What is the name of the legendary ghost ship. Legendary ghost ships and their mysterious stories

Many of them disappeared without a trace, and some were found, but not a single living soul remained on board. All crew members seemed to have disappeared into thin air or were dead. The reasons for the disappearance or death of the team still remain a mystery. The only version is that the missing ships became victims of terrible supernatural phenomena. There is no other rational explanation yet.

"Seabird"

An unusual discovery was made at the end of the 19th century by residents of the coastal regions of Rhode Island (USA) - the ship Seabird, which crashed into the rocks. When eyewitnesses of the incident decided to inspect the ship, they were amazed: despite the fact that there were traces of the recent presence of people on board (food boiling on a fire, fresh food leftovers on plates), none of the crew members were found on the sailing ship. The only living creature is a frightened dog. It seemed that the sailors left the ship in a hurry. But what made them flee and where they disappeared is not clear.

"Mary Celeste"

The ship, previously called the “Amazon,” was considered cursed from the first days of its existence. Tragic events haunted the sailors working on the ship. For example, the first captain of the Amazon died after accidentally falling overboard. In order not to tempt fate, the ship was renamed. However, the ship, which now became the Mary Celeste, was doomed. In 1872 he mysteriously disappeared. The missing ship was found a month later, but there was not a soul on board. All the sailors' belongings remained in place. But where did their owners go?

"Beychimo"

The history of the cargo ship is reminiscent of the story of the mystical Flying Dutchman. From 1911 to 1931, the ship made nine very successful voyages. But one day he got stuck in the Arctic ice. The team decided to wait out the bad weather in the nearest Eskimo settlement. Having left the ship, the captain hoped to return there as soon as the situation returned to normal. But after another winter storm, the ship was not there. Assuming that the Beichimo sank, the command stopped searching for it. However, there were eyewitnesses who claimed that they not only saw a mysterious ship in the waters of the Arctic, but even boarded it. Their testimony was very plausible, because they could quite accurately describe what “Beichimo” looked like. Over the course of many decades, the ship disappeared and then reappeared in the sight of sailors. No one can explain how a ship without control could navigate the ocean waters for so many years.

An Australian fishing yacht that set off for the high seas in the spring of 2007 was found abandoned a week later. There was no damage to the ship, but all three crew members were missing. Objects found on board (a radio on, a working computer, a set table) indicated that no one intended to leave the yacht. The team's search did not bring any results. According to the official version, one of the fishermen suddenly began to drown, and his two friends rushed to the aid of their drowning comrade. All three died. But no direct evidence of this version was found. Any explanation for the incident has no evidence.

It’s a strange thing: in the middle of the sea, to come across a drifting ship with no signs of life on board. Empty. Nobody here. Silence. And he rocks on the waves - calmly, calmly, as if this is how it should be, as if he doesn’t need anyone else. It’s as if he had already swam enough with these “conquerors of the seas”, and he was so tired of them that he was only glad to part with them on occasion... Creepy.

Sailors say that in the ocean - especially in the Atlantic - this happens often: you come across empty fishing boats, small yachts, sometimes even liners - "", for example, are still looking for their last refuge. In most cases, by the appearance of the ship it is immediately clear what happened to it, and the main cause of maritime disasters, of course, will always be nature - a storm is not easy to defeat even for experienced sailors. But sometimes the disappearance of a crew simply cannot be explained.

Imagine: a boat that is completely intact, without any damage, its engines and generators are working, the radio and all emergency systems are in order, there is untouched food on the dining table and a working laptop, as if the crew a minute ago hid from you somewhere in the bilge compartment, but you They searched everything and did not find a single soul on board. You may think that this is just another sea story, but in fact it is an excerpt from the police report about the disappearance of three crew members of the KZ-II catamaran yacht in April 2007.

We think we've got you intrigued now? In this material we have collected the most famous and mysterious stories about ships that at different times were discovered at sea under the most mystical circumstances: without a crew on board or with dead sailors who died for an unknown reason, or as ghosts reminiscent of tragic events of the past.

MV Joyita, 1955

It was a luxury yacht built in 1931 in Los Angeles for film director Roland West. During World War II, the MV Joyita was outfitted and operated as a patrol vessel off the coast of Hawaii until the end of the war.

