Physics
Found ships. The most famous "ghost ships" with dead or disappeared crew. Mary Celeste

Found ships. The most famous "ghost ships" with dead or disappeared crew. Mary Celeste

Ghost ship is a term used most often in works of fiction, a ship afloat that is not inhabited by a crew. The term can also refer to an actual ship that is (often as a vision) seen after it has sunk, or discovered at sea without a crew on board. Legends and reports of ghost ships are common throughout the world. In most cases they are associated with some kind of shipwreck. Usually ghost ships depict scenes of their crash, which they can repeat over and over again. This is especially true on nights when there is a storm.

Joyita - M. V. Joyita

This ship was found in 1955 in the Pacific Ocean. It was heading towards Tokelau when something happened. The rescue team was already equipped, but the ship was found only after 5 weeks. The joystick was badly damaged, and there was no cargo, crew, passengers or lifeboats on board.

After a detailed investigation, it turned out that the ship's radio wave was tuned to a distress signal, and several bloody bandages and a doctor's bag were found on board. None of the passengers were found, and the secret of the ship was not revealed.

Octavius - Octavius

Octavius is considered a legend, whose ghost ship story is one of the most famous. In 1775, the Herald came across the Octavius while sailing along Greenland.
Herald's team boarded the ship and found the bodies of passengers and crew frozen from the cold. The ship's captain was discovered in his cabin, in the middle of filling out a log book with the year 1762 marked on it. Based on the legend, the captain bet that he would return to Great Britain via the Eastern Route in a short time, but the ship got stuck in the ice.

The Flying Dutchman - De Vliegende Hollander

The Flying Dutchman is the most famous ship a ghost. The ship was first mentioned in the book A Voyage to Botany Harbor by George Barrington (1770s). Based on history, the Flying Dutchman was a ship from Amsterdam.
The captain of the ship was Van der Decken. When the storm started near the cape Good Hope, the ship was sailing to the East Indies. Van der Deccan, determined to continue the journey, went mad, then killed one of his assistants and vowed to cross the cape.
Despite all his efforts, the ship sank and, according to legend, Van der Decken and the ghostly ship are doomed to wander the seas forever.

Mary Celeste

This is a merchant ship sailing on the Atlantic Ocean and abandoned by its crew. The ship is in very suitable conditions with sails raised and sufficient food supplies. But the crew, captain and boats of the Mary Celeste mysteriously disappeared. There were no signs of a struggle. You can also exclude the version of pirates, because the crew's belongings and alcohol remained untouched.
The most likely theory is that technical problems or a storm forced the crew to abandon ship.

Lady Lovibond

The captain of the ship, Simon Peel, recently got married and was going on a cruise to celebrate the joyful event. Despite the omen that the woman on board was unfortunate, he took his wife.
The journey began on February 13, 1748. Unfortunately for the captain, one of his assistants was also in love with his wife and, out of anger and jealousy, led the ship to the sandbank. Lady Lovebond and all her passengers sank. According to legend, since the shipwreck the ghost has been seen every 50 years near Kent.

Baychimo - The Baychimo

This steel cargo ship was abandoned and drifted on the seas near Alaska for 40 years. The ship belonged to the Hudson Bay Company. It was launched in the 1920s, transporting skins and furs. But in 1931, Beichimo found himself trapped in ice near Alaska. After several attempts to break through the ice, the team abandoned the ship. In a strong storm, the ship escaped the trap, but was badly damaged, and the company decided to abandon it. Surprisingly, Beichimo did not sink, but continued to float for another 38 years near Alaska. The ship has become something of a local legend. It was last seen in 1969, again frozen in the middle of the ice.

Carroll A. Deering - Carroll A. Deering

This ship sailed near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in 1921. The ship had just returned from a trading trip from South Africa. It ran aground in Diamond Shoals, an area that has a history of shipwrecks. When help arrived, it was discovered that the ship was empty. There was no navigation equipment and logbook, as well as 2 lifeboats. After careful research, it turned out that several more ships mysteriously disappeared almost at the same time. According to officials, this is either the work of pirates or some kind of terrorist organization.

