Twelve Thousand Feet Below the Tides: Monsters and Mysteries
Keeping Tabs Weekly, Spring 2021
An Alaskan fisherman has been arrested in connection with the black market sales of historic items from the Titanic wreckage. But the rumors surrounding how he obtained the relics is more disturbing than the pillaging itself.
Authorities took Ulysses “Riptide” Jackson, 38, into custody at a marina outside St. John’s, Newfoundland, not long after he docked his heavily modified fishing trawler, which investigators claim was designed for covert deep-sea salvage operations—but which, according to anonymous sources, contains no confirmed submersible.
Jackson, described as a gruff and independent “loner” by locals in his native Seward, Alaska, is now at the center of an international scandal involving the illegal retrieval and sale of artifacts from the Titanic, the famous ship that sank in 1912 in the Atlantic Ocean after a collision with an iceberg that resulted in the death of nearly 1,500 people on board. Authorities are notably silent, however, as to exactly how Jackson was able to even reach the wreckage over two miles down on the ocean floor.
One anonymous source within the investigation initially indicated that Jackson was using a mechanized design that resembled a sea serpent. Jackson, the source said, must have programmed the retrieval device to dive and recover items from the Titanic’s interiors.
That source now says Jackson was indeed, using a serpentine recovery device—but there’s actually no evidence that it was a mechanical creation.
“There’s no other technology aboard Jackson’s boat,” the source confirmed. “No computers, no transmitters. How was he controlling a robot at that range? Unless he wasn’t. Unless whatever he sent down there was already following his instructions like something alive.”
Recovered items from Jackson’s expeditions include:
• A silver pocket watch reportedly belonging to Titanic passenger Benjamin Guggenheim.
• A porcelain dinner plate from the ship’s first-class dining saloon.
• A framed photograph of Captain Edward Smith, intact despite the deep-sea pressure.
• A mahogany hand mirror, thought to have belonged to socialite Helen Churchill Candee.
Jackson had allegedly been selling the artifacts through an underground network with ties to private collectors in Macau, Reykjavík, and Dubai, where Titanic memorabilia commands massive sums.
At the time of Jackson’s last expedition to the region, the CCGS Teleost, a Canadian fisheries research vessel, was conducting sonar studies nearby. And some of its crew members reported a surreal and unbelievable encounter.
“Something came up out of the water like a whale,” said oceanographer Dr. Karen Bellamy. “It breached, just for a moment, and we could see its back, glistening, ridged like a crocodile’s. And then it was gone.
“And I can tell you: it was not metal. It was flesh.”
Crew member Devon MacRae, who managed to film a few shaky seconds of the event, added:
“It had fins, or maybe flippers, but they were longer, like arms. When it came up, it looked like it had something in its mouth, something that the guy on the boat reached out and took. But then the thing slipped underwater again like it didn’t want to be seen.”
MacRae also claimed a previous encounter with a creature years ago while fishing off the coast of Nome, Alaska: “I know what I saw back then. Locals call it the tizheruk—long, fast, smart. But this time it looked to me like it was trained. Like it was a pet.”
Meanwhile, at a press conference in Anchorage, FBI maritime crimes agent Carissa Yoon confirmed that Jackson faces multiple charges, including “unauthorized disturbance of a maritime grave site, trafficking of historical artifacts, and evasion of international salvage laws.”
But when questioned about the creature seen by the Canadian team, Yoon dismissed the subject.
“Come on. We’re talking about stealing from the Titanic here. If he’d robbed the Lusitania, none of you would have bothered showing up at this press conference,” she said. “We are aware that some people say they saw something besides a grave robber. As for all this talk about sea monsters—what I’ll say is, we are investigating all leads, but we have our suspect.”
But do they?
Jackson’s bail was set at $750,000 U.S., which was immediately posted for him by an anonymous source, despite DA concerns that by virtue of his job as a fisherman, Jackson is a flight risk. Nevertheless, Jackson was released just 48 hours after being taken into custody, and his current whereabouts are, as might be expected, unknown. He and the alleged mythical creature have vanished, leaving behind only questions... and a trail of artifacts pulled from one of the deepest and most tragic graves in maritime history.
As he exited the courthouse, reporters asked Jackson if he wished to comment on the stories of his use of a mythical creature to commit his crimes.
“If there’s a crime happening here,” Jackson said, “it’s your reporting, making up stories. You know, I saw my pal Ahab down on dock 47. Why don’t you go ask him about that white whale he’s hunting? Now there’s a headline for you, you muckrakers.”
