Hi! We're still exploring creepy-looking places, and that brings me to shipwrecks and ghost ships. I suppose shipwrecks don't count as being Halloween-related, but ghost ships do. Well, to me, anyway. Exploring the world of various shipwrecks has always been really interesting to me because in my over-imaginative head, behind each shipwreck is a story full of pirates, storms and the ghosts left behind. So I read a lot of pirate-themed historical novels and my imagination gets away with me too often. Stop judging me. Per usual, these are just some of my favorites from the many lists about shipwrecks and ghost ships on the 'Net. I tried to mix it up a bit because again, the same few are always mentioned since they're the most popular. I'm trying to be a hipster with some of these posts and find some of the stuff that wasn't cool enough to talk about. lol Anyway, let's sail!
The Caleuche
Searching for the Caleuche opened up an entire world of backstory about Chilote mythology and lore. According to legend, El Caleuche (or "The Shapeshifter) was a boat that sunk in the Chiloe Archipelago islands and is now manned by witches and the spirits of the drowned passengers. It got its name from its ability to transform itself into various things on sight, from driftwood in the ocean to a sea animal. If any of the passengers aboard the ship are spotted, they also have the ability to transform themselves into different things as well to avoid being spotted. It's also said that the ship will travel underwater or immerse itself in its own fog in order to avoid any sightings. Whenever it is spotted or heard, however, most accounts mention a brightly lighted ship, with music and the sounds of a party accompanying it. Residents of the area believe that when random music, party sounds or the jingling of chains are heard at night that it is just the passengers of El Caleuche having some fun.
Now as for the ghosts themselves, there are quite a few stories about them as well. Some say that while the regular spirits of El Caleuche are a party-loving bunch, there are another group of spirits in the midst who don't have the best intentions. Another story is that the unexplained wealth of some residents in the area around where El Caleuche is said to sail is because the ghosts have shared their goodies with the living. I read this in an article, but I can't find the thing now to save my life. But speaking of dying (nice segue, right? LOL), El Caleuche is also known for either helping those who are drowning and washing them ashore, where they end up half-crazy, or by guiding lost ships back to a safe port. Most of the time, though, the drowned are brought to the ship by three Chilean folklore legends--La Sirena (a mermaid), La Pincoya (a female water spirit), and El Pincoy, or El Brujo de Chiloe (either the warlock of Chiloe or the masculine water spirit and brother to the two feminine spirits), where the person then lives out eternity aboard the ship with the other spirits. If the lost ship or its members are responsible for cruel acts against marine life, however, they're on their own and when the vessel sinks, legend has it that they'll have to answer to the members of El Caleuche. It has also been said that the entire myth of El Caleuche is based off of an actual Dutch ship that mysteriously vanished at sea called The Calanche, but that the Chileans adapted the story and weaved their own folklore tales into it.
Research resources: 1 | 2 | 3
SS Valencia
The SS Valencia was a ship that was en route from California to British Columbia in early 1906 when fog and a wrong turn placed the ship in dangerous BC waters, where it crashed into either a reef or a large rock and began to sink. Firsthand accounts from witnesses are chilling, to say the least, because with the ship being in treacherous waters, it made rescue efforts very difficult. Whenever lifeboats, some with passengers aboard, were lowered into the water, the waves knocked them away. Those same waves, combined with fierce winds and rain, knocked passengers off the deck and into the ocean, where they too were swept away and later drowned. A handful of male passengers were able to reach the shore and go for help, but the ships that answered the distress calls never thoroughly checked the ship for survivors, thinking there wouldn't be any. The remaining passengers hung on for two days before the ship finally sank completely. Less than one third of the ship's 154 passengers survived the wreck. A lifeboat with skeletons in it was said to have been found near the wreck, but it was never officially retrieved. One of the missing lifeboats actually was retrieved nearly 30 years after the wreck, and I believe part of it is in a museum today. Sightings of the specter and even phantom visions of the ship itself have been noted various times over the years.
