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Noah's Ark, Fable or Fact?
Noah's Fable of Fact?
236 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 16, 2024
Deeply disappointing. I went shopping in a second hand shop recently looking for strange, bad books. The problem with bad books is they are usually quite conventional in their lack of quality and lack that bizarre quality that entertains, edifies and reveals. This book is essentially two paragraphs -- the blurb -- stretched out over 220 pages.
It's not nearly batshit enough for my liking. It seems that the main reason Noah's Ark has not been discovered, despite the author appearing to know quite well where it is, is because Lenin and his silly Bolshevism impeded valuable White Russian investigation. So it's the commies fault. As if they haven't spoiled enough.
It's not nearly batshit enough for my liking. It seems that the main reason Noah's Ark has not been discovered, despite the author appearing to know quite well where it is, is because Lenin and his silly Bolshevism impeded valuable White Russian investigation. So it's the commies fault. As if they haven't spoiled enough.
February 24, 2025
A COLLECTION OF STORIES OF SEARCHES FOR THE ARK ON ARARAT
Eryl Cummings (b. 1905) was a realtor in New Mexico. He went up Mount Ararat in Turkey some 16 times (mostly during the 1970s) in search of Noah's Ark, and has advised other would-be "Arkeologists". His wife Violet and he wrote in the Introduction to this 1973 book, “Does Noah’s Ark still exist? Can modern man still believe the ancient Biblical story of the Flood? Is there evidence to support the Scriptural claims? Can we accept as truth the ever-increasing rumors that Noah’s great ship has been sighted, and even photographed and entered, during the past century[?]… Is it possible that the widely publicized … pieces of hand-tooled timber recovered by Fernand Navarra … on Mount Ararat in 1955, and again in 1969, were once a part of the Ark?.. To provide satisfactory answers to as many of these questions as possible is the purpose of this book. It is the result of 27 years of persistent, painstaking investigation into the subject, and contains authenticated accounts of the various reported sightings of the Ark since 1840…
“It was not until early summer of 1945 that a … now almost middle-aged man, laid down the magazine in which he had been absorbed… about the discovery of Noah’s Ark! … ‘I wonder if this story is true, and if Noah’s Ark really does still exist?’ … Thus simply did Eryl Cummings begin the pursuit of the long-forgotten childhood dream…
“Join us now for a guided tour of this fabled land… We promise you never a dull moment along the way. We invite you to share with us our own elation as each new facet of discovery comes to light, and each nebulous clue is ‘run down.’ We hope you will also share … our conviction that Noah’s Ark does, indeed, still exist somewhere on Ararat, that beautiful, mysterious, rugged mountain on the remote Eastern Turkish frontier.”
She explains in the first chapter, “Since 1840, at least a ‘baker’s dozen’ of reports of discoveries of an Ark-like structure or of hand-tooled timber on treeless Mount Ararat have been made…. Since these stories were not discovered in sequence of the dates just given, and since this book is also a history of the research that made it possible, they will be related in the order in which they came to light. We believe that both common sense and reason will dictate the conclusions that the 1840 eruption did, indeed, usher in the modern era in relation to the Ark; and that its ringing challenge to the modern world is strikingly akin to that of Elijah to apostate Israel of old… And to the archaeologist and the student of sacred history yet another challenge arises: that of the still-buried treasure of the ‘epoch of Noah’s day,’ believed by Col. Koor to lie deep under the mud and debris that swept down the great chasm to destroy the monastery and cloister and village … many years ago.” (Pg. 26-27)
She records, “Hard on the heels of Smith’s unsuccessful attempt to locate the Ark, Fernand Navarra launched the first of his own three expeditions to Ararat… Navarra, too, encountered the same historic and superstitious resistance concerning the mountain as he sought information among the native inhabitants of the area. Friendly and helpful in every other way, when the subject of searching for the Ark arose, the shadow of a reticence and fear seemed to settle upon them.” (Pg. 101) “In his second book, Navarra wrote, “The evidence must be acknowledged: the remains are those of the Ark, if only because it cannot be anything else.’ Unfortunately… Navarra … had brought no equipment to descend into the spot … Navarra turned reluctantly away, swearing that we would return. ‘The Ark is really here,’ he marvelled to himself, ‘but inaccessible.’” (Pg. 106)
She reports, “The short story to be related had been bursting at its seams ever since it was first related in Chapter 1… This amazing story fell across the trail in a most … unexpected way. A gentleman tapped Eryl Cummings on the shoulder following a church service… [in] 1952.” (Pg. 111) This ultimately leads to the famous story of the ‘The Atheists and the Ark’: ‘When Haji [Yearam] was a large boy… there came to his home … three vile men who did not believe the Bible and did not believe in the existence of a personal God. They were scientists and evolutionists. They were on this expedition specifically to prove the legend of Noah’s Ark to be a fraud and a fake. They hired the father of young Haji Yearam as their official guide… They hired the boy to assist his father…. After extreme hardhip and peril the little party came to the little valley… As they reached this spot, there they found the prow of a mighty ship protruding out of the ice…
