See full version: The Legend of the Ghost Ship Palatine
The Palatine was actually named Countess Augusta. It carried 240 immigrants from the Palatine region of southwest Germany. The ship sailed from Rotterdam in August 1738 under Capt. George Long and a 14-man crew. It headed for Philadelphia and Virginia.
In 1811, Dr. Aaron C. Willey, a Block Island resident, described the Palatine Light. [links]
Sailors shook their heads when they spoke of Block Island, where wreckers lured ships ashore, killed their crews and divided the spoils.
Located in the middle of busy shipping lanes, Drake called the island a ‘veritable stumbling-block in the way of the anxious navigator.’
In August 1920, five months before the five-masted schooner was discovered abandoned off the coast of present-day Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the Carroll A. Deering set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, in tip-top shape, with an experienced captain and a crew of 10 men bound for Rio de Janeiro with a cargo of coal. The ship departed on August 22, and although Captain William H. Merritt fell ill a few days later and had to be replaced by the hastily-recruited Captain W. B. Wormell, the ship delivered its cargo on schedule and set sail to return in December. here
To this day, the Carroll A. Deering is one of the most discussed and written-about maritime mysteries of the 20th century, its enduring popularity no doubt fueled by the complete uncertainty as to how the ship arrived at its fate. more
The best mysteries are those that may never be solved. When the Carroll A. Deering was discovered in 1921, its crew vanished and its hull run aground on the treacherous rocks of Diamond Shoals, speculation ran wild. That speculation continues to this day, and no satisfactory explanation for the crew's disappearance has ever been proven.
A lightship keeper named Captain Jacobson aboard the Cape Lookout Lightship in North Carolina sighted the vessel bound for its home port on January 29, 1921. The Carrol A. Deering hailed the lightship, and an unidentified crewman reported that the ship had lost its anchors. Captain Jacobson took note of this, but was unable to report it due to his radio being out. He would later describe the crew of the Carroll A. Deering "milling around" suspiciously on the fore deck of the ship. here
The legend of the Flying Dutchman first gained widespread popularity with Wagner’s 1843 opera, The Flying Dutchman. Yet, the reason the legend has endured so long and has been the subject of so many retellings (seen in or inspiring not only Wagner’s opera but also Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Pirates of the Caribbean, a SpongeBob Square Pants character, a Scooby-Doo episode, and more) is because there have been so many supposed sightings of the ghost ship. here
Illustration of captain Hendrick van der Decken. ( moonfireprojekt) more
The Captain was deep in thought as his man-of-war ship began to round the Cape. Suddenly, a terrible gale sprung up, threatening to capsize the ship and drown all aboard. The sailors urged their captain to turn around but Captain van der Decken refused. Some say he was mad, others say he was drunk, but for whatever reason, the Captain ordered his crew to press on. He lit his pipe and smoked as huge waves crashed against the ship. The winds tore at the sails and water spilled down into the hull. Yet the Captain “held his course, challenging the wrath of God Almighty by swearing a blasphemous oath” (Occultopedia, 2016).
The last scene of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman (1843). ( Public Domain ) here
Today, scientists insist that the Dutchman’s ship is nothing more than a mirage, a refraction of light off of the ocean waters.
The denatured alcohol in the hold was essentially an industrial chemical. When the ship was discovered, nine of the barrels in the hold were empty. All of them were made of red oak, which was more porous and likely to leak than all the other barrels, which were white oak. 450 gallons of methanol pouring into the hold would cause a serious fume problem. Since the weather had been bad, the hold had been closed up for weeks. So when the weather improved, Briggs could have ordered "every hatch, door and window" opened (which is how they were found), attached the lifeboat to the ship with a rope, and ordered everyone in while the dangerous fumes dissipated. This would also explain why important documents and valuables were left behind, since those in the lifeboat thought they were coming right back. Then the weather must have changed, a strong wind caused the towline connecting the ship and lifeboat to break, and all those in it were doomed. [links]
In most tellings, the tale stops there. Empty ship, creepy situation, theories about what happened, the end. But that was far from the end for the Mary Celeste. Despite the fact that everyone onboard had seemingly vanished into thin air, the ship was still a useful, valuable piece of property. more
According to Smithsonian, a young, pre-Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle heard the story of the Mary Celeste and used the barest facts about it to write a short story called "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement." It was published in the prestigious Cornhill Magazine and was a sensation. It was complete fiction but was written in a way that made it seem like a true account by the lone survivor of the voyage of the "Marie Celeste." The titular survivor explains that a vengeful ex-slave on the ship systematically murdered all the passengers, and he himself barely escaped.
Captain Briggs came from a seafaring family and had lost three siblings and an uncle to the ocean over the years. He knew the dangers of sailing, had an experienced crew, and was not the type of man who would "desert his ship except to save [lives]." Briggs prudently delayed starting off for two days when faced with bad weather. Finally, the Mary Celeste set sail, on what should have been a completely unremarkable trip.
It seems that even on the bottom of the ocean, the Mary Celeste is still able to screw with people. In 2001, author and marine archaeologist Clive Cussler (pictured) announced he'd found the remains of the infamous ship off Haiti. Cussler might be known for writing popular fiction, but he has serious credentials in the historic shipwreck discovery field as well, leading expeditions that found almost 70 by 2001, including some that were extremely notable. So there was no reason to doubt he'd done it again, with the most famous ship to date.
But by 1867, disaster was rearing its ugly head again. During a large gale, the ship was blown onto rocks off the east coast of Canada. The crew survived, but damage to the boat was so bad that the owners gave up hope of repairing her, or even getting her off the rocks. They sold the vessel to a local man, who immediately sold her again. This would become a pattern, as the ship was sold, seized by creditors, or auctioned many more times in quick succession.