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 various types 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 travel 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. Andrea Gail is believed to have been doomed when a high-pressure front 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 fur 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 were rescued by plane, but the captain and a few Baychimo crew members decided to wait out the bad weather by camping 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.
Second most popular after Flying Dutchman» A ghost ship - however, unlike it, it really existed. "Amazon" (as the ship was first called) was notorious. The ship changed owners many times, the first captain died during the first voyage, then the ship was thrown aground during a storm, and finally, an enterprising American bought it. He renamed the "Amazon" to "Mary Celeste", believing that the new name would save the ship from trouble.
In 1872, a ship en route from New York to Genoa with a cargo of alcohol on board was discovered by the ship "Dei Grazia" without a single person on board. All the personal belongings of the crew were in their places, in the captain's cabin was his wife's jewelry box and her own sewing machine with unfinished sewing. True, the sextant and one of the boats disappeared, which suggests that the crew left the ship.
"Lady Lovibond"
According to legend, the captain of the ship, Simon Reed, contrary to the belief of the sea, took a woman, his young wife, onto the ship. According to one version, his assistant was secretly in love with the young Mrs. Reid and sent the ship to a sandbank at night. According to another, the members of the team desired the charms of the captain's wife and, after hanging him, raped the woman and drank for three days. As a result, the ship crashed. One way or another, the woman was to blame.
Exactly fifty years after the wreck of the Lady Lovibond, several teams merchant ships claimed to have seen "The Lady" at the crash site. Boats were sent there, but the rescuers could not find anyone.
"Octavius"
One of the first ghost ships. The Octavius became such because its crew froze in 1762 (at least the last entry in the logbook is dated this year), and the ship drifted for another 13 years and completed its voyage with the dead on board. The captain was trying to find a shortcut from China to England through the Northwest Passage ( sea route across the Arctic Ocean), but the ship was covered with ice.
"Beychimo"
The cargo ship was built in 1911 and was transporting skins to northwestern Canada. In 1931, the ship got stuck in the ice during the next voyage. Only a week later the ice broke under the weight of the ship, and the voyage was continued. However, 8 days later, history repeated itself. The crew went ashore, planning to wait for the thaw. But the next day the ship disappeared. The crew decided that the ship had sunk, but the Coast Guard reported that they had seen the Baichimo 60 kilometers from the coast in the ice. The owner company decided to leave the ship, as it was badly damaged, but it again escaped from the ice captivity and plowed the Bering Strait for another 38 years. In 2006, the Alaska government launched a campaign to capture Baichimo, but the search was unsuccessful.
"Carroll A. Dearing"
An American five-masted cargo schooner was abandoned by the crew under unknown circumstances off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina (USA). The ship was returning from Rio de Janeiro, where it was carrying coal.
On January 9, 1921, the schooner left Barbados, where she made an intermediate stop. After that, a few days later she was seen in the Bahamas, then Cape Canaveral, and on January 31 she was found stranded off Cape Hatteral. There was not a single person on the ship. There were no lifeboats either, but food was prepared in the galley. Rescuers also found a gray cat on the deck, which they took with them.
"Urang Medan"
In June 1947, the Silver Star received a distress call from the Dutch ship Ourang Medan in the Gulf of Malacca. Along with the signal, the message “Everyone is dead. Soon it will come for me." Inspired by this life-affirming message, Silver Star went in search. The ship was found, but the entire crew, including ship's dog, was dead. Despite the fact that death occurred about 8 hours ago, the corpses were still warm. There were no signs of violence on the bodies, but the arms of all the dead were stretched forward, as if they were defending themselves.
The ship was decided to be towed to the port, but a fire started on it, and then it exploded. As it turned out later, Ourang Medan was not assigned to any port. According to one version, the cause of the death of the crew and the ship itself was the smuggling of nitroglycerin or nerve gas left over from the Second World War.
"Valencia"
The passenger liner Valencia sank off the coast of Vancouver in 1906. There were not enough lifeboats for everyone (it feels like we not only heard something like that, but even watched a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio ...), and most of the passengers died. This, of course, led to the fact that the tragic story was overgrown with myths, and the Valencia is regularly seen by local sailors before a storm. And in 1970, an absolutely empty lifeboat from the Valencia was washed ashore in excellent condition.
The Bermuda Triangle - an area in the Atlantic Ocean bounded by Florida and Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas - is famous for the mysterious, mystical disappearances of ships and aircraft. For many years, he brings real horror to the population. the globe- after all, stories about inexplicable disasters and ghost ships are on everyone's lips.
Numerous researchers are trying to explain the anomaly of the Bermuda Triangle. Basically, these are theories of abductions of ships by aliens from outer space or residents of Atlantis, movement through holes in time or faults in space, and other paranormal causes. None of these hypotheses has yet been confirmed.
