The best moments of our life are unplanned and unpredictable. You step out from your place, going on with your normal day to day routine, not even imagining what uniqueness you could come across.
When this kayaker enters the Black Sea with the plan of spending a nice boating day, he unknowingly embarks on an adventure of a lifetime. And this adventurous trip will yield him treasures unknown to the locals around the black sea.
The best part is, this man decides to shoot the adventure and treasure that he discovers and the video goes viral without any doubts. And kayaking will never be the same anymore.
The Romanian Black Sea is a long 275 km stretch from the Danube Delta at the northern end all the way to the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the south. And out of some of the amazing stories that revolve around the Black Sea, this story of George Marvell will always stand out from the list.
When we think of kayaking, the first thing that comes in mind is peddling a kayak and a normal day of boating. You think about renting a kayak, and then peddling along the beach to have a sporty and active day. Kayaking is exciting in itself. But that's about it, right?
But for George Marvell of Romania, that particular day was an altogether different one. Kayaking for him was more than just coordinating his feet for peddling. He discovered something extremely precious in the middle of the Black Sea.
The warm weather, miles of sand on the coast of the Black Sea makes Romania even more special. And that is not all that makes the beaches of Romania the tourist attractions. There's one thing, in particular, that does all the magic and makes the coast of the Black Sea stand from all other places.
The black sea coast has a run-down, worn-out ship that lies right in the middle of the sea. The ship is named Empire Strength and has been in the exact same position since 1968. And when George decided to discover the inside area of the ship, he found treasure immeasurable.
Not a lot of people have been inside the Empire Strength due to the rusty body of the ship. The entire ship-structure has been very unsteady. That is why not many people dare to enter the ship, it can collapse any minute. But George was adamant about his decision.
One side of the hull of the ship has a small crack, which can be thought of as the entrance. But the crack is too small for a boat to enter in it. So, George decided to take a Kayak instead. No matter how difficult the conditions, George was going to make it inside the ship and find out what all it actually comprises of.
If the locals see a ship standing in the middle of the sea, they ought to explore the ship in the hope of some treasures. Similar was the case with Empire Strength. Soon after the ship was abandoned in the sea, locals tried their best to invade it and look at what all the ship had.
Whatever the ship owned was taken away by the locals in no time. But what was it then that made George come to the decision of going inside the Empire Strength? And it was not just his going inside but also what he found out that made all the difference.
Despite the thick coat of rust that covers the ship, George continued with his plan of discovering the grand vessel. He stepped into his Kayak and started with his journey in the Black Sea. And he had prepared for his endeavor like no one else ever has.
Marvell had been planning his excursion to the Empire Strength for a very long time. He had set a camera on his helmet from which he had decided to record the whole trip. He rented the Kayak, and needless to mention, he was an expert in Kayaking.
Normally, after a ship is rust coated and so old, nobody bothers to go inside it after it has passed so many years of being at the same place. The locals did not really bother much about the ship. They had gotten used to its presence. But George was different. He had a special reason for why he made the specific decision.
George had been in Romania ever since he was born. It was his hometown. But then what took George 26 years before he could make the decision of exploring the Empire Strength? His story was beyond any adventures or endeavors that a person would usually plan for.
As a young boy, George and his father Philip Marvell would often visit the coast of the Black Sea. Once a month was fixed, but it would sometimes be even more often. And what did the father-son duo do then? Without any doubts, it was kayaking! That is why George was an expert.
While kayaking during his childhood days, George would often wonder about the Empire Strength. His father had promised him to someday go and discover the inside of the ship with him. But George needed to be a little older to go for such an exciting trip.
Every passing month, George used to wait for the day when he would be able to go inside the grand ship. Little did he know that when he would actually go in, he would discover such wondrous things. But the wait was going to be much longer than expected.
When George was 11 years old, he lost his parents. A tragic car accident took away his father and mother from him forever. And after that, George lived with his Aunt and Uncle. The visits to the coast of the Black Sea and the plan of someday entering the Empire Strength had all been forgotten. Until...
On his 25th birthday, George's Uncle and Aunt gave him a box of all the pictures from George's childhood. After the accident, George had never really talked to anyone about his parents. His Aunt and Uncle thought of gifting him all the pictures that they had collected from his house before taking him along.
George finally gathered the courage to open up the box and relive all the memories that he had made with his parents in the 11 years of his life. That is when he came across a major number of pictures that were taken on the father and son's visit to the coast of the Black Sea.
