10.
MURMANSK
The Murmansk was a Soviet warship built during the early 1950s.
It was sold to an India-based company for scrap in 1994, when it was nearly 40 years
old.
Plans were made to tow the vessel to its new home from Norway, but the tugboat’s cable
snapped shortly after leaving, causing the Murmansk to run aground.
The heavily-listing ship sat in place for years.
While it attracted curious visitors, fishermen and conservationists became increasingly worried
that the damaged vessel was harming the environment.
Experts mistakenly assumed that storms would destroy Murmansk, but it held together in
one piece until 2009.
The Norwegian government finally decided that year to remove the ship from the water.
It was too damaged to tow like normal, so workers built a breakwater around it and waited
for the site to dry up.
Then, they took the vessel apart piece by piece.
There are lingering concerns about the possible presence of radioactive substances, like polonium,
on the Murmansk.
Scientists ruled this out, but people still have their doubts, including some researchers
who suspect that the findings are inaccurate.
And they did find several non-radioactive hazardous materials, including fuel remains,
asbestos, and PCB.
But if there were any radioactive chemicals aboard the ship, we’ll probably never know,
because it was recycled and no longer exists.
9.
HMS RESOLUTE
In 1853, the British Royal Navy ship HMS Resolute set out for the Arctic under Captain Henry
Kellett.
Its mission was to find missing explorer Sir John Franklin and his crew, who had disappeared
seven years earlier while searching for a sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans called the Northwest Passage.
As luck would have it, the Resolute became trapped in an ice floe off northern Canada,
leaving its crew helpless as it drifted 1.7 miles (2.8 km) eastward every day.
They waited out the cold winter and abandoned the ship in the spring of 1854.
Little did the crew know, while this was all going on, that the Resolute had broken free
from the ice.
In September 1855, over a year-and-a-half after the ship was deserted, the crew of an
American whaling vessel called the George Henry spotted the Resolute off the coast of
Baffin Island, Canada.
It had drifted some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) from where it got stuck.
The United States Congress bought the ship for $40,000 and refitted it.
As a so-called “token of comity,” U.S. Navy Commander Henry J. Hartstene sailed the
ship to England and presented it to Queen Victoria in 1856.
Resolute remained in British waters, serving in the Royal Navy until 1879, when it was
retired and salvaged for timber.
Some of the vessel’s wood was used to build a desk that sits in the Oval Office of the
White House.
8.
MV LYUBOV ORLOVA
Built in Yugoslavia in 1976, MV Lyubov Orlova was a Soviet ice-strengthened cruise ship
that was used primarily for Antarctic cruises.
It ran aground in 2006 and was towed to Ushuaia in Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina’s southernmost
city.
The racked up $251,000 in charter debts and was repossessed in 2010.
It spent the next two years impounded in Newfoundland, Canada.
Neptune International Shipping bought the Lyubov Orlova in 2012 with plans to scrap
it.
While being towed to the Dominican Republic in 2013, the ship broke free from its tugboat.
The crew tried to reattach the line, but their efforts were no match for 22 mile per hour
(35 km/h) winds and 10-foot-tall (3 meters) waves.
An offshore supply vessel regained control of the vessel to prevent it from posing a
hazard to regional gas and oil operations.
But once the Lyubov Orlova reached international waters, it was no longer considered a danger
and was set free.
A few days later, the ship was seen drifting in a northeasterly direction 290 miles (467
km) from St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Less than a month after that, an emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) was
picked up 700 miles (1,127 km) off the coast of Kerry, Ireland.
An EPIRB device must be exposed to water before it starts transmitting signals, leading officials
to believe that the Lyubov Orlova probably sank.
In 2014, rumors circulated that the ship was spotted off the English coast and that it
was infested with rats, but these claims were debunked.
The vessel’s fate remains a mystery.
7.
SS OURANG MEDAN
In 1948, the crew of an American vessel allegedly discovered a ghost ship called the SS Ourang
Medan drifting in the Pacific, roughly 460 miles (740 km) southeast of the Marshall Islands.
The boat was reportedly littered with crew members’ bodies, and it supposedly caught
fire and sank shortly after its discoverers boarded.
