Case file · High strangeness
Slocum and the pilot of the Pinta
In July 1895, east of the Azores and sick with food poisoning, the solo sailor Joshua Slocum said a tall man who called himself the pilot of Columbus's Pinta appeared at the helm of the Spray and steered through a gale.
1895 CE · 37.00, -22.00 · status: account
The account
Slocum told the story in 'Sailing Alone Around the World' (1900). Such 'companions' are now discussed as an example of the third-man factor felt by people under extreme stress.
The sceptical view
Exhaustion and fever explain the vision well; Slocum himself half-joked about it.