Abandoned and deserted, with all of its eleven crewmen missing, the circumstances are as strange as those of the “Mary Celeste,” which disappeared some fifty years prior and the Derring’s case remains as one of the greatest unsolved maritime mysteries of all time. When sighted first, the Deering’s sails were up and the galley showed evidence that certain foodstuffs were being prepared for the next day’s meal at the time of the abandonment. The crews’ personal effects were all  missing along with the ship’s navigational equipment,  log books, and two life boats. Also mysteriously missing were the eleven crew members of the vessel. The Coast Guard vessel Manning attempted to salvage the Deering, but found this impossible. The vessel was scuttled, using dynamite, on March 4 to prevent her from becoming a danger to other vessels.

A massive investigation  by the US government followed, but  no  definite explanation could be found for the mysterious incident.  It is interesting to note that at the same time of the schooner’s disappearance, few  other ships  had disappeared under mysterious circumstances around the same time, in the same place.  None of the ship’s crew were ever found from any of the missing vessels.

There were a number of theories considered by the U.S. Government during their investigation that included piracy, mutiny, a hurricane, a Russian/Communist piracy, Rum Runner’s, or a paranormal explanation. The investigation finally wound down and came to end in 1922 with no official explanation ever being found.

The mystery surrounding the ghost ship has encouraged wild speculation and  a paranormal  explanation became popular within a few decades of the incident. The disappearance of the ship’s crew has been cited by innumerable authors dealing with anomalous phenomena and the supernatural.  Charles Fort, in his book Lo! (1931), first mentioned this vessel in a “mysterious” context, and many subsequent chroniclers of sea mysteries have followed  the same line. Since this vessel sailed in the area generally considered to be part of the infamous  Bermuda Triangle, paranormal activity or some kind of other worldly phenomenon might be responsible  for  the disappearance of the crew members.

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Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, the two princes, the son of Edward IV were only 12 and 9 years old respectively when they disappeared after being held prisoner by their uncle Richard III of England in the Tower of London whilst Edward V was waiting for his coronation. The princes were never seen again shortly after Richard III claimed that Edward IV’s marriage was invalid and his children illegitimate. Some chronicles and notes taken at that time recorded the rumor that the sons of King Edward had had been put to silence in the Tower of London. This fact leads to many speculations of whether Richard III or his agents had killed the princes. Historians argued that the Tudor who also wanted to rise to the throne might have something to do with the execution of the princes. In 1674 during a demolition work in the White Tower, skeletons were found and thought to be the remains of the young king and his brother. Charles II ordered the skeletons to be reburied in Westminster Abbey. However, an examination held in 1933 of the surviving bones was inconclusive. DNA analysis or carbon dating on the bones is possible today, but unfortunately, the Abbey authorities have refused a second examination. Thus the fate of the two princes was still unknown to this date. This mystery have been the inspiration of many books, play and movies.

The disappearance of Roanoke Colonist in 1587

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony

Not less than 117 men, women and children were vanished into thin air at Roanoke Island, an island in present-day North Carolina, the first permanent English establishment in the New World in 1587. The settlers were recruited and financed by Sir Walter Raleigh after he received a charter for colonization from Queen Elizabeth I. Raleigh’s colony at Roanoke Island was not the first. Previous colonies were either abandoned or the colonist died. Raleigh’s group was led by John White, a friend of Raleigh. They arrived at Roanoke Island on 22nd July 1587, White tried to establish relationship with the neighboring Indian tribes including the one that had been attacked by previous groups of settlers. The relationship with the native tribes was not gone well. Soon the colonist started to fear for their lives. They petitioned John White to return to England to ask for help and supplies. White left the island on August of that same year. Unfortunately to sail during the latest months in the year presented considerable risk. The vessel hardly made it back to England and the captain refused to sail back crossing Atlantic Ocean to Roanoke Island during the winter. War with the Spain delayed the journey back to Roanoke even further as every seaworthy ship available in England were used to fight the Spanish armada. White finally returned to Roanoke in August 1590 only to find the settlement abandoned. Neither bones nor sign of fight or struggle were found. All the houses had been dismantled neatly. So, their departure was not forced nor hurried. White found the word “Croatoan” carved into the fort and “Cro” carved into a tree. White assumed that they had moved to Croatoan Island where friendly native tribe was living. However, a massive storm prevented White to sail to Croatoan. Several theories stated that the colonist had assimilated with the natives, some said that the colonist was lost and died in the sea when trying to made their way out of the island, some other said that the colonist had been attached by the Spain, and there even a theory of cannibalism. However none of these theories were confirmed and the fate of the colonist is still unknown to this day.

