9.
MAR SEM FIM
Mar Sem Fim, or “Endless Sea,” was a 76-foot-long (23 meters) research vessel owned by the famous
Brazilian journalist João Lara Mesquita.
In 2012, it sailed to the South Shetland islands in Antarctica with a small crew of just four
researchers aboard.
They were filming a documentary when the boat encountered bad weather and became trapped
in ice.
The vessel was battered by waves measuring several meters high and 40-knot winds.
One witness would later describe seeing the ship being tossed around “like a bucking
bronco in a rodeo.”
Thankfully, after several failed attempts to reach the capsizing vessel, the Chilean
Navy eventually managed to rescue the entire crew.
But recovering the boat proved impossible, and Mar Sem Fim was left listing in the frigid
waters of Maxwell Bay.
Shortly after the crew members were saved, water that had been tossed into the boat froze
and expanded, causing the hull to split in a phenomenon known as compression.
This was the final blow that sent the vessel plunging to its watery grave on the seafloor.
For the next 10 months, it sat under 30 feet (9 meters) of cold water.
In 2013, a team managed to raise the Mar Sem Fim and tow it back to shore.
It was damaged beyond repair, but the researchers were lucky enough to recover some of their
equipment.
8.
MV JOYITA
Originally built as a luxury yacht in 1931, the MV Joyita was repurposed as a military
vessel during World War II, during which time it served as a Naval yard patrol vessel.
After the war, the 69-foot-long (21 meters) wooden vessel fell back into private hands
and was chartered as a trading and fishing boat.
In 1951, the Joyita left Samoa for the Tokelau islands with only one working engine.
By then, the departure was already delayed by a day due to mechanical problems.
The ship’s 16 crew members and 9 passengers were eager to set sail.
In addition to carrying people, the boat was laden with cargo, including medical supplies,
food, and an oil drum.
Several days later, concerned officials reported that the Joyita’s arrival at its destination
was overdue.
Nobody reported picking up a distress signal, and an initial search turned up no signs of
the ship or its crew.
Five weeks later, the captain of a merchant ship reported seeing Joyita more than 600
miles (970 km) from its planned route.
There were no signs of the partially-submerged vessel’s captain, crew, or passengers, and
at least four tons of cargo had vanished along with them.
The boat had some structural damage, and the radio was tuned into an international distress
channel.
Mattresses were scattered across the starboard deck, along with a bag of medical equipment
and some bloody bandages.
All the lifeboats were gone.
Once investigators saw the poor condition that the Joyita was in, they weren’t surprised
that it had encountered problems on the open sea.
But they couldn’t figure out why the crew and passengers had abandoned the ship, which
was extra-buoyant thanks to its cork-lined holds.
The missing individuals were never found, and to this day, nobody knows what happened
to them.
One theory suggests that the captain was incapacitated or injured, and was therefore unable to tell
everyone else aboard that their safest bet was to stay on the waterlogged vessel while
awaiting rescue.
They remain listed as “missing.”
7.
GUNILDA
The luxury yacht Gunilda was built at the turn of the 20th century.
In 1903, it fell into the hands of a wealthy oil tycoon from Ohio named William L. Harkness,
who used it as a leisure vessel.
He sailed it around the Caribbean before setting his sights on the Great Lakes.
While touring northern Lake Superior in 1911 with family and friends, Harkness mistakenly
decided not to hire an experienced guide to navigate his beloved 200-foot-long (61 meters)
boat through an area riddled with small islands and shoals.
Two seasoned locals offered to do the job, but the Gunilda’s owner scoffed at their
asking prices of $15 and $25 despite his ample ability to pay.
Instead, he proceeded full speed ahead without a guide and with no knowledge of the area.
It was quite senseless, really, and it was a decision that Harkness would soon come to
regret.
Not surprisingly, the Gunilda ran aground.
It crashed into a shoal near Copper Island about five miles (8 km) from the coastal city
of Rossport, Ontario.
Hoping to save his yacht, Harkness hired a tugboat to tow it for repairs.
But the job was difficult, and when he was advised to hire a second tug to keep the boat
stable, the owner proved that he had learned nothing from his first refusal to follow expert
guidance.
