Bahamian Rhapsody

Gothenburg Harbour (four months previously)

Gothenburg Harbour (four months previously)It was February and cold, very cold as the mid-sized and nondescript ship, a converted arctic patrol vessel, made its way slowly out of the large harbour area past the dockyards and pleasure cruisers before heading slowly northwards. On board were twenty-two excited teenage girls all leaving home for the first time. They had received invitations telling them that they had been chosen for a fashion shoot in southern Norway near Oslo. They were told it was all taking place in the greatest secrecy intended to be Scandinavia’s riposte to the global magazines dominance, hence the request that they tell no one outside their immediate family. They had each received a thousand American dollars with a further five thousand promised after the cruise. Chosen from all over Sweden most could not believe their luck, carefully packing for a short two-day trip and dreaming of fame and fortune. All were between eighteen and twenty-one years old and they were all strangers to each other. Some, whose parents had asked pointed questions or demanding to accompany their daughters, had been rejected. All believed no harm could come to them from a couple of days with a well organized trip authorized by the Norwegian Government. They dreamed of fame and fortune for their offspring also. The company called Huldra was registered in Norway and had given them all copious amounts of literature for the shoot; they claimed to have the approval of the government’s trade and industry department as part of Norway’s tourism initiative.

The ship that was appropriately also called "Huldra" and registered in Bergen headed northward at a steady ten knots and the girls settled down to a meal chattering happily and blissfully unaware that they were going on a trip that would change their lives forever. They were welcomed by two middle aged dour German women and asked to pose for photos on the decks as they left Gothenburg behind. Of the twenty-two, thirteen were blond, the remainder brunette, all were tall and attractive. None questioned why the ship was now going so fast nor noticed that the ship was now heading West instead of North. After a few hours talking together they were separated, they would not meet again for a long time.

That evening each girl had an informal interview with the two matrons Magda and Greta in an empty auditorium. Unknown to them there was a two-way mirror through which the only male on board aside from the crew was sitting. A middle aged man with shoulder length blonde hair; he smiled to himself as he watched girl after girl paraded in front of him unaware that they were being watched. Having made his assessments he signalled to his aide and shortly afterwards left on his private speedboat. He needed an alibi for what was about to happen.

For most of the girls this was their first time away from home. Most slept well that night in their private cabins unaware that hidden cameras recorded their every move. The next day as they entered the North Sea weather conditions worsened noticeably and most became seasick as the ship again turned northwards. All felt queasy but managed to keep smiling, after all they would be going home tomorrow. By midday they started to become alarmed as there was still no sign of land or the promised glaciers and some started to openly question where they were going. They were confined in small room’s two metres square and fed through a slot at the bottom like prisoners. Unknown to them their futures had already been decided by the blonde man who had made up his mind on the selected twelve. A small motor-boat had picked up the rejected girls in the dead of night; they were well on their way back home having seen and met no one. They had been told that the weather had ruined the shoot and were deposited in a remote town in southern Norway with enough money to get them home and told that if they kept their mouths shut they may be invited again. They had been deemed unacceptable, they were the lucky ones if they did but know it, and none thought so at the time.

The selected dozen had a different fate in store as they sailed northwards confined in separate cabins and unaware of the drama unfolding. On the third day the remaining girls became increasingly uneasy, aware that they were still heading north. Totally segregated and not allowed to see each other, the adventure was over and fear replaced excitement. Some tried to escape but their doors were not only locked but bolted and to their dismay their mobile phones had disappeared. Many cried themselves to sleep wishing they had never heard of Huldra. Finally after spending another miserable night either crying or being sick they felt the old ship begin to slow as it entered a remote and desolate port in Northern Norway. They were twenty kilometres to the north east of Tromso the gateway to the Arctic Circle. Some had seen the large wooden city, the largest north of Trondheim from their small portholes as they sailed past, lights in a blanket of white. The ship rode at anchor and the hours passed interminably before their doors were finally opened and they were led ashore into the icy landscape. They could see a cable car running up to the Storsteinen Mountain, four hundred and twenty feet above sea level. For most it was merely a matter of keeping warm as they were bundled into waiting vehicles. The missing girls then simply disappeared from the face of the earth.

Back in Gothenburg, three sets of parents of the rejected girls contacted the authorities and told them of the Huldra Twelve as it soon became known in the popular press. More parents came forward and the scandal broke with garish headlines and questions being asked in the Swedish and Norwegian parliaments. Frantic enquiries determined that they had all been on the Huldra but then to their greater horror vague reports began to emerge that the vessel had issued an SOS message. That had been some nine hours ago from a remote northern fjord before it mysteriously disappeared off the radar screens. The distraught parents had immediately flown up there and began a fruitless search of the area. The coastguards couldn’t help as there was nothing to see. From Tromso they hired search and rescue planes but to no avail. After three days the bitterly upset and distraught parents had returned empty handed. The authorities concluded that the girls had been the victims of a kidnapping that had gone horribly wrong when the ship sank. On further investigation Huldra was found to be a dummy company in Oslo, located in a deserted warehouse.

It was journalists who discovered the name Huldra in Norway was the name given to mythical females who enticed strangers to a watery grave. The story was a journalists dream. They then discovered that a scene re-enacted for tourists on the spectacular Flam Tourist Railway ride in central Norway with red dressed women enticing strangers used the Huldra name. The legend was born and the twelve girls eventually entered Swedish modern popular culture as the lost girls of the Huldra Twelve. Unknown to all was the fact that this was the fourth time such an event had happened in the past twelve years all in different Nordic countries. Each had a tale to tell but each had kept silence out of embarrassment that such a thing could have happened under their jurisdiction. Once the Swedish story became hot news the other stories also appeared. In total forty-eight girls had disappeared over a five year period.