On October 3, 1955, the MV Joyita set sail from Samoa to the island of Tokelau, a distance of approximately 270 nautical miles. Just before the voyage, she discovered a clutch malfunction on the main engine, which they could not fix on the spot, and the yacht went to sea under sail and with one auxiliary engine. There were 25 souls on board, among them a government official, two children and a surgeon who was to perform an operation in Tokelau.

The trip was supposed to take no more than 2 days, but MV Joyita did not arrive at the destination port. The ship did not send any distress signals, even though its course was along a fairly busy route, where coast guard vessels often sail and which is well covered by relay stations. The search for the yacht was carried out on an area of ​​100,000 square meters. miles by air force, but MV Joyita could not be found.

Only five weeks later, on November 10, 1955, the ship was found. It drifted 600 miles from its planned route, half-submerged. 4 tons of cargo, crew and passengers were missing. The VHF radio was tuned to the international distress frequency. One auxiliary engine and bilge pump were still running, and the cabin lights were on. All clocks on board stopped at 10:25. The doctor's bag was found with four bloody bandages. The logbook, sextant and chronometer were missing, along with three life rafts.

The search team carefully examined the ship for damage to the hull, but did not find any. The fate of the crew and passengers could not be determined. Intriguingly, the MV Joyita, with its balsa wood interior, was virtually unsinkable, and the crew knew it. The missing cargo also remained a mystery.

A variety of theories have been put forward, ranging from the most bizarre, like the Japanese Navy, which still did not stop fighting after the end of World War II, was located at some isolated base on one of the islands. Insurance fraud, piracy, and rebellion were also considered as possibilities.

MV Joyita was recovered but, perhaps confirming her curse, ran aground several times. In the late 1960s, the ship was sold for scrap.

Ourang Medan (Orang Medan, or Orange Medan), 1947

“Everyone is dead, it will come for me” and “I am dying” were the last two messages received from the crew of the cargo ship Ourang Medan in the Gulf of Malacca in June 1947. They were received along with SOS signals by two ships at once - British and Dutch - which is taken as another confirmation of the veracity of this mystical story.

The first message came in Morse code, the second by radio. They searched for the ship in distress for several hours, and the British Silver Star was the first to discover it. After unsuccessful attempts to greet Ourang Medan with signal lights and whistles, they decided to land a small team. Rescuers immediately went to the control room, from where the sounds of a working radio could be heard, and found several crew members there.

All of them, including the captain, were dead. More corpses were found on the cargo deck. All the Ourang Medan sailors were said to be lying in protective positions with a look of horror on their faces. Many were covered in frost, and along with one of the crew groups a dead dog was found, frozen, stiff as a statue, on all fours, growling at someone into the void.

Suddenly, somewhere in the depths of the cargo deck, an explosion was heard and a fire started. The rescuers did not fight the fire and hastened to leave the ship full of dead people. Over the next hour, several more explosions were heard on Ourang Medan, and it sank.

It is quite reasonable to believe that the story of Ourang Medan, if it was a disaster, is largely a fiction. Some argue that such a vessel did not exist - at least, the name Ourang Medan was not found in Lloyd's lists. But conspiracy theorists believe that the name of the ship was fictitious, since the crew was transporting contraband, and this same contraband - you never know what kind of cargo was on board - became the cause of the tragedy.

Octavius ​​(Octavius), 1762-1775

The English merchant ship Octavius ​​was discovered drifting west of Greenland on October 11, 1775. A boarding party from the whaler Whaler Herald boarded the ship and found the entire crew dead and frozen. The captain's body was in his cabin, death found him writing something in the logbook, he was still sitting at the table with a pen in his hand. There were three more frozen bodies in the cabin: a woman, a child wrapped in a blanket, and a sailor holding a tinderbox.

The boarding crew left Octavius ​​in a hurry, taking with them only the logbook. Unfortunately, the document was so damaged by cold and water that only the first and last pages could be read. The journal ended with an entry from 1762. This meant that the ship drifted dead for 13 years.

Octavius ​​left England and headed for America in 1761. Trying to save time, the captain decided to follow the then-unexplored Northwest Passage, which was first successfully completed only in 1906. The ship got stuck in the Arctic ice, the unprepared crew froze to death - the discovered remains indicate that this happened quite quickly. It is assumed that some time later Octavius ​​was freed from the ice and, with its dead crew, drifted on the open sea. After an encounter with whalers in 1775, the ship was never seen again.

