The most famous ghost ships. Bermuda Triangle - the secrets of the deep sea

Have you ever heard of mysterious cases during which passengers of planes and ships went missing? At best, people were found after a few days, and at worst, news of their fate never appeared again. No remains, no debris...
Sometimes a long-awaited vacation seems like a real fairy tale, from which you really don’t want to return home and work, but be careful in your desires, because sometimes they turn into real disasters. Here is a list of the 10 most mysterious cases of mass disappearance of people.

10. Airplane Amelia Earhart (Amelia Earhart)

Our first point focuses on one of the most high-profile disappearance cases in American aviation history. In 1937, the brave Amelia Earhart set out to do something unimaginable - to circle the globe in her Lockheed Electra aircraft, starting from sunny Florida, and planning to follow the equator. In such a long and dangerous journey, the girl went with a partner - Fred Noonan (Fred Noonan). The ship disappeared, flying somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. All searches for the aircraft were unsuccessful, which gave rise to many different theories about what exactly happened to the brave couple of pilots.
In 2017, a version appeared that Amelia and Fred actually survived, but were captured by the Japanese military in the Marshall Islands. This assumption appeared thanks to an old photograph taken in 1937. The photograph showed a barge towing an unidentified aircraft. The frame also included a man of European appearance, reminiscent of Fred, and someone's female figure from the back. This version has not been confirmed in any way, but the most surprising thing is that even after almost 80 years, people are still trying to find an answer to the question of the fate of the travelers who disappeared so long ago and absolutely without a trace.

9. Ship "Madagascar"

In 1853, the Madagascar set off on its regular voyage from Melbourne to London. It was an ordinary ship carrying passengers and cargo. The ship disappeared without a trace, it was never seen again, and not even the wreckage was found! Like any other missing ship, Madagascar also attracted public attention. There are many theories about what exactly happened to this ship, but there is something special in this story - the events that took place right before the departure of the flight from the Australian port are of interest.
Before the disappearance of the ship, 110 passengers boarded it, and containers of rice and wool were loaded. However, the most valuable cargo was as much as 2 tons of gold. Three passengers were arrested just before sailing, and this incident led experts to believe that there could be many more criminals on board the ship than the police could have imagined. Perhaps at sea, the attackers decided to rob the Madagascar and killed all the passengers so as not to leave witnesses. However, this does not explain why investigators were never able to find the ship itself.

8. Stardust plane

In 1947, the Stardust, a British South American Airways aircraft, took off on schedule, flying across the famous Argentine Andes. A few minutes before disappearing from the radar, the pilot of the aircraft sent a strange message, encrypted in Morse code. The message read: "STENDEC". The disappearance of the plane and the mysterious code greatly puzzled the experts. The people even spread rumors about abduction by aliens. After 53 years, the mystery of the missing Stardust flight was finally solved.
In 2000, climbers discovered the wreckage of a plane and the bodies of several passengers on a remote peak of the freezing Andes at an altitude of almost 6565 meters. Investigators believe that the plane crash could have provoked a powerful avalanche that covered the body of the colossus and hid the traces of the rest of the victims, which is why they were never found. As for the mysterious word STENDEC, the most likely version is considered to be an error in the STR DEC code set, which means a common abbreviation for the phrase "starting descent" (I'm starting to descend).

7. Steam yacht "SY Aurora"

The history of the ship "SY Aurora" clearly demonstrates the power of such ships, but its ending still turned out to be rather tragic. A steam yacht is considered to be a sailboat with an additional primary or secondary steam engine. This yacht was originally built for whaling, but later it began to be used for scientific trips to Antarctica. A total of 5 such expeditions were made, and each time the vessel proved to be a reliable vehicle capable of withstanding the most severe weather and successfully protecting crew members from northern frosts. Nothing could break his power.
In 1917, "SY Aurora" disappeared while en route to the coast of Chile. The ship was carrying coal to South America, but it never managed to complete its mission and deliver the cargo to its destination. Historians believe that the yacht could have been a victim of the First World War. The wreckage of the ship was never found, so experts can only guess about the true reasons for the disappearance of the ship.

6. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

Unlike several previous stories, this plane did not just crash and sink into oblivion ... Several crew members survived and went through a real nightmare until they were found by rescuers. In 1972, Flight 571 was en route from Argentina to Chile, carrying 40 passengers and 5 crew members. The charter was supposed to deliver a team of athletes, their relatives and sponsors to the city of Santiago. The aircraft disappeared from radar somewhere in the Argentine Andes. During the crash, 12 passengers died immediately, and the rest had to fight for survival for another 72 days in the most severe conditions, which are practically incompatible with life without special equipment. Although it would be more accurate to say that 72 days for most of them turned out to be too long ...
It is impossible to imagine how frightened all these people were. In the first days of the disaster, another 5 people died from cold and severe injuries. On one of the following days, a powerful avalanche covered a group of survivors, killing 8 more people. The freezing passengers were carrying a faulty walkie-talkie. She allowed to listen to the conversations of the rescuers, but could not transmit messages from the victims. So the people who survived after the plane crash found out that their search had been stopped, and the victims themselves were recognized as dead in absentia. This deprived them of almost their last hope, although the thirst for life is almost impossible to kill. Desperate and exhausted athletes and pilots were forced to eat the frozen bodies of their friends, and as a result, out of 45 people, only 16 survived. For 2 and a half months, these people were in real ice hell!