Ourang Medan

The history of Urang Medan began in 1947, when 2 American ships received a distress signal off the coast of Malaysia. The caller introduced himself as a member of the crew of the Urang Medan, a Dutch vessel, and allegedly reported that the captain and the rest of the crew were dead or dying. The man’s speech became more and more unintelligible until he disappeared with the words I’m dying. The ships quickly sailed to help. When they arrived, they found that the ship itself was intact, but the entire crew, including the dog, was dead, their bodies and faces frozen in terrible poses and expressions, and many were pointing their fingers at something invisible to the eye. Before rescuers could figure it out, the ship caught fire. The most popular theory for the crew's death is that the ship was carrying nitroglycerin without special packaging, and it leaked into the air.

High Aim 6

One of the mysterious “sea” stories of our time is associated with the Taiwanese ship High Aim 6. The ship High Aim 6 was discovered off the northwestern coast of Australia in January 2003 without a single soul on board. The ship left the port back in 2002. The holds of High Aim 6 were filled with tuna, which was already beginning to spoil. They tried to give different explanations for the disappearance of the crew: it could have been captured by pirates, however, the safety of the cargo and the absence of damage on the ship refutes this version; the High Aim 6 team was suspected of transporting illegal immigrants, but after opening the holds, this version was abandoned; the threat of sinking of the ship could hardly exist, since it was in good condition. The main version of the events that occurred on the ship High Aim 6 is the version of the crew mutiny and the murder of the captain. The testimony of the only sailor whom the investigators managed to find and one more circumstance speaks in her favor. Two weeks after the discovery of the High Aim 6 vessel, a person called the police from the phone of an engineer on the High Aim 6 vessel and told about a riot on the ship and the death of the captain and engineer. According to him, the team went home. There is still no other information about the fate of the ship’s crew and its owner. And it’s unlikely to appear.

Caleuche

One of Chile's most famous legends describes the Caleuche as a ghostly ship that appears every night off the coast of the island of Chiloe. According to legend, the ship carries the souls of people who died at sea. Those who have seen it say that it is very beautiful and bright and is always accompanied by the sounds of music and the laughter of people. After appearing for a few seconds, it disappears again or goes under water. They say that souls on the ship regain the life they had before.

Iron Mountain

It is clear that a ship could get lost and drown in a huge ocean or sea, but how can a ship disappear in a river without a trace? In June 1872, the S.S. Iron Mountain traveled from Vicksburg to Pittsburgh along the Mississippi River. When the ship did not arrive at the appointed time, a tug was sent to it. After several days of searching, the ship was found, and part of the cargo it was carrying appeared on the surface of the water. The ship simply disappeared.

Bel Amica

The “classic style” schooner was found off the coast of Sardinia, with no crew on board. This ghost ship was discovered by the Italian coast guard in 2006. In the cabins of the sailing ship there were French maps of the North African seas, a Luxembourg flag, remains of Egyptian food and wooden boards with the name “Bel Amica”. Italian authorities discovered that the ship had never been registered in any country. Since the vessel was misclassified as antique, it soon attracted public interest, but it was soon discovered that it was a modern yacht owned by a man from Luxembourg who had probably failed to register it for tax evasion purposes.

Schooner Jenny

“May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days. I'm the only one left alive. “The captain who wrote this message was still sitting in his chair with a pen in his hand when this message was discovered in his journal 17 years later. His body, and the bodies of the other 6 people aboard the British schooner Jenny, were preserved in the cold weather of Antarctica, where the ship was frozen in ice and caused death. The crew of the whaling ship that discovered Jenny after the disaster buried the passengers, including a dog, at sea.

