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Oddities

Ghost Ships

Oddities Ghost Ships Technology

The term 'ghost ship' is used to describe a few different varieties of ship, including vessels which are found floating adrift, with no surviving crew members on board, such as the Mary Celeste. However, more commonly, the term is used to describe ships which actually have a mysterious and seemingly ghost-like appearance.

These legendary phantom vessels are often reported by eyewitnesses to disappear and reappear in front of their eyes and have been reported to give off a strange, unexplained glow.

The Flying Dutchman	1680
The most (in)famous ghost ship of them all!

When we think about ghost ships and relate their stories, probably the most famous of all that comes to mind is The Flying Dutchman. What many people don’t realise is that although much of the story is fantastical legend, the actual bones of the tale are based somewhat in reality, though it has been somewhat embellished over the years.

Captain Vanderdecken

Before we begin, it is worth noting however, that The Flying Dutchman itself refers not to the boat istelf, but to the Captain of the ship. The vessel was captained by a man named Henrik Vanderdecken (whose name literally translates as “on deck”) and he set sail in the year 1680 from Amsterdam to travel to Batavia, which was a port in Dutch East India.

The story tells of Vanderdecken encountering a storm as he steered the ship towards the Cape of Good Hope, but instead of turning the ship round and heading for home he doggedly and determinedly pressed on with his mission.

Sailing into a storm

His crew were all frightened and saw the storm as a portent from God, but had to do what Vanderdecken told them. Whilst the crew plummeted on fearfully, Vanderdecken went below ship and commenced a bout of heavy drinking and smoking.

Tumultuous winds and waves lashed at the boat, but far from becoming frightened, Vanderdecken simply started to sing obscene songs and mutter oaths at God, which further worried and frightened his already beleaguered crew.

One of the crew members sought to challenge their captain’s behavior and manner and encouraged the other sailors to mutiny, but Vanderdecken heard the commotion and simply killed the instigator of the riot.

He threw the body overboard, but just as he did so a ghostly figure appeared on the deck of the ship to threaten him, saying “You’re a stubborn man, you’re now accursed and condemned to sail the oceans for eternity. You will bring death to all who spot your ship and will never be allowed to make port or know a moment’s peace. Gales will be your drink and red hot iron your meat”.

Vanderdecken simply and calmly replied “Amen to that”.

Hitting the rocks

After this strange and disconcerting meeting between Vanderdecken and the mystery apparition, the ship was continually buffeted and battered by the terrible weather. Everyone who was on board died a terrible and frightening death, either simply from severe sickness due to being overcome by waves and drowning or from heart attacks and seizures that were brought on by the fear of what was to become of them. It was said that this was God’s punishment to Vanderdecken and the men he had with him on board for ignoring the warning and pressing ahead. They would now spend eternity battling their way through the tempest at the Cape never to be set free or to reach their destination. The ship then simply disappeared into the darkness, allegedly never to be seen again. Unless that is you were one of the many people who happened to be sailing nearby in terrible weather in the centuries that followed...

The myth

Over the years the myth has been continually perpetuated that the ghost of the ship exists, with people claiming sightings of it right into the mid part of the twentieth century. Witnesses who claim to have seen the ship, have also reportedly seen the ghost of Vanderdecken and described him as being often bare or baldheaded and desperately clinging on to the quarterdeck of the ship with a look of panic on his face. Some people have also reported seeing grim apparitions of the skeletons of the crew who are grimly holding onto the ship for dear life.

What is interesting is that all of the sightings have supposedly been made when sailors and crewmen were sailing near by to the Cape of Good Hope, but almost always in bad or stormy weather.

However, one of the most interesting sightings of the ship was allegedly made by King George V of England in 1881 who was, at the time, a crewman aboard the HMS Bacchante. The sighting he made was considered important enough to have actually been recorded on the ship’s log. The King reported that he saw a ghostly ship which appeared to glow red, all the masts, sails and spars were clearly visible. However, when he and the crew sailed further into view of the ghostly apparition, it seemed to disappear, though the waters around what they claimed to have seen were suspiciously calm and untroubled. On the same day the King and sailors had reported the sighting, one of the crewmen mysteriously fell to his death from the rigging, which of course, gave credence to the myths surrounding the Flying Dutchman and worries that anyone who saw it or experienced a vision of it would come to harm.

The last sighting of the ship came during the 1940s. What makes this sighting interesting is that the people who saw it had no real knowledge of what ships of the late 1600s would have looked like or appeared to be and gave an incredibly and eerily accurate description of the Flying Dutchman. They saw the ship sail towards the destination of Table Bay then simply vanish into thin air.

Since then, there have been no more reported sightings, but surely it cannot be too long before someone else encounters this most fascinating of aquatic apparitions again?

Source: Research & text by Eve Pearce

The Lady Lovibond	1748
Set sail for the last time in 1748, and is said to still haunt the coast of England every fifty years.

The dangers facing travelers in the early modern world were numerous and far away from today's climate of relatively safe recreational boating and advanced navigational technology. Travelers on a cruise today would also likely have some kind of travel cover as well as state of the art sea rescue teams. Modern technology and clothing also protects them from many forms of adverse weather conditions. Crews in the 18th century, however, would have had to tackle the seas and any problems with little outside help and virtually no back up and passengers would have had no coverage at all.

The Lady Lovibond faced many navigational challenges, including traveling past the infamous Goodwin Sands. The Goodwin Sands are a series of sandbanks, located at an especially narrow point of the English Channel. To many travelers in the early modern world, they carried with them a terrifying reputation. The list of ships wrecked by the Goodwin Sands in the early 1700s alone is numerous and includes HMS Northumberland, HMS Stirling Castle and HMS Restoration.