Research resources: 1 | 2
Kjobenhavn
Kjobenhavn (or Kobenhavn, I've seen it spelled both ways) was a Dutch ship that vanished into thin air mid-route and was never heard from again. The ship and its passengers were declared lost at sea months later, after people began to realize that Kobenhavn never reached its final destination and searches were unsuccessful. The common thought is that the ship struck something and sank quickly, perhaps in the dark, or fog could have gotten the ship off track, where it could have wrecked in the middle of the ocean. The ship was said to have been loaded down securely, so rather than having a lot of the ship's pieces floating on the surface, the ship probably sank straight down as a whole. The ghost ship theory comes into play here as ships similar to the Kobenhavn have been spotted for years in the last known area of the ship. Some have spotted seeing an actual ship nearly identical to the Kobenhavn, while others have reported a phantom five-masted ship. The remains of a couple of wrecks were discovered a few years ago, but one was ruled out as being the Kobenhavn as it was too small. The retrieval efforts from the other wreck have yet to produce the engine, which would definitively prove whether or not the remains belong to the Kobenhavn.
Research resources: 1 | 2
Rouse Simmons
The Rouse Simmons was a beloved Lake Michigan schooner who had a pretty long life in terms of ships and for the last three years, delivered fresh Christmas trees to Chicago via The Great Lakes. Rouse Simmons was usually the last schooner to deliver trees, as the other boats with the same task had already called it quits for the season. The veteran captain, Herman Schuenemann, loved taking the trip and it quickly became tradition for Chicagoans to see Schuenemann delivering the trees shortly before Christmas. The last year that Rouse Simmons was in operation, she left carrying a couple hundred tons of trees, prepared to make the same trip she'd always made. Sailors and captains are very superstitious, and try to abide by those at all costs to avoid trouble out on the seas. Apparently there were a number of bad omens both before and during Rouse Simmons' final trip, but Captain Schuenemann was determined to keep to tradition and avoid disappointing the customers in Chicago, so he decided to go anyway. It's been a long-held tradition that rats on a boat is a good omen, but when they scatter from the boat, it's usually a cue not to sail. This happened just before Rouse Simmons' final voyage; another bad omen was sailing on Fridays, and that was the day that the schooner took its final trip.
Relatives had mentioned having bad dreams about the ship, and the captains themselves said this would be their final trip so they were just trying to get through it. After leaving, the ship was caught in a gale with crazy winds, really high waves and dangerously low temperatures. Distress flags were then waved and a couple of ships tried to help, but one only had rowboats and couldn't get out to the Rouse Simmons, while the other got there too late. All that could be seen were waves, so while the assumption was that the ship had sunk, people still held out hope. The following season, however, Christmas trees began to be pulled in with fishermen's nets and that was when the ship was formally declared lost. For years afterward, pieces of evergreen and various debris from the Rouse Simmons washed ashore or got caught in nets. The ship was found under nearly 200 feet of water, but to my knowledge no bodies were ever recovered. Captain Schuenemann's wallet mysteriously washed ashore some years after the ship sank and the wheel was found quite a few years later. Divers have since found the wreckage and cleaned it of nearly everything, but the reason for the ship's sinking was discovered as well. The ship tried to anchor itself during the storm in an effort to stay afloat, but water had already begun to seep in through cracks in the deck and the ship sank. People have mentioned hearing phantom bells or seeing the ship, bobbing on the seas, multiple times over the years. If you'd like to read more about the Rouse Simmons, an author by the name of Rochelle Pennington authored a book called "The Christmas Tree Ship: A True Story of Faith, Hope and Love." An excerpt of the book which details the finding of the Rouse Simmons' remains is called A Sunken Treasure and is available on her website.