Marlborough

The sailing ship Marlborough was built at a shipyard in Glasgow. It was considered quite reliable for ocean voyages. The sailing ship was commanded by Captain Heed, a knowledgeable and experienced sailor. On the last voyage, the Marlborough carried 23 crew members and several passengers, including one woman. Leaving New Zealand for England, a sailing ship loaded with frozen lamb and wool disappeared in 1890. It was last seen on April 1 in the Pacific Ocean between the entrance to the Strait of Magellan and Cape Horn - in an area that sailors, not without reason, call the “ship graveyard.” An investigation by maritime authorities was inconclusive. The sailboat was considered missing, a victim of the rocks off Cape Horn. In these ominous places, a storm rages 300 days a year, the wind and waves are helped by the current, dragging doomed ships here and throwing them onto formidable rocks... But 23 and a half years later, in October 1913, near Punta Arenas off the coast of Tierra del Fuego, that is, almost in the same place, the Marlboro appeared - the ship was again under full sail! The sailboat seemed untouched. Everything was in place. Even the crew was where they were supposed to be on a sailing ship. One person is at the helm, three are on the deck at the hatch, ten are on watch at their posts and six are in the wardroom. The skeletons were in rags left over from their clothes. It seemed that the people were struck down by some sudden attack, a mysterious force. The log book was covered with moss and the entries in it became illegible. Other papers were found to have been eaten away by insects. The sailors from the ship that met the sailing ship in the ocean were perplexed... First of all, they counted the skeletons: it turned out that there were ten fewer of them than there were people on the Marlborough, according to information from 23 years ago. Where are the absent ones? Have they died before? Were they landed on any shore? Were they washed off the deck by the waves after death, or were they blown from the masts by the wind in a moment of tragic “stunning confusion”? As always in such cases, a version of an epidemic or poisoning was put forward. The captain of the ship that discovered the Marlboro made an accurate report of everything he saw. Inclement weather did not allow him to tow and deliver the ghost ship to the port. However, what was stated in his report was confirmed under oath by everyone who witnessed this meeting. Their testimony was recorded by the British Admiralty. "Marlboro" was never seen again. Apparently, he died on one of the stormy days.

On Earth, everything that can disappear regularly disappears. These are planes, trains, cars, river and sea vessels, people. IN in this case We will touch on such a topic as missing ships. Over the history of human civilization, a lot of similar cases have accumulated. But there is no point in listing them all, since many of them are extremely similar. The ship was sailing, disappeared, and no one ever saw it again. Therefore, we will dwell only on individual tragic episodes that give general idea about the problem.

"Evredika"

In July 1881, the British Navy training ship Eurydice disappeared without a trace in the Irish Sea. That day was extremely calm. But suddenly a storm broke out. It is assumed that it began so suddenly that the ship's crew was unable to react in any way to the sudden change in weather conditions. The ship with its sails raised sailed in an unknown direction, and no one heard anything about it again.

There were 358 people on board. But subsequently neither lifeboats nor people were found. The ship seemed to evaporate into thin air. A few years later, rumors spread that the Eurydice had become a ghost ship. The silhouette of the ship was seen several times in the fog. But the strange ship did not respond to the signals and disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.

"Mary Celeste"

In December 1887, the British ship Mary Celeste disappeared without a trace. He set off towards the Azores and disappeared into the waters of the Atlantic. The crew consisted of 29 people. The ship was carrying large quantities of alcohol in barrels. A year later, a boat was discovered near Cape Roca in Portugal. Judging by the inscription on the side, it belonged to the missing ship. But neither the Mary Celeste herself nor the people were ever found. Hypotheses were put forward about a mutiny on a ship, an attack by pirates, an infectious disease, and an attack by mysterious sea monsters.

10 years have passed, and sailors suddenly started talking about an eerie ghost ship sailing near the Portuguese coast. Someone stated that they clearly saw the name of this ship. It was called "Mary Celeste". The crew consisted of the dead who considered it their duty to greet passing ships. A few years later, the conversations died down, and the authorities attributed this phenomenon to the rich imagination of the sailors.