Harkness ignored the advice, and once the Gunilda was pulled free, it rolled over onto
its side and sank 280 feet (85 meters) to the bottom of the lake.
The submerged yacht was rediscovered in 1967.
The Cousteau Society has described it as the world’s most beautiful wreck.
While it’s too deep for conventional diving, a few lucky professionals have seen the perfectly-preserved
Gunilda firsthand.
They say it looks practically the same as it did the day it sank, and that it’s filled
with remarkable artifacts including furniture, a piano, some lanterns, and more.
Sadly, the Gunilda’s sinking was entirely preventable.
It was a hard-learned lesson for Harkness, who could have avoided the needless disaster
by being a little less frugal with his pocketbook and trusting the experts to get his yacht
safely from point A to point B.
6.
SPIRIT OF SACRAMENTO
Built in 1942 for the Army Corps of Engineers, the Spirit of Sacramento originally operated
as the Putah.
The famous actor and filmmaker John Wayne bought it in 1954 and used it the following
year in his movie Blood Alley.
He sold it a few years later.
The vessel was rechristened as the Madison Belle and was used for river tours throughout
the 1960s.
A cruise company called Channel Star Excursions bought the ship in 1991 and gave it its current
name.
The Spirit of Sacramento hosted dinner cruises for five years until it was badly damaged
in a fire.
A man named Captain William Barker bought the destroyed vessel in 1996 for $120,000
with plans to restore it to its former glory and once again use it for dinner cruises.
But he kept running into bureaucratic red tape, and the ship was repeatedly vandalized
in the meantime.
Whenever Barker was nearly ready to open for business, it seemed like he encountered yet
another setback.
The Spirit of Sacramento fell into disrepair and became a major eyesore.
It wasn’t long before the State of California sued Barker for its removal from the Sacramento
River.
The vessel was partially submerged by the time he finally relocated it to dry land,
where it remains to this day, plopped along a roadside.
It’s on private property, but can easily be seen from the road and attracts plenty
of curious visitors.
Have you seen this ship before?
Let us know in the comments below and if you’re liking this video, be sure to hit subscribe!
:)
5.
SAMSON
In 2019, archaeologists discovered the remnants of a 16th-century shipwreck beneath Kungsträdgården
park in Stockholm, Sweden.
The vessel had gone completely unnoticed under people’s feet for almost 400 years as they
went about their daily lives.
In announcing the discovery, experts tentatively identified the wreck as the Samson, a long
lost cargo ship that was commissioned in 1590 by King Charles IX.
Measuring roughly 100 feet (30.5 meters) long, its size matched up with the dimensions specified
in the Samson’s historical records.
But how did the wreck end up buried beneath the bustling modern-day Swedish capital?
The explanation is less crazy than you’d think.
Parts of Stockholm that are now on dry land were underwater as recently as the 19th century.
These areas served as ports for ships like the Samson, which disappeared shortly after
it was built in 1607.
Archaeologists believe that it languished in the port for some time and was eventually
stripped and abandoned.
It became covered in garbage and debris, with as much as two centuries’ worth of trash
piling up on top of it before the flooded sections of Stockholm were drained during
the 1800s.
Experts have yet to officially confirm the wreck’s identity as the Samson.
4.
ZEBRINA
The British sailing barge Zebrina left Cornwall, England for Saint-Brieuc, France with a cargo
of coal in October 1917.
She disappeared under the command of a man named Captain Martin and was found two days
later at Rozel Point south of Cherbourg, France.
The ship had run aground but was only lightly damaged.
Its lifeboat was still in place, the galley fire was still burning, and the table was
set for five diners.
The crew’s clothing and other personal belongings were still on board, and there were no suspicious
entries in the Zebrina’s logbook.
But the crew members themselves were nowhere to be found, and their disappearance remains
a mystery to this day.
It’s been suggested that a German U-boat abducted the captain and crew.
This is plausible, especially since a nearby Allied vessel had reported seeing a U-boat
in the area around the time they vanished.
Other theories propose that the ship was swept out to sea in bad weather or that the sailors
were killed by a sea monster.
The Zebrina was towed to Portsmouth, England and laid to rest in Velder Creek.