Research resources: 1 | 2
Young Teazer
The Young Teazer was a schooner that dabbled in privateering, as was the custom for many ship captains looking to make a quick buck in the early 1800s. The problem with privateering was that many ships did it, and the larger the privateer, the worse it was for smaller ships or the bigger the payoff for the smarter ships if they decided to bomb the larger one. The latter is what happened to the Young Teazer. A smaller ship chased Young Teazer into a harbor but she escaped. Another ship tried to chase Young Teazer some time afterward but again, she escaped. The third time, however, the first ship trapped Young Teazer and began to fire on her. The second ship blocked them in from the other side and joined in. The captain of the Young Teazer tried to figure out a counterattack, but a British lieutenant aboard the ship, afraid of being hanged for deserting his country, set fire to the ship's gunpowder supply. The survivors were jailed and later deported back to America. The tales of this ghost ship include witnesses spotting a vessel on fire around where the ship was bombed and being able to hear the cries of those who were trapped on the ship and died. Pieces of the ship were retrieved and are now hung in memorial in the cities around where the ship exploded.
Research resources: 1 | 2 | 3
Ourang Medan
The story of Ourang Medan is a haunting one, at least it was for me. It was an Indonesian ship, but I couldn't find any details of its history before the passage that caused the death of all aboard. There were no signals of distress or anything to dictate that the ship had sunk or found any other kind of trouble so nobody was concerned. Eventually a distress message did come through from someone detailing that they'd found both the captain and entire crew dead aboard the ship. The second message that came through said that the person writing the message was going to die as well. A number of possibilities came out upon investigating the ship; the most likely is that the ship was transporting lethal chemicals and the fumes that emitted from the barrels killed everyone aboard. A less likely explanation would be that pirates raided the ship and killed everyone, but there were no wounds on the bodies; they simply littered the ship. The more paranormal explanation for what happened is that the ship came in contact with aliens or some other paranormal force and died from horror. This is probably derived from the looks of terror that were described on the faces when the rescue ship attempted to rescue any survivors. The formal investigation was ended when a fire led to an explosion and sank the ship, eliminating the ability to find out what happened and leaving the rest to speculation. There are even some who say that the tale and entire existence of the Ourang Medan are nothing but a fictional ghost story, as there is no official proof of the ship in any record books. The entire story at this point is left to speculation, as there will never be a concrete way to find out what happened that day.
Research resources: 1 | 2 | 3
Extra: Graveyard of the Great Lakes
To make up for being so late with this post, I wanted to put in an extra entry. When I was trying to find some stories on the Rouse Simmons, I found out that the wreckage was buried in what's called the Graveyard of the Great Lakes, which is littered with the remains of hundreds of ships. The photo above is a layout of each of the ships that make up the Great Lakes and the location where each of the major shipwrecks are located. I think it's a great resource for recreational divers or those who just like to explore major shipwrecks. The reason why this place is now home to the remains of over 5,000 ships is because of both the weather conditions in those lakes and in the air, presenting an obstacle to visibility, causing ships to crash into land or other vessels. Now that less ships are on the water in general, especially in those areas, the number isn't as high as it was in earlier years. Earlier this year, the waters of Lake Michigan were exceptionally clear, allowing overhead views of some shipwrecks in the area.
Daily Mail posted some of those images.
Research resources: 1 | 2
So that does it for me today. I really enjoy looking at photos of shipwrecks and envying the divers for knowing how to swim. lol As far as ghost ships, I've never heard any stories firsthand but the ones I've read online have always been intriguing. I have no idea if any of the ghost ship stories are true, but they sound pretty exciting so I'd prefer to believe that they are. Clearly, half of my brain is still trapped in the books I read, which is why I was hoping for a few more ghost stories with the ships I chose. lol Anyway, even though I have the timestamp for the remaining posts on the regular schedule for Octoberfest, which was every other day, I'm going to do most of my posting during the weekends because I have more time then. The month's halfway over (almost over at the time of this posting lol) don't worry-you won't have to deal with my wonky schedules for too much longer. lol I hope you enjoyed this post and I'll see you soon!
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