Opponents of "otherworldly" versions claim that reports of mysterious events in bermuda triangle greatly exaggerated. Ships and aircraft also disappear in other parts of the world, sometimes without a trace. A radio malfunction or the suddenness of a disaster can prevent the crew from transmitting a distress call.
In addition, searching for debris at sea is a very difficult task. Also, the area of the Bermuda Triangle is very difficult to navigate: there are a large number of shoals, cyclones and storms often arise.
A hypothesis has been proposed to explain the sudden death of ships and aircraft by gas emissions - for example, as a result of the decay of methane hydrate on the seabed, when the density is lowered so much that the ships cannot stay afloat. Some speculate that once airborne, the methane could also cause plane crashes, for example, by lowering the density of the air.
It has been suggested that the cause of the death of some ships, including those in the Bermuda Triangle, may be the so-called wandering waves, which can reach a height of 30 meters. It is also assumed that infrasound can be generated at sea, which affects the crew of a ship or aircraft, causing panic, as a result of which people leave the ship.
Consider natural features this region - really extremely interesting and unusual.
The area of the Bermuda Triangle is just over a million square kilometers. There are huge shallows and deep-water depressions, a shelf with shallow banks, a continental slope, marginal and median plateaus, deep straits, abyssal plains, deep-water trenches, a complex system sea currents and entangled atmospheric circulation.
The Bermuda Triangle has several seamounts and hills. The mountains are covered with powerful coral reefs. Some seamounts rise to the bottom of the ocean alone, others form groups. In the Atlantic Ocean, by the way, they are much smaller than in the Pacific.
Here is the Puerto Rico Trench - the deepest part Atlantic Ocean. Its depth is 8742 meters.
Beneath the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle are mainly sedimentary rocks- limestones, sandstones, clays. The thickness of their layer ranges from 1-2 to 5-6 kilometers.
The smaller (southern) part of the triangle belongs to the tropical seas, the larger (northern) - to the subtropical. The water temperature on the surface here ranges from 22 to 26 ° C, but in shallow water, as well as
in bays and lagoons it can be much higher. The salinity of the waters is only slightly above average - except, again, shallow waters, bays and lagoons, where salinity can increase. The waters here are noticeably warmer than in other parts of the ocean on the same geographical latitudes because it is here that the warm Gulf Stream flows.
The current in the Bermuda Triangle is fast, impeding or slowing down the movement of ships sailing against it; it pulsates, changes speed and location, and changes are absolutely impossible to predict; it creates weather-affecting irregular eddies, some of which are quite powerful. Fog is frequent on the border of its warm waters with colder surrounding waters.
Trade winds blow over the triangle - constant winds blowing in the Northern Hemisphere in a southwesterly direction, at an altitude of up to 3 kilometers. At high altitudes, antitrade winds blow in the opposite direction.
In the southern part of the triangle, roughly between Florida and the Bahamas, there are approximately 60 storm days a year. In fact, every fifth or sixth day there is a storm. If you move north, towards Bermuda, then the number of stormy days per year increases, that is, a storm occurs every fourth day. Destructive cyclones, hurricanes, and tornadoes are very frequent.
All this contributes to the disappearance of many ships and aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle. Maybe the reason is not so mystical? But this cannot be said with certainty, since there are a lot of unexplained mysteries.
A LOT of ships and even planes disappear in the Bermuda Triangle, although the weather is almost always fine at the time of the disaster. Vessels and planes die suddenly, crews do not report problems, they do not send distress signals. The wreckage of aircraft and ships is usually not found, although the search is intensive, with the involvement of all relevant services.
Often, the Bermuda Triangle is credited with disasters that actually happened far beyond its borders. We have selected the most famous confirmed victims of the Bermuda Triangle among the ships.
"Rosalie"
In August 1840, near the capital of the Bahamas, Nassau, the French ship Rosalie was discovered, drifting with sails raised without a crew. The ship had no damage and was quite seaworthy. Everything looked as if the team had left the Rosalie a few hours ago.
Atalanta
On January 31, 1880, the British sailing training ship Atalanta departed Bermuda with 290 officers and cadets on board. On the way to England, it disappeared without leaving a trace. 
Atalanta
This case was in the center of public attention, The Times wrote about it daily, and even many months after the disappearance of the sailboat.
The Times (London), April 20, 1880, p. 12: The gunboat Avon arrived in Portsmouth yesterday. The captain reported that near the Azores he noticed a huge amount of floating debris ... The sea was literally teeming with them. The harbor of Faial Island was filled with ships that had lost their masts. And during all five days, while the Avon remained in the roadstead of Fayala, the wreckage became more and more.
However, there was no evidence that any ship sank or was wrecked by a storm ... Some Avon officers believe that the Atalanta may have hit an iceberg, but they categorically deny that the ship could capsize.
Lawrence D. Kusche published in his book excerpts from newspaper articles, official reports from the British Admiralty, and even the testimonies of two sailors, according to which the Atalanta was a very unstable ship and, with its 109 tons of water and 43 tons of ballast on board, could easily capsize and even drown. during a mild storm.
