Ghost Ships & Mysteries
There have been numerous reports of ghost ships being discovered at sea with no sign of the crew or passengers.
Without any sign of weather being a factor or passengers sent overboard, why are these ships abandoned?
Could there be paranormal elements at play for these adrift boats? Listen now to our phantom ghosts episode to find out.
Ghost Ship Mysteries
Should some mysteries be left alone?
What can cause people to mysteriously vanish from the middle of the ocean
What you do if you found a ship abandoned at sea?
What is up, Bizarros? This week we’re steering our paranormal podcast into deep waters. We’re diving into some famous ghost ship mysteries!
Are Ghost Ships For Real?
What is a ghost ship? A ghost ship is a ship that appears out of nowhere and can vanish at any second. Or a ghost ship can be found empty at sea.
They are also known as phantom ships.
Sometimes the ghost ships are found with their crews, and other times these mysterious ghost ships are completely deserted. The entire crew is gone leaving behind no clues as to where they have gone.
Every culture, especially cultures with strong ties to the water, has stories, myths, and lore about the ghost ships.
There are also many real-life derelict ships found drifting abandoned in the open sea.
But let’s ask the questions that everyone wants the answers to.
Where did the crew go? What happened?
Let’s focus on these ships that were found at sea and missing their crew mysteriously and what can be the source of that.
Unexplained Ghost Ship Mysteries
Mary Celeste
Information from Alex Johnson from Museum Hack
The Mary Celeste was a ship that set sail from New York to Genoa, Italy. They left on November 7th, 1872. The cargo hold of the Mary Celeste was full of industrial-strength alcohol.
The ship left port with a crew of seven, captain Banjerman Spooner along with his wife Sarah and his two-year-old daughter Sophia.
On December 5th, almost a month later, the Mary Celeste was found drifting in the middle of the Atlantic.
David Morehouse saw the ship. He recognized it as the same ship that left port with his ship.
Morehouse launched a boarding party onto the Mary Celeste. They found the ship and barracks in decent order for being adrift in the open ocean, but the pump has been dismantled, and there was about 3 feet of seawater flooded into the ship.
The strangest thing was that there were 9 barrels of alcohol missing. However, there was no lack of supply; they would have had enough to survive for 6 months or so on the sea.
There was also the last log that said the ship had coordinates that left it in sight of land.
But there was no sign of life on the ship. No bodies, just nothing.
The ship that found the Mary Celeste. David Morehouse’s crew walked away from the salvage with a little over 800 dollars each. Not bad, but not great. Although Morehouse’s crew was accused of foul play, they were found innocent.
Theories About Mary Celeste
There are three theories about Mary Celeste.
The first is mutiny, either by Morehouse or by Mary Celeste’s own crew, and the crew took the captain and his family and ran to the land that was in sight.
The second is an alcohol explosion. They may have escaped the ship as a precaution, and the whole crew and family got lost while on the lifeboat.
However, there was never a sign of a fire on the ship that would have forced the entire crew to leave.
The third theory, a bad pump, caused the captain to panic and order everyone to leave.
The MV Joyita
The MV Joyita was a 70-foot yacht built in LA in the early 1930s. It first belonged to a famous director and sailed on the west coast before its disappearance in 1955. The boat had some years on it.
Even boats weren’t immune from the drafts of WWII because the MV Joyita was drafted to be a patrol boat in Hawaii.
It was even run aground once, and some parts had been replaced with cheaper materials.
The last journey the MV Joyita was going on was a small 270-mile trip between two islands in the Pacific Ocean. Although only one of the engines was working due to an engine malfunction.
There were 25 people on board, along with lumber and medical supplies for the 48-hour journey. Three days later, the ship was reported MIA, but there had been no distress calls given from the ship.
The ship was lost for five weeks until it was discovered 600 miles west of where the ship had originally been going.
An investigation showed the ship was empty. The people and cargo were all gone. However, the ship was perfectly fine.
It did appear that something had happened aboard the ship. The rooms above the waterline had broken windows with glass on the ground. On the deck, bloody bandages were found along with a doctor’s bag.