KZ-II, 2007

The crew of the Australian catamaran yacht KZ-II went missing in April 2007 under unclear circumstances. The story received wide public attention because it resembles a similar incident with the crew of the brigantine Mary Celeste.

On 15 April 2007, KZ-II departed Airlie Beach for Townsville. There were three crew members on board, including the owner. A day later, the yacht stopped communicating, and on April 18 it was accidentally discovered drifting near the Great Barrier Reef. On April 20, a patrol landed on KZ-II and did not find any crew members on board.

At the same time, the ship did not have any damage, except for a torn sail, all systems worked properly, the generator and engine were turned on, and untouched food and a laptop were found on the dining table. The search for sailors continued until April 25, but brought no results.

The official version of what happened was a series of events, partially reconstructed from the recordings of a video camera found on board the KZ-II. It is believed that first one of the sailors for some reason dived into the sea. Perhaps he wanted to free a tangled fishing line. At the same moment, the yacht began to be blown to the side by the wind, something happened to the first sailor in the water, and the second sailor rushed to his aid. The third sailor remaining on board tried to steer the yacht closer to his friends by turning on the engine, but quickly realized that the wind was hindering the movement. He tried to quickly remove the sail and at that moment, for an unknown reason, he himself found himself overboard. The yacht began to go out into the open ocean on its own, and the sailors were no longer able to catch up with it and eventually drowned.

Young Teazer, 1813

The privateer schooner Young Teazer was built in early 1813. It was an amazingly fast and promising ship, which already in the first months of the hunt showed itself very well on the trade routes off the coast of Halifax. In June 1813, Teazer began to pursue the Scottish brig Sir John Sherbrooke. The schooner was able to escape in the fog, but was soon followed by the 74-gun battleship HMS La Hogue and trapped Teazer in Mahone Bay off the Nova Scotia Peninsula. At dusk, HMS La Hogue was joined by HMS Orpheus, and they began preparing to attack the privateer, who now had nowhere to go. HMS La Hogue dispatched five boarding parties to Young Teazer, but as soon as they approached, the schooner exploded. The 7 surviving crew members of the Young Teazer subsequently unanimously claimed that it was First Lieutenant Frederick Johnson who detonated the ammunition, thus destroying the ship, himself, and 30 other crew members, whose unidentified remains rest today in the Anglican Cemetery at Mahone Bay.

Soon after the tragic events, local residents began to claim that they saw a flaming Young Teazer rising from the depths. On June 27, 1814, people in Mahone Bay were amazed to see the ghost of a schooner on the same spot where it had been destroyed. The ghost appeared and then disappeared silently in a flash of flame and smoke. This story spread so quickly across the country that the following June, onlookers began to flock to Mahone Bay. Young Teazer is said to have appeared again that time, and has appeared every year since, and locals still claim that the schooner is periodically visible on foggy nights - especially on the first 24 hours after the full moon.

Mary Celeste (Marie Celeste), 1872

This ship can easily lay claim to the title of the biggest maritime secret of all time. Until now, the investigation into the disappearance of his crew has not advanced one step, and even after 143 years it is the topic of numerous debates.

On November 7, 1872, the brigantine Mary Celeste left New York and headed for Genoa with a cargo of alcohol. On the afternoon of December 5, she was discovered 400 miles from Gibraltar without a crew. The ship sailed with sails raised, had no damage and, as it later turned out, even the hold with valuable cargo was untouched.

The brigantine was discovered and identified by Captain Morehouse from another merchant ship sailing on a parallel course. He, as it turned out, knew the owner of the Mary Celeste, Captain Briggs, very well and respected him as a talented sailor, which is why Morehouse was very surprised when he realized that the brigantine he encountered was completely absurdly deviating from the known course. Morehouse tried to signal and, receiving no response, began to pursue the brigantine. Two hours later, his team landed on Mary Celeste.

The ship seemed to have been abandoned in haste. Personal belongings were untouched, including jewelry, clothing, food supplies, and all cargo. The boats were missing, as well as all the papers in the captain's cabin except for the diary, where the last entry is dated November 25 and reports that Mary Celeste left the Azores.

