Top 10 Mysteriously Abandoned Ships that Remain a Puzzle Even Today

The ocean has much of mysteries and wonders. One of them is the occurrence of various ghost ships through the history. These ships, abandoned, forgotten, and unexplained, baffle science and logic even today. Can you solve the puzzle of these top 10 mysterious Ghost ships? Let’s find out with us.

10. Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste had left New York on 7th of November in 1872 and was supposed to reach Italy in a few weeks. However, it was discovered abandoned by a British Ship off the coast of Portugal on 5th of December 1872. Three and a half feet of water was sloshing in the ship’s bottom, though the cargo of 1,700 barrels of industrial alcohol was largely intact.
Cargo and personal belongings of the crew were found untouched – including valuables – although a lifeboat was missing. There was a six-month supply of food and water—but not a soul to consume it. The fate of the Mary Celeste’s crew remains unknown to this day. Theories over the years have ranged from mutiny and pirate attack to assault by giant octopus or sea monsters…

9. S S Baychimo
Built in Sweden in 1914, S S Baychimo was a 1,322-ton steam powered, steel vessel. On October 1, 1931, the Baychimo was on a routine transport run to Vancouver with a cargo of valuable furs. However, the crew had not accounted for the fact that winter had come earlier than usual that year. The ship became trapped by the circling icebergs, which closed in around it and gripped it in a cage of ice. Unable to continue their voyage, and facing a possible sinking ship, the captain ordered the crew to abandon the ship. The Baychimo was obviously tougher than its captain had given it credit for, because people began to report seeing the ship cruising about the cold north Atlantic waters, totally intact and seemingly unmanned. However, it would simply vanish from view before it could be reached. Over the years it got a reputation as being a cursed vessel. After its last sighting in 1969, it was widely believed that the sea had finally consumed the vessel. But no trace of wreckage has ever been found despite a lot of searches for it in the area where it was last seen. What happened to this ship? Did the sea finally claim it? Was it salvaged without anyone knowing about it? Or is it still out there cutting through the Arctic waters of the far north?

8. Dimitrios
On the beaches of Gythio, Greece, the Dimitrios shipwreck stands proud. The 220 ft. cargo ship has unknown origins. It is believed to have been involved in smuggling cigarettes between Turkey and Italy and was set on fire to hide the evidence when caught by authorities. The ship was docked in 1980 when the captain was dealing with severe health issues. Followed by financial concerns with the crew, the ship never went back out to sea. Today, it is a popular tourist attraction.

7. Kaz II
On April 15th, 2007, two brothers along with an experienced sailor friend set out on a journey along the coast of Australia. Three days later, the ship was found abandoned and was drifting toward the Great Barrier Reef. However, no sign of trouble was discovered on board: the engine was on, a laptop computer was still running, eating utensils were laid out on the table, even the life jackets remained in their cases. Everything, except for the men themselves, was found intact. Since the seas were choppy and none of the men were wearing a life jacket, it was hypothesized that one of the men fell overboard and the others perished trying to save him. I can understand the brothers falling overboard in an attempt to rescue one another, but why did the yachtsman leave the engines on while he himself succumbed to the merciless sea in the last attempt to rescue his friends? But then, how does that explain the torn sail? Could it have been that one of the brothers was climbing to fix the top of the sail and fell overboard, causing the other two to fall in as well in unsuccessful attempts at rescue? Maybe! But then I’d have to ask you: “What tore a gash across the sail?”
Or, can I ask: were they visited by a UFO, or better yet, a USO –Unidentified Submerged Objects and taken away??

6. High Aim 6
The story of the High Aim 6 is a strange one. This Taiwanese ship was found drifting in Australian waters without its crew in 2003, though plenty of fuel and provisions remained on-board, along with the crew’s personal belongings and a hold full of stinky seafood.
A forensic examination could find no sign of a struggle, and a search of 7,300 nautical miles turned up no clues – but 10 days after the ship was discovered, calls were still being made from Indonesia on the cell phone of the ship’s missing engineer. The only crew member ever tracked down claimed that the captain and engineer were murdered and the crew headed back to their homes, but no reason was ever given.

5. M V Joyita
The MV Joyita may have been an “unsinkable” ship, but she wasn’t immune to other problems. With 25 passengers and crew on-board, the Joyita disappeared in the South Pacific in 1955.  Five weeks after the ship was reported overdue, it was spotted off-course partially submerged and missing four tons of cargo including medical supplies, timber and food. The radio was tuned to the international marine distress channel, the lifeboats were gone and blood-stained bandages were found. Some believe that the captain was injured or killed and that the passengers and crew felt they had no choice but to abandon the ship – but that still doesn’t explain the missing cargo.

4. Carroll A Deering
Was it mutiny, piracy, or a bizarre supernatural experience in the Bermuda Triangle that robbed the Carroll A. Deering off her crew? In January of 1921, the Carroll A. Deering was found hard aground on the coast of Hatteras diamond shoals, North Carolina. The sails were up, and it had looked like a meal was about to be prepared. But there was no sign of the 11 crew members who were on-board. Life rafts, log books, emergency supplies, and the navigational equipment, were all gone. The ship stayed on the shore until March of the same year when it was blown to pieces. The crew was never found and their disappearance remains a mystery. Today, conspiracy theorists often use the Deering as an example of the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, despite the fact the ship was far away it by the time the crew disappeared.

3. World Discoverer
Built in 1974 in Germany, the World Discoverer served multiple owners faithfully for over 25 years. However, in April of 2000, it struck an uncharted reef formation just off the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Solomon Islands, Roderick Bay is now its home and final resting place. The 287-foot-long boat was abandoned and has stayed in its location ever since. It has become a tourist attraction of its own even though the locals are begging the government to get rid of it. Since the ship is so close to the shore, it is also vulnerable to regular lootings.

2. The Ghost Fleet
On the northwest side of Suisun Bay, just outside San Francisco, a fleet of ghost ships is slowly disappearing. Known to locals as the Mothball Fleet, the collection of U.S. Navy and merchant reserve vessels has been in the bay since the end of World War II. At that time, thousands of surplus ships were allocated to a National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF), intended for deployment during military actions and national emergencies. At its peak during the Cold War, the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet had about 400 ships. Today there are 10. In a few years, every ghost ship from the Mothball Fleet will be gone.

1. S S American Star
The S.S. America was launched on August 31, 1939. It served her owners faithfully for 55 years until she was finally run aground in the Canary Islands in 1994.  To this day she sits stranded, and deteriorating. The ship was going to be scraped for metal but the buyer’s banks declined the transaction and the SS American Star found a second life as a floating hotel. But before the ribbon could be cut, the line that was towing the American Star broke during a storm and the ship was destroyed on a reef off the coast of Foerteventura in the Canary Islands. where she still stands even today. 

Source: TopAmazing