“The scientists were appalled and dumbfounded and went into a Satanic rage at finding what they hoped to prove nonexistent. They were so angry and mad that they said they would destroy the ship, but the wood was more like stone than any wood we have now. They did not have tools or means to wreck so mighty a ship and had to give up. They did tear out some timbers and tried to burn the wood, but it was so hard that it was almost impossible to burn it. They… took a solemn and fearful death oath. Any man present who would ever breathe a word about what they had found would be tortured and murdered…. For fear of their lives, Haji and his father had never told what they found except to their best trusted and closest relatives.” (Pg. 115)
She laments, “For years it has been increasingly obvious that some power beyond human ken must be at work to counteract or completely destroy every shred of concrete proof for the existence of the Ark: the Bolshevik uprising just at the time the Czar’s ground expeditions had dispatched documentary, scientific evidence that the White Russian aviator’s story had been true; the Harold Williams’s fire that had destroyed both the Haji Yearam story and the former atheist’s deathbed confession that he had seen the Ark; the old newspaper files that had gone up in smoke; the untimely death of Geore Greene and the disappearance of his photos and maps. Thus, although bitterly disappointing, the outcome of the search for Bertha Davis’ picture, even though hopes had been so high, did not come as a total surprise. There had been other disappointments before. Even the unwitting destruction of the long-sought ‘Stars and Stripes’ [publication] in 1959 would fit into the same frustrating category as these otherwise unexplainable events!” (Pg. 147)
She writes, “And yet, in spite of (or even, perhaps, because of) the many adversities and disappointments that had dogged the path of research, [Eryl] Cummings had become more than ever convinced that the every-widening trail would lead to a triumphant conclusion at last. The deepening conviction that where there were so many utterly fascinating little wisps of smoke, there must also be a slow-burning, smoldering fire, had woven itself like a crimson thread through the very fabric of his life. And, in spite of the harassments of this unseen foe, the encouraging presence of a still greater Power had been present through the long years.” (Pg. 214)
She concludes, “Should it then be too difficult to believe, as the lovely old Armenian legend tells us, that the Ark does still exist ‘in one of the highest recesses’ of Aghri Dagh---still guarded by angels and secluded from mortal eyes…? Surely, God Himself must have set the stage for the landing place of the Ark where the token of His covenant with Noah would most gloriously be seen above the flooded plain; and gives us one more reason to believe the reports that the great object glimpsed from time to time upon the northern slopes of the majestic mountain must truly be Noah’s abandoned old ship!” (Pg. 236)
This book takes a completely uncritical (perhaps even ‘naïve’) approach to all these stories. But those wanting an engagingly-written compilation of the Ark stories will probably enjoy this book.
Eryl Cummings (b. 1905) was a realtor in New Mexico. He went up Mount Ararat in Turkey some 16 times (mostly during the 1970s) in search of Noah's Ark, and has advised other would-be "Arkeologists". His wife Violet and he wrote in the Introduction to this 1973 book, “Does Noah’s Ark still exist? Can modern man still believe the ancient Biblical story of the Flood? Is there evidence to support the Scriptural claims? Can we accept as truth the ever-increasing rumors that Noah’s great ship has been sighted, and even photographed and entered, during the past century[?]… Is it possible that the widely publicized … pieces of hand-tooled timber recovered by Fernand Navarra … on Mount Ararat in 1955, and again in 1969, were once a part of the Ark?.. To provide satisfactory answers to as many of these questions as possible is the purpose of this book. It is the result of 27 years of persistent, painstaking investigation into the subject, and contains authenticated accounts of the various reported sightings of the Ark since 1840…
“It was not until early summer of 1945 that a … now almost middle-aged man, laid down the magazine in which he had been absorbed… about the discovery of Noah’s Ark! … ‘I wonder if this story is true, and if Noah’s Ark really does still exist?’ … Thus simply did Eryl Cummings begin the pursuit of the long-forgotten childhood dream…
“Join us now for a guided tour of this fabled land… We promise you never a dull moment along the way. We invite you to share with us our own elation as each new facet of discovery comes to light, and each nebulous clue is ‘run down.’ We hope you will also share … our conviction that Noah’s Ark does, indeed, still exist somewhere on Ararat, that beautiful, mysterious, rugged mountain on the remote Eastern Turkish frontier.”