There were no signs of violence on board. The only visible damage was heavy traces of water on the deck, leading to the belief that the crew had abandoned ship due to inclement weather. However, this contradicted the personality of Captain Briggs, who was characterized by family, friends and partners as a skillful and brave sailor who decided to leave the ship only in case of emergency and in case of mortal danger.

Morehouse took control of the brigantine and delivered it to Gibraltar on December 13th. There, a comprehensive examination of the ship was carried out, during which inspectors discovered several stains in the captain's cabin that resembled dried blood. They also found several marks on the railings that could have been left by a blunt object or an axe, but there was no such weapon on board the Mary Celeste at the time of the study. The ship itself was declared undamaged.

Possibilities include piracy, insurance fraud, a tsunami, an explosion caused by cargo fumes, ergotism from contaminated flour that drove the crew mad, mutiny, and several supernatural explanations. There is also a version that the Mary Celeste crew reached the coast of Spain, where in 1873 they discovered several boats from an unknown ship and several unidentified corpses in them.

Over the next 17 years, the Mary Celeste changed hands 17 times, with tragic incidents and deaths said to have occurred frequently. The last owner of the brigantine sank it to set up an insurance claim.

Lyubov Orlova, 2013

One of the most famous ghost ships of recent years is the Lyubov Orlova liner, which was lost in 2013 while being towed in the Caribbean Sea and has since appeared here and there in the Atlantic.

The liner, named after the famous Soviet actress, was built in 1976 and was part of the Far Eastern Shipping Company fleet. In 1999, the ship was sold to a company from Malta and was hired for regular voyages to the Arctic. In 2010, the ship was arrested for debts and after two years of inactivity in Canada, it was sent by tug to the Dominican Republic for scrap. During towing, a severe storm occurred in the Caribbean region and the towing cables failed. The tugboat crew tried to seize the ship out of control, but due to weather conditions this was not possible - the ship was abandoned in international waters.

The search for the vessel was unsuccessful. Its automatic identification system - a system that transmits the geographic position of ships - was offline, making it impossible to determine its location. Canadian authorities announced that since the ship in any case can now only be in international waters, Canada no longer bears responsibility for its fate - the search was stopped. The Lyubov Orlova was believed to be lost forever in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Unexpectedly, on February 1, 2013, the Lyubov Orlova was spotted drifting 1,700 km off the coast of Ireland. It was discovered by the Canadian oil tanker Atlantic Hawk, which, in order to prevent the now world-famous “ghost ship” from becoming a real danger to nearby oil rigs, towed the ship to neutral waters, where it was forced to leave it again. On February 4, Lyubov Orlova was 463 km from St. John's, Canada. The Canadian authorities again refused to take any measures and placed full responsibility for the ship on its owner. A few days later, “Lyubov Orlova” was lost again.

For a year, the 4,250-ton vessel, whose remains are valued at RUB 34 million, managed to avoid the scrutiny of its owner's search teams and scrap metal hunters. The popularity of the ghost ship increased until the appearance of fake users on social networks under the name “Lyubov Orlova” and the website whereisorlova.com, dedicated, however, to other ghost ships. The phrase “Where is Lyubov Orlova?” turned into a meme and is said to have been printed on T-shirts and mugs.

In January 2014, the ghost ship was again spotted drifting 2.4 thousand km. from the west coast of Ireland. Experts believed that the ship was moving towards the shores of Great Britain, where recent storms had pushed it. The British authorities were preparing for a meeting with the celebrity, especially fearing that the drifting ship might be inhabited by cannibal rats, but the Lyubov Orlova disappeared again.

Lady Lovibond, 1748

In the 18th century, sailors firmly believed in omens, and quite often their superstitions were fueled by situations that were understandable and even prosaic by today’s standards. Maybe this is why the “edifying” story of the sailing ship Lady Lovibond made it so popular and the legend so long-lasting.

On February 13, 1748, the newly married Simon Reed and Annette set off on their honeymoon from Great Britain to Portugal on Reed's ship, the Lady Lovibond. Even before going to sea, John Rivers, Reed's first mate, fell in love with the captain's wife and was now going crazy with love and jealousy. Reeves began to have uncontrollable fits of anger, one day he lashed out at the helmsman and, losing his composure, killed him. Rivers then took control of the ship and steered it towards the Goodwin Sands, a notorious sandbar in the English Channel. The ship was wrecked, no one was saved.

