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02nd Nov 2023

Sailors film eerie moment they find ‘ghost ship’ in the middle of the ocean with nobody on board

Nina McLaughlin

Footage has been shared of a group of sailors discovering an eerie ‘ghost ship’ in the middle of the ocean.

The non-profit group Ocean Research Project were travelling across the Atlantic Ocean back in 2013 when they discovered the fellow vessel in the waters 800 miles from Bermuda.

Matt Rutherford, a legend of the sailing world, went onboard to investigate the seemingly empty ship.

“This is one awfully abandoned sailboat; Wolfhound from the Irish yacht club,” Matt told the camera.

“I have no idea what’s inside. I’m going to go search around – I hope I don’t find any dead bodies or anything like that.”

The video then cuts to inside the ghost ship, and the total mess that was left inside.

However, there was thankfully nothing too spooky, but rather just lots of items strewn around the cabin, with cupboard doors appearing to have fallen off their hinges and pieces of paper everywhere.

“Here I am, 800 miles from Bermuda, 1500 miles from the United States standing on a very nice Swan 48 in the middle of the ocean,” Matt said.

Despite the vessel being in fairly good nick, the engine was no longer working and so, despite the abandoned ship being 6 feet longer than their own, they towed it across the ocean.

Matt and his fellow sailor towed the ghost boat for 47 days in total, but eventually their own ship’s engine failed, and so they had to let the empty ship go its own way.

A commenter on the video claimed that the boat had been abandoned for 9 weeks before its discovery by Matt and his crew.

“The ship had only been left abandoned for nine weeks back in 2013. This video, although released just four days ago on December 23rd, 2022, the abandoning of the ship occurred in February of 2013 and was found nine weeks later, when these researchers stumbled upon it,” they wrote.

“Nine weeks with nobody manning it and no anchor or anything is impressive as hell. Shows you how durable these beauties can be.”

The boat had been owned by Alan McGettigan, per the Daily Mail. However, McGettigan was forced to abandon ship after they lost battery power, followed by engine failure, which meant they were without a navigation system or any communications for 8 days.

The crew from the boat was eventually rescued by a passing cargo ship.

Related links:

Britain’s ‘most haunted’ house costs £75 a night to stay in if you dare

Topics:

Boat,Ghost,Ocean