From abandoned ships stripped of their every identification, to men that vanished from their boat mid-meal without explanation. Let us take a look at the 15 creepy stories about forsaken ships forever sailing on the open sea.
15. T.T. Zion
A recent one from 2012, a 31-foot center console Jupiter boat that landed on Fort Lauderdale Beach east of Las Olas Boulevard. It drifted ashore with navigation lights still on and engines running, but nobody aboard. Authorities discovered the boat’s owners wallet and cell phone, but no sign of the man or other passengers was found.
14. Young Teazer
Young Teazer was a schooner destroyed in 1813 in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia by one of its own crewmates. It was said for the following two years, the Teazer showed up as a ghost ship that vanished in flames at the same location it exploded with sightings from a large number of individuals. Ships that frequent the spot have reported a ship shows up to ram theirs, a phenomenon to do with fog now known as the “Teazer Light”.
13. Zebrina
A barge that set sail for France in 1917, but instead wound up ashore with its cargo of coal and sails still up. All five members of the crew had gone missing, with no sign of struggle but the common theory is that a German U-Boat had boarded them to quietly take them aboard.
12. SV Lunatic
In 2007, a 70 year old man Jure Sterk set sail around the world on his boat Lunatic but on the 1st of January 2009 his broadcasts ceased. One month later, his boat looking ragged and mossy turned up off the coast of Australia with no sign of him aboard. The same boat was again spotted three months later in the middle of the sea by Science Vessel RV Roger Revelle, forever drifting without its captain.
11. Kaz 11
This is a 33 ft catamaran found 88 nautical miles off the Australian coast in 2007. It was discovered with engine running and a table with dinner waiting, but none of its three passengers.
10. Jian Seng
In 2006, the Australian coast, a mysterious ship turns up with no evidence of human activity – in fact, it’s been stripped of name or identifying features of any merit. Since no owner ever turned up the boat, it was intentionally sunk.
9. Ourang Medan
Ourang Medan was a Dutch cargo ship from 1947, that wrecked in Indonesian waters and when rescuers came aboard they found the crew all dead with no visible injuries. Rumours suggest the ship carried sulfuric acid which leaked and wiped out the crew, either that or Voldermort sent Death Eaters to Avada Kedavra them to death.
8. Bel Amica
In 2006, a classic style schooner unlike anything seen before is found off the coast of the island of Sardinia with no crew aboard. A ridiculous mish-mash from a ship not registered with any country, as if this boat had sailed from hundreds of years in the past manned by time travelling chameleons. Sadly, turns out some rich dude owned it but never registered it to evade tax.
7. Carrol A. Deering
This one took place in everyone’s favourite mystery area, the Bermuda Triangle. It set sail from Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, but right from the word go problems arose between the captain and his crew. On January 28th, 1921, contact was lost with the Deering and three days later it was found off Cape Hatteras, and the rescuers found it completely abandoned with meals halfway through preparation left on the table, as if they’d all vanished on the spot.
6. Lady Lovibond
Lady Lovibond was a schooner that wrecked off the coast of Kent in south-east England in 1748. 50 years later, there was a sighting of the same ship in the same area, then, another 50 years later, lifeboats were sent after seeing the same ship once again. Every 50 years it was believed the Lady Lovibond returned, and it did until 1998 when, sadly, it never turned up.
5. MV Tai Ching 21
In October 2008, a Taiwanese fishing vessel that turned up empty the next month near Kiribati. Its lifeboat and lift rafts were missing, and the Taiwanese vessel showed evidence of fire several days previous – however, no mayday call was ever received, and a 21,000 square mile search of the Pacific Ocean turned up no clue to the whereabouts of its 29 crew personnel.
4. High Aim 6
High Aim 6 was a Taiwanese ship found in 2003 near Australian waters without a single crew member on board. A 7,300 mile search of the area turned up no results, but then 10 days following the ship’s discovery, a missing crewman used a phone from the ship in Indonesia, and authorities quickly tracked him down. He claims the captain and engineer had been murdered, and that the crew left shortly after.
3. Schooner Jenny
On 1823, the captain of this schooner wrote in his journal the message, “No food for 71 days. I am the only one left alive”. The Antarctic weather froze him in his chair, still a pen in hand when 17 years later another ship passing by found him. As a sign of respect, the crew of the whaling ship that found them buried all the passengers, including a dog, out at sea.
2. Kobenhaven
A Danish five-masted barque used as a naval training vessel in the 1920s – at the time, it was considered the world’s largest sailing ship. Then, in 1928, the last call was heard en route from Buenos Aires to Australia. 75 people were aboard, including 45 cadets, and it’s commonly accepted they hit an iceberg or somesuch. For the next two years though, frequent sightings of a phantom ship fitting the exact same ships description kept cropping up, and for the next ten years little parts of the boat would resurface.
1. Rouse Simmons
A three-masted schooner from 1912, bound for Chicago with a cargo of Christmas trees. A violent storm brewed up at the time it was en route, and it eventually destroyed the ship, killing all aboard. Frequent ghost ship sightings have made this a tourist attraction, and trees found from the bottom of the sea make for spectacles.
Source: Planet Dolan