It was rumored that there were only two more or less experienced officers in the crew, who were forced to stay in Barbados because they fell ill with yellow fever. Consequently, 288 inexperienced sailors sailed on the ship.
An analysis of meteorological data has confirmed that strong storms have been raging in the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda and Europe since early February. It is possible that the ship died somewhere very far from the Bermuda Triangle, since out of the 3,000 miles of travel that awaited it, only 500 passed through the “triangle”. And yet, Atalanta is considered one of the confirmed victims of the "triangle".
Unknown abandoned schooner
In 1881, the English ship "Ellen Austin" met in open ocean abandoned schooner, fully preserved seaworthiness and only slightly damaged. Several sailors got on the schooner, and both ships headed for St. John's, located on the island of Newfoundland.
Soon the fog descended, and the ships lost sight of each other. A few days later they met again, and again there was not a single living soul on the schooner. The captain of the Ellen Austin wanted to land another small rescue crew on the schooner, but the sailors categorically refused, claiming that the schooner was cursed.
This story has two sequels with different versions. In the first version, the captain of the Ellen Austin tried to transfer another rescue crew to the schooner, but the sailors did not want to take any more risks, and the schooner was left in the ocean.
According to another version, the second rescue crew was nevertheless transferred to the schooner, but then a squall hit, the ships dispersed a considerable distance from each other, and no one has ever seen either the schooner or its second crew.
Joshua Slocum and his yacht
Joshua Slocum, who was the first in the history of mankind to sail alone around the globe, disappeared without a trace in November 1909, making a relatively short transition from the island of Martha's Vineyard to the shores of South America through the Bermuda Triangle.
Sailing yacht "Spray" 
On November 14, 1909, he sailed away from Martha's Vineyard, and there has been no news of him since that day. To those who knew Captain Slocum, he was too good a sailor, and the Spray too good a boat, for them to fail any of the usual difficulties the ocean might bring.
No one knows for sure what happened to him, although there was no shortage of guesses and versions. There are "reliable" testimonies of some sailors who, even after the fateful date, saw Slocum alive and unharmed in various ports of the world.
Over the years, many hypotheses have been proposed to explain its disappearance. In the end, a hurricane of such force could fly in that it sank his yacht. "Spray" could burn out. He could go to the bottom, colliding with some ship at night.
In coastal waters, the collision of a small boat with a large ship is not so uncommon. The lights on a sailboat tend to be quite dim, sometimes obscured by her own sails. A large vessel could easily smash a 37-foot floor into chips, and no one would even feel the jolt.
Edward Rowe Snow, in his book Mysterious Events off the Coast of New England, assures that a mail steamer with a displacement of about 500 tons ran into the yacht. Slocum's "case" was even dealt with by the court, which examined a variety of testimonies. According to the testimony of the son of Victor Slocum, his father was in brilliant shape, and the yacht was practically unsinkable.
It has even been suggested, unreservedly accepted by some "experts," that Joshua Slocum was not happily married and therefore staged a disaster in order to hide and spend the rest of his days in seclusion.
March 1918 "Cyclops"
On March 4, 1918, the cargo ship "Cyclops" with a displacement of 19,600 tons departed from the island of Barbados, carrying 309 people and a cargo of manganese ore. The vessel was 180 meters long and was one of the largest in the US Navy.
Cyclops on the Hudson River, 1911 
It was bound for Baltimore but never arrived. It never sent an SOS signal and left no trace. At first it was thought that the ship might have been torpedoed by a German U-boat, but no German U-boats were present at the time. According to another version, the ship ran into a mine. However, there were no minefields either.
Ministry navy The United States, after a thorough investigation, released a statement: “The disappearance of the Cyclops is one of the largest and most intractable cases in the annals of the Navy. Even the place of the disaster has not been precisely established, the causes of the misfortune are unknown, not the slightest trace of the ship has been found.
None of the proposed versions of the catastrophe gives a satisfactory explanation of the circumstances under which it disappeared. President Woodrow Wilson said that "only God and the sea know what happened to the ship." And one magazine wrote an article about how a huge squid emerged from the sea waters and dragged the ship into the depths of the sea.
In 1968, Navy diver Dean Hayves, who was part of a team searching for the missing nuclear submarine Scorpion, discovered a shipwreck at a depth of 60 meters, 100 kilometers east of Norfolk. Later, looking at the photograph of the Cyclops, he assured that it was this ship that lay at the bottom.
"Cyclops" still appears on the pages of the press and not only as one of the characters in the Legend of the Bermuda Triangle. It was the first large vessel equipped with a radio transmitter to vanish without sending an SOS, and the largest vessel in the US Navy to vanish without leaving any trace.
Every year, in March, when the next anniversary of his disappearance is celebrated, articles are again written about this mysterious event, old ones are updated and new theories are put forward, and, probably, the already famous photograph of the Cyclops is published for the hundredth time. His disappearance continues to this day, not without reason, to be called "the most unsolvable mystery in the annals of the navy."