When considering such a topic as missing ships, one cannot help but mention the Danish sailing ship Copenhagen. In December 1928, the above-mentioned ship sailed from the shores of Uruguay and headed for Australia. It was a sailboat with 5 masts, and was equipped with radio communications, an auxiliary engine and boats. The ship was considered a training ship and was manned by 60 cadets. Some of them belonged to wealthy Danish families. The last time the ship made contact was on December 22, and after that no one heard anything about it.

The most various theories concerning the disappearance of "Copenhagen". The prevailing version was that he hit an iceberg and sank. In 1931, a report appeared that allegedly sailors from time to time see a ghost ship with 5 masts in the coastal waters of Australia. At the beginning of the 21st century on the island of Tristan da Cunha in Atlantic Ocean Found the wreckage of an old ship. Experts suggested that they belong to the missing Copenhagen.

"Erebus" and "Terer"

In May 1846, two ships, the Erebus and the Terer, sailed from the coast of England and headed north. They set themselves the goal of crossing the Northwest Strait and getting from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Both crews numbered 134 people. The expedition was led by John Franklin. Not a single person returned from this voyage. It was suggested that the ships were stuck in the ice, and people tried to get to the continent, but died. Already in our century, the sunken wreckage of one of the ships was discovered. A logbook was also found. It stated that Franklin died in June 1847.

In 1979, the ship "Sings" left Philadelphia, heading for Port Said. On board there were about 14 tons of wheat. But people never received this valuable product, since the ship did not arrive at its destination port. Communication with him was maintained for many hours, but then suddenly stopped. The ship did not send an SOS signal, and its owners did not report the loss within whole week. “Sings” and the team members were never found. The ship seemed to have disappeared into the vast ocean waters.

"Witchcraft"

Another incident involving missing ships occurred in the fall of 1968 in the waters of Miami. During a party, a hotel owner and two guests wanted to admire the city lights from aboard his personal yacht. The company went out to sea about 2 km from the coast. At the same time, the yacht was fully operational. But after 2 hours, a radio message was received from her to send a tug, as the ship had broken down. The coast guard requested the coordinates and launched a flare. The tug reached the indicated place after 25 minutes, but did not find the broken Witchcraft. Rescuers combed the coastal waters for several days, but neither the yacht nor the people on it were found.

It is generally accepted that there are no blank spots left on the map of the Earth, but this does not mean that people are able to control the entire space of the huge planet. No matter how huge the liners that people build are, the oceans are much larger and can easily get lost there, as there is evidence that we have combined into a list of the most amazing ship disappearances.

SS Baychimo is a mystical ghost ship that belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company. Back in 1911, this steam ship got stuck in the Arctic ice. The crew was removed from its board, but several people, along with the captain, remained to wait out the bad weather. A snowstorm began, and when it subsided and the rescuers returned. Neither the crew nor the ship could be found. Periodically, there are reports that in Arctic waters some have seen Baychimo, which drifted among the ice.
The SS Poet, originally named Omar Bundy, was used to transport military personnel during World War II. Subsequently, it began to be used for transporting goods. The ship received the name Poet after becoming the property of the Hawaiian company Eugenia Corporation of Hawaii in 1979. After the ship headed from Philadelphia to Port Said, carrying 13.5 thousand tons of corn on board, no one saw it. The ship did not send a distress signal, and the search by the coast guard was unsuccessful.

The SS Awahou, which was built back in 1912, set sail from Sydney on September 8, 1952, heading towards the private Lord Howe Island. 48 hours later he received a “crispy” signal via radio, the message was impossible to understand. The search did not yield any results, although it is known that there were a large number of lifeboats on board the 44-meter ship.

The sailing ship USS Porpoise was distinguished high speed, because it was used to persecute pirates in the 19th century. One day he was sent on an expedition whose goal was to confirm the existence of Antarctica. Following the exploration of several islands in the Pacific Ocean, he briefly moored in one of the ports of China, and then, in 1854, set out for further sailing. No one heard from him again. It is believed that the ship was caught in a typhoon, but there is no evidence of this fact.