According to the story, the SS Ourang Medan’s crew actively avoided being detected by authorities
while traveling from a small Chinese port to Costa Rica.
Native people living on Bokak Atoll in the Marshall Islands and an Italian missionary
claimed that a German man initially survived the disaster.
He explained that the ship’s crew perished from the poisonous fumes of an improperly
stored cargo of sulphuric acid.
The survivor supposedly died shortly after recounting the ordeal.
Nobody has ever been able to confirm what happened aboard the SS Ourang Medan, or if
it even existed in the first place.
Its history and origins are unknown, and searches for an accident investigation report and the
ship’s official registration have failed to turn up any records.
What do you think?
Was the SS Ourang Medan a tall tale, or is it possible that it literally flew under the
radar throughout its entire existence?
Let us know in the comments below, and if you’re liking this video, be sure to hit
the thumbs up and subscribe buttons if you haven’t already!
:) 6.
L. WADE CHILDRESS
If you drive through the small city of Prairie du Chien in Crawford County, Wisconsin, you
might pass by an old 176-foot-long (54 meters) pushboat sitting in an open field.
It’s called the L. Wade Childress, and nobody seems to know how it got to its current resting
place over 200 miles (322 km) north of where it sank.
In fact, very little is known about the ship, period.
The L. Wade Childress was built in 1948.
It sank in the Mississippi River near Fort Madison, Iowa in December 1985 due to an early
freeze that caused ice chunks to flow through the water and batter many vessels.
The boat was raised the following year and somehow ended up along Highway K in Prairie
du Chien.
It’s been there for years now.
Rumors have circulated about someone wanting to turn the L. Wade Childress into a bed and
breakfast, but it hasn’t happened.
Nobody even seems to know who was behind these alleged plans or why nothing has been done
with the vessel.
Most of the ship’s rooms are empty and falling apart.
There’s not much to see inside besides some bathrooms, a fuse box, and a stove.
Still, given its bizarre location, the L. Wade Childress remains an ongoing topic of
curiosity.
5.
SV KAZ II
In April 2007, a three-man crew set out on a 39-foot (12 meters) catamaran called the
SV Kaz II with plans to spend two months sailing around Australia.
At the helm was the skipper, Des Batten, who was joined by his brothers Peter and John
Tunstead.
The trio was bound for western Australia, where they all lived.
Three days later, the vessel was seen drifting over 100 miles (161 km) off the Australian
coast near the Whitsunday Islands with its engine idling.
The Kaz II was in near-perfect condition, minus a ripped sail.
Newspaper pages, a pile of clothing on a bench, a laptop, and a half-empty cup of coffee were
found aboard.
Numerous theories regarding the missing men quickly sprang up.
It was possible, perhaps, that they had fallen victim to pirates or drug smugglers.
Or maybe they staged their disappearance as part of an insurance scam.
Some people even wondered if a supernatural event was to blame.
The three men were never found.
Investigators surmised that one of the Tunstead brothers fell overboard while trying to untangle
a fishing lure that was caught in the boat’s propeller.
The other Tunstead brother tried to rescue him and also fell into the water.
Batten dropped the sails and turned around to look for the pair, and was knocked overboard
by the yacht’s boom due to a change in wind direction.
Of course, this is all speculative.
Nevertheless, in 2008 a coroner officially ruled that the men had drowned in a freak
accident.
4.
RYOU-UN MARU
In March 2011, Japan experienced the strongest earthquake in the country’s recorded history.
It was followed by a catastrophic tsunami.
The colossal wave washed a 164-foot-long (50 meters) fishing boat called the Ryou-Un Maro
away from its mooring in Aomori Prefecture on the island of Hokkaido.
Japanese officials assumed that the vessel was long gone and canceled its registration.
Unbeknownst to them, the resilient ship floated across the Pacific Ocean.
A year later, a Royal Canadian Air Force patrol spotted the Ryou-Un Maro in the Gulf of Alaska.
Because its registration had been canceled, the ship no longer had a legal owner.
And its former owner had no desire to salvage it because there were already plans in place
to srap it before it was swept away by the tsunami.
