Ghost ships around the world
An abandoned ship washed up on the rocky shores of Ireland this week. From the Flying Dutchman tale to North Korean ships washing up on the Japanese coast, 'ghost ships' occupy space in both folklore and reality.
The MV Alta
The MV Alta washed up on the Irish coast this week after a year lost at sea, amid torrential rain and unruly weather spurred by Storm Dennis. But unlike the Kaz II, the ship's crew were already accounted for. The US Coast Guard rescued the MV Alta's 10-person crew after it broke down in 2018.
The Flying Dutchman
The mythical Captain Hendrick van der Decken, also known as the Dutchman, left for Amsterdam from the East Indies in 1641 and never returned. His ship, as the story goes, is doomed to sail forever. The Flying Dutchman is regarded by superstitious sailors as an ominous sign of trouble to come.
Vessels from North Korea
In recent years, Japan has seen a wave of so-called ghost ships washing up on shore, most of which are identified as coming from North Korea. Some of the crew are found alive, while many of the boats have been found with dead bodies or no crew at all. Some of them were suspected of being defectors, while others have simply been fishermen who drifted too far.
The 'Ryou-Un Maru'
The US Coast Guard sunk the Japanese ghost fishing boat 'Ryou-Un Mara' on the southeast Alaskan coast in April 2012. The boat had been set adrift from its mooring in Hachinohe, Japan, during the 2011 tsunami caused by a magnitude-9 earthquake. The ship spent over a year drifting across the Pacific Ocean before it was sunk with explosive ammunition.
Lost at sea
The Nina, a 15.2-meter sailboat disappeared without a trace in the Tasman Sea in 2013, while sailing from New Zealand to Australia. On board were its owner, David Dyche, his wife, son and four crewmembers. Here, his mother Caryl Dyche sits under a photograph of her son's sailboat in her West Palm Beach, Florida, home a month after the Nina's disappearance.
The 'Sam Rataulangi PB1600'
The Indonesian 'Sam Rataulangi PB1600' was found mysteriously run aground off the coast of the Yangon region in Myanmar in August 2018. The Myanmar Navy said the 177-meter-long freighter was being towed by a tugboat to a ship-breaking factory in Bangladesh, when cables attaching the boat broke off amid bad weather. The 13-person Indonesian crew then decided to abandon ship.
The MV 'Lyubov Orlova'
The 100-meter-long Yugoslavian-built MV Lyubov Orlova — named after a Soviet actress — was towed from St. Johns, Newfoundland, in 2010 on its way to the Dominican Republic to be scrapped. The liner, which previously took tourists on Arctic cruises, became separated from its tug after the lines broke, within just a day of leaving shore. Experts believe that the ship sunk in international waters.