[TheForge] Quesiton about a weird event...

[Demon Buddha]

I had an old (literally) friend, Walter.  He is a retired merchant 
marine captain.  He had a hundred stories of his life on the sea, but 
one of the ones that really stands out involved an equipment failure. 
He was captain of a freighter passing scross the Carribean.  As they 
made headway one evening, the ship experienced a vibration and then 
stopped making headway.  He called down to the engineers and they said 
that everthing was OK by them.  He went below and they walked the prop 
shaft.  He told me that in mid-span between two bearings the shaft, some 
24" of solid steel, split such that there was about 1/16 inch gap 
between the rotating end and the end attached to the prop, which had 
stopped dead in its bearings.  He told me that the shaft was cut so 
perfectly that you would swear it was done by machine, so to speak.

They had to get a tow.  When they got into port, NSA, FBI, and CIA were 
waiting for them.  After the inspection, the crew were warned not to 
speak to anyone about this for any reason, lest dire consequences befall 
them.  It never happened and they never saw anything.

Anyone have any clue as to what this could have been about?  How does a 
shaft that large fail in such a fashion that the break is so perfect 
that you could not perceive motion of the shaft by observing the break? 
  Walter was a character, but he was dead serious about this one.  Said 
it was the strangest thing that he'd ever experienced.

Comments/speculations welcome.

	-Andy