"Carroll A. Dearing"
The five-masted schooner "Carroll A. Dearing" was discovered in January 1921 on the shallows of Diamond Shoals. She had no damage, the sails were raised, there was food on the tables, but there was not a single living soul on board, except for two cats. 
The crew of the "Deering" consisted of 12 people. None of them could be found, and it is still unknown what happened to them. On June 21, 1921, a bottle with a note was caught in the sea, which, presumably, could have been thrown by one of the crew members:
“We are in captivity, we are in the hold and handcuffed. Report this to the company's management as soon as possible."
Passions flared up even more when the captain's wife allegedly recognized the handwriting of the ship's mechanic Henry Bates, and graphologists confirmed the identity of the handwriting on the note and on his papers. But after some time it turned out that the note was forged, and the author himself even admitted this.
The judicial investigation, however, revealed important circumstances: on January 29, the schooner passed the lighthouse at Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and gave signals that she was in a dangerous position, as she had lost both ship's anchors.
Then the schooner was seen to the north of the lighthouse from another ship, while she behaved rather strangely. Weather reports for early February contain indications of a severe storm off the coast of North Carolina with winds reaching 130 kilometers per hour.
"Cotopaxi"
On November 29, 1925, the Cotopaxi left Charleston with a cargo of coal and headed for Havana. Passing through the center of the Bermuda Triangle, it disappeared without leaving the slightest trace and without having time to send an SOS signal. Neither the wreckage nor the crew were found.
"Suduffco"
The freighter Suduffco left Port Newark, New Jersey, headed south and disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle without a trace. A spokesman for the company said it was gone, as if swallowed by a giant sea monster.
The ship sailed from Port Newark on March 13, 1926 and headed for the Panama Canal. His port of destination was Los Angeles. It had a crew of 29 and a cargo of about 4,000 tons, including a large batch of steel pipes.
The ship was moving along the coast, but on the second day after sailing, contact was lost with it. The search for the ship continued for a whole month, but not the slightest trace was found. True, meteorological reports and the testimony of the captain of the Aquitania liner, which was heading the same course towards the Suduffco, confirm that a tropical cyclone passed through this area on March 14-15.
"John and Mary"
In April 1932, 50 miles south of Bermuda, the Greek schooner Embirkos discovered the two-masted John and Mary. The ship was abandoned, its crew mysteriously disappeared.
"Proteus" and "Nereus"
"Proteus" 
At the end of November 1941, the Proteus ship departed the Virgin Islands, and a few weeks later, the Nereus. Both ships were heading for Norfolk, but neither arrived at their destination, both disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
The US was preoccupied with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war on Japan, so the disappearance of the ships did not evoke a response. A study of the archives of the German navy after the war showed that the Proteus and Nereus could not have been sunk by submarines.
"Rubicon"
On October 22, 1944, a ship without a crew was discovered off the coast of Florida. The only living creature on board was a dog. The ship was in excellent condition, except for the missing lifeboats and a torn towline that hung from the bow of the ship.
The personal belongings of the crew members also remained on board. The last entry in the ship's log was made on September 26, when the ship was still in the port of Havana. The Rubicon apparently sailed along the coast of Cuba.
"City Bell"
On December 5, 1946, a schooner without a crew was discovered at sea. She followed the course from the capital of the Bahamas Nassau to one of the islands of the archipelago - Grand Turk. Everything was in order on the ship, the lifeboats were in their places, only the crew disappeared without a trace.
"Sandra"
In June 1950, the 120-meter cargo ship "Sandra", loaded with 300 tons of insecticides, left Savannah (Georgia) for Puerto Cabello (Venezuela) and disappeared without a trace. The search operation began only after it was established that he was six days late for the place of arrival.
By the way, an article about this case, written by journalist E. Jones and published on September 16, 1950, aroused great interest in the Bermuda Triangle. Jones noted that the Sandra is not the only ship that has disappeared here. The legend of the deadly triangle began to spread with incredible speed.
"Southern District"
In December 1954, the tank landing ship Southern District, converted into a sulfur cargo ship, disappeared in the Strait of Florida. Distress signals were not recorded either by ships at sea or by coast stations. Only a lifeline was found.
The vessel "Southern District" with a displacement of 3337 tons was sailing from Port Sulfur (Louisiana) with a cargo of sulfur to Bucksport (Maine). The destination was Portland.
The captain got in touch on the 3rd, and then on December 5th, while already off the coast of Florida. Everything was in order on the ship. On December 7, he was seen in storm surges off Charleston.
The commission of inquiry found that the ship apparently sank in a northeasterly wind. In the area dominated by the Gulf Stream, this wind has a bad reputation, as it blows directly against the current, turning the Gulf Stream into a turbulent gurgling current, and even large ships hasten to get out of its way as soon as possible.
