Captain Carlsen & the 'Flying Enterprise' complied by Leigh Bishop
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Conspiracy to silence

As our research delved deeper into the entire Flying Enterprise saga Danish filmmaker Lasse Spang Olsen and I made some rather interesting finds. I for one had found the entire affair a little strange in the fact that so much interest was laid to the expense around the Flying Enterprise by the US Government as well as Carlsen risking his life for what in theory should have been an ordinary merchant ship going about ordinary business. Why did the US Navy show such an interest and why did they have a US Navy presence safe guarding the ship 24 hours? Why as soon as one destroyer falls low on fuel did they despatch another that fled to the scene as such a rate that the crew became conscious of the speed at which the ship was crashing into the heavy seas? Why did the FBI pay a visit to those involved in the rescue soon after the event? Now we had became involved in the Flying Enterprise affair ourselves these were obvious questions that would be addressed sooner than later.

Richard Larn " I remember the sinking of this American freighter well. When she sank in January 1952 I was stationed at HMS Landrail at Machrihanish, on the Mull of Kintyre, waiting to join HMS Vengeance to go out to the Korean War. The media was showing daily aerial photographs of Captain Carlsen and 1st Mate Kenneth Dancy sitting on the starboard side of her poop deck, calmly smoking cigarettes. Her deck was listing to port at an angle of 45 degrees or more, and thinking of her as an eventual wreck on the seabed I wondered what she carried that enticed the two men to risk their lives by remaining with the ship? "

The US Nautilus the world's first nuclear submarine was launched after a delay some two years after in the sinking of the Enterprise in 1954, which adds further evidence to state that quite possibly, Zirconium was aboard the Flying Enterprise. Interviews with Jakob Isbrandsten of the shipping company Isbrandsten states clearly the company of which Flying Enterprise belonged to knew nothing of any such mysterious cargo let alone the Zirconium theory. Documents in the national archives at Washington confirm that the cargo has definitely gone. Another document uncovered in the national archives states that the Flying Enterprises Hamburg company were dismayed that the United States coast guard wanted to reveal the secret cargo, complicating matters further. In total four very different cargo lists have been uncovered to date, the fourth we have discovered having something added to the bottom of the ship classed as 71.8 tons of what it describes as general cargo.

The remaining cargo reads as 1270 tons of Pig Iron 890-tons African Coffee, 55 tons of Graphite, 82 tons of bone meal, 800 bales peat moss, 65 bird cages 5 tons of columbite ore, 260 bags grass seeds, 25 barrels onions, some steel vans loaded with carpets, barrels of aluminum chloride, furniture, Jute bagging & animal hair from India.
The research led me to a guy called Dick Moody who was aboard Turmoil that towed Flying Enterprise back towards Falmouth. I asked Dick if he new of any such secret cargo that may have been aboard the ship. It came as no surprise to him that there was more to this entire story that met the eye, neither was it a surprise to me that he had received a visit by the FBI soon after the ship was lost.

In 1977 Carlsen was interviewed by New Jersey journalist Jeanne Toomey who wrote of the incident to the Wood bridge news tribute and as a freelance writer a separate feature for the New Jersey monthly. Carlsen told Toomey of the Zirconium which is clearly stated in her articles. Again complicating the matter further in that Carlsen, many years after the rumours were at their highest, was now ready to declare what was aboard his ship even when everyone else was keeping it a secret still. Carlsen told Toomey that he knew the Zirconium was for the Atomic submarine project. Calls to the CIA even today on the subject result with no information, the wall of resistance from the CIA & FBI tremendously overwhelming. In reality right now we cannot know for sure what was aboard the ship at the time of her sinking but one thing is for sure the CIA isn't prepared even now over 50 years on to disclose the entire picture. As it is something is being held back for certain over the truth of the matter. If we cannot find out what they are hiding a key to the truth of the entire affair may well be hidden in the depths of the wreck 280ft deep in the Atlantic western approaches. Maybe subsequent dives will reveal more something we will be intent on doing in the not to distant future.
© Leigh Bishop 2005

Footnote:- Agnes Carlsen passed away 27th Oct 2005 click here to read more