The disappearance of the crew of the “Ghost Ship” Mary Celeste in 1872

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On 5th December 1872 the crew of the British ship, Dei Gratia sighted a ship adrift 400 miles east of the Azores, Portugal. The crew soon detected something was wrong with that ship. Captain Morehouse of Dei Gratia recognized the ship as the “Mary Celeste” and decided to observe her for two hours. As no one was seen on the wheel or anywhere on deck, he sent his man to board the Mary Celeste. The ship was seaworthy but no one was on board. The captain of Mary Celeste, Benjamin Briggs, his wife Sarah Elizabeth, his daughter Sophia Matilda and seven crew members were missing. 6 months supply of food and fresh water were still aboard, the cargo of 1,701 barrels of alcohol were still in good order and the crews personal possession were left untouched. Although it appeared that the ship had been abandoned in a hurry there is no sign of struggle or violence. Mary Celeste departed from New York on November 7 1872 for Genoa, Italy. The story of missing ships in the 18s were not uncommon and soon the story of Mary Celeste lost public attention until Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of famous detective series, Sherlock Holmes wrote a fiction that recounted some of the actual events of the mystery of Mary Celeste with added details which cause controversy. Since then, Mary Celeste is known in popular culture as the “ghost ship”. Fictionalized variations of this ghost ship story are numerous. Many theories speculated that the crews might abandon the ship during a storm, seaquake or waterspout. Others said that an explosion might occur on board caused by alcoholic fumes. Possible insurance fraud was also investigated but it was not conclusive. Some more recent and controversial theories are that the crews had been kidnapped by UFO, eaten by sea monster or even doing a time travel. However no theories had been confirmed and the fate of Captain Briggs, his family and crew remain unknown.

Even without such legends, the sea is a dangerous place. Storms, mutinies, disease, and piracy have caused the deaths of countless sea travelers over the years, and such events can easily wipe out the entire population of a ship. With these dangers, not only have the seas been home to mythical ghost ships, but there have been many cases over the years of real ghost ships – vessels which continue to journey the oceans with dogged determination, even when everyone aboard is missing or dead.

This series will cover all of the famous ghost ships throughout history, both mythical and real. This article will focus on the most well-known ghost ship of all time – The Mary Celeste.

The Dei Gratia encounters the Mary Celeste

December 4th, 1872 seemed like another unremarkable day aboard the Dei Gratia. She had been sailing the Atlantic for a month, hauling petroleum from New York to the Mediterranean, and was now 600 miles west of Portugal. The trip had been smooth. Although there were reports of numerous storms in the Atlantic, the Dei Gratia, led by Captain Moorehouse, had managed to avoid all of them.

However, the routine was broken at 1 in the afternoon when the helmsman reported a strange two-masted ship with torn sails, 5 miles off the port bow. She didn’t hold a steady course, but seemed to float around aimlessly at the whim of the winds and ocean.

Captain Moorehouse observed the vessel for himself, and with shock, recognized it as the Mary Celeste. The Celeste had had set out from New York a week before the Dei Gratia, carrying alcohol to Italy. Not only was the ship familiar, but Captain Briggs of the Celeste was a friend who had eaten dinner with Moorehouse only one month before.

The Dei Gratia sailed to within 400 yards of the Celeste and the crew watched her closely. Moorehouse wanted to help his friend, but had no idea what might await him on board the mysterious ship. Attempts at communication were ignored, and no people or activity were observed on deck. After two hours, Moorehouse finally sent some crew members aboard to look things over.

Their findings confirmed what the Captain suspected. The Mary Celeste was deserted and had apparently been so for some time. The entire vessel was waterlogged, with over three feet of flooding in the cargo space. Some of the hatches had been left open, which accounted for the water taken on board, and two of the Celeste’s three water pumps had been taken apart. The lifeboat was missing, as were the navigational instruments (except for the compass, which was broken, and two of the sails were nowhere to be found. A rope was found to be tied very securely to the railing, and the end of this rope, which dragged in the ocean, was broken and frayed.

All of the ships papers were missing, except the Captain’s logbook. The last entry was on November 25th, 9 days earlier, where Captain Briggs had written that the Celeste was just off the coast of St. Mary’s Island – 700 miles away from her present location. Other notes from the book recorded that the Celeste had been sailing through gales for several hundred miles prior to her abandonment.

After sending a prize crew aboard, the Dei Gratia and Mary Celeste resumed their journey east – now heading for Gibraltar, and towards what would become a media and investigative frenzy.

The History of the Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste was originally built in Nova Scotia, named the Amazon, and first set sail in 1861. Even from the beginning, she was an ill-fated ship. Her first captain died of pneumonia within 48 hours of the Amazon’s launch. Her next captain, a man named Parker, accidentally ran the Amazon into a fishing boat. While the collision damage was being repaired in port, a serious fire broke out below decks and Parker was soon dismissed as a result of these incidents. The next captain fared no better. On the Amazon’s first trip across the Atlantic Ocean, she collided with yet another ship in the English Channel. That captain was also fired.