The minesweeper USS Conestoga was launched in 1917, and in 1921 it was refitted and sent to Samoa. The ship was supposed to serve as a floating station. After the ship went to sea on March 25, 1921, there is no information about it.

The sloop USS Wasp, lost in 1814, was the fifth ship to receive given name. The ship was used to fight British ships, and after the capture of the brig Atalanta was supposed to escort the captured ship to an allied port. Subsequently, the ship headed towards the Caribbean Sea and disappeared without a trace. No witnesses or clues could be found that would lead to this vessel.

The FV Andrea Gail is a fishing vessel and is very weather-resistant, but in 1991 it was caught in a storm due to the captain's decision to find a place with the best catch. It is assumed that the ship was caught in a storm, but rescuers who arrived at the radio signal found only a buoy and several debris. It is believed that this ship was caught in a hurricane and encountered waves whose height reached 30 m.

Among the smaller sea transports, the Witchcraft pleasure boat can be distinguished. In 1967, the owner took it out to sea at a distance of 1.5 km from the coast to look at Christmas Miami. At approximately 9 pm, the owner sent a signal to rescuers that his boat had collided with an object. To indicate his location, he fired a flare.

The coast guard arrived at the site within 20 minutes, but did not find the slightest trace of the boat. There was no news about the people who disappeared with him. About 3,100 m2 of ocean were tested, but this did not bring any results.

However, one should not think that larger vessels disappear less often. The huge tanker Marine Sulfur Queen, whose length was 160 m, disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle area. It is reported that it was in excellent condition and was intended for the transportation of sulfur. In 1963, the ship left a port in Texas, a few days later sent a signal that everything was in order, and then disappeared without a trace along with 39 people on board.

The frigate USS Insurgent, which was captured by the US Navy after a battle with French troops, has departed from a port in Virginia. Since then, no one has seen this ship; it is assumed that it was caught in a storm that raged almost 2 months after it left the port, but during this period of time no one saw the ship and it did not enter any port.

It is possible that over time these vessels will be discovered, such as the SS ship. Cotopaxi, which disappeared without a trace in 1925 and was found on May 16, 2015 by the Cuban Coast Guard. It is noteworthy that no people were found on board, and the logbook does not contain any hints of a disaster. What happened to the ship all this time still remains a mystery. There are also frequent cases of ghost ships appearing on which there are no signs of life, although there is no particular damage to the hull. The ocean still conceals many mysteries and quite possibly will still present surprises to humanity.

Alexey Efedorov

In the Philippines, fishermen found the mummified body of a 59-year-old man who had been lying in a half-submerged yacht for several days. He writes about this on Tuesday The Independent.

According to the publication, a German boatmaster named Manfred Fritz Bayorath, who operated the yacht Sajo, died a non-violent death. According to the police, who conducted an examination, the cause of death was most likely a heart attack. The sailor's body was turned into a mummy due to the salty ocean air and dry weather.

The man’s identity was established thanks to documents and numerous photographs that employees law enforcement found on board a yacht that, according to the newspaper, had been drifting in the Pacific Ocean for several months before it was discovered by fishermen.

Let us note that situations have happened quite often in the world before and still happen today when ships without crews were found on the high seas. Such ships are usually called “ghost ships.” This term is most often used in legends and fiction, however, it can also mean a real ship that previously disappeared, and then after some time was discovered at sea without a crew or with a dead crew on board. In most cases, many encounters with such ships are fictional, but nevertheless known real cases, which are documented - thanks to entries in the logbook, for example. MIR 24 remembered the most famous “ghost ships” in the history of navigation.

(George Grieux. "Sunrise" full moon" From the series “Ghost Ship”.)

In 1775, a merchant ship from England called the Octavius was discovered off the coast of Greenland, carrying dozens of frozen bodies of crew members. The ship's log showed that the ship was returning to the UK from China. The ship set sail in 1762 and attempted to navigate the rugged Northwest Passage, which was only successfully crossed in 1906. The ship and the frozen bodies of its crew drifted among the pack ice for 13 years.