5. Submarine "USS Capelin"

This time we are not talking about a plane or a ship, but about a submarine. The submarine "USS Capelin" was on the account of the American army during the Second World War. On its first military voyage, the submarine sank a Japanese cargo ship, after which it was sent to the Australian coast for repairs and maintenance before the second mission. On November 17, 1943, the submarine left for its second mission and has not been seen since.
As far as experts know, the route of the ship ran through a real sea minefield, so the most likely version is connected with the explosion of a submarine. However, the wreckage of the USS Capelin was never found, so the version with mines will remain just a guess. When the warship set off on its last mission, it had 76 crew members on board, whose fate their relatives never learned about.

4. Flying Tiger Line Flight 739

In 1963, a Lockheed Constellation passenger aircraft was flying Flight 739. There were 96 passengers and 11 crew on board, all bound for the Philippines. Flying Tiger Line was the first American cargo and passenger airline to operate scheduled flights. After 2 hours of flight, communication with the pilots of the vessel was interrupted, and nothing more was heard from them. Probably, the crew did not have time to transmit any message, because the incident was too sudden, and the pilots simply did not have time to send a distress signal.
In the same area, a tanker of the American Oil Corporation was sailing that day. The crew of this ship claimed that its members saw a flash in the sky, and they immediately decided that it was an explosion. According to one theory, there was sabotage on board the disappeared plane, or they tried to hijack it, which led to the most tragic consequences. However, the wreckage has never been found, leaving investigators to wonder what really happened to Flying Tiger Line Flight 739.

3. The ship "SS Arctic"

In 1854, the American ship SS Arctic collided with a French steamship. After the impact, both ships remained afloat, but the incident still ended rather sadly. During this accident, almost 350 people died, and for some reason only men survived on board the American ship, and all the women and children died during the collision. In addition, the stricken SS Arctic continued on its way to shore but never made it.
As it turned out, the American ship was still too damaged to continue sailing safely, and it was because of this that it sank on the way to land. A monument was subsequently erected in Brooklyn in honor of those who died that day.

2. Malaysian Airlines Flight 370

In 2014, a Malaysian Airlines plane took off for Beijing with 239 people on board. An hour after takeoff, communication with this aircraft was lost, but no distress signal had been received before. Before the disappearance of Flight 370, the radar showed that the plane had strayed from its course - for some reason it was heading west instead of northeast.
After the disappearance of the airliner, numerous rescue teams were sent in search of it, which carefully combed the alleged crash site in the Indian Ocean. Only a small fragment was found. The search was also resumed in 2018, but again to no avail, despite all the efforts and funds expended. What exactly happened to this flight is still a big mystery.

1. Steamboat "SS Waratah"

Since November 2008, the steamer SS Waratah has started to carry out regular flights from England to Australia via South Africa. The ship could take on board up to 700 passengers and had a hundred first-class cabins. In July 2009, on the way back to Europe, the liner disappeared without a trace, and no one else saw it.
The last port in which the ship stood was in Durban, South Africa. After this stop, the ship was supposed to sail for Cape Town, but it never appeared there. Experts have found that the weather deteriorated during the journey from Durban to Cape Town, and they suggest that it was the storm that caused the alleged crash and mysterious disappearance of the SS Waratah.

Those who worked as a seafarer know how romantic and… boring it is. How easy it is sometimes to earn an order of magnitude more in the ocean than on land, and how difficult it is sometimes to endure the vagaries of Neptune, from natural storms to unexpected ship arrests in inhospitable ports of the fifth and seventh worlds. Like for weeks on the endless horizon nothing happens and does not change, and then suddenly you meet something that makes your eyes sparkle and your skin tremble. For example, in the middle of the Atlantic, a catamaran is found with no signs of life on board, but with freshly caught fish. Or a buoy that was lost 100 years ago, and has been floating somewhere for some reason since then.

To visit a ghost ship is a pleasure for everyone. No matter how brave a Sinbad the sailor is, stepping on the deck of the Flying Dutchman, the old sea dog can easily, excuse me, crap out of fear. In the age of GPS and genetic engineering, most people, even shamelessly brave, are still.

Most of the "meetings" with ghost ships are fiction, but we can't get away from real meetings either. At the same time, everything is quite understandable and necessarily decorated with sentimental stories and epithets. Without which our unusual world would be too boring.

Losing a ship or a ship in the infinity of the oceans is not so difficult. And it's even easier to lose people.