Finally, in 1867, the Amazon ran aground near Nova Scotia. After salvage, it was discovered that she was nearly unseaworthy and was sold to American investors for a very low price. Her new owners repaired and improved the vessel, before renaming her as the Mary Celeste.

The intention was to have the Mary Celeste run the lucrative trade routes between New York and the Mediterranean. As luck would have it, one of the owners was an excellent sea captain named Benjamin Briggs. Briggs had many years of experience at sea and had commanded ships before. He was extremely well respected in the community and by his crews for his fairness and seafaring skill. In addition, Briggs was a religious man who was strongly against drinking and ran a tight ship. Briggs became the captain of the Celeste and made alterations to the cabin so that it could also accommodate his wife and daughter. It seemed like the luck of the ill-fated ship, along with her name, had changed forever.

The first voyage of the Celeste was set to begin in December, 1872. She was hauling crude alcohol to Genoa, Italy. Briggs was a little concerned about the cargo, as he had never hauled hazardous materials before. This alcohol was unfit for drinking in the state it was in, but highly flammable and naturally a huge concern aboard a wooden ship.

Still, Briggs was optimistic about the journey ahead. In a letter to his mother dated November 3rd, he wrote that,

“We seem to have a very good mate and steward and I hope I shall have a pleasant voyage. We both have missed Arthur and I believe we should have sent for him if I could of thought of a good place to stow him away.”

Arthur was Briggs’ seven year old son, who did not accompany his family on the trip. Briggs continued:

“We finished loading last night and shall leave on Tuesday morning if we don’t get off tomorrow night, the Lord willing. Our vessel is in beautiful trim and I hope we shal have a fine passage but I have never been in her before and cant say how she’ll sail.”

The Mary Celeste sailed out of New York harbor and into history two days later. Briggs, his wife and child, and the seven crew members under Briggs’ command were never seen or heard from again.

The Investigation

On December 13th, the Dei Gracia and Mary Celeste arrived in Gibraltar. The story was strange enough that the crew of the Dei Gracia were immediately suspected of foul play. The previous relationship between Captain Briggs and Captain Moorehouse suggested insurance fraud, and most people familiar with the case in these early stages assumed that there was no mystery at all.

Two separate investigations of the Celeste took place. The first was by two British surveyors with the help of a diving expert. They concluded overall that the ship was indeed in excellent overall condition with no signs of collision or accident. However, they did notice some abnormalities as follows:

Nine of the barrels containing raw alcohol were empty. There were 1701 total barrels, and the nine empty containers were all built from red oak as opposed to the white oak of the other barrels. Red oak is known to be more prone to leakage.

Two deep gashes were found in the railing, and there was no sign of an object or weapon on board which could have caused them.

Spots of blood were found in the Captain’s cabin, and traces of blood were discovered on a sword also contained therein.

The American consulate also insisted on performing their own investigation, as the Mary Celeste was American and American citizens were missing. They disproved the conclusion that blood was in the cabin and on the sword, demonstrating that the spots were in fact rust. They also dismissed the gashes in the railing as inconsequential and the type of damage that could have been caused by any number of actions on board a ship on a rough transatlantic crossing.

After deliberation, the Dei Gratia was acquitted of wrongdoing and the crew received some salvage pay. However, an air of suspicion lingered about them for long after the incident.

Theories about the Celeste

There are many theories as to why the Celeste was found deserted, some mundane, some outrageous. The more outlandish explanations have always relied on fictional embellishments to the story, such as the Dei Gratia boarding party finding food ready to be eaten and fresh cups of tea still steaming on the table. In reality, the Mary Celeste had been abandoned for days and looked exactly as one would expect. Therefore, there are more reasonable explanations for the missing crew.

Piracy has been brought up as a possible cause of the Celeste’s abandonment, but nothing of value was missing from the ship, and no ransom notices were ever received for any crew members. Also, the Celeste incident happened near Gibraltar… a massive naval base which was a center for the most powerful navy (for its time) in history. Piracy in general was a risky and unattractive prospect by the mid-1800’s, and attempting to operate a pirate vessel in that region of the world would have been suicidal.

Some believe that the crew had mutinied, perhaps under the influence of alcohol. However, the cargo was undrinkable and Briggs would never have allowed other forms of alcohol to be brought on board. Briggs was not known as being a bad or brutal sea captain, and the crew would have stayed on board the Celeste if an incident had taken place.

Another theory is fraud. Most people at the time, as has been mentioned, suspected insurance fraud due to the prior relationship of Briggs and Morehouse. The investigation began with the idea that the Mary Celeste disappearances were an act of insurance fraud, and if investigators had found anything at all which could have supported that idea, the Dei Gratia crew and Celeste owners would never have received salvage/insurance money.

