The ghost ship is the name of the ship. Mysterious Disappearances: Mysteries of the Missing Ships

Coastguards of Great Britain and Ireland peer anxiously into the sea distance. The British Isles are wary of the ghost ship Lyubov Orlova, a former Soviet cruise ship that has been drifting in the north Atlantic since last January.

Panic arose because, according to latest information The 90-meter, 4,250-ton vessel, built in 1976 at a shipyard in Yugoslavia, could well be headed for the British Isles and could soon be dumped somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, Scotland or Cornwall.

Lyubov Orlova is a ghost ship. That's what they call abandoned different reasons crew and passengers are ships, which then sail the seas and oceans and frighten oncoming ships with their sinister appearance.

There are no people on board the Lyubov Orlova. There is no one there, except for hordes of rats, who, in order not to die of hunger, probably devour each other.

The Arctic liner changed several owners. The last owner decided to scrap it and tow it from Newfoundland, where it has been for the past two years, to the Dominican Republic. During a severe storm, the crew was forced to take a tow. Then the cable burst, and "Lyubov Orlova" disappeared into the fog.

At first, the Canadian Coast Guard tried to follow the ghost ship, on which there are no transponders. Then he was carried into international waters, and the Canadians calmed down.

After a few weeks of wandering around the Atlantic, Lyubov Orlova seemed to show up about 1,700 km from the Irish island of Valentia. However, the search was unsuccessful due to bad weather.

At the end of February last year, 1,300 km from the county of Kerrin, located in the south-west of Ireland, an emergency beacon went off on a ghost ship. The buoys start transmitting signals when they hit the water. New searches for the Irish Coast Guard again failed.

In March, a satellite spotted an object large enough to be a ship off the northwest coast of Scotland, but the planes didn't find it. The search for rescuers was also unsuccessful. Rescuers are interested in the premium - the ship's metal costs approx. 1 million dollars.

Experts believe that the ship "Lyubov Orlova" continues to drift in the northern part of the Atlantic. As for the beacon signals, most likely, during a storm, the life raft on which it is located was carried overboard.

Of course, "Lyubov Orlova" is far from the first and, one must think, far from the last ghost ship plowing the waters of the seas and oceans.

1. Flying Dutchman

Ghost ships are often also called "Flying Dutchmen" in honor of perhaps the most famous of them. The legend is based on facts. In 1680, a ship under the command Hendrick Vanderdecken left Amsterdam and headed for Batavia, a port in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the ship got into a strong storm and went to the bottom along with the crew. It is said that as a punishment for stubbornness, Vanderdecken, who decided to continue sailing despite warnings of an impending storm, and his ship was ordered to forever plow the expanses of the ocean near the Cape of Good Hope.

One of the first encounters with the mysterious ship took place in 1835. The sailors of a British frigate caught in a storm suddenly saw an old ship rushing towards them at full sail. At the very last moment, when it seemed that a collision could not be avoided, the ship disappeared.

In 1881, the Flying Dutchman was seen by two sailors of the merchant ship Bachchant. The next day, one of them fell off the mast and crashed to death.

In March 1939, a ghost ship appeared off the coast South Africa. Dozens of vacationers clearly described the mysterious ship, although most of them had not seen the ships of the 17th century, even in pictures.

The last meeting with the Flying Dutchman took place in 1942 near Cape Town. In front of four people, the sailboat entered the harbor of Table Bay and ... disappeared into the air.

2. "Mary Celeste"

In 1861, the most "pr about cursed" ship in the history of navigation - "Amazon". After 48 hours, the captain died for an unknown reason. The very first voyage of the two-masted brigantine ended with a hole in the hull, and during repairs a fire broke out on board. While crossing the Atlantic, the Amazon collided with another ship.

In 1872, the “spellbound” brigantine had a new owner and a name - “Mary Celeste”. November 7 Benjamin Briggs went to sea and headed for Genoa. On board were 1701 barrels of wine and spirits.

