10: The Ghosts of Ironsides Ironsides was a wooden steamer
ship designed to transport passengers and cargo on the Great Lakes. She first launched in 1864
and was one of the most luxurious ways to travel across Michigan by water. She had 44 staterooms,
twinkling chandeliers, bath fixtures made of marble, and even hot running water. Back then,
most homes didn't even have hot running water. But the ship was leaky. Every time she unloaded
her cargo, the hold was wetter and wetter. Rumors began to circulate that the ship was not seaworthy
and that it was a disaster waiting to happen. The sailors on board the ship believed that
she needed a complete overhaul, but the owner was too busy making lots of money. In 1872, the ship
was officially reported to be in great shape. However, on the night of September 13, 1873,
a storm would prove to be Ironsides' ultimate end. The storm rolled in after midnight,
waves and winds beat upon the ship’s hull, and she cracked. Water rushed in, the ship’s pumps
couldn't keep the thing afloat, and by morning, the passengers were up to their knees in water.
There was no chance of them being saved because no other ship could go out in such a violent storm.
The passengers on board escaped in the five lifeboats. Three of them capsized and only
two made it to shore. Dozens of bodies were found the next day floating and bobbing in the waves.
Ever since then, people swear they sometimes hear the sound of the hopeless passengers still
calling out for help in the night. 9: The Peter Iredale
The Peter Iredale was built in Maryport, England, back in 1890. It was owned by a British shipping
firm and had a rather short life. On September 26, 1906, the ship left Salina Cruz, Mexico, on its
way to Portland, Oregon. It was to pick up a cargo of wheat and then return to the United Kingdom.
The ship sailed into heavy fog, reached the mouth of the Columbia River early on October 25,
and then smashed right into the breakers. The unfortunate Peter Iredale ran into the shore
at Clatsop Beach, and hit the beach so hard that 3 masts snapped and the ship needed to be abandoned.
In this case, none of the crew members were seriously injured. They managed to shoot rockets
into the sky as a signal for help. They were quickly rescued by a different vessel, but the
ship was ruined. It was completely stranded on the shore and is still there to this very day,
being one of the most haunting tourist attractions in Oregon. There's not much left of the Peter
Iredale now. It's been broken apart by constant waves and wind and thrashing sand for the past
century. All that you can see today is the sad remnant of its hull, the ship’s lonely metal bones
in the wet sand. 8: MV Lyubov Orlova
The MV Lyubov Orlova was supposed to be a luxury ship for sailing around the world.
Instead, it became infested with rats and turned into a creepy ghost ship. The vessel
was originally built in 1976, and was strengthened to be a tough ice cruiser that could navigate in
the most frigid parts of the world’s oceans – specifically for Antarctic cruises. But in 2006,
the MV Lyubov Orlova ran aground in Antarctica and had to be towed back to North America.
Then in 2010, the ship was seized by Canadian authorities for unpaid debts. For two years,
the huge vessel sat at a Canadian dock until it was finally taken to have its parts sold off.
As the ship was being towed from Canada to the Dominican Republic, where it was
to be dismantled and sold as scrap, the line connecting the ship with the tugboat snapped
and it drifted off on its own course. So far as we know, this ship is still floating around
aimlessly somewhere in the ocean. There's nobody on board except for vicious, cannibal rats.
There were rumors in 2014 that the ghost ship was on its way to Britain.
Two years later, residents of Scotland saw what looked to be the vessel floating just offshore.
And then finally in 2017, the ghost ship crashed into the California coast. But it didn't stay
there for long. High tides brought the ship back out into the ocean and no one has seen it,
or the crew of rats aboard, since. 7: The Flying Dutchman
The tale of the mysterious Flying Dutchman has been around since at least the 1700s.
The legend of the ship began with sailors alleging that they witnessed a ghostly vessel at
a distance – a vessel which meant doom was ahead. Reports of a ghost ship being seen then went on
for the next 250 years, until just recently. This is despite the bizarre fact that the
Flying Dutchman may not have ever even existed. That’s right, what is perhaps the most well-known
ghost ship may never have sailed even one of the seven seas. The first written accounts of the
Flying Dutchman seem to circulate around the Cape of Good Hope, from sailors aboard ships traveling
from Europe to Asia. The legend says that Captain Hendrick van der Decken, also known as
the Dutchman, left Amsterdam for the East Indies, then loaded up his ship with silks and spices to
bring back to the Netherlands. The year was 1641. As the ship was sailing past the Cape of Good
Hope, a storm appeared out of nowhere. The crew begged their captain to turn back and go the other
way, but he refused and sailed them straight into it. His insane decision caused the boat to sink
and the crew to die. At least, that’s the story. Ever since 1790, people have witnessed the Flying
Dutchman moving as a ghostly silhouette through distant storms, the crew still desperately trying
to free themselves from damnation. 6: The World Trade Center Ship
By far one of the most haunting ghost ships ever found was the wooden boat discovered beneath the
ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City. It happened back in July of 2010 during rebuilding
efforts in lower Manhattan. Construction workers couldn't believe their eyes when they found the
mangled remains of a forgotten wooden ship 22 feet (6.7 m) beneath street level in a pit.
Researchers were able to age the ship based on tree rings from its timbers.
They believe it was built in 1773, probably in a small shipyard in Philadelphia.
Researchers say the wood was probably from white oak trees, the same wood used to build
parts of the Independence Hall, the very building where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
But how did a ship get underneath the World Trade Center? It's worth noting
that the archeologists also found animal bones, ceramic dishes, and a lot of very old shoes.
