again all the speculation posted on here would seem to be unfounded again.
But I do have a couple of questions.

1) If the containers had contained human remains, if it were necessary to cut holes to look inside, how did the remains end up outside of the containers, i would have thought a hole large enough for a human skull to escape would be large enough to look through with a camera?

2) Again if it were necessary to cut holes to look inside, how did the big grouper get in there??

Anyone got any thoughts on that?
 
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