"Snow Boy"
In July 1963, a 20-meter fishing boat disappeared while sailing in clear weather from Kingston, Jamaica to the Pedro Keys. There were forty people on the ship, no one else heard anything about them. It was reported that the wreckage of the ship and items belonging to the crew members were found.
"Witchcraft"
The mysterious disappearance happened during the Christmas holidays of 1967. Two people on a small yacht left Miami Beach for a walk along the coast. They say they wanted to admire the festive illumination of the city from the sea.
Soon they reported on the radio that they had hit a reef and damaged the propeller, they were not in danger, but they asked to be towed to the pier, and indicated their coordinates: at buoy No. 7.
The rescue boat arrived at the site 15 minutes later, but did not find anyone. An alarm was announced, but the search did not give any result, no people, no yacht, no wreckage were found - everything disappeared without a trace.
"El Carib"
On October 15, 1971, the captain of the El Carib cargo ship, sailing from Colombia to the Dominican Republic, announced that they would arrive at their destination port at 7 am the next day. After that, the ship disappeared. It was a rather large cargo ship, the flagship of the Dominican merchant fleet, its length was 113 meters.
The ship was sailing to the port of Santo Domingo with a crew of thirty. It was equipped with an automatic signaling system, which automatically sends a distress signal on the air in the event of an accident. Judging by the latest report, the ship at the time of the disappearance was in the Caribbean Sea, at a considerable distance from Santo Domingo.
Surely many have heard of ghost ships, which are sometimes called the Flying Dutchmen. These are ships that once set out on their journey, but never returned. All of them have one thing in common - the ship is found drifting across the ocean, but not a single living crew member is on board. And sometimes there are no crew members at all.
The story of "Octavius" is considered one of the most famous. In 1775, the whaling ship Herald discovered the ship Octavius off the coast of Greenland.
websiteThe captain and several sailors decided to inspect someone else's ship. To their horror, they discovered the frozen corpses of almost the entire crew, lying all together in the forward cockpit. In the captain's cabin, they found four more frozen people - the captain, his wife and son, as well as an assistant who froze while trying to start a fire.
From the surviving pages of the logbook, it became known that the ship, in some unknown way, suddenly turned out to be far from its intended route and fell into ice captivity. Once about a hundred miles north of Point Barrow in Alaska, the ship's crew struggled with the cold for 17 days.
Expecting a fair wind, the ship "Herald" stood all night next to the ship of the dead. It seemed to the crew of the Herald that in the windows, where the crew of the Octavius froze, a light was on, they were howling a dog, and at dawn the watchman saw a dark figure with a lantern in his hands, which went to the forecastle.
As soon as the morning wind blew the site, the Herald hurried away from the ship with the dead weight on board.
2) "Joyta"
In 1955, in the South Pacific, rescuers found a ship without a crew. The Joita was heading towards the Tokelau Islands when something happened. Within hours, a rescue team was dispatched to help them. But the ship was discovered only after 5 weeks. There were no passengers, crew, cargo or lifeboats on the ship, and one side was severely damaged. The mystery of the disappearance was never solved.
3) "Lady Lavibond"
On February 13, 1748, the captain of the Lady Lavibond, Simon Peel, after the wedding, went on a cruise with his young wife on his ship. But his first mate was also in love with his wife and, in a fit of jealousy, drove the ship onto a sandbar. The ship sank, taking the lives of the entire crew with it.
According to another version of the event site, the crew was very unhappy with the presence of a woman on board. After one of the drinking bouts, drunken sailors hanged the captain and abused his young wife. For the next few days, the ship, almost out of control by a drunken crew, sailed at the behest of the waves until it hit the shoal of the Goodwin Sands.
In 1798, the crew of the Edinbridge witnessed the first time mirage of the sinking of the Lady Lavibond, almost colliding with a seemingly very real sinking ship that suddenly appeared. Since then, the ghostly scene of the death of "Lady Lavibond" has been observed in these places every 50 years.
In 1848, experienced sailors of another ship, observing a very realistic chronomirage of a shipwreck, rushed to save people in distress, but, approaching, they did not find either the drowning people or the remains of the ship.
In 1898, a certain Curtis, who was famous for his courage, worked in the local coastal rescue service. Once again, the appearance of the chronomirage of the death of the Lady Lavibond ship, the rescue site team hurried to the aid of the sinking ship. Rescuer Curtis jumped into the icy water to help drowning people, but suddenly everything suddenly disappeared. But this time, the rescuer Curtis disappeared along with the ghosts.
In 1948, the rescue service was again alerted and went to the aid of an old sailboat in distress. This time we managed to save one the only person, and that person turned out to be none other than Theodore Curtis, who went missing 50 years ago. British intelligence service after listening to details of Curtis's life late XIX centuries, did not even bother to compare his story with the materials of the archives, since at that time they were more interested in Russian spies, and not time travelers. The further fate of Curtis is unknown.