While looking at the pictures, George reminisced all the fun times while Kayaking that he enjoyed with his father. And that is when the idea of discovering the Empire Strength crossed his mind. He thought of going inside the ship and experiencing what all was inside it, after all, it was a promise he and his father had made.
George decided upon a day and rented a Kayak. The task of entering the Empire Strength after crossing the sharp rusty edges at the entrance was not easy. It was definitely not something a casual Kayaker would do. But George was an expert.
Entering the ship without any safety measures was indeed risky. The structure of the old ship was very weak. It could be possible that if George's Kayak would touch any part of the ship, the ship would end up being shattered.
George decided to use his hands instead of the paddles to get inside the ship. That way he thought he would have more control over the direction of the kayak. And finally, he entered and pressed the record button to see what the Empire Strength was like.
The interiors of the ship were dark and covered in rust, but the little light that poured through the cracks made every corner sufficiently visible. There was hardly any difference in the condition of the ship as compared to the outside of it. It was almost the same. Rusty, old, broken, cracked and unstable.
Not just George, but everyone who saw the video that he had recorded could feel that something was uncanny about the ship. The old and worn down ship looked like it was an evil's haven. Pathways were covered with huge pistons and gears. It was no normal ship.
The Empire Strength had been a major part of our history. It had served the UK's Ministry Of War Transport during the Second World War. Locals had invaded the ship to find some treasure. But they were always unaware of what the actual treasure was.
On the 15th of October in 1968, the Empire Strength was sailing from Rijeka in Yugoslavia to Constanta in Romania. But no one was aware that this trip would be the last one for the poor Empire Strength. Before reaching Constanta, the ship ran aground. And ever since, it has been in the Black Sea off Costinesti.
After the ship went aground, it was impossible to move it from where it went out of service. The officials declared the ship as a total loss and it was abandoned there and then. Since then, the Empire Strength has been in the same place and has never been moved.
It is also speculated that the shipwreck was a planned one. It could have been possible that the plan was made for insurance fraud. The actual reason would never be able to be clear now, but it did leave a huge mark right in the middle of the Black Sea.
The Empire Strength was built in 1842 originally, and it has a logo of Harland and Wolff on its engine. This means that the ship was built by the same British Shipyard that built the SS Titanic. This makes the ship even more iconic. But it has a long story to go still.
After the ship served its purpose in the second World War, it was purchased by a Greek owner in 1965. The new owner changed the name of the ship from Empire Strength to MV E Evangelia. But just after a few years, in 1968, the ship experienced its downfall.
When the MV E Evangelia was built in 1942, it weighed 7,355 gross register tons. It was a refrigerated cargo ship and survived the fighting of the World War. Frozen meat was transported from Argentina to North Africa, Algiers, Cuba, and Australia. From 1944 to 1945, the ship was extensively used for transportation.
The magnificent Empire Strength served its purpose in the second world war and was one of the largest ships that were owned by the UK. But after the ship's back was broken, it was abandoned. And ever since, it has been nothing more than an old piece of rust in the Black Sea.
The only purpose that the ship now serves is to be an attracting element for the tourists of Romania. People like coming to the coast of the Black Sea to especially click pictures with the Empire Strength in the background of those pictures. But that is all that its purpose is.
Some have even been brave enough to go beyond the stage of clicking pictures with the ship. They swim across the waters to have a look inside the ship. But there's only a few of the kind since the rusty body of the ship can be very dangerous for the swimmers.
To go really out of the way, there is also a route that leads to the deck of the ship. But it requires climbing up a ladder which could possibly break down if one steps onto it. And if you fall down, you do not just end up diving in the water, you might possibly just drop dead on the rusty pipes.
But the viewers are really thankful that George went ahead and recorded his adventurous trip inside the Empire Strength. The viewers have been able to experience a journey of a significant piece of history while sitting back in their house.
The rust-covered Empire Strength has truly been a masterpiece that stands still in the Black Sea of which the people who visit the beach can have a view of. The ship ran aground just 16 miles southwards to the Black Sea. And that is where it was abandoned forever.
The ship was left in the exact same position where it stays today and would probably be in the same position in the times to come. It seems like it has become a permanent part of the Black Sea, and the two are inseparable for a lifetime.
The United Kingdom used to boast the largest number of merchant ships during the world war II and even prior to it. But the wrecking war claimed 4000 of the ships owned by the UK. A lot of them sank, as was planned by the German officials. But the Empire Strength survived all of it.