Back in the 1700s, this whole area was nothing but a swamp. That swamp then became a landfill,
which was used to build pretty much all of the Manhattan coastline. Yes, Manhattan is
literally built on an island of garbage. The origin of the ship and how it ultimately ended
up where it was found remain a mystery. Thanks so much for watching and spending
time with us, if you are new here be sure to subscribe and join the Origins Explained family!
5: The Helvetia The Helvetia was
once a proud ship with billowing sails, hailing from Norway. Now nothing remains but remnants,
a few pieces of her broken body, sticking out of the sand at Rhossili Beach in Wales. Resembling
newly discovered bones of a prehistoric monster, the shipwreck is only visible at low tide.
She originally sank back in 1887 after sailing from Cambeltown in Canada back to the UK. She
was loaded with about 500 tons (453 metric tons) of timber. The crew were just five miles
from reaching home when a sudden breeze had them stranded for the night in the middle of the dark,
not quite sure where the shore was. By the morning, when they could finally see,
the winds had pushed them way down into the Bristol Channel. They were now 10 miles from
the harbor and getting farther away. But it didn't matter for long, as the ship struck a sandbank,
the crew was forced to abandon ship, and the vessel crashed and broke itself apart on the
beach – the very beach it still occupies today. 4: Ghost Ship on the Black River
There is a mysterious ghost ship abandoned on a tributary of Lake Erie known locally as the
Black River. It's in northern Ohio, and how the boat came to be resting in the river is unclear.
Historical records show the ship was once called the Romeo and Annette in 1949
and was commanded by Captain Romeo Allard. The captain ran a ferry service between New Brunswick
and the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. This much is known from news clippings throughout the years.
What makes this a mystery is that no one seems to know how it made its way into the Black River
and why it is still there, eerie and abandoned. The ship, later called the Upper Canada,
was last owned by a man named Al Johnson in 1999. But how it crossed the border, nobody can say.
It’s now not only an eyesore, but an extremely dangerous lure for explorers who want to check
the abandoned ship out. It’s filled with mold, rusty hunks of metal, and perhaps even the ghosts
of whomever left it in the river. 3: The Emily G. Reed
The ghost of the Emily G. Reed sometimes appears from her grave in the sand,
a reminder of her tragic past. Her most recent appearance was back in 2017
when a winter storm tossed up sand and revealed what little remains of the ship.
She’s buried at Rockaway Beach in Oregon, and this was her third sighting since the 1970s.
Every now and then, the conditions are just perfect for the decaying pieces of the boat
to be visible on the beach. This most recent sighting revealed 23 wooden boards of the Emily G.
Reed’s rib cage. Soon, the entire ship will be decayed, with not a single trace of it left.
But how the ghostly remains of this ship got here in the first place is quite an interesting story.
The Emily G. Reed crashed into the entrance of the Nehalem River in the year 1908 because it couldn't
find the light shining from the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. The ship got a little disoriented,
was about 30 miles (48 km) in the wrong direction, and wrecked herself on the beach on Valentine's
Day trying to figure out where the lighthouse was. The ship was visible there on the beach for a few
decades, but it had completely vanished by the 1950s. It wasn't until 1975 that she appeared once
more, reminding the locals of just how treacherous their coastline has been through history. When
the ship wrecked, at least seven men died after being carried out to sea. The captain and his wife
survived by clinging to a piece of the wreckage until they were finally pushed up on the shore.
2: The Ghost Ships of Iwo Jima Near Iwo Jima in Japan, ghost ships from
World War Two recently pushed their way up from the watery grave they had been in since the 1940s
and returned themselves to land. These ancient ships literally resurrected
themselves from the deep and can now be seen lying on the coast of the island of Io To.
The island’s name translates in English to “Sulfur Island.” It gets this name because
of the dangerous sulfur gas vented out from the volcano beneath it. The whole island
smells strongly of rotten eggs. And when the underwater volcano erupted just a few months ago,
it created a small island of its own just off the coast of Io To. The force of an earthquake
here in late 2021 was so intense, creating such a dramatic change in the geology of the area,
that it pushed up about a dozen lost ships onto the surface of the volcanic island,
literally spitting them back out of the ocean. These aren't warships, but rather ordinary boats
and barges that had been scuttled on purpose to create a breakwater for the US Navy in 1945.
The US sank concrete barges and cargo vessels that were there to support the navy. But when
the war was over and the Americans were gone, they left their artificial breakwater behind.
These ships weren’t that deep under the water, but it's still pretty impressive that a 6.1-magnitude
earthquake was able to lift them out. Now they’re littered along the shores of the volcanic island,
where they could stay for another 76 years. 1: The Patriot
The disappearance of the Patriot in 1813 is one of the strangest maritime mysteries that has never
been solved even today. The most notable person on board the ship was Theodosia Burr Alston,
the daughter of Aaron Burr. Aaron was the vice president to Thomas Jefferson. You know, the one
who shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel and killed him. Theodosia had just recently married a wealthy
landowner from South Carolina and was on her way to New York on board the Patriot. But the ship
never made it to New York. No one has any idea what happened to the Patriot. At the time, it was
believed that the schooner had wrecked herself off Cape Hatteras. But if the schooner had wrecked,
pieces of the wreckage should have started washing up on shore within the next few weeks.
This never happened, so people started guessing that the ship was instead lost in the storm and
at the bottom of the ocean somewhere. Yet another theory is that the Patriot
was captured by pirates. Pirates were known for operating all around the Carolinas and could have
easily taken the ship. But seeing as not a single piece of the Patriot has ever been recovered,
for all we know, the ship is still floating out there somewhere, stuck in a never-ending fog.
What do you think really happened to the Patriot? Let me know your theories in the
comments and thanks for watching! Remember to hit subscribe if you liked the video and come back
again soon for more great stuff! Ring the bell for notifications so you don’t miss any updates!