Also, no-one who was involved with the Celeste received enough money to make a scam worthwhile. The Dei Gratia crew certainly made a profit from her salvage, and the insurance policy was paid to the Celeste owners, but the overall amount would not have been worth the trouble and risk.

The one overriding fact about the Celeste’s abandonment was the nature of the cargo. Captain Briggs was a highly experienced captain, but a relative newcomer to hauling hazardous material. The prospect of carrying such flammable material across the Atlantic, during the heavy gales as reported in his logbook, must have been terrifying to him.

Therefore, the most commonly accepted theory is that during rough seas, the captain was given reason to worry about an imminent fire or explosion on the vessel. Perhaps the 9 barrels which were found empty had leaked during a storm and saturated the ship with fumes and alcohol. Regardless of the specific reason, Briggs may have ordered the crew to take to the lifeboat, tying it to the Celeste with a rope with the intention of re-boarding if the danger passed. But the rope snapped, and the crew watched helplessly as the empty ship sailed off into the distance. In rough seas, before the advent of any type of radio or aircraft, and with no-one knowing where they were, the chances of any trace of the lifeboat or crew being found would have been almost nonexistent.

The Later Career of the Mary Celeste

After the furor died down, the Mary Celeste was brought back to America and sold with the intention of continuing her career as a cargo vessel. But her bad luck continued. A new captain was killed in an accident on board – the third Celeste captain (if we assume Briggs died) to die while commanding. The vessel was sold once again for next to nothing. She consistently made little to no money for her owners and was finally sunk off the coast of Haiti in 1885, during a clumsy attempt at insurance fraud.

In 2001, a diving expedition claimed to have found the wreck, nearly covered in coral. As proof, they revealed that the dimensions of the craft were the same as the Celeste, that the wreck could only have been built in Canada during the mid-19th century, and that there was only one wreck in the area that corresponded to the reported location of the 1885 sinking. However, all of this is disputed as some of the recovered wood appears to date from the 1890’s. Consequently, many believe that the wreck near Haiti is a very similar vessel – but not the Mary Celeste.

Closing

The Mary Celeste is perhaps the most famous sea mystery of all time. This is ironic because the evidence, once stripped of embellishments, seems to clearly point to a premature abandonment of the vessel, with a reason based somehow upon the hazardous cargo and poor weather. However, the fact that the Mary Celeste legend has endured for so long speaks volumes about the inherent mystery of the sea, and how, once a vessel leaves the sight of land, it becomes a world of its own.

There is no area on land which can compare to the desolation and loneliness of the high seas. This desolation, combined with the stories of sailors from centuries past, has created maritime legends of great monsters, of horrible sights which mean doom for any vessels unlucky enough to behold them, of places where ships vanish with no trace, and of mythical ghost ships… ragged sailing vessels and rusting hulks manned by the dead.

Even without such legends, the sea is a dangerous place. Storms, mutinies, disease, and piracy have caused the deaths of countless sea travelers over the years, and such events can easily wipe out the entire population of a ship. With these dangers, not only have the seas been home to mythical ghost ships, but there have been many cases over the years of real ghost ships – vessels which continue to journey the oceans with dogged determination, even when everyone aboard is missing or dead.

This series will cover all of the famous ghost ships throughout history, both mythical and real. This weeks article will focus on one of the most famous seagoing tales of all – the story of The Flying Dutchman.

What is The Flying Dutchman?

The Flying Dutchman legend is one of a spectral ship whose hauntings center around the Cape of Good Hope, just off the Southern tip of Africa. The vessel has sometimes appeared as an insubstantial ghost which glows with a red light, and at other times as an archaic yet somewhat solid large sailing ship. There have been dozens of reported Flying Dutchman sightings over the last 350 years.

‘The Flying Dutchman’ is not the name of the ship. It is used sometimes as the nickname for the Captain of the ghostly vessel, and is also used as a reference to the legend itself. In most such tales, the ship in question is nameless. Most Flying Dutchman viewers are in no position to worry about the ship’s name anyway, as a sighting of this vessel is considered to be a sign of disaster to come, and many such encounters are followed shortly thereafter by either the death of one of the observers or the sinking of the observing ship.

There have also been accounts of the Flying Dutchman’s ship, in a more solid state, hailing passing boats. If communicated with, the dead ship will send over a party of pale, exhausted looking crew members who will hand over letters and request that the ‘living’ ship ensure that these letters are delivered back to The Netherlands. If this mail is investigated, it will be seen that the letters are addressed to long dead loved ones and refer to events and technologies from the mid 1600’s. Acceptance of the mail will always result in certain doom for the ship which takes them on board, as such correspondence is destined never to reach land.

