When you tend to think of ghost ships, you'll likely picture some ancient vessel with creaking boards and tattered sails. Others might think of Steve Beck's criminally underrated Ghost Ship movie from 2002 and its iconic opening scene. Thanks to advancements in technology and safety, the idea of modern ghost ships seems increasingly unlikely, but trust us, they still occur.
Aside from mythical mentions of ghost ships, the first historically documented one dates back to the merchant brig SV Sea Bird (either 1750 or 1760), where the crew reportedly vanished in sight of land, left coffee on the stove, and where a cat and dog were the only living creatures left on board.
There are plenty of famous ghost ships over the years, with unsolved mysteries like the Mary Celeste leaving us baffled for centuries.
Advert
The last reported ghost ship came as recently as April 2024, with an unnamed vessel being found in Brazil's Caeté River.
Although nine bodies were found on board, the ship's register refers to 25 occupants - with Estado do Pará Online reporting other bodies washed up on the shore.
The ship was thought to be heading to the Canary Islands but probably went adrift in the South Equatorial Current. It was last seen in Mauritania in January 2024, and with its final resting place being near the Amazon Delta, the fateful voyage lasted for around three months.
Even though we'll likely never know what happened to the victims, the coroner concluding that the bodies left on the ship were suffering from dehydration and starvation suggests that those who died earlier were thrown overboard, leaving the last of them to die in the boat.
Advert
This seems to be more of an open-and-shut case than January 2021's discovery of the Yong Yu Sing No. 18.
The Taiwanese fishing vessel was found deserted and adrift around Midway Atoll to the northwest of Hawaii. The United States Coast Guard deduced that a lifeboat was missing and the ship seemed to have been damaged by what looked like a collision, but to this day, none of the 10 crew or the lifeboat have been recovered.
Also in January 2021, oil rig workers discovered a Chinese ghost ship called Jin Shui Yuan 2. Found 100 nautical miles from the Thai city of Songkhla, the Jin Shui Yuan 2 had no cargo or paperwork to identify the crew, although it's said that its lower deck hadn't been used in a long time.
Advert
Elsewhere, the MV Alta cargo ship washed up in Ireland in 2020 after originally being abandoned when its engines failed in 2018. Now known as the Ballycotton Ghost Ship, there's an unverified report that the MV Alta was towed to Guyana and hijacked before being abandoned again. The HMS Protector spotted it in 2019 near Bermuda, meaning it traveled around 2,300 nautical miles before hitting its final resting place. Modern ghost ships might be less common than they used to be thanks to Automatic Identification Systems, but it doesn't make them any less creepy.