1. "Carroll A. Dearing"

The five-masted schooner Carroll A. Dearing was built in 1911. The vehicle was named after the shipowner's son. "Deering" carried out cargo flights, the last of which started on December 2, 1920 in the port of Rio de Janeiro. Captain William Merritt and his son, who served as chief mate, had a team of 10 Scandinavians. Merrita's father and son suddenly fell ill, and a captain named W.B. Wormell had to be hired as a replacement.

Leaving Rio, the Deering reached Barbados, where it stopped to replenish provisions. Temporary XO McLennan got drunk and began to vilify Captain Wormell in front of the sailors, provoking a riot. When McLennan yelled that he would soon take the place of captain, he was arrested. But Wormell forgave him and bought him out of jail. Soon the ship set sail and ... the last time it was seen "non-ghostly" on January 28, 1921, when a sailor from a lightship was hailed by a red-haired man standing on the forecastle of a passing schooner. Ginger reported that the Deering had lost anchors. But the lighthouse worker could not contact the emergency service, because. his radio was out of order.

Three days later, Deering was found aground near Cape Hatteras.

When the rescuers arrived, it turned out that the ship was completely empty. No crew, no logbook, no navigation equipment, no lifeboats. In the galley, undercooked naval borscht froze on the stove. Unfortunately, the schooner was blown up out of harm's way with dynamite, and there was nothing more to explore. It is believed that the Deering crew disappeared without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle.

2. Baichimo

The Baichimo trading ship was built in 1911 in Sweden for the Germans and is designed to transport the skins of northern animals. After the First World War, the German skin carrier passed under the British flag and cruised along the polar coasts of Canada and the United States.

The last voyage of Baichimo (with a live crew and a cargo of fur on board) took place in the autumn of 1931. On October 1, off the coast, the ship fell into an ice trap. The crew left the steamer and went to seek shelter from the cold. Not finding people, the sailors built a makeshift hut on the shore, hoping to wait out the cold and continue sailing when the ice thawed.

On November 24, a storm broke out. And when it calmed down, the sailors saw with amazement that the ship had disappeared. At first they thought that the transport with furs sank during a storm, but after a couple of days the walrus hunter told that he had seen Baichimo 45 miles from the camp. The sailors decided to save the precious cargo, and to abandon the steamer would not survive the winter anyway. The team and furs were delivered deep into the mainland by plane, and the ghost ship Baichimo met sea workers here and there in the waters of Alaska repeatedly over the next 40 years. The last fact was documented in 1969, when the Eskimos saw Baichimo frozen in the Arctic ice of the Beaufort Sea. In 2006, the Alaska government announced an official search for the legendary ghost steamer, but the operation was unsuccessful. Unfortunately or fortunately?

3. Eliza Battle

The Eliza was launched in 1852 in Indiana. It was a luxury river steamer, which was ridden only by the rich and statesmen - with their wives and children. On a cold night in February 1858, cotton bales ignited on the deck of the ship, a wooden steamer caught fire, fanned by a strong frosty wind. The Eliza Battle was on the Tombigbee River. In the smoke and fire, 100 people died, another 26 were missing. The ship sank at a depth of 9 meters and rests at the crash site to this day.

It is said that during the spring floods, with a full moon at night, you can see how a river steamer emerges from the bottom and walks along the river back and forth. Music is playing on board and a fire is burning. The fire is so bright that the name of the ship is easily read - "Eliza Battle".

4. Yacht "Joita"

The Joita was a luxury "unsinkable" yacht owned by Hollywood film director Roland West from 1931 until the war, then converted into a patrol boat and served off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands until 1945.

October 3, 1955 "Joita" sailed to Samoa with 25 souls on board and a not quite serviceable engine. The yacht was expected on the islands of Tokelau, 270 miles from Samoa. The voyage was supposed to last no more than two days, but on the third day the Joita did not arrive at the port. And no one signaled SOS. Planes were sent to search, but the pilots did not find anything either.

5 weeks passed, and on November 10 the yacht was found. She was still swimming, but it was not clear where, with the engine running at half power and a strong roll. 4 tons of cargo disappeared, as well as the crew and passengers. All clocks stopped at 10-25. Despite the fact that the yacht, lined with a crust, was unsinkable, all life rafts and life jackets disappeared from the Joita. The investigation found that the ship's hull was unharmed, but the fate of the crew and cargo remained unclear.

Someone put forward a lovely version. Say, this is the work of the surviving Japanese militarists, who dug in on a lonely island and make pirate attacks.

The Joita was repaired, the engine was replaced, but no one wanted to go out to sea on a ghost ship, and in the mid-1960s, the unsinkable riddle was sawn into pins and needles.

The most famous of the ghostly sea vehicles is the Flying Dutchman, the eternally evil wanderer who was promoted in Pirates of the Caribbean. Before the Hollywood fairy tale, the “Flying Dutchman” met us on the pages of books, in the music of Wagner and the songs of the Rammstein group. It's time to see you face to face. We continue our nightmarish sea voyage and right on our course it is the most ...

5. "VolatileDutchman»

Not everyone knows that the “flying Dutchman” is not the nickname of the ghost ship itself, but of its captain.

