I'm alone. I'm alone. All my friends are gone. All my friends are… gone. Why did I forget?
SCP-8705 AoE.
Item #: SCP-8705
Object Class: Keter (Uncontained)
Special Containment Procedures: Agents have been embedded in fishing fleets across the North Sea to monitor SCP-8705. Foundation vessels traversing this area must carry at least one amber bead and have amber jewelry aboard. Mnestics are ineffective. Naval Task Force and military vessels ignore these instructions at their own risk.
Description: SCP-8705 is a phenomenon resulting in the disappearance of maritime craft in the North Sea localized to the archipelagos of Orkney, Shetland, Faeroes and Southern Norway. Disappearances cannot be explained by factors like weather, malfunctioning equipment, or poor navigation/decision-making. Disappearances are associated with moderate sized groups of ships. No existing wrecks corresponding to craft that have vanished as a consequence of SCP-8705 have been recovered.
Hallmark characteristics of SCP-8705 associated disappearances include:
- Inconsistent logging of vessel numbers.
- Survivors losing memories of any unusual events, vanished vessels, or their crews.1 Amber2 prevents and restores memory loss from SCP-8705.
- Reports of clear skies and calm seas often contradicting localized records.
- Failure of photographic and video cameras.
What triggers SCP-8705 is unknown.
Post Incident Notable Description Inquiries:
On 03/13/1986 the properties of amber were discovered by accident. Interrogating the character and properties of SCP-8705 in greater detail with amber were initiated. On 08/19/1986, thirteen non-commercial, hybrid-sail-and-motor boats, the SCPS Bountiful, and one whaling vessel departed Brae, Shetland at 0500 hours. Seven ships and their crews, including one survivor from Bountiful, returned to port. Following are notable excerpts from post-incident interviews, transcribed verbatim.
Interviewee: John Håkon, Rip-tide
Notable Description: "Started about an hour after we got there; was on watch, and this feeling that we'd taken too many rodbenders came on. Powerful weight in our bellies telling us to go back. Then that sail first appeared on the horizon. Brae ain't a big port, there were 15 ships that morning in harbor."
Additional Notes: Subject stopped responding, and repeated "too many sails, too many" until the interview was terminated.
Interviewee: Ronnie Olskin, Ziggurd
Notable Description: "Was on deck when we spotted the sail, 4-5 kilometers out. Thought to myself 'poor bastards must have blown a cylinder' they were stop-starting, zigzagging, vomiting smoke. Took them an hour to get close. Boatswain told me to go below and gather up my tools. Should've stayed topside. Was still down there when my mates on the Selkie went down— Finlay, forgot about Finlay, he just had a kid. How could I forget about my mate?"
Additional Notes: Subject broke down crying and became unresponsive.
Interviewee: Barclay Almstedt, Force of Stoor
Notable Description: "Just this overwhelming urge to keelhaul out of there, had a square-go at the Nazis, and I never felt anything Li'ah'. Boat was just getting closer, and every time I looked away lass, there were too many sails in our little fishing fleet, y'know? Watch the Bountiful's first mate look through his binoculars. Well, he gets all grim faced, marches off and comes back with the captain. So, decided to have a Keek myself."
"That was no bloody sail lass. It was a fin, tall, covered in thick, slick looking scales. A big, brown mottled, scale-covered body. Clever critter. I haw 'Och! Monster!' felt the Feart clench in my chest, and that's when the Bountiful's crew starts screaming bloody hells at everybody else. Bampot, English youngins ignored them. Ah dinnae ken what it was… but it was huge."
Additional Notes: Subject stared off in the direction of the ocean.
Interviewee: Finn Ekström, Pride of Brae
Notable Description: "This commotion breaks out. Look up from dealing with the rigging and shoveling lotta fish-to-overstuffed-iceboxes. Overindulged on the nets. The are far too many sails in our flotilla. Right there, this huge thing between us and the Bountiful. Catch sight of something that looks— well, don't know. Don't bloody fucking know. Looked like an animal, but it had this unnatural blue-green glow about it. Had this horrible feeling— It's speeding up, running right for the whaler. There's this sickening noise in the air, a screech, mechanical character. Another as it hits the Whaler, bounces off. They're firing harpoons, it's circling, big old blur of brown and white, and the whaler is gone. Gone."
Additional Notes: N/A
Interviewee: Ruben Skylight, Old Orcadian
Notable Description: "Swallowed the Whaler. Swallowed it whole, just gone. Hammer gone too."
"Took too much?"
"Why? I'm alone. I'm alone."
"And all my friends are gone. All my friends are… gone. Why did I forget?"
Additional Notes: Subject sobbed and was unresponsive for the rest of the interview.
Interviewee: Ella Falk, Fairyfinder
Notable Description: "Ambushed three ships full of my mates. Sailed south an hour, four boats left. Twas like everyone collectively forgot what happened. 'Where are the rest of our mates? How did we get here?' Fight broke out on the Bountiful. Everyone's pointing and shouting. Another one appears; we peel off with the Ziggurd. Shouting, waving axes. Tinian has this bright idea to get that sphere of amber out and roll it into the sea. I'll never forget that thing's face as it pulled its ugly mug out of the water. We rolled the bead in its mouth, and it just dove. Gone."
Additional Notes: Interviewee agreed to draw the head of the entity.
Ella's drawing of the entity.
Interviewee: Agent Zara Howe, Bountiful
Notable Description: "It just hit us. Spun us around. We were vulnerable, forgot them again. There's this big, gaping maw swallowing us and the ship. It was not a fish. A machine! Full of lights and metal. Wanted us gone and we didn't go. Must've spat us out, I was tossed overboard, and this huge thing, wings like a manta ray, head like a basking shark, just rose out of the water with a mechanical roar, wrapped up the Bountiful and then was gone."
Additional Notes: N/A
Shetland, 1868. Lack of ray-like-wing-forelimbs differ from incident descriptions.
Update: As of 08/20/1996, SCP-8705 events are being documented globally.