The one working engine was covered in mattresses, and all the clocks on the ship had stopped at the same time. 10:25 pm
The radio was tuned to 2182 kHz, which is known as a distress signal, but the radio was not working. No one knew if the people aboard the ship knew that, though. The life jackets and dinghy were also missing from the ship.
Theories About The MV Joyita
One theory suggests that a corroded pipe from WWII caused superficial leaks at night, and everyone freaked out and jumped in the dinghy.
Another theory is mutiny, and the crew killed the people and took the supplies, and tried their luck on the little ship.
No one was ever seen again from MV Joyita
The Bel Amica
A six hundred-thousand-dollar twins masted ship was found off the coast of Italy in 2006.
There was no identification found on the ship. Instead, found on the 66-foot vessel were charts of the Mediterranean and a half-eaten meal.
No ships have been registered with the name Bel Amica, but it was engraved on the ship.
The ship was in perfect condition, and the authorities were stumped as to why it was left to drift.
SS Ourang Medan
This case is a little different. We know where the crew is but who sent the messages?
In the 1940s, The SS Ourang Medan was a ship was a Dutch ship that was passing through the strait of Malacca. When something terrible happened. Nearby ships got a message.
“All officers, including captain, dead, lying in the chartroom and on the bridge, probably the whole crew dead,”
And then there was a frantic burst of morse code then one more message came through.
“I die.”
When the ship was boarded to check, the crew was found strewn throughout the deck.
“They were found teeth bared, with their upturned faces to the sun, staring, as if in fear.”
The dog was even dead. It was found mid-growl.
The ship’s name actually translates to Man of Medan.
Carroll A. Deering
The cargo ship was found off the coast of North Carolina in 1922 with no crew on board.
The 255-foot-long ship was built in 1919 in Maine. It was designed to carry 35,000 pounds of coal at a time.
Carroll A Deering left Norfolk, Virginia August 22, 1920, headed for Rio De Janerio.
The captain was WW1 battle-hardened William H Merritt, and his first mate was his son Sewell Merritt. They had a crew of 10 men.
They had only departed for a few days. When captain Marriott fell seriously ill, the ship turned back and docked in Lewes, Delaware. Both Merritts departed and were replaced with captain Willis Wormell and Charles and McLellan.
They delivered the coal without incident. While in Brazil, the ship crew took leave, and Wormell visited his old friend, who was also a captain, who told Goodwin about his crew, and he told him that he felt as though they didn’t trust him.
There were tensions on the boat between Wormell and McLellan. Wormell was upset because McLellan was drunk too often, and it led to Wormell having to bail McLellan out of jail on January 9th, 1921. They then set sail for home.
On January 29th, Deering passed a lighthouse and asked the lighthouse to pass a message to the GG company. But the lighthouse couldn’t because their long radio was out.
Jacobs, the captain of the lighthouse, described the person he talked to as a tall thing and having red hair. Nothing at all like Wormell, the 66-year-old retired man. He also decided the crew was “milling around” on the top deck, where they wouldn’t have been allowed.
On January 31st, the ship was found run aground with its sails out on the diamond shoals. It wasn’t until February 4th that the ship was able to be boarded due to bad weather conditions. The vessel was empty of people, and the insides were destroyed. The steering wheel was shattered apart. The binnacle box was caved in a broken.
The ladder was hanging over the side, and the food looked as though it was halfway through being cooked pea soup and ribs.
Theories About The Carroll A Deering
Mutiny because it’s that that Wormell was disliked, and the crew didn’t know what to do after they got rid of him
Also, there is another idea they were run aground, and the crew just took cover on the lifesaver ships and were swept out to sea and lost.
What Causes The Ghost Ships?
What do you think, Bizarros?
Is it faulty navigational equipment that causes some of the ships to become abandoned and set adrift?
Could it be paranormal activity? Especially with the SS Ourang Medan.
Or could it be as simple an explanation as inexperienced sailors?
Let us know in the comments.