"Flying Dutchmen" refers to several different ghost ships from different centuries. One of them is the real owner of the brand. The one with whom trouble happened at the Cape of Good Hope.

The legend says: “The captain of the ship, Hendrik van Der Decken, rounded the Cape of Good Hope on his way to Amsterdam. Rounding the cape was difficult because of the monstrous winds, but Hendrik vowed to do it (yes-yes-yes!), Even if it required to fight the elements until the Day of Judgment. The team also asked to be protected from the storm and turn the ship back. Nightmarish waves pounded the ship, and the brave captain sang obscene songs, drank and smoked some herbs. Realizing that the captain could not be persuaded, part of the team revolted. The captain shot the main rebel and threw his body overboard. Then the heavens opened up, and the captain heard the voice “You are too stubborn a person”, to which he replied: “I never looked for easy ways and did not ask for anything, so dry up before I shot you too!”. And he tried to shoot into the sky, but the gun exploded in his hand.

The voice from heaven continued: “Damn you and sail the oceans forever with the ghostly crew of the dead, bringing death to everyone who sees your ghost ship. In no port can you land and not know peace for a moment. Bile will be your wine, and red-hot iron your meat.”

Among those who subsequently met the "Flying Dutchman" are such experienced and non-superstitious persons as Prince George of Wales and his brother, Prince Albert Victor.

In 1941, on the beach in Cape Town, a crowd of people saw a sailboat that went straight for the rocks, but disappeared into the air at the moment when the crash was supposed to occur.

6. "Young Teaser"

This nimble corsair schooner was built in 1813 for the sole purpose of robbing British Empire merchant ships that ply the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia. At that time, what we call Canada belonged to the British, who were resented after the 1812 between the United Kingdom and the United States.

From Nova Scotia, the fast Teaser brought good trophies. In June 1813, corsairs of the English administration were chasing the schooner, but the Young Teaser managed to escape in a magically thickened fog. A few days later, the schooner was cornered by the 74-gun British battleships La Hog and Orpheus. It was decided to board the Young Teaser. As soon as the five boarding boats approached the ship, the Teaser exploded. Seven Britons survived and told how a corsair in the rank of lieutenant ran to the arsenal of a schooner with a burning piece of wood and looked crazy. Most of the dead privateers found peace in unsigned graves in the Anglican cemetery at Mahone Bay.

Soon, eyewitnesses of strange phenomena began to appear one after another. Allegedly saw "Young Teaser" afloat on fire. In the summer of the following year, curious locals organized a boat cult trip to the place of the schooner's death in order to see the ghost closer. And a ghost the size of a ship, having allowed itself to be admired, disappeared in clouds of fire and smoke. Since then, tourists from all over the country have been gathering in Mahone Bay every year. And "Young Teaser" explodes in their eyes again and again. The ghost especially likes to appear on foggy nights with a full moon.

It is believed that the ghost ship Octavius ​​was discovered by whalers off the western coast of Greenland in October 1775. On board the Octavius ​​was a dead crew, each of the sailors seemed to have been frozen at the moment of death. The captain paused with a pencil in his hand over a magazine, next to him stood a frozen woman, a boy wrapped in a blanket and a sailor with a keg of gunpowder in his hands.

The terrified whalers grabbed the ghost ship's logbook and found out that the last entry dates back to 1762. That is, "Octavius" has been in a frozen state for 13 years.

In 1761 the ship left England for South Asia. To save time, the captain decided not to go around Africa, but to lay a short but dangerous Arctic route along the northern coast of America. Recall that neither the Suez nor the Panama Canal existed in the project yet. Apparently, the ship was frozen in the ice in the waters of the north and was the first to dare to travel along the northwestern route long before the appearance of icebreakers.

More "Octavius" did not catch anyone's eye.

8. "Lady Lovibond"

In February 1748, Captain Simon Reed took his young wife Annette aboard the Lady Lovibond to honeymoon in Portugal. At the time, the presence of a woman on a ship was considered bad luck.

The captain did not know that his first mate, John Rivers, was head over heels in love with Reed's wife and was going crazy with jealousy. In a fit of rage, Rivers stalked back and forth on the deck, then pulled out a coffee nail and killed the helmsman. The bad first officer took the helm and led the schooner to Goodwin Sands, in the southeast of England, on the banks of Kent. "Lady Lovibond" ran aground, the entire crew and passengers of the schooner died. The verdict of the investigation was "accident".

50 years later, a phantom sailboat was seen sailing along the shallows of the Goodwin Sands from two different ships. In February 1848, local fishermen observed the remains of a shipwreck and even sent out lifeboats, but they returned empty-handed. In 1948, the ghost of "Lady Lovibond" in a green glow caught people's eyes again.

A ghost ship makes itself felt every 50 years. Therefore, if you don't have specific plans for February 13, 2048 yet, you can make a note on the calendar. Goodwin Sands has destroyed almost more ships than the Bermuda Triangle. Two warships lie at the bottom next to the Lady.