In 1848, a hundred years after the tragic events described, local fishermen saw a sailboat crash on the Goodwin Sands. Rescue boats were sent to the crash site, but no vessel was found. In 1948, another hundred years later, the ghost of Lady Lovibond was again spotted on Goodwin Sands by Captain Ball Prestwick and was described by him as exactly like the original ship of 1748, albeit with an eerie greenish glow. The next appearance of the ghost ship is expected in 2048. Let's wait.

Eliza Battle, 1858

Built in 1852 in Indiana, Eliza Battle was a luxury wooden steamship for entertaining presidents and VIPs. On a cold night in February 1858 on the Tombigbee River, a fire started on the main deck of the steamship, and strong winds helped the fire spread throughout the ship. There were about 100 people on board that flight, of which 26 people could not escape. Today, locals say that during spring floods, during the big moon, Eliza Battle reappears on the Tombigbee River. She floats upstream with music and lights on the main deck. Sometimes they only see the silhouette of a steamship. Fishermen believe that the appearance of Eliza Battle promises disaster for other ships that still navigate this river.

Carrol A. Deering (Carroll A. Deering), 1921

The five-masted cargo schooner Carrol A Deering was built in 1911 and named after the owner's son. On December 2, 1920, she set sail from Rio de Janeiro to Norfolk, USA, and two months later was found stranded and abandoned by her crew.

The investigation into the circumstances of the disappearance of the crew of the Carrol A Deering, which was conducted under the control of US Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, made it possible to partially reconstruct the chain of events preceding the disappearance of the schooner and to collect eyewitness accounts.

Thus, it was established that in early January 1921, on the way to the USA, Carrol A Deering made an intermediate stop on the island of Barbados, where a quarrel occurred between Captain Wormell and First Officer McLellan, and the latter threatened to kill the captain. After the quarrel, McLellan sought work on other ships, claiming that Carrol A Deering's crew was not following orders and Captain Wormell would not allow him to discipline sailors. McLellan was turned down. Over the next few days in Barbados, he and the Carrol A Deering crew were often seen drunk; McLellan even ended up in prison for his rowdy behavior, from where Captain Wormell rescued him. On January 9, 1921, the schooner went to sea, and what happened to it next still remains a mystery.

On January 16, 1921, Carrol A Deering was seen off the Bahamas. She sailed with one sail, despite favorable weather conditions, and performed strange maneuvers, periodically going back on course. On January 18, she was spotted off Cape Canaveral, and on January 23, off Cape Fear Lighthouse. On January 25, in the same area, the cargo steamer SS Hewitt disappeared without a trace, which was following the same course as Carrol A Deering - this circumstance was also included in the materials on Carrol A Deering, but there was no direct connection between the incidents.

On January 29, the schooner, with full sail, passed the Cape Lookout lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper even filmed it. According to him, a red-haired sailor on board Carrol A Deering shouted over the loudspeaker that the schooner had lost its anchors during a storm and asked to convey a message to the ship's owners. The keeper was unable to transmit the message because the lighthouse's radio was broken. He later noted that he was surprised that the schooner’s crew were crowded on the quarterdeck, where only the captain and his assistants have the right to be, and even from the ship it was a simple sailor speaking to him, and not the captain or mate.

On January 30, the schooner was seen sailing under full sail off Cape Hatteras, and on January 31, the US Coast Guard reported a five-masted sailing ship running aground in the same area. Its sails were raised, its boats were missing. Due to stormy weather, they were able to get to Carrol A Deering only on February 4 - no people were found on board. Personal belongings, documents, including the ship's logbook, navigation equipment and anchors were missing. Three pairs of shoes of different sizes were found in the captain's cabin. The last mark on the found map was dated January 23, and it was not made in the handwriting of Captain Wormell.

In 1922, the investigation into Carrol A Deering was closed without any official conclusion. The schooner, which was slowly disintegrating aground and could pose a danger to navigation, was blown up. Its skeleton remained in the same place for a long time, until it was finally destroyed by a hurricane in 1955.

