While the Mary Celeste tends to steal the limelight, plenty of "ghost ships" have sailed the seas throughout history. Here are 5 of those vessels, including...
- The MV Lyubov Orlova: She crossed the Atlantic crewed only by cannibal rodents
- The Murderous Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering: Did the mate kill the captain?
- SS Baychimo, Ghost of the Arctic Waves: A ship that sailed crewless for forty years
- The Mary Celeste: The unluckiest ship ever?
- The SS Kamloops: A wreck crewed by the preserved dead
 |
| While some strike the shore, other ships can sail unmanned for decades... (rolandmey) |
The MV Lyubov Orlova
In 2010 the cruise ship MV Lyubov Orlova was seized by Canadian authorities. The ship's owners were heavily in debt after cancelling a cruise, while the crew hadn't been paid in months. After spending two years languishing in dock, she was towed towards the Dominican Republic to be broken down for scrap.
It seems that fate had other ideas. The tow line broke a mere day after leaving harbor, with the dire weather conditions making it impossible to attach another line. The crewless MV Lyubov Orlova was free to drift as the wind and currents directed... which put oil and gas drilling at risk.
A few days later an offshore supply vessel gained control of the ghost ship, but (for reasons unknown) they dragged it into international waters and cut the line. An official statement claimed that a salvage operation was off the table because of "safety concerns."
A few days later an offshore supply vessel gained control of the ghost ship, but (for reasons unknown) they dragged it into international waters and cut the line. An official statement claimed that a salvage operation was off the table because of "safety concerns."
Adding to the dark mystique of the abandoned vessel, the ship was thought to have been infested by rats prior to being towed - and after eating what they could of the supplies and furnishings, experts suggested that they would have turned to cannibalism.
In 2013 the MV Lyubov Orlova was detected around 1300 nautical miles off the coast of Ireland - which caused quite a bit of concern given the potential cargo of ravenous and diseased cannibal rodents. Around a week later, the ship's "emergency position-indicating radio beacon" was detected 700 nautical miles off the coast of Kerry. This kind of beacon is designed to activate automatically when exposed to water, implying the ship finally sank. The unmanned ship might have reached Ireland if it had held out a week or two longer!
 |
| Rats are quick to colonize... (Kapa65) |
The Murderous Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering
In 1921 the five-masted schooner Carroll A. Deering was spotted from Cape Hatteras as she traveled from Barbados to Virginia. Shortly afterwards, the crewless ship's billowing sails drove it onto the Diamond Shoals.
No trace was found of the twelve man crew, though they had prepared food shortly before vanishing. It's true that the lifeboats had gone missing, but the ship itself bore no damage beyond that caused by running aground.
A few months down the line, Christopher Columbus Gray presented a message in a bottle that he'd found on the beach, claiming that the Carroll A. Deering had been captured by pirates. He later admitted that this was a forgery, intended to let him steal the job of a local lighthouse keeper.
We still don't know what happened to the vessel, but it was seen by the Cape Lookout lightship (essentially a ship designed to act as a mobile lighthouse) a couple of days before reaching Cape Hatteras. The crew had shouted over that they had lost both anchors, but showed no sign of distress.
One interesting rumor about the ill-fated voyage is that the ship's mate had threatened to "get" the captain before they reached Virginia. This rumor becomes rather sinister in light of another fact - when the crew of a salvage tug boarded the wreck, they found that the mate had moved into the captain's quarters.
 |
| Getting trapped in ice can ruin any journey... (Anonymous) |
SS Baychimo, Ghost of the Arctic Waves
Sailing through the Arctic can be a tricky business - and in 1931 the steamer SS Baychimo became trapped by forming ice.Some of the crew were evacuated, but the remainder elected to make a base camp using supplies from their ship and wait for the spring thaw. One storm later, that plan was dead - the ship was gone.
Before the campers could be collected, word came from an Inuk huntsman that the ship had turned up 72km to the south. It was trapped in ice again, so the crew simply took off all the salvageable goods they could and declared that the ship was too damaged to be seaworthy - after all, it had just been on a solo trip through the grinding ice and would surely sink in short order.
It turned out that the Baychimo was much tougher than she looked, as the ship drifted through the icy waters for almost 40 years. Occasionally she was boarded by locals, mariners or explorers, only to be abandoned each time as weather conditions worsened or the current carried her onwards.