She explains in the first chapter, “Since 1840, at least a ‘baker’s dozen’ of reports of discoveries of an Ark-like structure or of hand-tooled timber on treeless Mount Ararat have been made…. Since these stories were not discovered in sequence of the dates just given, and since this book is also a history of the research that made it possible, they will be related in the order in which they came to light. We believe that both common sense and reason will dictate the conclusions that the 1840 eruption did, indeed, usher in the modern era in relation to the Ark; and that its ringing challenge to the modern world is strikingly akin to that of Elijah to apostate Israel of old… And to the archaeologist and the student of sacred history yet another challenge arises: that of the still-buried treasure of the ‘epoch of Noah’s day,’ believed by Col. Koor to lie deep under the mud and debris that swept down the great chasm to destroy the monastery and cloister and village … many years ago.” (Pg. 26-27)
She records, “Hard on the heels of Smith’s unsuccessful attempt to locate the Ark, Fernand Navarra launched the first of his own three expeditions to Ararat… Navarra, too, encountered the same historic and superstitious resistance concerning the mountain as he sought information among the native inhabitants of the area. Friendly and helpful in every other way, when the subject of searching for the Ark arose, the shadow of a reticence and fear seemed to settle upon them.” (Pg. 101) “In his second book, Navarra wrote, “The evidence must be acknowledged: the remains are those of the Ark, if only because it cannot be anything else.’ Unfortunately… Navarra … had brought no equipment to descend into the spot … Navarra turned reluctantly away, swearing that we would return. ‘The Ark is really here,’ he marvelled to himself, ‘but inaccessible.’” (Pg. 106)
She reports, “The short story to be related had been bursting at its seams ever since it was first related in Chapter 1… This amazing story fell across the trail in a most … unexpected way. A gentleman tapped Eryl Cummings on the shoulder following a church service… [in] 1952.” (Pg. 111) This ultimately leads to the famous story of the ‘The Atheists and the Ark’: ‘When Haji [Yearam] was a large boy… there came to his home … three vile men who did not believe the Bible and did not believe in the existence of a personal God. They were scientists and evolutionists. They were on this expedition specifically to prove the legend of Noah’s Ark to be a fraud and a fake. They hired the father of young Haji Yearam as their official guide… They hired the boy to assist his father…. After extreme hardhip and peril the little party came to the little valley… As they reached this spot, there they found the prow of a mighty ship protruding out of the ice…
“The scientists were appalled and dumbfounded and went into a Satanic rage at finding what they hoped to prove nonexistent. They were so angry and mad that they said they would destroy the ship, but the wood was more like stone than any wood we have now. They did not have tools or means to wreck so mighty a ship and had to give up. They did tear out some timbers and tried to burn the wood, but it was so hard that it was almost impossible to burn it. They… took a solemn and fearful death oath. Any man present who would ever breathe a word about what they had found would be tortured and murdered…. For fear of their lives, Haji and his father had never told what they found except to their best trusted and closest relatives.” (Pg. 115)
She laments, “For years it has been increasingly obvious that some power beyond human ken must be at work to counteract or completely destroy every shred of concrete proof for the existence of the Ark: the Bolshevik uprising just at the time the Czar’s ground expeditions had dispatched documentary, scientific evidence that the White Russian aviator’s story had been true; the Harold Williams’s fire that had destroyed both the Haji Yearam story and the former atheist’s deathbed confession that he had seen the Ark; the old newspaper files that had gone up in smoke; the untimely death of Geore Greene and the disappearance of his photos and maps. Thus, although bitterly disappointing, the outcome of the search for Bertha Davis’ picture, even though hopes had been so high, did not come as a total surprise. There had been other disappointments before. Even the unwitting destruction of the long-sought ‘Stars and Stripes’ [publication] in 1959 would fit into the same frustrating category as these otherwise unexplainable events!” (Pg. 147)
She writes, “And yet, in spite of (or even, perhaps, because of) the many adversities and disappointments that had dogged the path of research, [Eryl] Cummings had become more than ever convinced that the every-widening trail would lead to a triumphant conclusion at last. The deepening conviction that where there were so many utterly fascinating little wisps of smoke, there must also be a slow-burning, smoldering fire, had woven itself like a crimson thread through the very fabric of his life. And, in spite of the harassments of this unseen foe, the encouraging presence of a still greater Power had been present through the long years.” (Pg. 214)
She concludes, “Should it then be too difficult to believe, as the lovely old Armenian legend tells us, that the Ark does still exist ‘in one of the highest recesses’ of Aghri Dagh---still guarded by angels and secluded from mortal eyes…? Surely, God Himself must have set the stage for the landing place of the Ark where the token of His covenant with Noah would most gloriously be seen above the flooded plain; and gives us one more reason to believe the reports that the great object glimpsed from time to time upon the northern slopes of the majestic mountain must truly be Noah’s abandoned old ship!” (Pg. 236)
This book takes a completely uncritical (perhaps even ‘naïve’) approach to all these stories. But those wanting an engagingly-written compilation of the Ark stories will probably enjoy this book.
April 12, 2020
One of the many books to come out in the 19790's on this topic, the author's husband, Eryl Cummings, spent 27 years researching, and searching for, Noah's Ark. Here are the details of those endeavors.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews