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Wednesday 26 October 2016


The Arctic Sea Mystery: more unexplained missing ships and crew

The Arctic Sea, the cargo ship that disappeared before resurfacing off the coast fo the Cape Verde island of Sal, joins a list of unexplained shipping disasters.

The Arctic Sea Mystery: more unexplained missing ships and crew
The Arctic Sea, the missing cargo ship found about 300 miles off the Cape Verde islands Photo: AP

Here is a list of some of the unexplained shipping incidents, both real and legendary.

Mary Celeste: A brigantine merchant ship discovered in early December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and apparently abandoned, in spite of the good weather. The ship had only been at sea a month and had six months of food and water on board. Cargo was virtually untouched and personal belongings were still in place. It is often described as the archetypal ghost ship. Made famous by Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Marie Celeste"

HMS Sappho: A royal Navy brig that went missing off the Australian coast in 1857-8. It was part of a British squadron patrolling the coast of West Africa to suppress the slave trade. Following a diplomatic incident with an American ship, it was sent to Australia. It sailed under Commander Moresby, but failed to arrive. Late in 1858 rumours began spreading in England it had been wrecked on an island off the coast of Australia, that some had been rescued and Captain Moresby had gone insane. Naval authorities believe it most likely hit the rocks and islets in Bass Strait or she capsized during severe gales.

USS Cyclops: The loss of the Proteus-class US Navy ship and 306 crew and passengers without a trace sometime after March 4 1918 remains the single largest loss of life in US Naval history not directly involving combat. The ship's fate still remains a mystery, with no wreckage ever found.

After making an unscheduled stop in Barbados for supplies, Cyclops set out for Baltimore, and was sighted on March 9 but was then never seen or heard from again. Its disappearance is often credited to the Bermuda Triangle.

MV Joyita: A merchant vessel that mysteriously disappeared in South Pacific in 1955. The vessel used to patrol Hawaii's Big Island until the end of WWII. On Oct 3 1955, it left Samoa's Apia harbour bound for the Tokelau Islands, about 270 miles away. Her departure was delayed because her port engine clutch failed. The ship eventually left on one engine, with 16 crew and 9 passengers. Five weeks later, it was sighted partially submerged with no trace of any passengers or crew, with four tons of cargo also missing.

The Flying Dutchman: The most famous of ghost vessels, apparently seen off the Cape of Good Hope. According to folklore, it is a ghost ship that can never go home, doomed to sail the oceans forever. According to folklore, the captain, facing down a mutiny, killed the leader and threw him overboard. Stormy clouds parted and a shadowy figure appeared condemning the ship to an eternity on the seas. It is usually spotted from afar, sometimes with a ghostly light. The story of the Flying Dutchman was turned into an opera, while more recently, the ship was used in The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, where it was captained by Davy Jones, played by Bill Nighy.

Lady Lovibond: Said to have been wrecked on February 13, 1748, and reappear off the Kent coast every 50 years. The ship was at sea because her captain, Simon Peel had just been married and was celebrating. According to legend, one of the crew, some say the helmsman, became smitten with the captain's new bride, Annetta, and flew into a jealous rage. He murdered the captain and steer the ship onto the treacherous Goodwin Sands, killing everyone aboard. It is said the ship is seen on the anniversary of the disaster.

The Jenny: A British schooner that became frozen in an ice-barrier of the Drake Passage in 1823, only to be rediscovered years later by a whaling ship, the crew onboard preserved by the Antarctic cold. The crew of the whaler discovered the last entry in the captain's log, reading: May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days. I am the only one left alive.

Octavius: A ghost ship, probably legendary and not actual. Found west of Greenland by the a whaler in 1775, the boarding party found the entire crew below deck, dead, frozen and almost perfectly preserved, much like The Jenny. The captain's body was supposedly still at the table in his cabin, pen in hand. Supposedly the vessel had left England for the Orient in 1761, and successfully arrived at its destination the following year. The captain then gambled on a return, with the unfortunate result of being trapped in sea ice north of Alaska. The ship was never seen again after its encounter with the whaler.

Carroll A. Deering: A five-masted commercial schooner found off North Carolina in 1921, with its crew missing. The Deering may have been a victim of mutiny or piracy. On January 31, 1921, it was sighted run aground on Diamond Shoals, an area off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Rescue ships found that the vessel had been completely abandoned. The ship's log, navigation equipment and the crew's personal effects were gone. The US Government launched an extensive investigation into the disappearance of the Deering. A number of theories surrounded the disappearance of the crew, including piracy, Russian communists and paranormal activity. The investigation wound up in 1922 with no answer.

Baychimo: The Baychimo, a steel 1,322 ton cargo steamer that was built in 19914 in Sweden, used to trade with Inuit settelements in Canada.

On October 1 1931, the vessel became trapped in pack ice. The crew briefly abandoned ship, returning two days later when it broke free of ice. It became mired again on October 8 and the Hudson's Bay Company sent aircraft to retrieve the crew. However 15 of the 22 crew remained behind, intending to wait out the winter. In November a blizzard struck, after which there was no sign of the ship. The skipper assumed it had sunk. Over the following months however, there were various sightings by Inuit hunters. While the crew managed to retrieve the most valuable furs on the vessel before abandoning it, it did not sink. Over the next several decades there were numerous sightings. The last recorded sighting was by a group of Inuit in 1969, 38 years after she was abandoned. Her fate is unknown.


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