Navigating the Goodwin Sands was difficult enough for travelers at the time. However, the Lady Lovibond's crew faced another, rather unexpected danger. The bad intentions of someone aboard the ship.

Wedding Party

The author John Harding's account explains that the Lady Lovibond's final journey was supposed to be a happy occasion. The schooner's captain, Simon Reed, was celebrating his marriage to his new wife, Anetta. The bride and her parents were aboard the schooner, despite a popular superstition from the time claiming bringing women aboard would bring bad luck, and the ship is said to have been traveling to Porto, Portugal.

Also aboard the ship was John Rivers, the first mate of the captain, who had once hoped to marry Anetta himself. While the happy couple celebrated with their guests in the lower deck, the story goes that Rivers brutally attacked the crew member at the wheel of the ship with a belaying pin and took control of the Lady Lovibond.

Apparently overcome with jealousy at the marriage between Simon and Anetta, John Rivers steered the ship into the Goodwin Sands, wrecking the ship and killing everyone on board. A later enquiry into the ship's fate heard that Rivers had previously vowed to get even with Simon Reed.

Ghostly Reappearances

Yet, according to legend, the story of the Lady Lovibond does not end with the disaster on 13 February 1748. In fact, on the exact same date, fifty years later, in 1798, the supposed reappearance of the Lady Lovibond was reported by two separate eyewitnesses, including James Westlake, the captain of the Edenbridge.

Westlake reported seeing a three-masted schooner, similar in appearance to the Lady Lovibond, traveling towards him and screamed for the captain to steer the boat around him. Westlake claimed to hear the sound of celebrations coming from the lower deck as it passed, consistent with a wedding party. Upon reporting the incident, Westlake was informed that a fishing crew had seen the exact same boat hit the Goodwin Sands and disappear in front of them.

Another appearance in 1848, another fifty years on, was so convincing that a group of seamen sent out lifeboats from Deal, Kent, in order to try to rescue any survivors. Thus, the legend that the Lady Lovibond reappears every fifty years was born. After being spotted in 1898, a further sighting was reported in 1948, by Captain Bull Prestwick. Prestwick described the vessel as looking realistic, but with an unusual green glow.

Written Into Folklore

The mysterious reappearances of the Lady Lovibond are written into local folklore in Kent, England and the vessel is the subject matter of several songs, poems and pieces of literature. There were several alleged sightings of the phantom ship in 1998, which have only served to add to the legend. Of course, many others remain unconvinced.

Unfortunately, judging from the pattern formed so far, it would seem that we will have to wait until February 2048 for the next reappearance of the ship.

Source: Research & text by Eve Pearce

The Octavius	1762
Missing ship is found with crew frozen solid...and then left to drift for eternity.

The Octavius was an English trading ship which was found near the coast of Greenland in 1775. The ship’s log showed that the crew had tried to traverse the Northwest Passage, a feat that had never been done. It is said that the ship and her frozen crew had drifted for 13 years before being found. The Octavius left London in 1761, bound for China with a full cargo hold. Sailors at that time weren’t afforded the luxury of the likes of Quotezone boat insurance as we know it today, although some policies did exist to cover the vessel and her cargo. The policy of insuring ships dates back much earlier to ancient Chinese mariners. However, due to the fact that a great number of ships with all hands and their cargoes were lost at sea, combined with the fact that weather conditions played a greater role in determining the final outcome of a voyage than it does today, companies took the trouble to invest in policies to protect their valuable cargoes. Men’s lives, on the other hand, weren’t valued as highly.

Fatal Mistake

The Octavius arrived safely in China and loaded up with a fresh cargo for the return journey in 1762. The ship’s captain, taking advantage of the warm weather decided to attempt the shorter arctic passage back to England. This decision would prove to be disastrous, and it would be 13 years before he or any of his crew would be seen again.

Ghostly Discovery

It was initially thought that the ship had sank somewhere in the arctic; a victim of strong winds and high waves and it wasn’t until 13 years later, on October 11, 1775 that the crew of the whaling ship The Herald, which was whaling in waters off the west coast of Greenland, stumbled across their macabre find.

Upon first sighting the ship appeared to be unmanned and they unwittingly boarded her. The entire crew of the Octavius were below decks frozen stiff. The captain of the ship was found sitting at his desk with a pen in his hand. He apparently died while writing an entry in his log thirteen years earlier. It is widely believed that the ship became stuck in the arctic ice. The ship’s store of food had run out and the crew had all perished in the extreme weather conditions. Thirteen years later the ice had apparently melted to such an extent that the ship was cast adrift and, with its crew of ghostly sailors, somehow managed to navigate the Northwest Passage.

Cast Adrift

The terrified crew of The Herald left the Octavius to drift for eternity. Fearing for their lives, the Herald’s crew touched nothing and got as far as they could, as quickly as they could from the ghostly vessel. The crew of the Octavius, once united in life, are now united for an eternity in death.

Unanswered Questions

Did their ghoulish souls somehow manage to navigate the icy waters in an attempt to reach port? We will never know the answer to this question. Also, due to the fact that the crew of The Herald wasted no time in getting off the Octavius, we do not know much about the condition of the bodies. They were certainly frozen and well preserved, but were they malnourished? The stores of food had run dry but, as we know from other similar stories, humans in extreme circumstances will resort to cannibalism as a last means of survival. Were any of the remains half eaten? Did the crew start munching on the dead bodies of their fellow seamen? In addition, we know that the captain was found with pen in hand. How did he die? Science tells us that viruses cannot exist at such low temperatures, so we can assume that they did not succumb to disease.

Sometimes unanswered questions are better as they leave us with a sense that ghost ships do exist and some things are better left unsaid unless told during the wee small hours when we are in need of something to scare us.

Source: Research & text by Eve Pearce