"Mary Celeste" is the greatest mystery in the history of navigation. To this day, there are disputes about the reasons for the mysterious disappearance of 8 crew members and two passengers from the ship.

In November 1872, the brigantine "Maria Celeste" set off with a cargo of alcohol from New York to Genoa under the command of Captain Briggs. Four weeks later, the ship was discovered near Gibraltar by the captain of the Dei Gracia, who was friends with Briggs and was not averse to drinking with him. Approaching the Mary Celeste and boarding the brigantine, Captain Morehouse found the ship abandoned. There were no living or dead people on it. The cargo of alcohol was intact and, apparently, the brigantine did not fall into a strong storm, it was afloat. There were no signs of crime or violence. What could have caused the brave Captain Briggs to evacuate so hastily is unclear.

The ship was transferred to Gibraltar and repaired. After the repair, "Mary Celeste" worked for another 12 years and ran into a reef in the Caribbean Sea.

Versions of the sudden devastation of the brigantine are different, and there are many of them. For example, an explosion of alcohol vapors in the aft hold. Or the collision of the Mary Celeste with a floating island of sand. Or the conspiracy of Captains Briggs and Morehouse. Someone even seriously talked about the intrigues of aliens.

10. Gian Sen

The list of ghost ships is replenished even today.

An Australian patrol aircraft spotted an 80m tanker of unknown origin in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 2006. The name of the ship, "Jian Sen", was blacked out, but quite legible on all the documents that the customs officers managed to find on the empty tanker. There was no evidence that Gian Sen was illegally fishing or transporting illegal immigrants. There was quite a lot of rice.

It is assumed that the ship was towed without a team, but the cable broke. The drift of the ghost ship continued for more than one day, so the engines of the Gian Sen could not be started. The ship was sunk in deep water. Down there, it's beautiful and peaceful. Politicians spoke out that on such tankers, Indonesians illegally deliver migrants to drugs.

There have been many cases in history when large and reliable ships disappeared into the seas and oceans without a trace. They simply disappeared without a trace and were never found again. Is it any wonder that a South Korean passenger liner just recently disappeared and no one can find it? Look how many ships have disappeared, even today no one knows where they all went.

Mysterious disappearances. Lost ships. Even today no one knows where they are now.

1. USS Wasp - the missing escort

In fact, there were several ships that were called USS Wasp, but the strangest was the Wasp, which disappeared in 1814. Built in 1813 for the war with England, the Wasp was a fast square-sail sloop with 22 guns and a crew of 170 men. Wasp participated in 13 successful operations. On September 22, 1814, the ship captured the British merchant brig Atalanta. As a rule, the Wasp crew simply burned enemy ships, but Atalanta was deemed too valuable to destroy. As a result, an order was received to escort Atalanta to the allied harbor, and Wasp set off towards the Caribbean Sea. He was never seen again.

2. SS Marine Sulfur Queen - a victim of the Bermuda Triangle

This vessel was a 160m tanker originally used to transport oil during World War II. The ship was later rebuilt to carry molten sulfur. Marine Sulfur Queen was in excellent condition. In February 1963, two days after leaving Texas with a cargo of sulfur, a conventional radio message was received from the ship saying that everything was in order. After that, the ship disappeared. Many assume that it just exploded, while others blame the "magic" of the Bermuda Triangle for the disappearance. The bodies of 39 crew members were not found, although a life jacket and a piece of board with a piece of the inscription "arine SULPH" were fished out.

3. USS Porpoise - killed in a typhoon

Built in the golden age of sailing, the Porpoise was originally known as the "hermaphrodite brig" because two different types of sail were used on its two masts. She was later converted to a traditional brigantine with square sails on both masts. At first, the ship was used to pursue pirates, and in 1838 it was sent on an exploratory expedition. The team managed to travel around the world and confirm the existence of Antarctica. After exploring a number of islands in the South Pacific, the Porpoise sailed from China in September 1854, after which no one heard from her. It is likely that the crew encountered a typhoon, but there is no evidence of this.

4. FV Andrea Gail - a victim of the "perfect storm"

The Andrea Gai fishing trawler was built in Florida in 1978 and subsequently acquired by a company in Massachusetts. With a crew of six, Andrea Gail sailed successfully for 13 years and disappeared on a voyage to Newfoundland. The Coast Guard launched a search, but could only find the ship's emergency beacon and a few pieces of wreckage. After a week of searching, the ship and its crew were declared missing. Andrea Gail is thought to have been doomed when a high-pressure front crashed into a massive area of ​​low-pressure air, the nascent typhoon merged with the remnants of Hurricane Grace. This rare combination of three separate weather systems eventually became known as the "perfect storm". According to experts, Andrea Gail could collide with waves over 30 meters high.