Baychimo (Baychimo), 1931

The Baychimo was built in Sweden in 1911 by order of a German trading company. After the First World War it was transferred to Great Britain and for the next fourteen years it regularly served on routes along the Northwest coast of Canada, transporting furs. In early October 1931, the weather deteriorated sharply, and a few miles off the coast near the town of Barrow, the ship became stuck in the ice. The team temporarily abandoned the ship and found shelter on the mainland. A week later the weather cleared, the sailors returned on board and continued sailing, but already on October 15, Baychimo again fell into an ice trap.

This time it was impossible to get to the nearest city - the crew had to arrange a temporary shelter on the shore, far from the ship, and here they were forced to spend a whole month. In mid-November there was a snowstorm that lasted for several days. And when the weather cleared on November 24, Baychimo was no longer in its original place. The sailors believed that the ship had been lost in a storm, but a few days later a local seal hunter reported seeing Baychimo about 45 miles from their camp. The team found the ship, removed its precious cargo and left it forever.

This is not the end of the Baychimo story. For the next 40 years, it was occasionally seen drifting along the northern coast of Canada. Attempts were made to get on board the ship, some were quite successful, but due to weather conditions and the poor condition of the hull, the ship was abandoned again. The last time Baychimo was in 1969, that is, 38 years after the crew left it - at that time the frozen ship was part of an ice massif. In 2006, the Alaska government attempted to locate the Arctic Ghost Ship, but all attempts to locate the ship were unsuccessful. Where Baychimo is now—whether it lies at the bottom or is covered with ice beyond recognition—remains a mystery.

Flying Dutchman, 1700s

This is probably the most famous ghost ship in the world, whose popularity was increased by “Pirates of the Caribbean” and even the cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants”, where one of the characters was called Frying Dutchman.

There are many legends associated with this vessel, forever wandering the ocean, and the main one concerns the Dutch captain Philip Van der Decken (sometimes called Van Straaten), who in the 1700s was returning from the East Indies and was carrying a young couple on board . The captain liked the girl so much that he arranged the death of her betrothed and proposed to her. The girl refused Van der Decken and threw herself overboard out of grief.

Immediately after this, the ship was caught in a storm near the Cape of Good Hope. The superstitious sailors began to grumble. In an attempt to prevent a mutiny, the navigator offered to wait out the bad weather in some bay, but the captain, desperate and drinking after the suicide of his beloved, shot him and several other dissatisfied people. One of the popular versions of the legend says that after the murder of the navigator, Van der Decken swore with the bones of his mother that no one would go ashore until the ship passed the cape; he has incurred a curse and is now doomed to sail forever.

Usually people watch the Flying Dutchman at sea from afar. According to legend, if you get close to it, the crew will try to convey a message to the shore to people who have long been dead. It is also believed that meeting a “Dutchman” promises illness and even death. The latter is explained by yellow fever, which is transmitted by mosquitoes that breed in containers with food water. Such a disease could destroy the entire crew, and a meeting with such an infected ship could really be fatal: mosquitoes attacked living sailors and infected them.

Ghost ships have become a long-standing theme of maritime folklore. The Flying Dutchman is used to scare young people; he appears in the most terrible stories. The crew of this ship is constantly trying to get to at least some port or at least convey a message to their relatives through the ships they encounter. But they will never enter the port, and their descendants have long been in their graves. But the interesting stories don’t end there; today, too, some ships become ghosts.

1. Yacht Kaz II

On April 15, 2007, the yacht Kaz II left the Australian Airlie Beach (vol. 1 on the map). Her crew consisted of captain-owner Derek Batten, who had twenty-five years of experience as a yachtsman, and his friends Peter and James Tunstead. Three days passed and the helicopter discovered this yacht (vol. 2) drifting off the Great Barrier Reef. A couple of days later, on April 20, 2007, Kaz II caught up with a sea patrol and boarded the yacht (vol. 3.).

The yacht was completely deserted, despite the fact that the nearest shore was 163 km away. There was complete order on board; it seemed as if the crew had abandoned their ship. But the reason for this action remained unknown. Therefore, search work was organized, which continued until April 25, 2007. But despite the scale of the events, no bodies, no things, nothing that could explain where the crew had gone could be found.