A Canadian vessel called the Bernice C. claimed salvage rights to the Ryou-Un Maro and tried
to tow it, but was unable to pump out its ruptured fuel tank.
To prevent the wrecked ship from becoming a navigational hazard, a U.S. Coast Guard
cutter set it ablaze with cannon fire in 2012.
Four hours after bursting into flames, the Ryou-Un Maru sank 6,000 feet (1,800 meters)
to the bottom of the sea.
During its descent, it released an unknown amount of diesel fuel into the water.
3.
BEL AMICA
In August 2006, an Italian Coast Guard crew spotted a schooner called the Bel Amica off
the coast of Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea.
The vessel was floating aimlessly near Punta Volpe with no crew aboard.
It was drifting toward rocks and shallow waters, so the Coast Guard crew boarded it and steered
it away.
Inside the Bel Amica, they found French maps of North African seas, partially eaten Egyptian
meals, a pile of clothing, and the Luxembourg flag.
Investigators determined that the boat was never registered in any country, including
Italy.
At first, the Bel Amica was mistaken for an antique vessel.
But detectives learned that it was modern, and that its owner was a man from Luxembourg
named Franc Rouayrux.
He had anchored the boat in deep water and abandoned it, later claiming that he planned
to return to his yacht after addressing a family emergency back home.
For many, this story didn’t quite add up.
The Italian press suggested that Rouayrux may have deserted the Bel Amica to avoid paying
taxes on it, but nobody seems to know the real story.
2.
SPIRIT OF SACRAMENTO
Built in 1942 for the Army Corps of Engineers, the three-story Spirit of Sacramento snagboat
was operated until 1954 under the name Putah.
In 1955, the legendary actor and filmmaker John Wayne bought the vessel and used it in
his film Blood Alley.
After John Wayne sold the boat, it was rechristened the Madison Belle.
It was used for river tours throughout the 1960s.
The vessel got its current name in 1991 under the ownership of Channel Star Excurions.
The company hosted dinner parties aboard the Spirit of Sacramento for five years, until
it was mostly destroyed in a fire.
In 1996, a man named Captain William Barker paid $120,000 for the badly damaged boat with
plans to rebuild it and use it for dinner cruises.
But he kept running into bureaucratic red tape, and the Spirit of Sacramento was repeatedly
vandalized while Barker tried to work out these issues.
Whenever he was nearly ready to open for business, it seemed like Barker encountered yet another
setback.
The vessel fell into disrepair and the State of California sued Barker for its removal
from the Sacramento River.
He moved the partially submerged boat to dry land, and to this day, it remains plopped
along a roadside.
It’s located on private property, but is easily viewable from the road, posing an eyesore
for some and piquing the curiosity of others.
1.
CARROLL A. DEERING
Shortly before it met with disaster in 1921, the five-masted cargo schooner Carroll A.
Deering was last spotted while passing the Cape Lookout lightship off the North Carolina
coast.
The American vessel was on its way back to Norfolk, Virginia after delivering a load
of coal to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Speaking through a megaphone from the Carroll A. Deering, a tall, thin man with reddish
hair and a foreign accent told the Cape Lookout’s keeper that the ship had lost its anchors
during a storm.
He asked the keeper to pass the news on to the ship’s owner, the G.G.
Deering Company.
Three days later, a surfman named CP Brady discovered the Carroll A. Deering off Cape
Hatteras, where it had run aground.
This area has been known as a common shipwreck site for centuries, earning it the nickname
“The Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
Due to bad weather, rescue ships were unable to reach the stranded vessel for several days.
Deering’s crew, logbook, and lifeboats were all missing, along with the crew members’
personal belongings.
The ship’s rudder was disengaged from its stock and the steering wheel was shattered.
It was evident that the crew had abandoned ship in the middle of preparing ingredients
for the next day’s meal.
The Coast Guard tried and failed to salvage the Carroll A. Deering.
They declared the ship a navigational hazard and blew it up with dynamite.
Nobody knows exactly what happened, but theories abound.
Some people suggested that perhaps pirates or communists kidnapped the ship’s crew.
Others blamed bad weather.
But we’ll probably never know for sure.
Thanks for watching!
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See you next time!
Bye! :)