3.
SS COTOPAXI
The SS Cotopaxi was a bulk carrier that was built after World War I as part of a U.S.-based
emergency shipbuilding program.
It vanished in the Bermuda Triangle in 1925 while en route from Charleston, South Carolina
to Havana, Cuba.
The ship took its 32-member crew with it to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea after trying
to radio for help during a brutal storm.
It was rediscovered during the 1980s, but it wasn’t positively identified as the Cotopaxi
until two years ago.
Interestingly, the wreck wasn’t found in the Bermuda Triangle where it supposedly sank.
It was actually spotted 40 miles (65 km) off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida.
Nicknamed the “Bear Wreck” by locals, the ship was identified through historical
records and by using the process of elimination.
Some interesting details were uncovered during the lengthy investigation, which found that
the crew members’ heartbroken families had sued over their disappearances.
They convinced the carpenter who worked on the Cotopaxi to testify that some broken hatches
had sprang a leak, causing the vessel to sink when it encountered bad weather.
It also came to light that the crew’s distress calls had been picked up in Jacksonville,
Florida – not far from where the ship was found.
The location of the wreck challenges the long-held belief among many that the Cotopaxi’s disappearance
had something to do with it being in the Bermuda Triangle.
And while the region is shrouded in superstition, most experts are hesitant to lend any credibility
to supernatural claims regarding tragedies that actually did happen in the region.
2.
GRIBSHUNDEN
In 1495, a Danish warship called the Gribshunden caught fire and sank to the bottom of the
Baltic Sea.
Tragically, many of its crew members died in the ordeal.
Today, most of the ship remains beneath the waves near the Swedish town of Ronneby.
It was rediscovered during the 1970s, but it wasn’t until 2013 that experts were finally
able to confirm its identity as the Gribshunden.
The 15th-century vessel is widely considered to be the best-preserved shipwreck of its
era, and it may very well be the only ship of its kind from that time period.
In 2015 – over 500 years after the Gribshunden plunged to its watery grave – a wooden figurehead
depicting a so-called “sea monster” was brought to the surface.
With lion-like ears and a crocodile’s mouth, the 11-foot-long (3.4 meters), 660-pound (300
kg) creature resembles something straight out of a nightmare.
It once sat proudly atop the ship’s prow.
According to Marcus Sandekjer, who led the recovery effort, the figurehead is unlike
any other 15th-century artifact ever found.
He told Discovery News that the carved creature may reflect the ship’s name, which translates
to “Grip Dog” or “Griffin Hound.”
Archaeologists hope to raise more of the wreck, which could help them learn more about shipbuilding
during a little-known era from which little survives.
1.
MV AURORA
The luxury cruise ship MV Aurora was the first ship that Germany was allowed to build after
World War II.
It was launched in 1955 under its original name Wappen von Hamburg.
The nearly 300-foot-long (91 meters) vessel was famous for its upscale accommodations
and is even rumored to have inspired the TV show “Love Boat.”
During its heyday, it boasted 85 boutique cabins, an Art Deco lounge, and impressive
reception galleries.
The ship was sold and repurposed during the 1970s amid a decline in the cruise industry.
It served as a crabbing vessel, housed religious converts, and fulfilled various other roles
in the ensuing years, bouncing from one owner to the next as it fell further into disrepair.
Finally, in 2007, it was declared abandoned.
The following year, a San Joaquin County, California resident named Chris Willson saw
the ship for sale on Craigslist.
He was intrigued, despite having no experience with renovating cruise ships.
Willson bought and renamed the Aurora from a marine salvage dealer in 2008 with the hope
of turning it into a museum.
It wasn’t until after he splurged on the decaying vessel that he realized how much
work it’ll take to restore it to its former glory, if that’s even possible.
But Willson is a go-getter, and he’s passionate about the project.
So he’s ignoring all the nay-sayers out there and is working to slowly bring the decrepit
ship back to life with help from equally ambitious volunteers.
He and his girlfriend live on the Aurora full-time and hope to eventually turn it into a public
attraction.
Thanks for watching!
Which one of these shipwrecks is the coolest to you?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe!
See you next time, bye! :)