AMERICAN CIVIL WAR GHOST IN TUAS?

I know what you're thinking you read the title. "Huh...?!", right? You're also probably thinking, "What is this damn fool high on to hallacinute this kind of... crap?". But believe you me... I wouldn't be able come up with crap like this even if I tried...

Here's a blow by blow of what happened last night...

I was at my guardpost in Tuas and the night went on like normal. The dogs were quiet, the surroundings still and I was just waiting for the time to pass and for my shift to be over. I clearly remembered the time to be around 3.30am (because I checked my watched at about that time). And it was around this time when I suddenly heard a faint tune.

The weird thing is... it was an old tune from the American Civil War. Granted, I'm no expert when it comes to the Amercian Civil War but I've watched enough Discovery Channel, Alex Hailey's Roots and the North And South miniseries as a child to distinctly recall that tune to be of the American Civil War era.

It was just weird. I knew the tune came from outside my post because it was faint and sounded like it came from a distance. But when I looked out, there was nothing out there. Just to make sure, I even asked the other officer who was with me if the tune was coming from his mobile phone or some other electrical device he owned but he insisted it wasn't. The tune went on and on... looping back again and again.

I wasn't scared but I did feel as if I was in a bad episode of the Twilight Zone. The faint tune finally stopped after about 10 minutes. Then it went all quiet and still once again.

I did some research to find out the title of the tune I heard. After 3 hours of listening to kitsch MIDI files on music from the American Civil War era, I finally stumbled upon the answer. The tune is entitled "Yellow Rose of Texas", a song believed to be written by a soldier from the Confederate states about a girl he loves. Attached is a site which has a link to a MIDI file of the tune I heard.

http://www.nationwide.net/~amaranth/yellow.htm

I recounted this to my colleagues in the morning when our shift was over but they just dismissed it as my tired mind playing tricks on me. I, of course, had a more fantastical theory as to what really happened, which is:

There in Tuas lies the remains of an American Confederate soldier.

Before you dismiss this as hogwash, listen to this - It is a fact that a Confederate ship, the CSS Alabama, was harboured in Singapore in 1863, right in the midst of the US Civil War (i.e. 1861 to 1865). This was reported on the front page of the Straits Times in an article titled "The Alabama" on Saturday, December 26, 1863. You can visit the sites below or just Google "CSS Alabama in Singapore" to get more information.


http://home.ozconnect.net/tfoen/alabamaphoto.htm
http://home.ozconnect.net/tfoen/semmes.htm

The CSS Alabama was in Singapore for supplies. Singapore, being the thriving free port in the exotic Far East, also attracted other American vessels, some of them merchant ships that came here to revel in the riches that came with the thriving entreport trade while others were warships like the Alabama (the USS Wyoming, an American Union ship, was also in Singapore in 1863). The warships' role is to attack and raid other American warships and merchant ships along the Far East shipping route and they would usually end up in Singapore for supplies.

Now, consider this - is it such an impossibility that an American Confederate soldier could have died here? We were once the lawless little island in the exotic Far East. Perhaps one of the sailors had a wild night at the American Club, drank a bit too much, pissed off the locals or some American merchant whose ship got raided one too many times and he unfortunately got butchered while on his way back to The Alabama.

His body was never found, left buried in the swamps for over a century... then during the reclaimation efforts of Tuas in the 90s, the land which was once his resting place got transplanted from where it was originally... to Tuas. It is a longshot... but you have to admit, it is a possibility.

And, the final smoking gun... The Alabama had a nickname, which was "Kapal Hantu" or "Ghost Ship"... well, they called it that because The Alabama had the ability to quietly appear out of nowhere and slip into battle unnoticed since it is one of the fastest and most feared of the Confederacy ships. That said... it's too much of a coincidence, don't you think?

Other than that theory, I really couldn't explain what happened last night. Well, of course there is a simpler explaination - perhaps a Bangladeshi worker, who passed by the area earlier, could've accidentally dropped his mobile phone in the vicinity and his ringtone was incidentally the "Yellow Rose from Texas". And at 3.30am he realized he lost his mobile phone and called his number but of course no one picked it up because the police officers nearby were too freaked out to seek out the source as to where the faint tune was coming from.

But that simpler more realistic theory isn't half as interesting as mine so I'm dismissing it... it's the ghost of an American Confederate soldier, pining to return home to his Yellow Rose from Texas, without a doubt.

But I leave it to you as to what you want to believe. I'm just doing a Dan Brown here...


Pissed Confederate soldier: "I want to call me yellow rose so someone better give back me mobile phone or so help me God I'll blow yer brains out..."