- Puzzle your brain with these stories of high-seas mystery.
The open ocean can be a dangerous place. As such, one of the sad facts of life is that sometimes ships sink.
Yet, not all vessels sink in a storm or because they hit a reef. Occasionally, it seems like a ship simply vanishes with no rhyme or reason.
These kinds of incidents often end up feeding the popular imagination and giving rise to all kinds of stories. Did aliens abduct the crew? Or perhaps the ship sailed into the infamous Bermuda Triangle?
Here are seven mysterious shipwrecks and some of the theories of what may have happened.
7. The Nameless Ship
There’s nothing unusual about how the Nameless Ship sank — maybe. But it’s not the sinking itself that makes this ship mysterious.
It’s that we don’t really know much about it. The Nameless Ship was discovered in 2011 when a Shell seafloor survey saw a strange blip in its sonar system.
This ship was a wooden vessel with a copper-plated hull that sank at some point between 1800 and 1850. Within the wreck, divers have found cannons, muskets, silverware, and eyeglasses.
Was this a pirate ship? A military craft? No one will probably ever know.
6. Mary Rose
The Mary Rose was a mighty military ship built for the navy of the English King Henry VIII. His desire to divorce and behead his wives led to multiple wars in which the Mary Rose served.
Yet, in 1545, the ship sank amid a cannon bombardment. It didn’t get hit, though — the Mary Rose just suddenly went under the waves, taking its 300 crew with it.
Neither witnesses nor later historians have been able to determine exactly why the ship sank. She may have been overloaded, mishandled, or a victim of a sneaky French act of sabotage.
5. H.L. Hunley
The H.L. Hunley was a Confederate submarine during the American Civil War. It was one of the first attempts at undersea warfare and demonstrated how difficult operating a submarine can be.
The Hunley launched for its very first mission in 1863 and promptly sank off the dock. So, the Confederates fished her up and re-launched.
It sank again because a crewman left a valve open.
Third time’s the charm, though, and in 1864, the Hunley successfully sank the Union ship USS Housatonic. Then Hunley sank for the third and final time for unknown reasons.
4. USS Cyclops
The USS Cyclops is one of the most famous ships of the U.S. Navy. But that’s not for its combat record.
She was a cargo ship launched in 1910. In March 1918, the Cyclops was sailing from Brazil to Baltimore, Maryland, when it vanished.
The ship, her cargo, and 306 crew disappeared off the face of the earth. Her wreck has never been found and the reason for the supposed sinking hasn’t been verified.
However, at the time of her disappearance, the Cyclops was sailing near the Bermuda Triangle. Needless to say, that fact has led to many imaginative theories of what might have happened.
3. Zebrina
In October 1917, the British barge Zebrina drifted ashore in northern France. The ship seemed perfectly functional and intact — but there was no trace on board of her five crewmembers.
Initially, it was assumed that a German submarine had stopped the Zebrina and abducted her crew. After all, Germany and the U.K. were at war due to WWI.
The problem with this theory is that Germans like bookkeeping and there’s no record of a submarine kidnapping the Zebrina’s crew. This has given rise to another theory that speculates a strong wave had washed everybody overboard.
2. Mary Celeste
The merchant ship Mary Celeste is one of the most famous mysterious shipwrecks in history. On December 4, 1872, the brigantine ship was discovered adrift near the Azores.
There was no one aboard. One lifeboat was missing and the ship’s interior was strangely wet (more than usual), but otherwise, Mary Celeste was in tiptop condition.
The last notes in the captain’s log had been made 10 days before the abandoned ship was found. Yet, they mentioned nothing about a storm or any other incident that would’ve forced the crew to abandon the ship.
Theories about what happened on the Mary Celeste range from mutiny to insurance fraud and an attack by a giant squid. Or perhaps whatever got the Zebrina’s crew also took the sailors aboard Mary Celeste.
1. SS Waratah
The SS Waratah was a 500-foot-long British passenger steamship. In July 1909, she was sailing from Durban to Cape Town along the coast of today’s South Africa.
And then she wasn’t.
The SS Waratah and everyone onboard vanished supposedly at some point on July 27. One unconfirmed eyewitness account states there were two bright flashes on the ship — and then it was gone.
It’s possible that the ship’s coal stocks spontaneously combusted and blew SS Waratah apart. Yet, no wreck has ever been discovered, so no one can say for certain.