Ghost ships and rescues at sea

I love this story that appeared on my social media feed last week. The two-man crew of a yacht sent out a distress signal when their rudder became disabled while sailing from Cherbourg on the French coast, bound for the southern tip of Brittany. 

What the two sailors on the yacht were not expecting was to see an 18th Century East India Company wooden sailing ship looming towards them.

Götheborg
Under international maritime law, when a distress signal is sent, the ship closest to the vessel in distress must alter its course and go to assist. It just so happened that the closest ship to the disabled yacht in the English Channel was the three-masted Götheborg, the world's largest ocean-going wooden sailing ship.

Seafarers are notoriously superstitious people. Myths and legends abound about ghost ships that appear and disappear in heavy seas or fog, monsters of the deep, mermaids and sirens that lure sailors to their deaths with their beautiful voices. 

Then there are the mysteries of ships found floating but completely abandoned. The Mary Celeste is probably the most famous, but numerous other unexplained abandoned or ghost ships have been recorded.

The oceans and seas of the world comprise around two-thirds of the earth's surface and even with our advanced scientific knowledge, their depths remain largely unexplored. Little wonder, then, that combined with the stories of ghost ships, those who ply the oceans have a deep and abiding respect for the litany of stories that abound of unexplained phenomena.

Mary Celeste

So, back to the Götheborg. Despite having made radio contact with the rescuing ship, the two sailors on the yacht must have thought they'd slipped through a crack in the space-time continuum when they saw the three-masted sailing ship heading towards them. There must have been a moment when all the stories and the oral traditions of the sea flashed through their heads. Would the kraken appear and swallow them whole? Would Johnny Depp in full Pirates attire appear on the stern to throw them a line?

Strange things happen at sea.

 



 


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