We’ve all heard of how people will stick messages in a bottle that will wash ashore years and many thousands of miles away from where it was thrown into the ocean for someone random to find and read. Well, imagine that, but instead of a piece of paper stuffed into a glass bottle, it is a whole ship that has no crew or passengers as it floats around the ocean.
Ghost ships are when a ship’s crew disappeared without a trace and are said to be haunting the ocean as the unmanned ships float around without a destination. There are a few ships that have become famous for the mystery surrounding how the crew disappeared.
The Most Famous Ghost Ships in History
Mary Celeste
On November 5, 1872, Mary Celeste left New York harbor en route to Genoa, Italy, with Captain Benjamin Briggs, an experienced sea captain, in charge of the merchant ship with seven crew members, as well as his wife and daughter. On December 4, the ship Dei Gratia was on her way to Gibraltar and following the same route as the Mary Celeste though she had left New York ten days later.
The Dei Gratia’s crew alerted their captain of a ship nearby that seemed to be either in distress or lost. A boarding party found the ship empty. There was no sign of anybody on board though they found the ship’s daily log, which was dated November 25, and put the ship 400 nautical miles away from where it was found 9 days later.
There was no sign of damage to the ship nor blood or evidence of violence. There was plenty of food onboard, and everything was where it should be, except the people and one tiny lifeboat. The captain of the Dei Gratia, Captain Morehouse, sent half his crew to sail the abandoned Mary Celeste to take the ship to Gibraltar where he could claim a hefty sum for the merchandise still onboard. Nobody ever found out what happened to Captain Briggs, his family, and his crew, who were never seen again.
MV Joyita
On October 3, 1955, the MV Joyita left Apia harbor in Samoa en route to Tokelau Island,s just 270 miles away, with sixteen crew members and nine passengers. The trip was supposed to take about 48 hours. However, the ship never arrived, and it wasn’t until five weeks later, on November 10, that a merchant ship caught sight of the MV Joyita and radioed in the location.
The ship was over 600 miles away from the route it was supposed to be on when it was found. There was nobody on board, and the ship was listing heavily to one side and showing signs of damage from having been drifting around in rough seas for a few weeks. The mystery deepened when investigators realized that the ship’s log and navigational equipment were missing.
There was a doctor’s bag found that had blood-stained bandages in it. The radio was tuned to 2182 kHz, which is the international distress channel. The twenty-five passengers were never found, and it was never determined why the crew would abandon the ship leaving it a mystery that may never be solved.
Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman is a true ghost ship since it may have never existed, and like other mysterious sea creatures, it is an ominous sight for any sailor to see. It has been part of nautical lore ever since the late 1700s when sailors began telling tales of seeing a ghostly ship that left them terror-stricken.
It has been allegedly seen near Australia, the middle of the Atlantic, and just about anywhere else as it apparently drifts unable, possibly due to a curse, to enter a port. Sailors have said that the Flying Dutchman has come alongside their ships, and ghostly-looking sailors have tried to send messages to land for dead people, who are still waiting for the crew to arrive.
King George V of England claimed to have seen the Flying Dutchman while off the coast of Australia in 1881. The legend of the Flying Dutchman continues, to this day, especially through film, theater, art, literature, and of course, sailors who claim to have seen the ghost ship.
Lady Lovibond
The Lady Lovibond is said to have run ashore and been wrecked off the coast of southeast England in the 1740s and returns every once in a while as a ghost ship that is spotted by sailors and people on land. However, there are no records of the ship ever existing or of a shipwreck where it is said to have been wrecked.
The story goes that the ship’s captain had just gotten married and decided to take his wife aboard for a trip abroad for their honeymoon. For centuries, sailors thought that having a woman onboard was bad luck, and Lady Lovibond is used as evidence of this.
Since then, though, ships have seen the Lady Lovibond in the area and have even attempted to get close but have never been successful. Even though historians doubt it ever excited the sailors who have come across Lady Lovibond swear that she is real and out there haunting the coast of England.