2. Consequence

The phantom yacht was towed to Townsville, where experts took charge of it. The yacht was equipped with modern technology, so it was not difficult to trace its path. Using GPS data, it was possible to accurately determine the time at which the uncontrolled drift began. It turned out that already on the evening of April 15, the ship began to move independently towards the northeast. On this day, the weather in the area of ​​​​its movement worsened, which remained excellent the rest of the time. It was somewhat reminiscent of the events during the disappearance of the Starfish, which we talked about in the article.

During the inspection of the yacht, a video recording was found that the crew made at 10:05 on April 15th. The islands around the yacht are clearly visible on it, which made it possible to accurately link the survey point (vol. 1 in the diagram) to the map and correlate it with the location of discovery (vol. 2).
According to the recording, it became clear that the owner was at the helm while Peter was fishing in the stern. The engine was stopped, and fenders were hanging at the sides, which were supposed to protect the ship when moored. Peter was wearing shorts and a shirt (they were found on the deck of the ship). An unwound rope was also visible lying on the deck.
Further investigation showed that the ship was in fully operational condition, and the crew did not plan to leave it. The dishes were placed and the laptop was turned on. All emergency systems were working, the engine was running, the rescue boat was on board, the anchor was raised. On board there was a gun with cartridges that remained untouched. That same rope was already neatly wound. Peter's clothes were lying on the seat at the stern of the yacht. There were no signs of a struggle, except for a mug thrown at the lifebuoy, or a search; no things were missing. The only damage was a torn sail.

There were also witnesses who saw the yacht while drifting. Commercial boat captain Gavin Howland saw a yacht with a torn sail while fishing on April 16. But he did not dare to approach a private ship drifting in the ocean.

The investigation constructed its own explanation of what happened, which would fit into the existing picture. The main assumption was that Derek Batten was an experienced sailor, it was known that rash or risky actions on his part were impossible.
There were several versions. The first assumed that the crew simply fell overboard during a storm. But the life jackets remained on the ship, and all the things were laid out too neatly.
The next version spoke of the kidnapping of the crew by another ship. She described well the presence of fenders, the crew was waiting or preparing for mooring. But again, there are no traces of strangers, a struggle or a search on the yacht.

According to the following version, the crew voluntarily went overboard to push the stranded yacht. At this time, a gust of wind refloated her and carried her into the ocean, and the crew did not have time to climb on board. But it was not possible to find a suitable shoal along the entire route of the Kaz II...

According to the official version, it was like this. Peter was fishing, but his line got tangled. Then Brother James undressed and dived in to untangle her. At that moment, the yacht began to be blown away by a gust of wind. Peter also dived to help his brother. Batten noticed that the yacht was moving far away from the Tunsteads and turned on the engine to get closer to them. But for this it was necessary to lower the sails. Batten leaves the helm and goes to the sails, when another gust of wind blows, the yacht twitches, the swollen sail throws the captain into the water. Under sail and with the engine running, the uncontrollable yacht quickly moves away, while the crew remains in the ocean. After a while, the exhausted people drowned. But this version does not claim to be 100% reliable...

On Earth, everything that can disappear regularly disappears. These are planes, trains, cars, river and sea vessels, people. 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 a general idea of ​​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.

A variety of theories have emerged regarding the disappearance of the 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, the wreckage of an old ship was found on the island of Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic Ocean. 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 it missing for a 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.

Events

Everyone knows the legends about the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship that superstitious sailors feared more than death. Many have watched the thriller "Ghost Ship", which gives you goosebumps. What are they really like, these mysterious ships, the crew of which disappeared without a trace along with the passengers?

1. Maria Celeste

The Mary Celeste is a merchant brigantine that was found in December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was in excellent condition and sailed towards the Strait of Gibraltar.

Its cargo was intact, and all personal belongings of passengers and crew were in place. The Mary Celeste had been at sea for about a month and had a supply of water and food for six months.

There were only no people on the ship - neither crew nor passengers. Their mysterious disappearance still remains the biggest mystery.

2. Carol A. Dearing

The story of "Carol A. Deering" is no less mysterious than the case of "Mary Celeste". This huge five-masted schooner was built by G.G. Deering in Maine in 1919.

The ship was found in 1921 off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, but without a crew.

A lot has been written about “Carol A. Deering”, since according to the main version explaining the disappearance of the entire crew, the Bermuda Triangle was the culprit.

Although everything indicates that the crew and the ship suffered due to a mutiny or attack by pirates.

