A Ghost Ship* of my Acquaintance

Sometimes a vessel is better off being left to its own devices. I became acquainted with such a craft under about forty feet of water off Grand Turk Island when a couple of friends invited me to assist them in bringing her to the surface.

The boat was a schooner of around sixty feet, built (I believe) in Maine—a replica of some noted vessel from the eighteen hundreds. She was around six years old at the time of my meeting with her. The upper portion of her bow was stove in and she had about half a mainmast and a broken stub where her fore had once stood. And, as I mentioned, she lay under around forty feet of water—a fascinating but sad sight.

How she arrived there is an interesting tale…and one with a moral. And the moral is: That the vessel itself is normally stronger than her captain and crew.

This all happened in the late 1980’s so the details are a little sketchy in my mind. But the basics are as follows: A captain and crew were hired to sail the ship from Boston to the Virgin Islands. Well, about half way through the voyage, they encountered a storm and began to take on water. For whatever reason, the captain and crew were unable to deal with the situation so a ‘mayday’ was sent out and a freighter came to the rescue. When it drew near, the captain of the schooner rammed his unfortunate vessel into its steel side in his eagerness to abandon ship.

All boarded the freighter safely and a message was sent to the owners that, despite all efforts to save her, their schooner was now at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Well, said vessel obviously didn’t grasp her rôle in the drama because, despite supposedly taking on water and having her bow smashed in, she remained afloat.

For three months she drifted—doing just fine without the clowns who were supposed to be in charge of her.





Anyway, it appears a fishing boat came across her, took her in tow and she ended up anchored off Grand Turk. What finally sent her to the bottom was that dreaded scourge of wooden ships in tropical waters—teredo worms. These little bastards munched away mercilessly at her timbers until this proud survivor finally gave up the ghost and went to the bottom.

Well, as you can see, we brought her back to the surface. But unfortunately her liberation was short lived. As her new owners were towing her to a mooring in East Caicos, the generator powering the pump that was keeping her afloat packed it in. She now rests in about two thousand feet of water.

*A Ghost Ship is generally considered to be a vessel sailing with no living captain or crew.