In addition to Captain Briggs, an experienced sailor, who, by the way, did not take a drop of alcohol in his mouth, there was an equally experienced assistant, a cook and four sailors on board. The captain's wife and two-year-old daughter also set sail.

On December 4, 1872, from the Dei Graces, which left New York a week later and followed almost the same course, 600 miles from Gibraltar, about halfway between the Azores and Portugal, they saw a two-masted brigantine without signs of life.

Two hours later, the sailors from the Dei boarded the Celeste. All things, with the exception of some documents and a chronometer, remained in place. The last entry in the ship's log was made on 24 November. From it it followed that the swimming was proceeding normally.

The ocean in the Azores region was stormy for a whole week. The pump turned out to be faulty, there was knee-deep water in the hold. The boat was missing.

A few days later, the Dea Gracia entered the port of Gibraltar, dragging the Celeste in tow. The investigation concluded that the crew left the ship for some unknown reason. Briggs, the investigator decided, seeing that the pump was not working, and fearing that the Celeste would sink or the cargo would explode in the hold, he boarded the boat and tied it to the brigantine (a piece of rope was found on board). A sudden gust of wind broke the rope, and the boat was carried away from the ship. She could sink immediately or still float in the stormy ocean for some time. There was no chance for people to survive in such a storm.

Since that strange incident, the Mary Celeste has changed hands frequently. She sank off the coast of Haiti in 1884. The captain colluded with the first mate and the owners. He loaded the ship with cheap rubber boots and cat food and deliberately landed her on a reef. Then he said that he was carrying a very valuable cargo, and demanded damages from the insurance company. Unfortunately for him, "Mary Celeste" did not immediately go to the bottom. Representatives of the insurance company managed to visit her on board and saw that the cargo cost much less than what the sailor demanded. The captain and assistant were sent to prison.

Most likely, "Mary Celeste" would have remained to few famous ship if not... Arthur Conan Doyle. The hero of his story "Statement of J. Habakuk Jepson", a fictional ship's doctor Jepson, was the only one who survived after the attack of African bandits who declared jihad on Christians. The doctor was saved by the sacred stone he had.

The story was written so vividly and convincingly that the British and American authorities began an official investigation. Conan Doyle published the story anonymously, so it was attributed to the pen for some time. Robert Stevenson and compared in style with Edgar Poe. With the light hand of a literary father Sherlock Holmes since then, the brigantine has been called not “Mary”, but “Maria”.

After the release of the story, for which Conan Doyle received about 30 guineas, decent money in 1883, the Celeste broke out huge interest, not fading for more than a hundred years.

It is no longer possible to establish where the stories came from that bloodied weapons and blood on the sails were found on board. There were really quite a few pirates in those parts in the second half of the 19th century, but this does not explain the fact that they did not touch the safe with money and the cargo, which, by the way, cost 35 thousand dollars, almost three times more than the brigantine itself.

It was also said that on the Celeste they allegedly found cups with still steaming coffee and plates with leftover food. This was not true, if only because people from the Dei climbed the brigantine only two hours after its discovery.

Of course, there have been theories and alien abductions and encounters with giant octopus and a huge wave that washed all the people off the board. Some of the lovers of sensations even agreed to the point that they accused people from the Celeste of the disappearance Morenhaus, captain of the Dei. He allegedly, back in New York, persuaded three sailors for big money to seize the ship, which he then “found” and received a good bonus for it. But this theory, like dozens of others, is not supported by facts. The true reason that caused Captain Briggs and his men to leave the ship will probably forever remain a mystery.

3. "Urang Medan"

Two American ships in the Strait of Malacca in June 1947 received a distress signal. He came from the Dutch cargo ship "Urang Medan". The man, in a voice weakening every second, managed to tell that the captain and all his teammates seemed to have died. His last words was: “I, too, am dying,” after which there was silence.

When the Silver Star approached the Dutch ship, it turned out to be completely intact. The radio operator was right: there were no living people on board. The rescuers noticed that the faces of all the sailors were distorted with terrible grimaces, as if they were either afraid of something or were dying in terrible agony.