Almost a century later, in 1850, a mysterious sailing ship called the Seabird, carrying timber and coffee from the island of Honduras, became stuck in shallow waters off the coast of Rhode Island. On board, in one of the cabins, only a dog was found shaking with fear. No people were found on the ship, despite the fact that aromatic coffee was boiling on the galley stove and there was a map and a logbook on the table. The last entry in it read: “We went abeam Brenton Reef.” Based on the results of the incident, a thorough investigation was carried out, which nevertheless could not answer the question of where the crew of the sailing ship had gone.

(Abandoned by the crew of the Mary Celeste)

On December 4, 1872, 400 miles from Gibraltar, the ship Dei Grazia discovered the brigantine Mary Celeste without a single crew member on board. The ship was quite good, strong, without damage, but, according to legend, during its entire voyage it very often found itself in unpleasant situations, which is why it received notoriety. The captain and his crew of 7 people, as well as his wife and daughter, who were also on the ship at the time of transportation of the cargo, which included, in particular, alcohol, disappeared without a trace.

Many “ghost ships” were found by sailors and fishermen in the last millennium. So, at the end of January 1921, the keeper of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse noticed the five-masted schooner Carroll A. Deering on the outer edge of the Diamond Shoals. All the sails of the ship were removed; there was no one on board except the ship's cat. Nobody touched the cargo, food and personal belongings of the crew members. The only things missing were lifeboats, a chronometer, sextants and a logbook. The schooner's steering did not function; in addition, the ship's compass and some navigational instruments were broken. It was never possible to find out why and where the Carroll A. Deering team disappeared.

(The SS Valencia in 1904)

In 1906, the passenger steamer SS Valencia sank off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. 27 years after the disaster, in 1933, sailors found a lifeboat from this ship floating in the area in good condition. Moreover, the sailors claimed that they observed the Valencia itself, following down the coast. But it turned out to be just a vision.

In February 1948, according to legend, merchant ships located in the Strait of Malacca near Sumatra received a radio signal from the Dutch motor ship Orang Medan: “SOS! Motor ship "Orang Medan". The ship continues to follow its course. Maybe all our crew members have already died.” This was followed by incoherent dots and dashes. At the end of the radiogram it said: “I am dying.” The ship was found by English sailors. The entire crew of the ship was dead. There was an expression of horror on the faces of the crew members. Suddenly, a fire broke out in the hold of the ship, and soon the ship exploded. A powerful explosion broke the ship in half, after which the Orang Medan sank. The most popular theory for the death of the crew is that the ship was carrying nitroglycerin without special packaging.

At the beginning of 1953, the cargo ship "Holchu" with a cargo of rice was discovered by sailors of the English ship "Raney". Due to the elements, the ship was significantly damaged, but the lifeboats were not touched. In addition, there was a full supply of fuel and water on board. Five crew members disappeared without a trace.

“Ghost ships” were also seen in the new century. Thus, in 2003, the Indonesian fishing schooner Hi Em 6 was found drifting without a crew near New Zealand. A large-scale search was organized, which, however, did not yield any results - 14 team members could not be found.

In 2007, a story happened in Australia with the ghost yacht Kaz II. The ship left Airlie Beach on April 15 and was discovered off the coast of Queensland a few days later. Rescuers got on board the yacht and saw the engine, radio, and GPS laptop working. In addition, lunch was prepared and the table was set, but the crew, which consisted of three people, was not on board. The sails of the yacht were in place, but badly damaged. No life jackets or other life-saving equipment were used. On April 25, it was decided to stop the search, since it was unlikely that anyone could survive during such a time period.

(Trawler Maru before sinking. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis)

The Japanese fishing vessel "Maru" ("Luck") drifted and crossed the Pacific Ocean after the devastating incident on March 11, 2011 occurred in the country. The ship was first discovered in late March 2012 by a Canadian Air Force patrol. The Japanese side, after receiving notification of the discovery of the trawler, managed to identify the shipowner. However, he did not express a desire to return the ship. There was a minimal amount of fuel and no cargo on board the Luck, as the ship was destined for scrapping before the earthquake in Japan. Nothing was reported about the fate of the Udachi crew. Due to the fact that the ship posed a threat to navigation, the US Coast Guard fired on it in April 2012, after which the trawler sank.

