Spooky, Phantom Ships

Name
The Flying Dutchman

Sightings
The Cape of Good Hope, Goodwin Sands, Anywhere.

Her story...
The Flying Dutchman was a classic ship with a classic story much the same as the infamous Marie Celeste. The whole of her crew dies during a huge storm and, as the story goes, fights break out between the crew members under the influence of alcohol.

Needless to say, she is left to a spooky existence with her hapless Master. She is often seen in full sail, in the grips of a party where women, singing and laughing can be heard. All the lights in her cabins are lit up, also.

The Master's identity? Several names have been put forward which includes Philip Vanderdecken, Falkenburg, Bernard Fokke and Ramhout Van Dam.

Name
The Great Eastern

Sightings
As a ghost ship? None.

Her story...
Known as the largest ship in the world around 1859, she was owned (designed?) by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. However she was cursed from the moment she existed and before she even had the chance to launch.

Mysterious goings-on included:

- becoming stuck on the runway for 3 months,
- a riveter and his apprentice mysteriously disappearing during building,
- Brunel suffering a stroke the minute she hit the water, and died,
- 5 firemen died when a funnel exploded,
- a crewman was crushed in the paddle wheel
- Her skipper died in a small boat with a child passenger (what were they doing there?)
- A sailor died in the paddle
- Another sailor fell overboard and drowned.
- A 2 day trip/excursion off the US coast ended in disaster when the ship drifted 100 miles into the Atlantic.

She was then hired to lay the trans-Atlantic cable but this, too, ended in failure when the cable was lost and she returned home with her anchor between her legs. By 1874 she was left to rot and when broken up for scrap some years later, a gruesome discovery was made in her double hull in the form of the remains of the riveter and his apprentice.

Name
The Port Pirie

Sightings
None.

Her story...
In 1948, The Port Pirie's boiler had run dry which then exploded (think of your kettle boiling dry but on a much larger scale) killing a donkeyman.

A year later, tied up in Sydney, her engineer, Peter Jones worked alone (always a mistake) in the engine room. The boiler's feed pump started to make a loud and unusual noise. Looking at the gauge, Peter noted it read 'full' so he turned the pump off anyway. Minutes later, the knocking noise started up again. The gauge still registered full and the pump was still off but the noise continued. Eventually he discovered that the gauge was faulty and that it was close to empty. Obviously, this would have caused the boiler to have exploded again. Later, he learned the story about the donkeyman who had sworn before he died that no one would die on that ship as he had...

Name
The Halifax

Sightings
None.

Her story...
This ship was not haunted, as such, but many who boarded her could sense an odd presence. Her life had been long and hard with many Atlantic trips.

A recent story in 1960 told of a hired deck-hand by the nickname of 'Pharaoh' of questionable temperament. No one would share a cabin with him and he ended up shacked up alone in the sick bay. After many weird chantings, rows and walking around naked he told all on board that he had placed a curse on the ship (for what purpose?)

Several hours later the ship encountered a storm which lasted for 24 hours; 'Pharaoh' pointed at the sky with glee and said 'See?'. Eventually he disappeared leaving behind his sea chest which contained a 1915 newspaper report of the sinking of the Lusitania.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this story. A curse or just a coincidence?

Name
The SS Borodino

Sightings
None of her but maybe of a ghostly presence on board?

Her story...
Built in 1950 as a passenger cargo ship she was the pride and joy of Hull's Ellerman's Wilson Line. She was scrapped in Wales, 17 years later.

A strange story was reported by Roy Bainton aboard the ship in 1959 when he joined her as a deck hand. There is a weird legend of Percy Macdonald that was widely reported on the ship. This poor boy had suffered an accident in the engine room and had lost both his legs.

One night, a scream was heard along the alleyway by Roy Bainton as he slept on the deck. A junior steward was standing naked in the open doorway of his cabin and was saying, "He came...It was Percy...there was a knock on the door and...he was just floating there...no legs...horrible...then he just vanished!"

The poor youth left the ship right there and then, never to return. The crew seem to just accept the story as if sightings of Percy were common.

Name
Marie Celeste

Her Story...
The Marie Celeste was found in December 1872, unmanned and abandoned. Her crew was experienced but something had frightened them enough to abandon the ship. There had been no storms and the weather had been fine. Everything had been left in place which included the crew's personal belongings and her cargo. Her crew was never heard of or seen ever again.

Several attempts have been made to solve the mystery one of which is the story of her cargo exploding and her crew escaping to their subsequent deaths on a small boat. This sounds plausible enough but why hasn't that small boat ever been found?

Did they die one by one and the survivors ate them until there was only one left? Then did he die of starvation or thirst? How long would that take in real time? Days? Weeks? Months?

But then what happened to the boat after that?

Or were they attacked by sharks? Pirates? Pirates would remove all traces of humans but would they take the boat?

It still leaves a lot of unanswered questions which I don't think will ever be answered.