Her last sighting was in 1969... but that doesn't mean that she couldn't still be trapped in ice, waiting for a thaw to continue her voyage!
Before the campers could be collected, word came from an Inuk huntsman that the ship had turned up 72km to the south. It was trapped in ice again, so the crew simply took off all the salvageable goods they could and declared that the ship was too damaged to be seaworthy - after all, it had just been on a solo trip through the grinding ice and would surely sink in short order.
It turned out that the Baychimo was much tougher than she looked, as the ship drifted through the icy waters for almost 40 years. Occasionally she was boarded by locals, mariners or explorers, only to be abandoned each time as weather conditions worsened or the current carried her onwards.
Her last sighting was in 1969... but that doesn't mean that she couldn't still be trapped in ice, waiting for a thaw to continue her voyage!
 |
| Some blame waterspouts for the missing crew ... (JDmcginley) |
The Mary Celeste
Did you know that the Mary Celeste first sailed under the name Amazon in 1861 - and that her captain died of pneumonia during her first outing?
Terrible luck seems to have followed this ship - she struck and sunk a brig on the return voyage from Britain, then ran aground in 1867. Sold off, repaired and renamed, the Mary Celeste seemed to have thrown off her curse... until 1872 when she was found floating and crewless off the Azores by the British ship Dei Gratia.
Though partially flooded, the Mary Celeste was in good condition. A water pump sat disassembled and a lifeboat was missing, but the crew's belongings, supplies and the largely intact cargo of denatured alcohol remained on board.
The crew of the Dei Gratia hoped to make a salvage claim on the ship, but Attorney General Solly-Flood suspected foul play and held an inquiry. It is from his notes that we know the ship had been experiencing rough seas and had an inaccurate chronometer.
Terrible luck seems to have followed this ship - she struck and sunk a brig on the return voyage from Britain, then ran aground in 1867. Sold off, repaired and renamed, the Mary Celeste seemed to have thrown off her curse... until 1872 when she was found floating and crewless off the Azores by the British ship Dei Gratia.
Though partially flooded, the Mary Celeste was in good condition. A water pump sat disassembled and a lifeboat was missing, but the crew's belongings, supplies and the largely intact cargo of denatured alcohol remained on board.
The crew of the Dei Gratia hoped to make a salvage claim on the ship, but Attorney General Solly-Flood suspected foul play and held an inquiry. It is from his notes that we know the ship had been experiencing rough seas and had an inaccurate chronometer.
Many theories have been put forwards about the missing crew, ranging from piracy or a waterspout to the alcoholic cargo causing an explosion. One possibility is that the ship's previous cargo of coal filled the hold with dust and fouled the pump - it would have been difficult to estimate how much water the ship had taken on with a packed cargo hold, which may have led the captain to abandon a structurally-sound ship.
The Mary Celeste didn't just vanish after this tragedy - she went through a number of owners before being sailed into a reef near Haiti in 1885. The captain intended to scam an insurance company, claiming to have lost a valuable luxury cargo... but true to form, the Mary Celeste didn't sink and the cargo was revealed to be cheap beer, moldy fish and cast-off clothing.
Parker was charged with barratry but essentially allowed to make a plea deal - rather than facing the death penalty, he had to renounce the insurance claim and hand back the money he'd received. He died three months later.
 |
| Lake Superior can get rough... (havenshell) |
The SS Kamloops
Though not a ghost ship as such, the wreck of the SS Kamloops comes as close to haunted as is scientifically possible.
The 2,226 ton steamer sank to the bottom of Lake Superior in 1927. Terrible weather had coated the ship in ice, with another ship claimed to have seen the Kamloops heading towards Isle Royale. That was the last time the crew were seen alive.
A few months later, some of their bodies were discovered on the shore of Isle Royale. A bottle that washed ashore on the other side of Lake Superior contained a grim message from assistant stewardess Alice Bettridge: “I am the last one left alive, freezing and starving to death on Isle Royale. I just want mom and dad to know my fate.”The most chilling thing about the wreck is the presence of "Old Whitey." Not every member of the crew made it off the boat, but the cold, bacteria-free conditions of the water have kept them preserved and essentially turned their body fats into "soap."
Old Whitey remains in the boiler room, with his saponification giving him an eerily bright color scheme. The only water currents in the boiler room are those caused by swimming divers, which can result in Old Whitey seeming to move around of his own accord!
Thanks for reading - you might also be interested in...