Origins

Before the construction of the Suez Canal, there was no other option for ships heading between Asia and Europe other than to sail around the African continent and brave The Cape of Good Hope. The Cape has always been an area of notoriously rough seas and violent storms, as well as a big psychological milestone for sailors, as it signifies the point where the vessel could stop heading South (or West, for ships coming from Asia) and begin heading East (or North). The inherent danger of the sea in this area, combined with the emotional significance attached to it, makes the Cape a logical center of strange stories and hauntings.

There is also a similar myth from Germany which talks of a man named Falkenburg, who is doomed forever to sail his craft around the North Sea as he continually plays dice with the Devil in an effort to win back his soul. Captain Falkenburg sails a ship from the Middle Ages, and his story predates the Flying Dutchman by at least 200 years. As such, his tale may have been the basis for the Flying Dutchman legend.

Regardless, there are three differing legends which relate to this particular vessel and how she began her eternal journey.

The first and most popular story is that a man named Hendrick Van der Decken (Hendrick ‘of the Decks’ in English) was the Captain of a ship which became caught up in a terrible storm while attempting to round the Cape. The crew and passengers pleaded with him to turn around and seek a safe harbor, but the Captain, a notoriously stubborn and belligerent man, refused with a barrage of curses.

Eventually, some of the crew attempted to seize the ship by force in an effort to save themselves from destruction, but the Captain shot the leader of the mutineers and threw him overboard. However, as soon as the body of the dead crewman struck the water, a dark, ghostly figure suddenly materialized on the deck, causing everyone but Hendrick to draw back in surprise and fear.

After a few seconds of silence, the figure spoke to the unimpressed Captain.

“You’re a very stubborn man.”

The Captain swore at the shadow and replied, “I never asked for a peaceful passage. I never asked for anything. So clear off before I shoot you, too!”

The ghostly figure did not leave but stood motionless, watching the Captain mutely.

In response, Hendrick raised his pistol and fired at the shadow in a fit of rage, but the gun exploded in his hand. As the Captain blustered and swore, the shadow addressed him once again:

“As a result of your actions you are condemned to sail the oceans for eternity with a ghostly crew of dead men, bringing death to all who sight your spectral ship, and to never make port or know a moment’s peace. Furthermore, gall shall be your drink, and red hot iron your meat.”

“Amen to that!”, cried Hendrick of the Decks, just as defiant and unrepentant as ever. And with that, the Flying Dutchman resumed his fight against the sea and the elements, and continues that fight until this day.

Another story is that The Flying Dutchman is the ghost of Captain Barend Fokke, an excellent sailor who was famous for making extremely fast trips between Holland and Java, Indonesia in the late 1600’s. The speed with which he would sail between these two points was so uncanny, so much faster than anyone else, that he was reputed even in life to have help from the Devil.

Because of this pact with Satan, the story maintains that Captain Fokke is compelled to continue sailing his trade route between Europe and Asia, even after death. He journeys in a ghostly ship called the Libera Nos (Latin for ‘Free Us’) with a crew of skeletons, moving at breakneck speed with the aid of hellish winds.

The third story maintains that the vessel is the apparition of a Dutch warship which sank during a storm with the loss of all hands. Several days after the sinking, a vessel which had earlier traveled with the doomed ship ran into a storm which happened to be at the same latitude as the tragedy. Lookouts reported another ship heading directly towards them at full sail, and with horror, the crew recognized that the ship was the same one which had sunk the previous week. There was no eluding the fast moving pursuer, and the ghostly vessel drew closer until the storm subsided, upon which it vanished into thin air. According to this version of events, the account represents the first sighting of the Flying Dutchman, and it is this lost warship and dead crew which continue to haunt the Cape.

Flying Dutchman Sightings

It is easy to dismiss anything pertaining to the Flying Dutchman as legend and myth, but there have been many sightings of this apparition over the years, and a great deal of them are from very reliable sources. The encounters themselves nearly always happen at night, during stormy weather, and a few of the most well documented tales are as follows:

In 1823, the log of the HMS Leven, as written by Captain W F W Owen, records 2 separate sightings of a ghostly ship made during the same night near the Cape of Good Hope. No attempt at contact was made during the first encounter, and the apparition sailed out of sight. However, later that evening, the ghost ship reappeared closer than ever and began to lower a lifeboat – presumably to send some of her crew over to the Leven. It was never truly known what their intentions were, as Captain Owen wisely decided to avoid any interaction and his ship sailed off as quickly as possible.

On the night of July 11th, 1881, the most well known of the Flying Dutchman occurrences took place when she was spotted by 13 separate watchmen and duty officers aboard the HMS Bacchante, the HMS Tourmaline, and the HMS Cleopatra. One of the witnesses was none other than the future King George V of England, who at that time was a prince serving aboard the Bacchante as a Midshipman. His diary of that night sums up the event in the following fashion:

“At 4 a.m. the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows. A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the masts, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up. The lookout man on the forecastle reported her as close to the port bow, where also the officer of the watch from the bridge clearly saw her… Thirteen persons altogether saw her. The Tourmaline and Cleopatra, who were sailing on our starboard bow, flashed to ask whether we had seen the strange red light… At 10.45 A.M. the ordinary seaman who had this morning reported the Flying Dutchman fell from the foretopmast crosstrees on to the topgallant forecastle and was smashed to atoms.”