(The Russian ghost ship "Lyubov Orlova" is drifting in Irish waters, TASS)

On January 23, 2013, a double-deck cruise ship built back in Soviet years, left the Canadian port of St. John's for towing for scrapping to the Dominican Republic. However, in the afternoon of the next day, the towing cable of the tugboat Charlene Hunt, which was pulling the ship, broke. As a result, the ship drifted. Attempts to take him back into tow were unsuccessful. Thus, since January 24, 2013, it has been freely drifting in the Atlantic Ocean without a crew or identification lights. In March, a report appeared in the Irish media that signals were recorded from the Lyubov Orlova emergency radio buoy 700 miles off the coast of Ireland. This may indicate that the ship has sunk, as the emergency beacon is activated when it enters the water. A search was undertaken in the area from which the signals were received, but nothing was found. At the beginning of 2014, rumors appeared that a drifting ship inhabited by cannibal rats could allegedly wash up on the coast of Ireland. However, there is still no reliable information about the fate of the vessel. Most likely, it sank back in February 2013.

Ivan Rakovich.

The Flying Dutchman - De Vliegende Hollander - a ghost sailing ship living in legends, which fell under the oath curse of its own captain, which is why the crew has not been able to return home for 300 years, doomed to forever wander among the waves.

Often, sailors see the appearance of the “Flying Dutchman” on the edge of the horizon, surrounded by the splendor of a luminous halo - seeing a ghost ship is an extremely bad omen.

According to long-established mythology, if the Flying Dutchman meets another ship, then its crew, living outside of time, tries to send a message through the sailors to their loved ones, who, of course, are no longer in the world of the living.

Marine superstitions recognize that a meeting with the Flying Dutchman is an extremely dangerous omen.

However, today we will not stir well famous legends seas, now we will look at the fate of other mysteriously disappeared ships. These will not be stories about the “Flying Dutchman”, or “Mary Celeste” (“Mary Celeste”, “Mary of Heaven”) - which was found without a single person on board (and even the remains of people) in December 1872, 400 miles away from Gibraltar.

We will probably never know why people left an absolutely serviceable ship. Now a classic example of an unknown maritime anomaly, it provides a prime example of a ghost ship in action.

No less than many were born interesting stories about the terrible fate of ships that perished in the depths of the sea for no apparent reason. After all, the sea is an element that leads its own chronicle of history, sometimes building mysterious zigzags of fate.

Stories of missing ships: ghost ships.

The year is 1823. The story of the schooner Jenny tells of a lost ship frozen in the ice in Drake Passage in Antarctica. Seventeen years later, the missing schooner, already surrounded by legends by this time, was found by a whaling ship.

The whaler's crew even found the remains of the captain, preserved and frozen in the captain's chair with a feather clutched in his hand. Ship's log saved last words captain about the chronology of the disaster: “May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days, I'm the only one left alive."

The bodies of the captain and 6 other crew members were buried at sea. Later, the Admiralty told about the death of the ship. King George Island in Antarctica was named after Captain Jenny in the 1960s. This is somewhat strange, but in relation to the ship there are no tales that could tell about its wanderings in the ocean as a ghost.

The year is 1909. The passenger steamer Waratah, considered a powerful ship, made a scheduled stop in Durban on her third voyage between Australia and England. South Africa. Only one passenger got off the ship at this port.

Later, he explained his action by the incredibly difficult atmosphere on the ship. He also reported an anomalous vision of “a man with a long sword in strange clothes. The “ghost” held a sword in his hand, and his hand was covered in blood.”

Naturally, then no one paid much attention to these words, except to grin. Waratah continued on and sailed for Cape Town with 211 passengers and crew on board. The ship was spotted twice by other ships in the area, but the ship itself never reached its destination.