In February 1998, there were very thick fogs over the English Channel, which is probably why the ship's time mirage was not noticed by anyone. It remains for the site to wait until 2048 and, perhaps, the ghost of the mysterious “Lady Lavibond” will appear again.
4) "Mary Celeste"
"Mary Celeste" - a merchant ship abandoned by the crew and sailing across the Atlantic Ocean.
At noon on December 4, 1872, the crew of the Deo Gracia, heading from New York to Genoa, discovered the American merchant ship Mary Celeste at 38 ° 20 north latitude and 13 ° 37 west longitude. The ship was in good condition, with sails raised, a full supply of food and untouched cargo. But all the lifeboats, the captain's log and the entire crew have mysteriously disappeared. There were no signs of a struggle, and all the alcohol and belongings of the crew remained intact, which ruled out the pirates. The most likely theory is that a storm or technical problem forced the crew to abandon ship.
Both holds of the ship were open, the cargo, consisting of 1700 barrels of rectified cognac, remained untouched. Water splashed between the barrels. The water level in the site holds was about a meter. All six windows of the aft superstructure were covered with tarpaulin and boards. The skylight in the captain's quarters was open. The deck, bulkheads and everything in the cabin were damp. The ship's papers were missing. There was also no sextant, chronometer and navigation books.
The last entry in the Mary Celeste's logbook was November 24, 1872. Judging by it, the ship was about 100 miles west of the Azores, i.e. in 10 days the ship covered 500 miles to the east!
The position of many things on the ship indicated that the sea was calm, since nothing spilled and was in a normal position. And everything said that if the ship was abandoned by the crew for any reason, then this happened quite recently.
The following was found out about the ship: "Mary Celeste", built in Scotland in 1862 and the site made many successful crossings across the Atlantic and was considered one of the best sailing ships on the northeast coast of the United States. The ship left New York for Genoa on November 4, 1872, under the command of Captain Benjamin S. Briggs, with a cargo of brandy rectified. The team was fully staffed. When sailing on board the Mary Celeste were Captain Briggs with his wife and two-year-old daughter Sophie, chief mate, boatswain, six sailors and a cook - a total of 12 people.
Many years after this event happened, a man appeared who claimed to be the only member of the crew of the Mary Celeste who managed to escape. He said that the captain called the chief officer to the competition: who will swim around the ship faster, but they were attacked by a shark. The sailors looked with horror at this scene, when suddenly a huge wave and washed every single one of them overboard. "Mary Celeste" continued to sail on the site, and the entire crew, except for himself, drowned.
5) The Flying Dutchman
Perhaps the most famous ghost ship is the Flying Dutchman. The ship was first mentioned in the 1700s in George Barrington's book Voyage to Botany Harbour. According to history, the Flying Dutchman was a ship from Amsterdam. The captain was Van der Decken. The ship was heading for the East Indies when a storm overtook her near the Cape of Good Hope. Determined to continue on, Van der Decken went mad, killed his first mate, and vowed to cross the cape. Despite his efforts, the ship sank, and legend has it that the captain and his ghost ship are doomed to roam the seas forever.
6) "Carroll Deering"
In 1911, the 5-masted schooner "Carroll A. Dearing" was built and named after the designer's son. After 9 years, in 1920, she disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle, like the other 8 ships.
The cargo ship Carroll A. Dearing was discovered a year later, on January 31, 1921, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The ship was in excellent condition, but some of the instruments and steering were disabled. All sails were removed, food supplies and personal belongings of the crew were in place, but the crew was absent. But the chronometers, navigation charts and the ship's log were gone. But what is most surprising - the holds were filled with fresh provisions. The frightening ship was sunk just in case, but the investigation into its disappearance continued until 1922.
7) Orang Medan
In February 1948, British and Dutch radio stations detected a distress signal from the Orang Medan steamer in the Strait of Malacca. After repeated "SOS" followed: “All the officers and the captain died ... Perhaps I alone survived the site ...”. Then an indecipherable series of dots and dashes, and then a distinct: "I'm dying" and the ether fell silent.
Rescuers boarding the ship in distress did not find a single living person on board. The corpses of the crew with faces distorted with horror were all over the ship. Many died with their hands held out in front of them, apparently defending themselves from something. When examining the bodies, it was found that all the crew members died about 6-8 hours ago, but, despite this, the temperature of their bodies exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. There were no wounds or other signs of violence on the bodies of the crew and the ship's dog. What happened on board the ship remains a mystery.
The ship “Orang Medan” was decided to be towed to the port for further examination, but a few minutes later a fire broke out on board, and members of the rescue team were forced to leave it. Immediately after that, the site exploded, and “Orang Medan” went to the bottom.