There were also a number of sightings during World War II. In 1939, 60 people who happened to be near the South African coast saw a large sailing ship making directly for land at great speed. It looked certain that the ship would beach herself, but she disappeared right before the collision would have occurred. Also, Admiral Doenitz, Commander-in-Chief of the German navy, noted that several sightings of the Flying Dutchman were reported by U-boats sailing near the Cape at various times during the war.

And on August 3rd, 1942, another famous incident took place which involved the HMS Jubilee. The night watch, led a man named Davies, noticed a sailing ship in the distance at about 9 pm. It was a schooner of a class that he had never seen before, and had a ghostly, indistinct appearance. Signals from the Jubilee were ignored, and as the seamen continued to watch the apparition, they noticed she was moving with full sail and unnaturally quickly, despite the fact that there was no wind whatsoever that night. After a few minutes, the ghostly sailing ship abruptly vanished, and her appearance was recorded in the Jubilee’s log.

The final sighting of the Flying Dutchman occurred in 1959, when a Dutch freighter called the Straat Magelhaen reported an extremely close encounter with a ghostly sailing ship. Her sails were full, she was moving extremely quickly, and she was so close that the crew of the freighter could clearly see a lone man steering the craft. Collision seemed inevitable, but the apparition vanished right before impact.

There are no major documented sightings of The Flying Dutchman after 1959. The reasons differ, but it could be merely because traffic around the Cape of Good Hope is much lower now than in past centuries, with most ships preferring to sail the much shorter route into the Mediterranean Ocean and through the Suez Canal in order to navigate between Asia and Europe.

Legend vs. Myth

The most commonly accepted explanation for Flying Dutchman sightings is the Fata Morgana, or superior mirage. It is a similar phenomenon to the one a person might see in a desert or on a hot city street, where an illusion of water can sometimes appear. Superior mirages, which are the type suspected of creating Flying Dutchmen, tend to occur in colder areas or in places where there are large differences in temperature between layers of air.

Such mirages have been known to show projected images of landscapes/ships beyond the horizon, and causing them to appear as if they were floating in mid air. They can make a ship/landscape appear upside down. They can also distort the appearance of real, visible objects in ways that make those objects seem to be unnatural and disturbing. They can even cause false sunsets – in these cases, the sun will seem to set, then reappear, then set again. Given the bizarre visual effects that can be generated with a superior mirage, it becomes quite easy to write off most Flying Dutchman encounters.

However, the typical recorded sighting of the Flying Dutchman does not come from an idle tourist or land-lubber. They come from crew members of warships and large merchant vessels, men with years of experience at sea who have sailed all over the world. They come from lighthouse keepers, whose credibility and ability to recognize objects in the ocean have always been crucial to preventing maritime disasters. Some of those logs, especially those written in World War 2, would have been submitted to superior officers who would hardly have been in the mood for joking around. Even if objects were projected/distorted by mirage effects, how many large sailing ships were still at sea in 1942 during the Jubilee sighting, and in 1959 during the Straat Magelhaen encounter, when both observations were at a reasonable distance and crew members clearly identified the unknown craft as a sailing ship?

Perhaps there is no ghostly sailing ship which still plies her trade on the unforgiving seas near the Cape of Good Hope. Perhaps there never was such a vessel. However, those who sail that area of the world at night should keep close watch on the dark horizon for a tell tale red glow, a sailing ship which travels at unnatural speed, and pale faced sailors, eternally hoping to mail their letters about a time long past to people long dead.

There is no area on land which can compare to the desolation and loneliness of the high seas. This desolation, combined with the stories of sailors from centuries past, has created maritime legends of great monsters, of horrible sights which mean doom for any vessels unlucky enough to behold them, of places where ships vanish with no trace, and of mythical ghost ships… ragged sailing vessels and rusting hulks manned by the dead.

Even without such legends, the sea is a dangerous place. Storms, mutinies, disease, and piracy have caused the deaths of countless sea travelers over the years, and such events can easily wipe out the entire population of a vessel. With these dangers, not only have the seas been home to mythical ghost ships, but there have been many cases of real ghost ships – vessels which journey the oceans with dogged determination, even when everyone aboard them is missing or dead.

This series will cover all of the famous ghost ships throughout history, both mythical and real, and this weeks article will focus on the very real Ghost Ship of the Arctic – the Baychimo.

