Vanishing

* See also North Atlantic Project
* See also Rapture Immigration
* See also Rapture_Population
* See also Secrecy_For_Rapture
* See also Surface CASH and Money_In_Rapture
pix from "Frozen Triangle" ?
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"The Vanishings" comes from There Something in the Sea - A web-based Promotional Flash activity done before BS2.  That phrase was created to label the many sudden/unexplained disappearances of people around the World, starting around 1946 and continuing thru 1952. This would have been noticed as being BEYOND the massive disorder during/following WW2.
The story has various Conspiracy Theory enthusiasts coming up with all kinds of explanations, paranormal and otherwise.
Ryan's Surface Organization sowed all kinds of false evidence and obfuscations to help cover up the reality of Rapture existing ( This effort would continue to be part of the MMORPG ). A significant chunk of this 'cover' effort was named the North Atlantic Project.
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Just A Suitcase :
It is an idiotic idea that most (even many) people 'just stepped off a beach' with a suitcase to go to Rapture. Here they are, shipping to Rapture 100000s of tons of construction material at the same time, and some few clandestine operations are expected to move all that population ? 
Moving 20000 20000 people in Rapture - number from the Novel people thousands of miles by sea is a bit more complicated than that - requiring an efficient well-organized and substantial transfer of the immigrants and their effects. There would be a huge controlled process, with many endcases for different people's circumstances.
Complications would be wanted to be minimized to prevent larger notice. Completely changing people's lives personally and professionally would have consequences which would have to be handled.
There would be the shipping of many worldly possessions ( including the tools/materials critical to craftsmen ). And what people did not own would eventually have to be obtained and shipped. 
(( The game writers often implied it was all just some 'hodge-podge' and 'on the cheap' effort - Rather conflicting, considering the serious concern the writer made it being part of BS1's plot. ))
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SECRECY - Just do it Quietly : 
For the needed Secrecy, everyone involved would need to avoid a 'paper trail' - That in an age where people WERE NOT tracked anywhere near as much as in our current privacy-less/invasive today Big-Brotherish World. Still, staged events for those 'Vanishing' would have to be more than "Taking a Vacation" or "Visiting Relatives" ... Numerous ways of covering their Surface World departure would be facilitated. Commuinications involved in the effort would have to be secure. 'Monetary Issues' would be a key aspect to plausibly 'sever' ( to transfer worldly wealth to Rapture ).
With ~20000 people going to Rapture, just a few percent (100s) NOTICED to be mysteriously 'disappearing' would be sufficient for such rumors and stories to happen. Big names of famous experts/celebrities, who might be missed, would require more careful work to cover up their "Vanishings".
For those needing it, there would be the 'selling off' (or transferring) of worldly assets/possessions to fund their new life. Ryan would 'set up' many avenues to a accomplish that. This process would preferably be avoiding a 'firesale', so to get the maximum value, which would be needed to infuse Rapture with the money and wealth its society would need.
Some financial manipulations using the numerous immigrants might have been employed to Diffuse the purchases of material and items obtained for Rapture.
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