5. SS Poet - the ship that did not send a distress signal

At first, this ship was called "Omar Bundy" and was used to transport troops during the Second World War. It was later used to transport steel. In 1979, the ship was purchased by the Hawaiian Eugenia Corporation of Hawaii, who named it "Poet". In 1979, a ship left Philadelphia for Port Said with a cargo of 13,500 tons of corn, but never made it to its destination. The last communication with the Poet happened just six hours after leaving the port of Philadelphia, when one of the crew members spoke to his wife. After that, the ship did not reach the scheduled 48-hour communication session, while the ship did not send a distress signal. Eugenia Corporation did not report the loss of the ship for six days, and the Coast Guard did not respond for another 5 days after that. No trace of the ship was ever found.

6. USS Conestoga - the missing minesweeper

USS Conestoga was built in 1917 as a minesweeper. After the end of the First World War, it was converted into a tugboat. In 1921, the ship was transferred to Samoa, where it was to become a floating station. March 25, 1921 the ship set sail, nothing more is known about it.

SourcePhoto 7Witchcraft - the pleasure boat that went missing at Christmas

In December 1967, Miami hotel owner Dan Burak decided to watch the city's Christmas lights from his personal luxury boat, the Witchcraft. Accompanied by his father Patrick Hogan, he went to sea for about 1.5 km. It is known that the boat was in perfect order. At about 9 pm, Burak requested a towing back to the pier by radio, saying that his boat had hit an unknown object. He confirmed his coordinates to the Coast Guard and specified that he would launch a flare. Rescuers got to the scene in 20 minutes, but Witchcraft disappeared. The Coast Guard combed over 3,100 square kilometers of the ocean, but neither Dan Burak, nor Patrick Hogan, nor Witchcraft were ever found.

8. USS Insurgent: the mysterious disappearance of a warship

The US Navy frigate "Insurgent" was captured by the Americans in a battle with the French in 1799. The ship served in the Caribbean, where it won many glorious victories. But on August 8, 1800, the ship sailed out of Virginia Hampton Roads and mysteriously disappeared.

9. SS Awahou: boats did not help

Built in 1912, the 44m Awahou cargo steamer went through many owners before eventually being bought by the Australian Carr Shipping & Trading Company. On September 8, 1952, the ship sailed from Sydney with a crew of 18 and sailed to the private island of Lord Howe. The ship was in good shape when it left Australia, but within 48 hours a fuzzy, "crunchy" radio signal was received from the ship. The speech was almost unintelligible, but it looked like Awahou was caught in bad weather. Although the ship had enough lifeboats for the entire crew, no signs of the wreck or bodies were found.

10. SS Baychimo - arctic ghost ship

Some call it a ghost ship, but the Baychimo was actually a real ship. Built in 1911, the Baychimo was a huge steam cargo ship owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. The ship was mainly used to transport fur from northern Canada. The first nine flights were relatively quiet. But during the last voyage of the ship, in 1931, winter came very early. Completely unprepared for bad weather, the ship was trapped in the ice. Most of the crew were rescued by plane, but the captain and a few Baychimo crew members decided to wait out the bad weather by camping on the ship. A severe snowstorm began, which completely hid the ship from sight. When the storm subsided, Baychimo disappeared. However, over the course of several decades, Baychimo has allegedly been seen drifting aimlessly in Arctic waters.

Source

Sea remains the keeper of many dark secrets. Despite the fact that maritime safety standards have risen sharply over the past century, every year there are mysterious disappearances of five to ten large ships, from which there are no traces, and no one finds the reasons for their disappearance. Among the thousands of mysteries of the sea, only a few cause such a huge amount of gossip among sailors as the unexpected disappearance of the American cargo ship "Cyclops" with a displacement of 20 thousand tons, which mysteriously disappeared along with a cargo of manganese ore at the end of March 1918

Three hundred on board

The loss of the Cyclops, aggravated by the loss of three hundred and four people on board, was a heavy blow to the American fleet, which was then participating in the World War. Moreover, it was not at all like that the ship fell victim to enemy mines or torpedoes. With a length of five hundred feet, this powerful freighter was quite capable of withstanding any Atlantic storm. And he disappeared in calm weather. Very few of the facts of the last voyage of the Cyclops can claim to clarify the mystery of the strange disappearance of the ship. Twenty-four hours after leaving Barbados, where the ship was loaded with 10,000 tons of manganese ore used in the manufacture of shells, the Cyclops passed the Vestris liner, which was making a voyage from Buenos Aires to New York, and transmitted a message. The message from the cargo ship said that the ship was in perfect order in everything. However, no one else met either the ship or any of the people sailing on it ... The sea vessel mysteriously disappeared.

Only God knows

When the ship was reported missing, a belated order was received to survey the area of ​​the proposed route. The wreckage was not found, and the command of the US Navy could not offer a satisfactory explanation of why, in fact, the ship sank. There were no mines in that part of the Atlantic, and the activity of German submarines at that time was limited to more northerly waters.

