What is a Ghost ship?

  Abandoned ships

The Big Difference

What I am about to write will fly in the endless chatter of "ghost ships," but this is my view.

There is to me, a large difference between a ghost ship, and a ship found crewless. In most discussions on the subject, the Marie Celeste comes up as the main vessel, yet to me, she is NOT a ghost ship.

I will cede, the disappearance of her crew is a mystery which we may never solve, yet, I have my theory on the subject.

My theory is she was carrying liquor, and thinking the barrels were leaking in a storm, not unusual for the North Atlantic, the captain ordered everyone to abandon ship thinking she could blow up.

As with other ships, if she was abandoned to the winds, she would remain afloat until she was found, or crashed.

What happened to the crew?

Adrift in the raging Atlantic Ocean in a lifeboat, on a cold November day, they may have lasted a day, or two. The ship was abandoned only two days into the voyage, but with little light, and no idea where you are, the crew had no idea where land was, if they did, 25 miles is a long way for a crew to row.

What do I define as a ghost ship?

To me, the term GHOST is vital. This indicates something which is tangible, but unreachable. The classic case for this scenario is The Flying Dutchman. There have many sigthings of her, but nobody has been able to verify her existence beyond a sighting; nobody has seen her, only her image through the misty seas of the Cape of Good Hope. The seas around the cape are some of the worst sailors come across. You have the warm water from the Indian Ocean meeting the icy South Atlantic Ocean, causing the appearance of sea mist as the waters crash on the rocks. 

Yet in the mid-1980's a shipping firm from Russia challenged the Cape, and lost BIG TIME. A firm from France asked a Russian firm to transport some pipes from Sweden to India for a project. The French paid for FOUR tugs to undertake the trip, this would have ensured a relatively safe journey.

From this moment on, the voyage was doomed.

Four tugs would mean a rope at each corner for safety. The Russians decided to pay for THREE tugs, meaning the lead tug would take the strain, and be the guide; if that wasn't bad enough, the tug's captain made what turned out to be a fatal, and very costly error.

With the three tugs, he chose to chance going between a rocky outcrop, and the mainland; the result was catastrophic to say the least. Cutting through the gap, for the sake of about half-an-hour, he lost control of his rope; this meant the ship was yawing to-and-fro, and she was out of control. With the ship rocking, and rolling it was impossible to get a rope to the tug at the head, and she had to be released, to save the other tugs from being wrecked.

The French sued the Russian firm, who went into insovency the year after; the up side of the incident, as the wreck cannot be saved, it has became the most expensive bird sanctuary.

To end, an abandoned ship maybe a mystery, but to me, they are NOT a ghost ship