8) Great Eastern
Built in 1857, the Great Eastern was the Titanic of its time. Its carrying capacity exceeded the carrying capacity of other ships by six times. The ship was to be launched on January 30, 1858. But the ship was so heavy that during the descent, the mechanism that was supposed to launch the ship into the water broke. Due to lack of money, the ship was launched only a year later. The Great Eastern was bought by a company that made repairs and the ship was launched.
During the testing of the ship, at least one person died, whose body was never found. A month after the completion of the work, its creator Islambad Brunel died of a stroke. Despite its size and beauty, the accursed ship has never sailed with a full complement of passengers.
During a cruise, the site in 1862, with a record number of passengers (1500 people), the bottom of the ship was torn apart, which cost an expensive repair. Passengers claimed to have heard someone break through the bottom of the ship, as if hitting with a sledgehammer. In 1865, it was decided not to operate the ship again.
The owners decided to sell the ship for scrap after twelve years on shore. When the ship was dismantled, a skeleton was found between the hulls. The skeleton belonged to a shipbuilder who mysteriously disappeared while the ship was being repaired.
9) "Queen Mary"
The Queen Mary is one of the most famous cruise ships of the 20th century. Today it is a tourist attraction for many tourists. The ship was launched on 26 September 1934 off the coast of Glasgow. According to eyewitnesses, the liner is the owner of several ghosts.
In 1966, during the next voyage, 17-year-old sailor John Pedder tragically died. Later, one of the ship's guides claimed that the site saw the grim figure of a young man falling into the water. After he saw the old photographs, he recognized them as John Pedder.
Tourists claimed to have seen the ghost of a woman who was wearing a white dress. When she entered the cabin, they followed her, but found nothing there.
The ship's watchman said he saw a little boy heading towards the pool. After the child jumped into the pool, he disappeared.
10) Griffon
One of the most famous ships sunk in the waters of the Great Lakes is the Griffon, built in Niagara, New York, and owned by the French traveler René Robert, Chevalier de La Salle. The Griffon, 60 feet long and weighing 45 tons, was at the time the largest ship to sail on the lakes. The construction of the ship caused disapproval of the local Iroquois, who believed that this ship was objectionable to the Great Spirit. website The Iroquois prophet Metiomek cursed the ship and said that it would sink.
The Griffon set sail on her maiden voyage on August 7, 1679. In Detroit Harbor on Washington Island, Wisconsin, La Salle disembarked to continue his explorations of the source of the Mississippi River by canoe. The Griffon was due to return to Niagara on September 18, 1679. But he didn't come back.
According to legend, the ship tried to pass through the ice and disappeared. In 1900, after the alleged "Griffon" was found in the region of the Brus Peninsula on Lake Huron, the version of the shipwreck spread. The shipwreck hypothesis was confirmed in 1955, when the remains of the found ship were identified as belonging to the Griffon. The ghost of the Griffon is still often seen on foggy nights floating on Lake Huron.
Most often, ghost ships are found in the North Atlantic. However, it is impossible to name the exact number of wanderers - it varies from year to year. According to statistics, in some years the number of "Dutchmen" who drift in the North Atlantic reached three hundred. A lot of ghost ships drift in sea areas remote from shipping lanes and rarely visited by merchant ships.
At times, the "Flying Dutchmen" remind of themselves. Either their current takes them to coastal shoals, or they are thrown by the wind onto rocks or underwater reefs. It happens that the "Dutch", which do not carry navigation lights at night, become the cause of collisions with oncoming ships, sometimes with serious consequences.
"Flying Dutchman"
That was the name of the ghost ship, controlled by the dead. It is believed that this is either a ship that was supposed to sink, but for some reason did not sink, or a victim of a giant squid or octopus.
To meet the "Flying Dutchman" at sea is considered a bad omen - such a meeting portends death.
"Marlboro"
1913, October - in one of the bays of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, a storm brought the schooner "Marlboro". The assistant captain with several members of the crew boarded and were shocked by a terrible sight: the dead bodies of the crew members, dried up like mummies, were scattered all over the sailboat. The masts of the sailboat were completely intact, and the whole schooner was covered with mold. In the hold it was the same: dead crew members everywhere, dried up like mummies.
An investigation has established incredible fact: a three-masted sailing ship left the port of Littleton in early January 1890, he was heading for Scotland, his home port of Glasgow, but for unknown reasons never arrived at the port.
But what could happen to the crew of the sailboat? Could it be that the calm had deprived him of the sail of the wind and forced him to drift aimlessly until all the reserves were exhausted? drinking water? How could it happen that a sailboat with a dead crew did not crash on reefs in 24 years of drifting?
"Orung Medan"
1947, June (according to other sources - 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 short phrase: "I'm dying". No further signals were received, but the place of sending the message was determined by triangulation, and one of the American ships mentioned above was immediately sent to it.
When the ship was discovered, they found out that its entire crew was really 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. Soon after the inspection began, suspicious smoke began to appear from the hold, and the rescuers were forced to hastily return to their ship. Some time after that, the Orung Medan exploded and sank, making further investigation of the incident impossible.