Over the years that have passed since the tragedy, a whole bunch of scenarios for the death of the ship have been proposed: a sudden local hurricane, a bomb planted by saboteurs, and even a riot among the crew. But no confirmation of these theories appeared, and the investigation of this strange disappearance, conducted by the commission of the fleet after the conclusion of peace, established that during the last voyage of the Cyclops, there were no enemy ships or submarines near its route. The fact that the ship was swallowed up by the agitated sea seemed the most improbable option, for it had already managed to show itself as strong in resisting the Atlantic storms.

In any case, as the investigation found out, during March - early April there were no reports of storms in the sea off the east coast of Central America. Joseph Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, wrote of the tragedy: “In the annals of the US Navy, there is no more disconcerting mystery than the mysterious disappearance of the Cyclops. President Woodrow Wilson, who himself had gone to great lengths to find any facts that might suggest a solution to the mystery, finally backed down, saying, "Only the sea and God know what happened to that ship."

Disappearance of the Carrier

On June 17, 1984, the Panamanian "Arctic Carrier" (cargo ship, 17 thousand tons displacement) left Brazil with holds full of various goods. The last time the ship made itself known was three hundred miles northeast of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic. The ship then disappeared without a trace. It is difficult to say what fate befell him, although it is known for sure that no SOS signal was sent from him, and no bodies or wreckage were ever found. The ship disappeared without a trace.

Everything looked as if the ship had never existed. The following wording in Lloyd's registry brings the mystery to its logical conclusion: "The true reasons for his so strange disappearance will probably forever remain a mystery."

At the crossroads

At the end of October 1979, a ship four times the size of the Arctic Carrier, the Norwegian ore carrier Berge Vanya, also mysteriously disappeared, six hundred miles east of Cape Town, in fine weather, at the intersection of the busiest highways on the planet. It's hard to imagine how the sea could swallow up the Berge Vanya so soon that people didn't have time to give an SOS or even fire a flare gun. But even if this happened, then why did no one see how this floating giant went to the bottom, despite the fact that there were practically no opportunities to cause him any harm.

Lost "Treasure"

The disappearance of the “Treasures of the East” (28 thousand tons displacement), a cargo ship under the Panamanian flag, is another maritime story of the strange disappearance of the ship. Picking up a cargo of chromium from Mazinlok in the Philippines on January 12, 1982, the Oriental Treasure successfully made its way to Port Said before disappearing forever.

Surprisingly, members of the commission of inquiry concluded that the ship must have been a victim of pirates, although they had not been heard of in these waters for more than a century. How such a brilliant conclusion without the slightest hint of evidence arose in the minds of respectable experts, one can only guess. One journalist put it this way: “They just clutched at straws” ...

Twice as big as the Titanic

Meanwhile, the list of mysteriously missing ships is updated annually, and now each maritime power can provide its own national registry of disappearances.

One of the most impressive losses that hit the English merchant fleet is associated with the last voyage of the cargo ship Derbyshire (170 thousand tons). Built in British shipyards in 1980, it sailed from the American port of San Lawrence to Kawasaki (Japan). Its mass was twice that of the Titanic, and in length it contained three football fields. The Derbyshire was generally one of the largest ships that ever sailed under the flag of English merchants. Designed specifically for the transport of oil and iron ore, on that voyage, before its last journey, it was loaded very thoroughly - 157 thousand tons. The huge ship was operated by a crew of 42 under the command of an experienced captain Joffrey Underhill, so in terms of navigation problems could not arise. However, some problems still arose, and why - we will never know. The ship has mysteriously disappeared.

Last session

The last radio contact with the Derbyshire was on September 8, when she was seven hundred miles southwest of Tokyo. The ship was supposed to arrive in Kawasaki in the early evening of the 11th. And this optimistic message turned out to be final. As one English newspaperman wrote, "There was an everyday radio message - and eternal rest." Why such giant ships disappear in clear weather, without sending calls for help and leaving no traces, is beyond the understanding of maritime specialists.

The current ships are built better than their predecessors. It was in the era of early shipping that most of the disasters happened only because of design flaws. The current ones are dressed in metal, built with the strictest observance of all safety standards. Before going to sea, ships go through a lot of checks.

There are no more filibuster flotillas roaming the oceans, and the possibility of a sudden change in the weather has been greatly reduced with the introduction of satellite weather tracking systems and reliable radio communication equipment. And yet ships of all sizes, including the most massive ships, continue to disappear for no reason and without a trace.

A ghost ship is a term used most often in works of fiction, a ship afloat without a crew. The term can also refer to a real vessel that (often as a vision) was seen after it sank, or found 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 exactly the scenes of their wreck, 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. Joyta was badly damaged, and there was no cargo, no crew, no passengers, no lifeboats on board.

After a detailed study, 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 in this way, 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 ship Herald came across Octavius ​​while sailing along Greenland.
Herald's team boarded the ship and found the bodies of the passengers and crew frozen in the cold. The ship's captain was found in his cabin, in the middle of filling out a journal that marked the year 1762. 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.