A huge disadvantage was that there was no ship's radio on board the Waratah, and it was impossible to transmit a distress signal in the event of a crash. Despite numerous attempts to find the ship (even as recently as 2004), no trace of the ship was ever found.

At first, experts believed that the cause of the sinking could have been the movement of lead ore cargo in the hold. But then there would be wreckage of the ship, or surviving passengers. But not a single hint of a crash, not a single clue to reveal mysterious disappearance No waratahs were found.

The only thing that can be said about this disappearance is the occasional sound of horns from the fog when it forms in the Cape Town roadstead - while the locators show a clear path.

The year is 1928. The five-masted Copenhagen barque was used as a naval training ship, and was the largest sailing ship in the world at that time. Its shipping history began back in 1913. On its last voyage, the bark left Buenos Aires for Melbourne, without any cargo on board.

The ship exchanged the “all is well” signal with another ship 8 days after sailing, but after that there was complete silence and communication was lost. Two years after the disappearance, in the area Pacific Ocean A ghostly five-masted ship was spotted, very similar to the missing ship.

Assuming that the ship might still be afloat, a thorough search began for the vessel. Wreckage with the inscription 'Kobenhavn' was even found on the west coast of Australia. And later, fragments of the sailor's supposed diary (preserved in a bottle) were discovered in the South Atlantic.

Judging by the recording, the ship collided with a large iceberg and sank. No other wreckage of the ship was ever found. Although in 1935, a boat with human remains was discovered on the coast of South-West Africa, which were buried there.

True, they never fully figured out whether they were related to the missing ship.
They say that sometimes off the coast of Australia, in Port Phillip Bay, from the foggy haze, five matches of a handsome military man loom... still working out the last task.

The year is 1955. The merchant ship Joyita set sail on a short 48-hour voyage between Samoa and Tokelau. 16 crew members and 9 passengers departed from the Samoa departure point. The cargo on board included medicines, wood, and food.

Alas, the ship never reached its final destination without sending any distress signal. After an unsuccessful search, they wanted to give up on the ship, when suddenly Joyita was spotted five weeks later, deviating more than 600 miles from the intended route.

Rescuers found a strange sight on board the ship: the radio was tuned to the international distress signal frequency, the ship's engines were working, and among the medical supplies there was a mass of bandages soaked in blood. Even worse, more than four tons of cargo were missing, and there were no people or their remains on the ship.

Considering the missing cargo, most likely the ship was attacked by pirates, one version of the incident suggested. The crew probably decided to abandon ship because all the life rafts were missing. The ship was able to survive for a long time in the ocean thanks to the design of the vessel; its hull was equipped with a cork.

Joyita was salvaged and sold to new owners, but then acquired an ominous reputation as a cursed ship: her new owners went bankrupt or died, went to prison. As a result, the ship was abandoned, and later completely dismantled into pieces.

The year is 1978. The cargo ship MS München left the port of Bremerhaven in Germany on December 7, 1978, bound for Savannah, Georgia. On board was a cargo of steel products, as well as part of a nuclear reactor for Combustion Engineering, Inc.

This was Munich's 62nd transatlantic flight with an experienced crew on board. The weather in those days was not the most favorable, but the ship was considered unsinkable according to its characteristics.
On the morning of December 13, a German cruise liner received a radio message from the MS München about extremely bad weather conditions and minor damage to the ship. Three hours later, distress signals from Munich were picked up by other ships, which reported a significant deviation from course.

Scattered Morse code signals were recorded in Belgium and Spain, which gave rise to an international search. The search operation lasted until December 20. Eventually, several empty lifeboats were discovered, showing signs of serious damage.

The remains of neither the ship nor the people were ever found. One version of the ship’s disappearance suggested that MS München was broken and then sunk by the enormous force of a “rogue wave.”
There are few rumors regarding the missing ship, but they say: sometimes sailors in these places receive strange radio signals from a ship that is not responding to requests “lost its course... there is dense fog around”...