Ghost ship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A ghost ship, in fiction, is a ship crewed by the not-living. The term may also refer to a real ship that was reported to have been seen – often as an apparition – after sinking, or to a ship found floating with no crew on board.
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[edit] Ghost ships in reality
Perhaps the most famous of the real ghost ships is the Mary Celeste, a ship that was found abandoned between Portugal (mainland) and Portugal's Azores archipelago in 1872. It was devoid of all crew, but was completely intact. While Arthur Conan Doyle's story "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" based on this ship added some strange phenomena to the tale (such as that the tea found in the mess hall was still hot), the fact remained that the last log entry was 11 days prior to the discovery of the ship.[1]
Another of this type of ghost ship was the MV Joyita discovered abandoned in the Pacific in 1955. In 1990 the freighter Fisah Ketsi was discovered drifting East of Brazil without any crew and with its cargo hatch open.
Sailors have reported seeing the sunken steamship SS Valencia floating off the coast of Vancouver Island, often as an apparition that followed them as they sailed down the coast. Her #5 lifeboat was also found floating nearby, unmanned and in remarkably good condition, 27 years after the ship sank.[1]
The Baychimo was abandoned in the Arctic Ocean in 1931 when it became trapped in pack ice and was thought doomed to sink, but remained afloat and was sighted numerous times over the next 38 years without ever being salvaged. Similarly, the Octavius, an English trading ship returning from China, was found drifting off the coast of Greenland in 1775. The captain's log showed that the ship had attempted the Northwest Passage, which had never been successfully traversed, in 1762. The ship and the bodies of her frozen crew apparently completed the Northwest Passage after drifting among the pack ice for 13 years.
In 2006, the Jian Seng was found off the coast of Australia, and as of 26 March little is known of its origin, or reason for being here.
In August of 2006, the "Bel Amica" (which is one "L" short of the modern Italian spelling of "Good Friend") was discovered off the coast of Sardinia. The Coast Guard crew that discovered the ship found half eaten Egyptian meals, French maps of North African seas, and a flag of Luxembourg on board. The age of the ship, maps, flag, and other things have not been disclosed.[2] This sort of schooner that appears to be of the late 19th century, according to Italian sources has never been registered in the country by this name or any other. The ship has been compared to the Mary Celeste in its appearance.Shortly after the original reports, Italian newspapers reported the owner had been found. Franc Rouayrux, from Luxembourg, was identified as the owner of the vessel. It had been left anchored in deep water for somewhat nebulous reasons, and the owner stated that he had expected to return to the yacht after returning home to address an emergency. The Italian press reported that an attempt to avoid steep taxation of luxury vessels may have been involved.[3]
Many reports at the time identified the Bel Amica as a schooner. This term is frequently associated with sailing ships from the pre-steamship era; however, it is simply a technical name for the layout of the sails. Schooners of many sizes are in current production. The misidentification of this modern yacht as an antique ship deepened the mystery and probably contributed to the brief international interest at the time.
[edit] Ghost ships in legend
The main legend of ghost ships among mariners has been the Flying Dutchman, a captain condemned to eternally sail the seas. The legend has inspired several works.
[edit] Ghost ships in English literature
Well-known examples of ghost ships in English literature include:
- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1797-1798) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Rokeby (1813) by Sir Walter Scott.
- The Demeter, featured in Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker whose captain's corpse was tied to the helm and entered the harbor surprisingly undamaged.
- Ampoliros, the legendary "Flying Dutchman" of space, mentioned in Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert.
[edit] Ghost Ships in American Folklore
In the book 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham tells the story of the phantom ship Eliza Battle as "The Phantom Steamboat of the Tombigbee."
[edit] Ghost ships in Film
In 2003, Walt Disney Pictures released the first film in the trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean, the plots of which involve the ghost ships The Black Pearl and The Flying Dutchman. The films are based on the Disney theme park attraction of the same name.
The 2002 horror film Ghost Ship involves a stranded Italian ocean liner named Antonia Graza, lost at sea since the 1960s. The ship is boarded by a salvage crew, who shortly afterward encounter the ghostly apparitions of murdered passengers.
In 2001 the Sci Fi Channel broadcast Lost Voyage, a Sci Fi Pictures original film about the return of a derelict luxury ship, the Corona Queen, missing 25 years earlier, investigated by the son of one of the missing passengers.
The 1997 science fiction film Event Horizon involved a spaceship that had taken an experimental voyage into another dimension, only to vanish with no trace. It returns to our solar system seven years later with no crew, life support not operating, and the recordings of the flight scrambled. The investigating team soon encounters an alien presence brought back from the other dimension.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ McClary, Daryl C. (2005-07-29). Wreck of the SS Valencia. Retrieved on February 15, 2007.