The sailors from the "Silver Star" wanted to go down into the hold, from where it blew cold, but they were prevented by smoke that suddenly fell from below and a fire broke out.

He was so strong that the Americans had to urgently return to their ship. As soon as they managed to sail to a safe distance, the Urang Medan was blown into the air by a strong explosion.

There are quite a few theories about the death of the Urang Medan crew and the ship itself. The most common one says that the nitroglycerin and potassium cyanide that the ship was carrying somehow leaked out and, upon contact with sea ​​water produced hydrogen cyanide, which poisoned people. As for the explosion, it could well have come from nitroglycerin.

4. "Carroll A. Dearing"

This five-masted schooner, named by its owner in honor of his son, was built in 1911 and served to transport goods. On December 2, 1920, the ship left Rio de Janeiro for the United States. There were 12 crew members on board.

Passing by the lighthouse at Cape Laukat on January 28, 1921, the schooner signaled that all her anchors had been torn off. The caretaker was the last person to see the Carroll A. Dearing. According to him, he was asked to report from the side into the mouthpiece to Norfolk that a tug should be prepared.

Three days later, the Carroll A. Dearing was found aground near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. There were no people on board. Also missing were two lifeboats, a logbook and navigational equipment. Judging by the state of the personal belongings of the team members, they were in a great hurry.

The Carroll A. Dearing was in perfect working order. The fact that at about the same time several other ships mysteriously disappeared in those parts led the authorities to conclude that the schooner and other ships were victims of pirate attacks or a riot had occurred on board.

5. "Beychimo"

The cargo ship Beychimo was built in 1914 to trade in leathers and furs and to supply the Inuit settlements in northwestern Canada. During the next voyage in October 1931, the ship got stuck in the ice. Unable to free the Beychimo, 36 members of the team abandoned it.

During a storm, the ship escaped from the ice captivity, but, according to the sailors, it received serious damage that did not allow it to be operated. "Beychimo" was thrown in full confidence that he would go down very quickly. However, the ship not only did not sink, but drifted along the coast of Alaska for almost four decades.

IN last time he was seen in 1969, when he was again stuck in the ice. In 2006, the Alaskan authorities tried to find "Beychimo", but all searches were unsuccessful. The “Ghost Ship of the Arctic”, as it is called, either sank or continues to drift in Arctic waters.

Sailing remains a dangerous activity in the 21st century. Before the sea element, even a person armed with technology is helpless. History knows a lot of cases when ships, together with the crews, disappeared into the sea without a trace. We have collected the 10 most mysterious shipwrecks, the causes of which remain a mystery to this day.

1. USS Wasp - the missing escort

In fact, there were several ships that were called USS Wasp, but, the strangest was 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 was found, and a piece of board with a piece of the inscription "arine SULPH".

3. USS Porpoise - killed in a typhoon

Built in the golden age of sailing, the Porpoise was originally known as the "hermaphrodite brig" because its two masts used two different types of sails. 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 trip around the world and confirm the existence of Antarctica. After exploring a number of islands in the southern part Pacific Ocean Porpoise sailed from China in September 1854 and was never heard from again. 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 fishing trawler Andrea Gai was built in Florida in 1978 and was 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. It is believed that Andrea Gail was doomed when the front high pressure crashed into a massive area of ​​low-pressure air, and then 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 have encountered waves with a height of more than 30 meters

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, which 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 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, she was transferred to American Samoa, where she was to become a floating station. March 25, 1921 the ship set sail, and nothing more is known about it.

