THE ENGIMA OF LOST GHOST SHIPS

THE ENIGMA OF LOST GHOSTSHIPS

The moon shines brilliantly, illuminating the dark waters of the sea. A thick haze descends upon it in unsettling silence. Suddenly, the tranquility is broken by the creaking of wooden boards and the undulating of waves through the mist. Emerging from the fog, you see the outline of an old, massive ship. Its frame is corroded, and an eerie coldness emanates from it. However, the most disturbing thing is that there is nobody on the deck. This is not a legendary Flying Dutchman, but an unmistakable ghost ship.

On September 2, 2019, the English Royal Navy's Ice Watch vessel, the HMS Defender, sails through the calm waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It is 11 pm, and some of the ship's crew are on duty while others rest in their cabins. The captain steers the ship, gazing out towards the skyline. The sky is illuminated by an orange sunset, and clouds drift in the distance. Suddenly, against this beautiful scene, one of the sailors spots the dark silhouette of an unknown ship. The captain slows down and steers the ship closer to the mysterious vessel. It is an old cargo ship, 250 feet long. Attempts to contact the crew members yield no response. It appears that the unknown ship is adrift in the ocean on its own, with nobody on board, nobody alive. The deck of the ship squeaks as it rocks on the waves. As the sun sinks below the skyline, the ship takes on a menacing appearance. The English mariners dare not approach the eerie deck. They snap a picture, post it online, and sail away. Many people on the internet will assume that the mariners encountered a real ghost ship.

Five months later, we find ourselves in the town of Ballycotton in County Cork, Ireland. An early morning jogger sets out for a daily run, with music playing in his headphones and the cool air and scenic route providing ideal conditions for exercise. The jogger runs along the road on the shore of the Celtic Sea. There were severe storms in the area the previous night, but now the sea appears calm. The man runs along the top of a low cliff and notices a massive ship. An old, rusty cargo ship, 250 feet long, lies on the beach among the rocks. There are no people on board. It seems that the ship has been stranded for a long time. However, the local resident is certain that this ship was not here yesterday. Shortly after, it is revealed that this is the same ship that the sailors from the HMS Defender spotted five months ago, thousands of miles away.

The cargo ship, named the Alta, was built in 1976. Nobody knows who used it this time and for what purposes. It is only known that in 2017, the ship was purchased by a new owner and marked with the flag of Tanzania. It is important to mention that almost all cargo ships are equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS), which is used to track ship movements in the open sea. However, starting around 2015, something strange started happening with the Alta's AIS. The ship disappeared from the satellites and then reappeared multiple times over the past few years. The ship changed names and flags, and its AIS was turned on and off at different times. It is said that some people disable AIS on their ships to conceal illicit activities. The ship's captain, whoever it was, clearly did not want to display the Alta's movements, as AIS indicated. In 2017, the ship sailed near Greek port cities, making 12 stops in three different parts of Greece. Then, the AIS signal vanished, and after 10 months, the Alta reappeared near the northern coast of Africa, 1200 miles from Greece. In September 2018, the ship was sailing around 1400 miles southeast of Bermuda when the engine failed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The nearest shore was very far away, and the ship began to drift. As days passed, the crew could not repair the vessel, and food supplies started running low.

The team reacted excessively and tried to contact someone as the situation worsened. The team members reached the U.S Coast Guard on October 2nd and a helicopter was sent to the boat. Food and water were dropped on the boat, allowing the team to buy some time. About a week later, a rescue boat arrived and helped the stranded sailors. The entire crew was taken to Puerto Rico. The boat remained floating in the sea and another boat arrived to tow it to the shore of Guyana. However, something went wrong and the boat was captured. The identity of the culprits and their motives remain unknown. The boat was left to float in the sea for almost a year and its location could not be traced. In September 2019, the British Royal Navy found the vessel. It is unclear how the boat, named the Alta, was able to cross the Atlantic and wash up on the shore of Ireland. An investigation has been launched in Ireland to identify the owner of the boat and find a reliable person to tow it, but no one has been found yet. An unidentified person claimed to be the owner of the boat but provided no evidence. The Irish authorities will have to spend around 10 million euros to destroy the boat. Local residents are upset about the wreckage, as burning metal is harmful to the environment. The further fate of the Alta remains uncertain. Another boat, the SS Bachimo, has been floating in the sea for only two years. The boat was a merchant ship owned by a Canadian Trading Company. In 1931, the boat got stuck in ice off the coast of Alaska during a blizzard. The crew waited for a week, but the storm only intensified. Eventually, the captain realized that the boat had disappeared and concluded that it had sunk. However, the boat did not sink and continued to float for the next 38 years. It was seen at various points along the Alaskan Coast and was boarded by different people, including local residents and a group of researchers. Rescue attempts were unsuccessful due to floating ice and bad weather. The boat was last seen in 1969, frozen and blocked by ice. In 2006, the government launched a special project to find the Bachimo, but it still hasn't been found. Its fate remains unknown. The SS Cotopaxi, a boat that disappeared in 1925, was found years later off the coast of Florida. It took many years of work by marine biologists to confirm that the wreck was indeed the missing SS Cotopaxi. The Bermuda Triangle, where many ships and planes have disappeared, is not an officially recognized location and its exact boundaries are unknown. The term "Bermuda Triangle" was coined by an American author in 1964. There have been many stories and legends about the Bermuda Triangle, dating back to the 15th century. Christopher Columbus reported seeing strange phenomena while passing through the area, including a massive fire and a mysterious light. Flight 19, a Navy plane that disappeared in 1945, also contributed to the legend. The initial reports blamed pilot error, but alternative theories, such as time travel, have been proposed. There have been sightings of unusual clouds and unidentified flying objects in the Bermuda Triangle. Scientists have proposed various explanations for the disappearances, including rogue waves, hexagonal clouds, magnetic anomalies, and methane gas bubbles. However, the number of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle is not significantly higher than in other comparable regions of the Atlantic Ocean. The region is heavily traveled by ships and planes, and it is subject to hurricanes and storms. The mystery of the Bermuda Triangle is likely a combination of human error, bad weather, and high traffic.

After conducting several surveys, a pilot named Bruce Garen suggested that he experienced an electronic haze while flying over the Bermuda Triangle, causing him to travel through time. In 1970, Garen's flight was surrounded by two large clouds that formed a whirlpool. He noticed that his navigation instruments were malfunctioning, and when he emerged from the clouds, he realized that his flight had only taken 35 minutes instead of the expected 75. Garen believed that he had been pushed forward in time. Other pilots have also reported strange sightings in the Bermuda Triangle, such as nearly crashing into an unidentified flying object in 2014. Some explanations for these phenomena include the presence of unusual hexagonal clouds that generate strong winds, massive walls of water known as rogue waves, and the magnetic anomalies caused by the convergence of the True North and Magnetic North poles in the Bermuda Triangle. Additionally, methane gas bubbles and unpredictable weather conditions in the area may contribute to the disappearance of ships and planes. However, despite the mysteries surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, it remains a heavily traveled shipping and air route. The number of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle is not significantly higher than in other comparable regions of the Atlantic Ocean, and official statistics estimate that around 50 ships and 20 planes have vanished in the area.

This is why it is challenging to determine the exact number - no one can accurately document the rescue. If a missing boat was reported, there are also instances where it was later discovered that the incident never actually occurred. For example, there was a plane crash in 1937 off the coast of Daytona Beach, Florida, which local newspapers surprisingly did not report on. That's all there is to it.