66 replies to this topic

[Grimm24]

Well It doesnt really suprise me about them getting lost I bet that happens a lot more than people think when people go into cave systems and tunnels that there not all that familiar with. It is interesting none the less though.

[Apopo]

That is some creepy story. Like the others said, getting lost in a cave and never coming back isn't unexpected, especially when you are unfamiliar with the landscape.

[EnglishStudent526]

One day.... I will go to these mysterious places, hopefully find out what happened.

[voiceofreason]

Saw a program about the missing school children. Can't remember which chanel it was on. Seem to remember the investigator not being able to find any newspaper reports about the story, and that the locals were reluctant to believe that a class of kids could go missing.

[Putnum]

SO National Geographic, some 70 years later, have made a documentary about this and are in fact telling the story of the giants living underground. They may use the word 'skeptical' but they are still mentioning it.

Documentary is called National Geographic Ancient X Files, and it's Series 2, episode 1 titled "Mona Lisa Code"

[Collie2]

I'm interested in this thread as I plan to visit the Hypogeum next year and was doing a bit of reading up on it when I stumbled across this story.

The timing of the visits by Miss Jessup (cited as 1940s on many sites) and Walters (obviously pre August 1940) bothered me as there didn't seem to be much window of time for the events to occur and I've managed to find this link to the original article which has been republished by Borderlands Science.

http://journal.borde...e-cavern-world/

There is no mention in the article of Jessup being employed by the British Embassy, she merely states that she was visiting friends on Malta in the mid 1930s. (This would make her recounting of the story to Crabbe in 1960 around 25 years after the event).

Later in the article Crabbe states that she is an Englishwoman, i.e. not an American tourist as sometimes claimed.

The article states that Walters visited Malta in 1939 ( by the time the article was published Malta was beseiged (btw it was never taken by the Axis so the Nazis didn't use the tunnels).

If her recollection is correct and the children disappeared between her 2 visits a few months apart then that would make the events occuring in a window of around 1933 - 38 probably in summer or autumn as she states the weather was very hot on her first visit.  (Malta tends to be cool and often foggy in the winter).
This would obviously make the tragedy (if it happened) very recent when Walters visited.

Interestingly Jessup's account makes no mention of the cries of the children being heard for weeks afterwards.  I also note that she heard the story of the disappearing children from a friend who "called me to read an item from the Valetta paper" implying that she herself never actually saw the published article but was told about it over the telephone.

Edited by Collie2, 16 November 2012 - 12:54 PM.

[Redefining Success]

Hold on a tick...

...30 school children(presumably a semi mature age, around 13 maybe?) and shall we say 3 teachers, go missing, take out a minmum of 10% to account for injuries, leaves us around 26 people lost in a natural tunnel/cave system thats supposed to stretch beneath the island.

Split these into 8 groups of 3 and leaves 2 to tend to the wounded.

Thats 8 chances of finding another way out or at least a cavern close enough to civilisation to raise the alarm.

Guessing they had torches, if not, guaranteed one of the kids would of had matches/lighter.

As for the screaming and voices heard by the mothers, more than likely hysteria brought on by the grief of the loss of the children, which is understandable.

Edited by Redefining Success, 22 November 2012 - 03:22 AM.