The Art of Short, Interesting Urban Legends and Other Stories

We’ve all heard of urban myths. Most of them are horror stories about creepy monsters who are out to hunt you. They’re called creepypastas, stuff that would keep you up at night. However, urban legends are far more than just that — they’re beautiful, written works of imagination that send you down a deep train of thought, that is carefully planned to elicit an emotional response. That’s what makes them interesting. However, the story doesn’t need to be just a myth to be interesting. Many astounding tales are true, real-life events, and there are many of these stories out there that you’ve likely never heard of.

Urban Legends

For instance, have you ever heard of ice-nine? It is a form of ice that does not melt under 32 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, its melting point is 96 degrees Fahrenheit— far greater than the usual! In fact, this ice-9 is so mystical that it’s considered an extremely stable form of solid water, so much so that when it touches more water at room temperature, it instantly turns that water into more ice-9. This ice-9 was created from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle, the idea of this ice-9 is a prominent feature throughout the work. The ice-9 is so environmentally damaging that even dropping a little bit of it into the ocean will cause, take a guess, a huge global disaster. It invites the thought of what would happen if all of the Earth’s oceans suddenly froze up and never melted. Another ice age might happen! You might be wondering, what if the water touched you? You would be instantly frozen into a solid ice figure because most of your body contains water, and you would be stuck frozen unless you’re lucky enough to be in Arizona.

Enough about ice-9, there’s also another substance that has a legend behind it. You’ve likely heard of the substance before — it’s called glycerin. Apparently, for about a century and a half when the substance was first discovered by scientists, it refused to crystallize. Despite chilling, heating, or boiling it, nothing could cause it to crystallize. However, one day in 1920, when the glycerin was transported across two continents, a curious thing happened. Apparently, the substance had crystallized in its container for no apparent reason. No one had done anything to it, and when the scientists went to look at the sample, they were stunned. Additionally, after that fateful day, glycerin all around the world had started to crystallize— a mystery still to this day. Suddenly, when it couldn’t have been done 150 years prior, glycerin just started crystallizing with no clear explanation! Now, glycerin naturally crystallizes below 64 degrees Fahrenheit, but it couldn’t before that one day in 1920. How crazy is that?

Other Stories

As interesting as that is, there are more untold stories. For instance, one man predicted the sinking of one of the greatest ironies in history. A man named Morgan Robertson wrote a story called The Sinking of the Titan: Or, Futility. In this story, he describes a huge ship, vaster, and greater than any other, that is set to sail. When it sails, someway during its trip, it gets struck by an iceberg, and unfortunately, sinks, becoming one of the greatest tragedies of mankind. This story seems familiar, doesn’t it? It’s exactly what happened to the Titanic 14 years later. That’s right, this man predicted the sinking of the Titanic 14 years before it even happened. However, the similarities don’t end there.

Here’s a list:

The length of the Titan was 800 feet, and the Titanic was 882.
The Titan held 2,500 passengers, and The Titanic held 2,200, though both had a capacity of 3,000 passengers.
Both ships were owned by the British.
Both ships were hit on their starboard side around midnight.
Both sank in the North Atlantic exactly 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland.
Both had very few lifeboats, the Titan holding 24, and Titanic carrying just 20.

Just having the name and iceberg similar is astounding, but this level of detail? Absolutely mind-blowing. Many people called Robertson a psychic, which turned out to be a well-deserved title.

In addition to stories about ships, there was one woman who survived, not one, not two, but three shipwrecks, one of them being the Titanic. Her name is Violet Jessop, a stewardess. While she was working on her first ship, it collided with the British warship HMS Hawke while the two were passing through a narrow strait. Luckily, no one was injured, and the ship did not suffer fatal damages. While the ship was being repaired, Jessop was sent to work on the Titanic (and you know the story by now). When the ship sank, she managed to escape onto a lifeboat and survive, being one of the 706 people who made it out of 2,200. Despite these two terrifying experiences, Jessop sought for another job on the sea. She found a job on the British Britannica, a former British passenger liner. This ship was a converted medical fleet transporting injured soldiers when it struck a German mine in the Aegean Sea and sank. But lo and behold, Jessop managed to get away on another lifeboat and narrowly escaped with her life! She came to be known as the “Miss Unsinkable”, a title earned from many harrowing experiences with sinking ships.

These stories are just a small taste of the many interesting but rarely heard stories. Maybe there’ll be more. But, keep in mind that all of these are myths or stories. However, you can always keep imagining, right?

Sources:

“10 Interesting Stories that Will Surprise Even History Buffs.” allthatsinteresting, 28 April 2020. https://allthatsinteresting.com/interesting-stories/3. Accessed 25 Sept. 2020.
Serena, Katie. “The Wreck Of The Titan Told Of The Titanic’s Sinking — 14 Years Before It Happened.” allthatsinteresting, 15 April 2019, https://allthatsinteresting.com/the-wreck-of-the-titan#:~:text=In%201898%2C%20a%20man%20named,the%20Titan%3A%20Or%2C%20Futility. Accessed 25 Sept. 2020.