Source 7Witchcraft - the pleasure boat that went missing on Christmas Day

In December 1967, Miami hotel owner Dan Burak decided to watch the city's Christmas lights from his personal luxurious Boats 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. Around 9 pm, Burak radioed for a tow back to the pier, reporting 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

US Navy frigate Insurgent the Americans captured in battle with the French in 1799. The ship served in the Caribbean, where she had 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, 44m cargo steamer Awahou passed 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 she 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 in fact Baychimo was a real ship. Built in 1911, Baychimo was a huge steam cargo ship owned by Hudson's Bay Company. It was mainly used to transport furs from northern Canada, and Baychimo's 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 was rescued by plane, but the captain and several members of the Baychimo crew decided to wait out the bad weather by setting up camp on the ship. A severe snowstorm began, which completely hid the ship from sight. When the storm subsided, Baychimo disappeared. However, for several decades, Baychimo has allegedly been seen drifting aimlessly in Arctic waters more than once.

"Flying Dutchman"- the legendary sailing ghost ship that cannot land on the shore and is doomed to sail the seas forever. Usually people observe such a ship from afar, sometimes surrounded by a luminous halo.

According to legend, when the Flying Dutchman meets with another ship, its crew tries to send messages to the shore for people who are no longer alive. In maritime beliefs, meeting with the "Flying Dutchman" was considered a bad omen.

Ships that were found in the oceans abandoned, with a dead from unknown causes or a completely absent crew, also began to be called ghost ships. The most famous and classic of these is certainly "Mary Celeste"(Mary Celeste).

In December 1872, this ship was found by the captain of the brig Deia Gracia. He began to send signals, but the crew of the Mary Celeste did not answer them, and the ship itself swayed limply on the waves. The captain and sailors landed on a mysterious brigantine, but the ship was empty.

The last entry in the ship's log was made in November 1872. It seemed that the crew had only recently abandoned this ship. There was no damage to the ship, there was food in the kitchen, and there were 1,700 barrels of alcohol in the hold. "Mary Celeste" a few days later was delivered to the roadstead of Gibraltar.

The Admiralty could not understand where the crew of the brigantine had gone, the captain of which was the sailor Briggs, who had been driving sailboats for more than twenty years. Since there was no news of the ship, and its crew never showed up, the investigation ceased.

However, among the people, the news of the mystical disappearance of the Mary Celeste team spread with incredible speed. People began to wonder what happened to Briggs and his sailors? Some leaned towards the version that the ship was attacked by pirates, others believed that the problem was a riot. But these were just guesses.

Time passed and the mystery of "Mary Celeste" went beyond the local, because. She was being talked about everywhere. It is worth noting that with the end of the investigation, the stories about the mysterious ship did not stop. The newspapers often appeared stories about the brigantine, journalists described the most diverse versions of the disappearance of the team.

So, they wrote that the entire crew died as a result of the attack. huge octopus that a plague broke out on the ship. And in the Times it was said that all the passengers on the ship were killed by Captain Briggs, who went crazy. And he threw the bodies overboard. After that, he tried to swim away on a boat, but she sank with him. But all these stories were just fiction and assumptions.

From time to time, charlatans came to the editorial offices and pretended to be the surviving sailors of the Mary Celeste. They received a fee for "real" stories and went into hiding after that. After several incidents, the police were already on the alert. In 1884, in the London almanac Cornhill, the memoirs of Shebekuk Jephson, a sailor who was on that ill-fated ship, were written. However, later it turned out that the author of these "memoirs" was Arthur Conan Doyle.

Most ghost ships drift in the North Atlantic. True, no one can accurately name the number of wanderers - it changes from year to year. Statistics show that in some years the number of "Dutch" drifting in the North Atlantic reached three hundred.

Quite a lot of wandering ships are found in sea areas remote from shipping lanes and rarely visited by merchant ships. From time to time, the "Flying Dutchmen" remind of themselves. Either they are carried by the current to coastal shallows, or they are thrown by the wind onto rocks or underwater reefs. It happens that the "Dutch" who do not carry at night running lights, cause collisions with oncoming ships, sometimes with serious consequences.

"ANGOSH"

In 1971, under mysterious circumstances, the Portuguese transport Angosh was abandoned by the team. It happened off the eastern coast of Africa. The Angosh transport with a gross tonnage of 1684 registered tons and a carrying capacity of 1236 tons left the port of Nacala (Mozambique) on April 23, 1971 for another Mozambican port, Porto Amelia.