Seabird
On a July morning in 1850, the inhabitants of the village of Eastons Beach on the coast of Rhode Island were surprised to see that a sailing ship was coming from the sea under full sail to the shore. He stopped in shallow water. People climbing on board found that coffee was boiling on the galley stove, plates were placed 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, everything was in perfect order. The last entry in the logbook said: "Beamed Brenton Reef" (this reef is located just a few miles from Eastons Beach).
It was known that the Seabird was carrying timber and coffee from the island of Honduras. But even the most thorough investigation conducted by the Americans did not reveal the reasons for the disappearance of its crew from the sailboat.
"Abiy Ess Hart"
1894, September - in Indian Ocean The three-masted barque Ebiy Ess Hart was spotted 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
1908, October - not far from one of the major Mexican ports, a half-flooded frigate was discovered, with a strong roll to the port side. The topmasts of the masts of the sailboat were broken, the name was impossible to establish, the crew was absent. There were no storms or hurricanes in this region of the ocean at that time. Searches were unsuccessful, and the reasons for the disappearance of the crew remained a mystery, although many different hypotheses were put forward.
"Cholchu"
1953, February - the sailors of the English ship "Rani", being 200 miles from the Nicobar Islands, discovered a small cargo ship "Kholchu" in the ocean. The ship was damaged, the mast was broken. Although the lifeboats were in place, there was no command. In the holds there was a cargo of rice, in the bunkers - a full supply of fuel and water. Where 5 crew members could have disappeared is still a mystery.
"Kobenhavn"
December 4, 1928 - The Danish sailing training ship Kobenhavn left Buenos Aires to continue circumnavigation. There was a crew and 80 pupils on board the sailboat. maritime school. A week later, when the Kobenhavn had already traveled about 400 miles, a radiogram was received from the ship. It reported that the voyage was going well and that everything was safe on the ship. The further fate of the sailboat and the people on it remains a mystery. The ship did not arrive at its home port, Copenhagen. They say that later he was repeatedly met in different parts of the Atlantic. The sailboat allegedly went under full sail, but there were no people on it.
"Mary Celeste"
1872 - one of the most famous ghost ships "Mary Celeste" was found abandoned by her crew for no apparent reason. The ship was quite good, strong, without damage, but throughout its existence it often got into unpleasant situations, which is why it was attached to a bad reputation. The captain with his team of seven people, as well as his wife and daughter, who were also on board at the time of the cargo transportation - alcohol, disappeared without a trace. The ship, when discovered, was in good condition with sails up and ample supplies of food. No signs of a struggle were found. You can also exclude the version of the pirates, because the things of the team and alcohol remained untouched.
"Joyta"
To this day, the history of the ship "Joyta" remains a mystery. The ship, thought to be lost, was found in the ocean. The ship was without a crew or passengers. "Joyta" is called the second "Maria Celeste", about which A. Conan Doyle wrote: "The mystery of this ship will never be solved." But if the events that took place on the Mayor's Office Celeste took place in the century before last, then the disappearance of people from the board of the Joyta dates back to the second half of the 20th century.
"Joyta" had excellent seaworthiness. 1955, October 3 - a 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. But 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 ship was in a semi-submerged state and had a large roll. There were no people or cargo on it.
Schooner Jenny
“May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days. I am the only one left alive. “The captain who wrote this message was still sitting in his chair, pen in hand, when this message was found in his journal 17 years later. His body, and those of six other people aboard the British schooner Jenny, are well preserved thanks to the cold weather of the Antarctic, where the ship was frozen in ice and caused deaths. The crew of the whaling ship that discovered Jenny after the disaster buried the people, including the dog, at sea.
"Angosh"
1971 - under mysterious circumstances, the Portuguese ship Angosh was abandoned by the crew. It happened off the eastern coast of Africa. Angosh transport with a gross tonnage of 1,684 registered tons and a carrying capacity of 1,236 tons left the port of Nacala (Mozambique) on April 23, 1971 for another Mozambique port, Porto Amelia. Three days later, Angosh discovered the Panamanian tanker Esso Port Dickson.
The ship drifted without a crew, 10 miles from the coast. The newly-minted "Flying Dutchman" was taken in tow and brought to the port. After inspection, it turned out that the transport suffered a collision. This was evidenced by the serious injuries he received. The bridge bore obvious signs of a recent fire. The experts found that it could be the result of a small explosion that occurred here. But it was not possible to explain the disappearance of 24 crew members and one passenger of the Angosh.
Submarine
1956 - an unusual ghost ship appeared before the inhabitants of the island of New Georgia (from the archipelago of the Solomon Islands) gathered on the shore. It was a submarine drifting in the ocean. A skeleton, dried by the tropical sun, protruded from the cabin. The team was nowhere to be seen. The wind and waves of the sea wanderer washed ashore. It was determined that it was an American submarine from World War II. However, the fate of the crew remained a mystery.
