page_title: Ghost ship
section_title: Historically attested
hierarchical_section_title: Ghost ship / Chronology / Historically attested
caption_attribution_description: English: Engraving of the Mary Celeste.
context_page_description: A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a ghostly vessel, such as the Flying Dutchman, or a physical derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the Mary Celeste. The term is sometimes used for ships that have been decommissioned but not yet scrapped, as well as drifting boats that have been found after breaking loose of their ropes and becoming carried away by the wind or the waves.
context_section_description: 1750 or 1760, the SV Sea Bird: This merchant brig, under the command of John Huxham (or Husham or Durham), grounded herself at Easton's Beach, Rhode Island. Her longboat was missing. She had been returning from a voyage to Honduras and was expected in Newport that day. The ship was apparently abandoned in sight of land (coffee was boiling on the galley stove) and drifted off course. The only living things found on the ship were a dog and a cat. A fictional account of how she became derelict appeared in the Wilmington, Delaware newspaper Sunday Morning Star for 11 October 1885.
  15 May 1854, HMS Resolute: This barque-rigged ship of the British Royal Navy was abandoned after being beset by ice in Viscount Melville Sound, Canada. She had been one of four vessels from Edward Belcher's search expedition for John Franklin. The ship drifted some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) before it was found on 10 September 1855 off the coast of Baffin Island, Canada, freed from the ice. The Resolute desk resides today in the Oval Office of the White House
  25 November 1872, SV Mary Celeste: After passing Santa Maria Island in the Azores on 25 November 1872 (the last entry on the ship's slate), the SV Mary Celeste, a merchant brigantine, became derelict in unknown circumstances. No boats were found on board. She was found on 4 December 1872 between mainland Portugal and the Azores archipelago. The ship was devoid of all crew, but largely intact and under sail, heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar. Arthur Conan Doyle's story "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" is based on this incident. Doyle alters certain aspects of the original story, including the name of the ship from Mary to Marie Celeste.
  On 29 August 1884, the SV Resolven: This merchant brig was found abandoned between Baccalieu Island and Catalina, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her boats were missing. Her logbook was posted to within six hours of being sighted. Other than a broken yard, she had suffered minimal damage. The galley fire was alight and the lamps were burning. A large iceberg was sighted nearby. It has been claimed that none of the seven crew members or four passengers were accustomed to northern waters and it was suggested that they panicked when the ship was damaged by ice, launched the lifeboat, and swamped, though no bodies were found. Three years later, Resolven was wrecked while returning to Newfoundland from Nova Scotia with a load of lumber.
  1885, The SV The Twenty One Friends: This three-masted (tern) schooner was built in 1872. She was financed by a group of 21 Philadelphia Quakers and consequently named the Twenty One Friends. In 1885, returning to Philadelphia with a full load of lumber from Brunswick, Georgia, the ship was rammed by the John D. May off the coast of Cape Hatteras. Capt. Jeffries removed his crew and abandoned the vessel. The ship and cargo were left to the mercy of the sea. Capt. Jeffries’ concern for the safety of his crew was appropriate; however, the Gaskill-made ship proved herself to be more seaworthy than expected. After the collision, the ship was sighted on both sides of the Atlantic over the next two years. She finally came ashore in Ireland, where her cargo was salvaged and she was employed as a fishing vessel.
  1897: The abandoned whaler Young Phoenix was reported to have been drifting in the Arctic.
  22 January 1906, the SS Valencia's lifeboat no. 5: The lifeboat went adrift when the ship sank off the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The lifeboat was found floating in Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada in remarkably good condition 27 years after the sinking.
  October 1917, the SV Zebrina: This sailing barge departed Falmouth, Cornwall, England in October 1917 with a cargo of Swansea coal bound for Saint-Brieuc, France. Two days later she was discovered aground on Rozel Point, south of Cherbourg, France, without damage except for some disarrangement of her rigging, but with her crew missing.
  January 1921, the SV Carroll A. Deering: After passing Cape Lookout Lightship, North Carolina, on 28 January 1921, 
caption: An engraving of Mary Celeste as she was found abandoned.
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