Three days later, the Angosh was discovered by the Panamanian tanker Esso Port Dickson. The transport drifted without a crew, ten miles from the coast. The newly-minted "Flying Dutchman" was taken in tow and brought to the port. Inspection showed that the ship had suffered a collision. This was evidenced by the serious injuries he received.

The bridge bore obvious traces of a recent fire. Experts have established that it could be the result of a small explosion that occurred here. However, it was not possible to explain the disappearance of 24 crew members and one passenger of the Angosh.

"MALBORO"

In October 1913, in one of the bays of the archipelago Tierra del Fuego a storm brought the schooner Marlboro. The assistant captain and several members of his crew boarded and were shocked by the terrible sight: the bodies of the crew members were scattered all over the sailboat, dried up like mummies.

The masts of the sailboat were completely intact, and the whole schooner was covered with mold. The same thing was going on in the hold: dead crew members everywhere, dried up like mummies.

As a result of the investigation, it was found incredible fact: The three-masted sailing ship left the port of Littleton in early January 1890, heading for Scotland, to its home port of Glasgow, but for some reason never arrived at the port.

However, what happened to the crew of the sailboat? Had the calm deprived him of the sail of the wind and forced him to drift aimlessly until all the supplies of drinking water were exhausted? How could it happen that a sailboat with a dead crew did not crash against the reefs in twenty-four years of drifting?

"ORUNG MEDA"

In June 1947 (according to other sources - at the beginning of February 1948), British and Dutch listening stations, as well as two American ships in the Malacca Strait, received a distress signal with the following content: “The captain and all officers lie dead in the cockpit and on the bridge. Maybe the whole team is dead." This message was followed by an illegible Morse code and a short phrase: "I'm dying."

No more signals were received, but the place of sending the message was determined by triangulation, and one of the American ships mentioned above immediately headed for it.

When the ship was found, it turned out that its entire crew was indeed dead, including even the dog. No visible injuries were found on the bodies of the dead, although it was obvious from the expression on their faces that they were dying in horror and great agony.

The ship itself was also not damaged, but members of the rescue team noted an unusual cold in the depths of the hold. Shortly after the inspection began, suspicious smoke began to appear from the hold, and the rescuers had to hastily return to their ship.

Shortly thereafter, the Orung Medan exploded and sank, making further investigation of the incident impossible.

"SIBERD"

On a July morning in 1850, the inhabitants of the village of Eastons Beach on the coast of Rhode Island were surprised to see a sailing ship coming from the sea under full sail to the shore. It stopped in shallow water.

When people boarded, they found that coffee was boiling on the galley stove, plates were arranged on the table in the saloon. But the only living creature on board was a dog trembling with fear, huddled in a corner of one of the cabins. Not a single person was on the ship.

Cargo, navigational instruments, maps, sailing directions and ship's documents were in place. The last entry in the logbook said: "Beamed Brenton Reef" (this reef is only a few miles from Eastons Beach).

It was known that the Seabird sailed with a cargo of timber and coffee from the island of Honduras. However, even the most thorough investigation conducted by the Americans did not reveal the reasons for the disappearance of its crew from the sailing ship.

"EBAY ESS HART"

In September 1894, the three-masted barque Ebiy Ess Hart was spotted in the Indian Ocean from the German steamship Pikkuben. A distress signal fluttered from its mast. When the German sailors landed on the deck of the sailing ship, they saw that all 38 crew members were dead, and the captain went crazy.

UNKNOWN FRIGATE

In October 1908, near one of the major Mexican ports, a half-flooded frigate was found, with a strong roll to the port side. The topmasts of the sailboat's masts were broken, the name could not be established, and the crew was absent.

There were no storms or hurricanes in this region of the ocean at that time. The search turned out to be fruitless, and the reasons for the disappearance of the crew remained unclear, although a wide variety of hypotheses were put forward.