Flying Dutchman - De Vliegende Hollander

The Flying Dutchman is the most famous ghost ship. The ship was first mentioned in George Barrington's Voyage to Botany Harbor (1770s). Based on history, the Flying Dutchman was a ship from Amsterdam.
The ship's captain was Van der Decken. When a storm began near the Cape of Good Hope, the ship sailed for 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 his best efforts, the ship sank, and according to legend, Van der Decken and the ghost ship are doomed to roam the seas forever.

Mary Celeste Mary Celeste

This is a merchant ship sailing the Atlantic Ocean and abandoned by the crew. The ship is in very suitable conditions with sails up and ample supplies of food. But the crew, the captain and the boats of Mary Celeste mysteriously disappeared. There were no signs of a struggle. You can also rule out the version of the pirates, because the things of the team and alcohol remained untouched.
The most likely theory is related to technical problems or a storm that forced the crew to abandon the ship.

Lady Lovibond - Wikiwand Lady Lovibond

The captain of the ship, Simon Peel, recently got married and is going on a cruise to celebrate a happy occasion. Despite the sign that the woman on board unfortunately, 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, took the ship to the shallows. Lady Lavibond and all her passengers sank. According to legend, since the shipwreck, a ghost has been seen every 50 years near Kent.

Baychimo - The Baychimo

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

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 the Diamond Shoals, an area that was very shipwrecked. When help arrived, the ship was found to be empty. There was no navigational equipment and a logbook, as well as 2 boats. After careful research, it turned out that several other ships mysteriously disappeared at almost the same time. According to officials, this is either the work of pirates or some terrorist organization.

Ourang Medan

The history of Urang Medan began in 1947, when 2 American ships received a distress call 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 had died or were dying. The speech of the person became more and more illegible, until it disappeared with the words I'm dying. The ships quickly sailed to the rescue. When they arrived, they found that the ship itself was intact, however, 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 sort it out, the ship caught fire. The most popular theory for the death of the crew is that the ship was transporting nitroglycerin without special packaging, and it leaked into the air.

High Aim 6

One of the mysterious "marine" stories of our time is connected with the Taiwanese vessel High Aim 6. The vessel 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 starting to spoil. They tried to give different explanations for the disappearance of the team: 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 the vessel could hardly exist, since it was in good condition. The main version of the events that took place on the High Aim 6 ship is the version of the crew's mutiny and the captain's murder. In favor of her speak the testimony of the only sailor whom the investigators managed to find and one more circumstance. Two weeks after the discovery of the High Aim 6, a man from the phone of an engineer from the High Aim 6 called the police 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 show up.

Caleuche - Caleuche

One of the most famous legends of Chile describes the Caleuche as a ghost ship that appears every night near 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 him say that he is very beautiful and bright and is always accompanied by the sounds of music and the laughter of people. Appearing for a few seconds, he disappears again or goes under the water. It is said that the souls on the ship regain the life they had before.

Iron mountain

It is clear that the ship could get lost and drown in the vast ocean or sea, but how can a ship disappear into a river without a trace? In June 1872, the ship S.S. Iron Mountain followed the Mississippi River from Vicksburg to Pittsburgh. 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 just disappeared.

Bel Amica - Bel Amica

The schooner in the "classic style" was found off the coast of the island of Sardinia, without a crew on board. This ghost ship was discovered by the Italian Coast Guard in 2006. In the cabins of the sailboat lay French maps of the North African seas, the Luxembourg flag, the 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. As the vessel was mistakenly recognized as antique, it soon aroused public interest, but it was soon found out that it was a modern yacht owned by a man from Luxembourg, who probably did not register it for tax evasion purposes.

Schooner Jenny - Jenny

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

Marlborough - Marlborough

The sailing ship "Marlborough" was built at the shipyard in Glasgow. It was considered quite reliable for ocean voyages. The sailing ship was commanded by Captain Hyde, a knowledgeable and experienced sailor. On the last flight, the Marlboro had 23 crew members and several passengers, including one woman. Leaving New Zealand for England, a sailboat 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 call the "cemetery of ships" for good reason. An investigation by maritime authorities yielded no results. The sailboat was considered missing, a victim of the rocks off Cape Horn. A storm rages in these ominous places 300 days a year, the current helps the wind and waves, dragging the doomed ships here and throwing them on formidable stones ... But after 23 and a half years, in October 1913, near Punta Arenas off the coast of Tierra del Fuego, that is, in almost 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 should 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 clothing. It seemed that people were struck down by some sudden attack, a mysterious force. The logbook was covered with moss, and the entries in it became illegible. Other papers turned out to be eaten away by insects. The sailors from the ship that met the sailboat 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 Marlboro, according to 23 years ago. Where are the absent? Have they died before? Were they landed on any shore? Were they washed off the deck after death, or blown off their masts by the wind in a moment of tragic "overwhelming confusion"? As always in such cases, a version was put forward about an epidemic, poisoning. The captain of the ship that discovered the Marlboro made an accurate report of everything he saw. Inclement weather did not allow him to take in 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 is recorded by the British Admiralty. The Marlboro was never seen again. Apparently, he died in one of the stormy days.