3. Bel Amica

This ship is notable for the fact that its passengers disappeared from the ship not in the 19th, or even in the 20th century, but in 2006. It was then, on August 24, that the Italian coast guard discovered it off the island of Sardinia when the ship was sailing onto the reefs.

When they boarded the ship, the coast guard saw a half-eaten lunch, French maps of the seas of North Africa, a pile of clothes, and a Luxembourg flag. There were no passengers or crew on the ship.

As it turned out later, the ship was not registered either in Italy or in any other country. All that was found on board was a sign that supposedly read “Bel Amica” (“Beautiful Friend”). Later, Italian newspapers wrote that the owner of the ship was finally found: he turned out to be Franc Rouayrux from Luxembourg.

4. High goal 6

This ship left a southern Taiwanese port at the end of October 2002, and 2 months later, in early January, it was found drifting in Australian waters.

The ship's owner, Tsai Huang Shueh-er, claims he last spoke with the ship's captain in December 2002.

It was possible to find only one member of the ship's crew, who admitted that the captain and the ship's engineer were killed. However, it is still unknown what exactly happened and what caused the mutiny.

5. Jian Seng

The Jian Seng is an 80 meter long tanker discovered off the coast of Australia. Coast Guard representatives found no people on board the ship, or even signs of their recent presence on it.

There is also no reason to suspect that the ship was involved in the transportation of contraband or illegal fishing.

A customs official said they could not find the vessel's registration documents or the port from which it sailed.

However, they claim that the vessel is the Jian Seng, even though its name has been blacked out. Since the owner of the ship was not found, it was sunk.

6. MV Joyita

The merchant ship MV Joyita with 25 people on board disappeared in 1955 in the South Pacific. The ship left Samoa with 16 crew members and 9 passengers, including children, a doctor, a government official, and a copra buyer. The cargo consisted of medicines, wood, and food.

The entire journey was supposed to take about two days. Joyita was scheduled to return on October 5 with a load of copra on board.

On October 6, the port announced that the ship was late, and not a single dispatcher received distress signals. No traces of the ship or passengers were found.

7. Kaz II

"Kaz II", a 9.8 meter long catamaran discovered off the coast of Australia, has been called a "ghost yacht". According to the original plan, the yacht was supposed to sail from Western Australia to its northern part. Five days after sailing, maritime guards discovered the boat and boarded it. As the security representatives themselves say, the disappearance of the three passengers of the ship was very strange.

The yacht was in excellent condition and lay on the water as if the crew were on board. There was food on the table, even the laptop was turned on and the engine was running. All emergency systems, including radio and GPS, were operational. It was also strange that all the life jackets were in place, while the passengers disappeared without a trace.

8. Zebrina

Zebrina was built in 1873 as a merchant ship. In October 1917, she sailed from the port of Falmouth with a cargo of coal, and in the same month she was discovered off the coast of France, but without a crew. There was no damage to the ship except for the disarray of the rigging.

At that time, it was believed that the ship's crew had been captured by a German submarine, which was seen in this part of the ocean from an Allied ship.

It is assumed that the submarine sailed away before sinking the Zebrina, but later sank along with the crew of the ill-fated ship.

9. Schooner Jenny

The Jenny was a British schooner that became stuck in the ice of the Drake Passage in 1823. It was discovered only 17 years later: in 1840, a whaling ship stumbled upon the ship. All bodies on the Jenny were well preserved due to the low temperatures.

A ship's log was found on the ship, the last entry of which read like this: “May 4, 1823: there has been no food for 71 days. There are no survivors except me.”

The frozen captain who left the note was found sitting in a chair with a pen in his hand. There were 7 passengers on the ship, including one woman.

10. Baychimo

On October 1, 1931, the ship "Baichimo" with a cargo of furs got stuck in the pack ice. The team left the ship, walking along the ice for about a kilometer to the nearest town. However, soon "Baichimo" was freed from the ice, and the crew returned back. Already on October 8, the ship got stuck again, and they even had to call rescuers who took away the crew members and valuable cargo.

The ship was left without a crew, but did not sink. "Baichimo" set off on a free voyage across the ocean and was seen quite often. Several times people even boarded the ship, but they did not have the equipment to bring the ship into port. The ship was last seen by Inuit in 1969 when it became stuck in the Beaufort Sea north of the Alaskan coast.