"HOLCHU"

In February 1953, the sailors of the English vessel Reni, two hundred miles from the Nicobar Islands, discovered a small cargo ship, the Holchu, in the ocean. The ship was damaged, the mast was broken.

Although the lifeboats were in place, the crew was absent. In the holds there was a cargo of rice, in the bunkers - a full supply of fuel and water. Where the five crew members disappeared is still a mystery.

"KOBENHAVN"

On December 4, 1928, the Danish sailing training ship Kobenhavn left Buenos Aires to continue its circumnavigation. There was a crew and 80 pupils on board the sailboat. maritime school. A week later, when the Kobenhavn had already covered about 400 miles, a radiogram was received from the board.

The command reported that the voyage was going well and that everything was safe on the ship. The further fate of the sailing ship and the people on it remains a mystery. The ship did not arrive at its home port, Copenhagen.

It is said that later he was met many times in various corners Atlantic. The sailboat allegedly went under full sail, but there were no people on it.

"JOYTA"

Until now, the history of the ship "Joyta" remains a mystery. The ship, thought to be lost, was found in the ocean. It sailed without a crew or passengers. “Joyta” is called the second “Mary Celeste”, but if the events that took place on the “Mary Celeste” took place in the century before last, then the disappearance of people from the board of the “Joyta” refers to the second half of the 20th century.

"Joyta" had excellent seaworthiness. On October 3, 1955, the ship, under the command of Captain Miller, an experienced and knowledgeable sailor, left the port of Apia on the island of Upolu (Western Samoa) and headed for the shores of the Tokelau archipelago.

It did not arrive at the port of destination. Searches were organized. Rescue ships, helicopters and planes surveyed the vast ocean area. However, all efforts were in vain. The ship and 25 people on board were listed as missing.

More than a month passed, and on November 10, Joyta was accidentally discovered 187 miles north of the Fiji Islands. The vessel sailed in a semi-submerged state and had a large roll. There were no people or cargo on it.

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 himself with 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 Baichimo ghost ship was met by sea workers here and there, in the waters of Alaska, repeatedly over the next 40 years. Last fact documented in 1969, when Eskimos saw Baichimo frozen in arctic ice 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 and a fire is burning on board. 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 Vehicle- this is the "Flying Dutchman", the eternal 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 ...

five. "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 - real owner 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. It was difficult to round the cape because of the monstrous winds, but Hendrik vowed to do it (yes-yes-yes!), even if it had to fight the elements to the very doomsday. 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. next summer curious locals organized a boat cult trip to the place of the death of the schooner 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 set sail from England to 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 spend 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 from two different ships saw a phantom sailboat sailing along the shallows of the Goodwin Sands. 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 destroyed almost more ships than 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.

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 vanished into thin air or were dead. The reasons for the disappearance or death of the team are still 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 find at the end of the 19th century was discovered by residents of the coastal regions of the state of Rhode Island (USA) - the Seabird ship crashed into the rocks. When the 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 fire, fresh food leftovers in plates), none of the crew members on the sailboat were found. The only living being is a frightened dog. The sailors seemed to have 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 who worked 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, now 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 things of the sailors 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 ice of the Arctic. The team decided to wait out the bad weather in the nearest Eskimo settlement. Leaving the ship, the captain hoped to return there as soon as the situation normalized. But after another winter storm, the ship was not in place. Assuming that the Beychimo 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 testimonies were very plausible, because they could quite accurately describe what Beychimo looked like. For many decades, the ship has been disappearing, then reappearing in the field of view of sailors. How a ship without control was able to cruise in the waters of the ocean for so many years - no one can explain.

An Australian fishing yacht that set sail on 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. Items found on board (a radio on, a working computer, a set table) indicated that no one was going to leave the yacht. The search for the team did not bring any results. According to official version, one of the fishermen suddenly began to sink, and his two friends rushed to the aid of a drowning comrade. All three died. But no direct evidence of this version was found. Any explanation of the incident has no evidence.