The Baychimo

The Baychimo was built in Sweden in 1914 and originally named the Angermanelfven, after a Swedish river. She was a state of the art, all steel steamship of 1322 tons, built to survive the icy and treacherous waters of the far north. After construction, the ship was sold to a German company and began what looked like an unremarkable career, working the common trade routes between Germany and Sweden. In 1918, she was awarded to Great Britain as part of German reparations after World War I, and renamed the Baychimo after being bought by the Hudson Bay Company.

The Hudson Bay Company used the Baychimo for grueling, 2000 mile long trading runs around Northern Canada, where she would carry furs over a route from Vancouver from Victoria Island. This proved to be a wise decision, as the powerful construction of the ship allowed her to thrive in this role. The Baychimo completed 9 such voyages over the following decade, becoming instrumental in the expansion of trade in these inhospitable areas.

However, on October 1st, 1931, the Baychimo’s luck ran out when she became trapped by unseasonably thick pack ice near Barrow, Alaska. This type of ice can form around unlucky or unwary ships and is capable of either crushing a ship’s hull outright with immense pressure or carrying helpless vessels into dangerous areas. The crew fought these conditions valiantly for a week, at one point even freeing their ship and sailing her through the mass of ice for about 3 hours. However, nature proved to be too strong of an opponent, and as the ice pushed the Baychimo towards the rocky Alaskan shore and possible doom, the decision was made to abandon the vessel. Most of the crew were airlifted away, but the captain, along with 14 remaining crew members, stayed behind with the intention of recovering the ship if and when the ice allowed her to go free.

These hopes were dashed when a huge blizzard struck the region in November, and when the men were finally able to break camp, they found only huge, intimidating masses of ice where their boat had once been. Giving the Baychimo up for sunk, the group began to head back for civilization. However, while leaving the area the group came across some Eskimos, who told the captain that that the lost ship was still afloat, about 40 miles away. The astonished men rushed to the given location and found that the Baychimo was exactly where the Eskimos had described, but still trapped in ice and by now looking unsalvageable. So, in early December 1931, the decision was made to take the most valuable cargo from the ship and leave her to an inevitable demise at the hands of the upcoming winter.

Until this time, the Baychimo had been a typical merchant ship with a somewhat interesting history. But without a crew, she began to turn into legend. The winter of 1931 was unable to destroy the ship, which had been constructed with just these types of winter conditions in mind, and for the next 8 years, she was sighted repeatedly by local Eskimos, traveling adventurers, and passing ships as she floated around serenely at the whim of the arctic waters.

The ghost ship proved to be just as elusive to her human pursuers as she was to the natural elements, close enough to be seen frequently, but always just out of reach of recovery. She was even boarded 4 times, once in 1933 by a group of prospectors, who said that the inner workings of the ship were still in excellent shape. Next, also during 1933, she was boarded by Inuit hunters who had a horrifying experience, becoming trapped on board for several days without food as a huge storm blew up. The Baychimo also was boarded once in 1934 by explorers who could not resist the temptation to look around, and boarded yet another time in 1939 during an unsuccessful attempt to salvage her. The crew of the salvaging expedition, led by a man named Hugh Polson, were the last known people to ever walk the decks of the Baychimo.

Appearances of the Baychimo became less frequent after 1939, but she still remained afloat and was sighted repeatedly by Eskimos, traders, and other arctic travelers as she continued to sail her solitary journey. It was assumed that nature had finally destroyed this amazing vessel when the sightings trickled down to nothing, but Eskimo fishermen north of Canada spotted her once again in 1962 near the very top of the world, floating in the frigid Beaufort Sea. During the sighting, they noted that she was rusting after her now 31 year journey and looked every bit the part of a spooky, abandoned ghost ship. Any type of salvage was out of the question, and the Eskimos watched as she drifted off and once again became lost to civilization.

Another appearance of the Baychimo occurred in May 1969, when she was seen once more in the Beaufort Sea, stuck in the same predicament which had caused her to become a ghost ship in the first place – trapped in pack ice. She has never been seen again.

It is quite likely that the ship has since sunk without a trace, but there are some who believe the vessel may still be afloat somewhere. In 2006, the Alaskan government undertook a search for the ship, whether afloat or sunk, without success. However, searching the oceans and frozen wastes of the far north is an extremely difficult task, and no one can be 100% sure that the abandoned ship does not continue to prowl the waters of Northern Canada.

So if you’re ever sailing the arctic seas of Canada or walking the coastline of Northern Alaska, keep watch for the rusting remains of the Baychimo as she sails alone on her cold, desolate voyage.

