Ghost Ships
It makes sense a culture filled with superstition and lore has a treasure trove of ghost stories. For as long as mankind has been on the ocean there have been disappearances at sea. For those back onshore the agony of waiting, wishing, and hoping for an answer to where their loved ones were and if they would ever return haunted their every thought. A desperate mind starts to dream up reasons for things unknown. Why have they not returned? Why would they die? Why is there no word? Am I being punished? Maybe they’re still out there.
But what happens when we do see something totally unexplainable? Something that even though our brain is fully aware of what it is, we can still find it entirely incomprehensible. Most people would probably try and find some logical reason to suit their experience. But what if you gave up and finally accepted the unaccepted. What if enough people saw something so strange and so phenomenal it couldn’t be written off? That is when it becomes something of folklore and this is how ghost ships are born.
Show Notes:
[00:01] HMS Resolute’s connection to the White House
You've probably seen it although you've also probably never given it a second thought unless it was a part of your course curriculum during fifth-grade social studies: the resolute desk. It sits in the Oval Office of the White House and is where our last five presidents of the United States and several before them, gave speeches, signed bills, and changed the face of America and the world. In May of 1854, a crew abandoned a ship after accidentally becoming trapped in the ice and by Viscount Melville Sound, Canada. They've been on the hunt for missing explorer John Franklin. The ship drifted for nearly 1200 miles before they discovered her over a year later still afloat. The name of that ship was the HMS Resolute. Upon her finding the HMS Resolute oak timbers were stripped from the ship and crafted into the desk that now sits in the United States president's Oval Office, a gift from Queen Victoria to US President Rutherford B. Hayes.
[02:30] A Famous Ghost Ship: The Flying Dutchman
Since the 1600’s sailors have told the story of one very famous ghost ship. This particular ship strikes fear into the heart of any man who saw her. Captain Vanderdecken was what we would call a saltwater cowboy. In the early 17th century, he attempted to round Cape Horn amidst a pretty massive Gale. His crew panicked and frightened for their lives and begged him to turn the ship around. They pleaded with him as swell crashed over the boat, sending bits of it to splinters, washing away men and supplies. But Vanderdecken simply did not care. He laughed at his crew as he continued to drink his ale and smoke his pipe, vowing to round the horn and fight the storm until the crack of doom. He even went so far as to throw the crew who were demanding they returned to port overboard.
Now, it's important to note here that Captain Vanderdecken was an atheist, a very uncommon thing for Dutchmen at that time considering that the country was predominantly Christian because just after he threw his crew into the water, the Holy Ghost descended upon his ship. An eerie bright light plummeted from the sky streaming down the mast illuminating the entire ship into a glowing beacon. Vanderdecken cursed God and he drew his pistol and fired a shot at the Holy Spirit. I don't exactly know what he thought was going to happen shooting at a ghost, but he ended up accidentally shooting himself in the hand and paralyzing his arm. The Holy Spirit punished Captain Vanderdecken for his blasphemy, condemning him and his crew to eternal life at sea. They were doomed to sail forever and Vanderdecken became the evil genius of the sea. He tormented sailors stirring up storms, winds, monsters, and multiple other disasters. No Mariner ever wanted to catch a glimpse of the ghost ship known as the Flying Dutchman knowing it was important of imminent disaster.
[05:09] 3 Types of Ghost Ships
There are essentially three types of ghost ships: genuinely phantom ships like the Flying Dutchman, real ships that sank and then had ghostly apparitions like the Palatine, and real ships that were abandoned by the crew and sailed as if by ghosts, like the Marie Celeste.
[05:39] The French Ship: Navire Libera Nos
The French ship Navire Libera Nos' carried the Black Flag spangled with silver flames and death's Head along with the inscription Libera Nos. Libera Nos roughly translates to save our ship. She is commanded by Captain Requiem and sails aimlessly until a Christian crew boards and holds a mass for the redemption of their souls.
[06:13] La Belle Rosalie
Labelle Rosalie was a fishing boat from Dieppe. A young man by the name of Francois set off to sea. As he leaves he sees his true love Maria waving from the shore. They are to get married when he returns but unfortunately his ship La Belle Rosalie never returns. On All Saints Day, Maria sat along the coast and caught sight of what appeared to be her fiance's ship. She felt her heart flutter and then stop. She saw Francoise at the wheel but saw how pale he was. The ship then disappeared not to be seen again.
[07:29] Eliza Battle
Some ghostly ships appear tied to a location or a specific time or date that relates to the meeting of their watery grave. On some cold wintery nights on the Tombigbee River somewhere near Demopolis, Alabama, you can hear music drifting across the river towards the shore. It's classical music, not from this time period, but it's happy. It sounds like a party of some sort and there appears to be laughter and chatter muffled in the distance. You look out to the water, but you've seen nothing. The music fades away and the laughter turns into something more sinister: screams are heard begging for rescue. It is said the screams come from the Eliza Battle steamboat. There's no need to call for help when you hear them though, as the Eliza Battle sank in 1858 when it caught aflame while carrying passengers and a cargo of cotton. She was one of the most luxurious river steamboats in the area at the time and 33 people lost their lives. There are some stories reported of people seeing the Eliza Battle floating down the Tombigbee River fully engulfed in flames.
[08:58] The Marie Celeste, an abandoned ship
One of the most famous tales of an abandoned ship is the story of the Marie Celeste, an American brigantine built-in 1861. On the fourth of December in 1872, the Dei Gratia, a Canadian brig, was sailing near the Azores. They caught sight of the Marie Celeste and attempted to hail her. There was no response. In fact, it appeared no crew was aboard the ship. Something seemed very wrong. The crew of the Dei Gratia sailed over to the Marie Celeste and boarded her. Upon stepping on they noticed no sign of any crew present. It looked as though everyone had left in a hurry.
[10:33] Captain Parker Takes over the Marie Celeste
The Murray Celeste was successfully recovered and continued to be in service for over 10 years after she was found abandoned. The ship was known for her bad luck, however, and had a run of captains and owners until finally, Captain GC Parker took hold of her. Captain Parker wanted to get rich quickly with an insurance fraud scam. He ran the Marie Celeste aground on a reef off the coast of Haiti. The Marie Celeste, however, refused to sink, unlocking Parker’s scheme and ultimately soiling his plan.
[10:58] The abandoned SS Baychimo
The final story of this episode and perhaps my favorite abandoned ship story is that of the SS Baychimo. In October of 1931, the Hudson Bay Company SS Baychimo got stuck in the Arctic ice. Unable to run the heat all winter, the crew took the valuable cargo and abandoned the ship. Everyone assumed it was a loss. But following the abandonment the next year, she was spotted 480 kilometers from where the crew originally left her. The year following that SS Baychimo was seen floating in the waters near Alaska. In 1933, a group of Alaskan natives found the SS Baychimo and boarded her. A freak storm came up out of nowhere and the group remained stuck inside the ship for 10 days. Once the storm cleared they left the ghost ship, never looking back. For decades following the departure of crew and cargo, there were numerous sightings of the ship peacefully drifting through the Arctic waters around Alaska. The final sighting of SS Baychimo was recorded in 1969. This sighting marks 38 years after her abandonment, making her one of the longest-running ghost ships of all time. She hasn't been seen since but that doesn't mean she isn't out there. No records or debris has ever been found matching her description.
