Home » History » Historical Mysteries » Ghost Ships Blowin' in the Wind

Ghost Ships Blowin' in the Wind

© Sharon K. West

Recently, I flipped through an encyclopedia of the bizarre and came upon a curious entry. The ship called the "Dundee Star" ran aground off Midway Island. In four years time, the abandoned ship drifted completely around the earth and came to rest in 1891 back at Midway Island, the very spot where she started her lonely journey. Now, that's really bizarre, I thought. How many ghost ships might there be just blowin' in the wind?

The term "ghost ship" has several meanings actually. Decommissioned, rusted and decayed naval vessels that are scheduled to be dismantled and scrapped are called ghost ships. Abandoned ships found drifting at sea bereft of their crews with no known explanation are also ghost ships. It is the phantom ship that appears in the mist and disappears just as suddenly that is the darling of the ghost ship tales.

Just how might the concept of the phantom ship have gotten started? It isn't hard to come up with a theory. One of the most remote and isolated places on earth is the sea. Your ticket to survival rests solely upon a ship. Once away from land, you are at the mercy of wind, wave and the temperament of the captain and crew. In days of old, many a seaman found himself attached to a rope looped beneath a vessel and then dragged from stern to bow under the ship, while crusty barnacles on the hull ripped his flesh. This punishment was called keelhauling.

Out of these rough and dangerous seafaring circumstances arose some pretty intense superstitions. Seamen kept watch for sea monsters which would surely gobble the ship. Figureheads on the bow were there to ward off evil sea serpents but could also represent the spirit of the ship. They believed that a woman exposing her breasts could calm a storm so this is why many ship's figureheads were of naked women.

Tattoos became popular because sailors believed a tatto was lucky. A crucifix tattoo marked them for a Christian burial if they were lost at sea and later found. A rooster and pig tattooed on a sailor's knees were supposed to keep him from ever going hungry. (He carried his own bacon and eggs.) No wonder then that superstitions about ghost ships might easily have fit into the belief system of the time. Some thought that the appearance of a ghost ship foretold the coming of a storm.

Most certainly, ghost ships are linked to shipwrecks and disasters. They usually are seen at the sight where a ship was lost. Perhaps superstitions about ghost ships may have also been fueled by finding abandoned ships and the eery feeling upon boarding them.

The copyright of the article Ghost Ships Blowin' in the Wind in Historical Mysteries is owned by . Permission to republish Ghost Ships Blowin' in the Wind in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.