Jinxed 

All these precautions were double necessary with the U-65, because one day at the shipyard a heavy steel girder crashed to the ground and killed two workmen. And some time later yells were heard, coming from the engine room. The rescuers found the sliding door in the bulkhead jammed and when they got through, three men were lying dead on the floor, amid lethal fumes. An inquiry failed to establish what had happened. It couldn’t have been carbon monoxide from the diesels, because they were not running. Chlorine from sea water getting into the batteries then? But the submarine had been in dry-dock…

The U-65 sailed for her trails off the Schelde Estuary (between Belgium and the Netherlands) in good conditions: sea force 3, light airs, excellent visibility. A submarine’s first dive always is an anxious moment, so before diving the captain sent someone to check the upper deck. The bridge watch later declared that the man deliberately walked overboard, without a sound.

Perhaps those anxious looks and muttered words would cease if the U-65 could have a successful first dive. So the heavy hatch cover was closed and the U-boat angled down to the sea-bed… and there she stuck. It took the crew twelve hours to cure the trouble, staggering about like drunkards, some of them already fainted for lack of oxygen.

But okay, there was a Great War going on and German soldiers were not fighting ghosts. Jinxed or not, the U-65 had to sink ships. So she loaded supplies for her first patrol and when the last torpedo was being lowered down the forward hatch the warhead exploded. Five men were instantly killed, among them the second officer, known to the crew as “der Schwarze”, because of his dark complexion. The U-65 was badly damaged and put into dry-dock, and the dead men were taken to Wilhelmshaven for burial.

Image via Wikipedia

Der Schwarze

While the boat was in the dock, the men were given leave. When they were coming up with their kit-bags again for the delayed patrol, an officer counted them all: 31, including the new men, that was correct. And then number 32 appeared, also known as der Schwarze. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the officer from those dark eyes of his, which got the poor man white-faced and trembling like an old lady. The captain believed some joker from ashore had played the dangerous trick. Two days later however, and just before the U-65 was due to sail, the officer deserted what he called a “death boat”.

On her first patrols down-Channel nothing unusual happened with the U-65. She sank some ships, she eluded pursuit… and the morale of the crew slowly improved. In January 1918, the U-boat was heading for a dock-side in Flanders again, and nothing happened there either. The captain of the U-65 got orders to seek out shipping off Portland and one evening, when the weather was stormy, the U-boat surfaced to recharge the batteries. As they were near an enemy naval base, the captain had three men on the bridge keeping a lookout. 

It was the lieutenant of the U-65 who was the first to see a figure standing on deck near the bow, with his feet straddling the plates as the submarine lurched and pitched in the seas. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the lieutenant shouted. “Get below or you’ll be overboard!”

Then the figure turned, and it was Der Schwarze.

The lieutenant called the other lookouts and the captain, and they all stared in numbed horror as the apparition folded its arms and stared back… until, after nearly a minute, it vanished.

Image via Wikipedia

The Death Boat

Some weeks later,  when the U-65 was tied up again at the port of Bruges, the captain went ashore to visit an officers club. There was an air-raid and a splinter from a shell neatly sliced his head from his body.

The new captain found the crew in a state of shock. High-ranking officers came on board and listened carefully to what each man had to say. Those most demoralized were drafted to other duties and the gap was filled with a fresh draft. A priest was called in to exorcise the U-65 and drive out all evil spirits in the name of God. To decommission the submarine on the grounds of diabolic possession would have created a dangerous precedent, so in May 1918 the Death Boat set out for another patrol, this time in the Bay of Biscay.

It was a terrible trip. The seas were high and the success against enemy shipping was poor. A torpedoman went mad and had to be given morphia. When he came round he was sent to the upper deck to get some air, accompanied by another man. The torpedoman went berserk again and took a running jump overboard. He made no attempt to swim.

Off Ushant, when the U-65 was rolling heavily, the chief engineer slipped and was washed overboard. Twenty-nine of the men were left now. Everyone felt that a malevolent fate had the U-65 in its grip. And it had yet to pass through the Straits of Dover on the way home… Three U-boats had recently been destroyed there.

On 31 July 1918, German naval headquarters reported that the U-65 was missing, presumed lost… and that would have been the end of the story. But three weeks previously an American submarine on the west coast of Ireland had spotted from periscope depth a surfaced U-boat and read the number on the cunning tower: “U-65″. The captain already was manoeuvring for attack, when right in front of his eyes the U-boat just blew up, “sky high, with a roar you could have heard in Arizona”.

Had a warhead exploded by accident? Was it sabotage by an unhinged crewman? Had another U-boat attacked the U-65 in error and then made off undetected? This one thing can be said for sure: once belief in the haunting had established itself among the crew, panic was inevitable, and from that much else may have flowed.

And you can leave a haunted house, but you can’t leave a steel cigar, fathoms beneath the sea, amid the perils of a Great War…

Other True Ghost Stories of the Great War:

• The Hell Hound of No Man’s Land
• Ghost Cavalry of the Great War
• Phantoms of the Great War
• The Angels of Mons