Ghost Ships : Tales of Abandoned,... | Buy

Summary

There are few images more chilling than an abandoned ship drifting at sea.Ghost Shipsis an anthology of the best true-life accounts of vessels, which for whatever reason, never made port. These are stories that prove the real mysteries of seafaring life are even stranger and more chilling than any fictional account. Between the devil and the deep blue sea, many ships have met with a tragic end. The first section of the book, Doomed Vessels, includes the most famous, such as theTitanic, and theLusitania--sunk by a torpedo in 1915. The next section, Haunted and Phantom Ships, explores the modern-day observances of supernatural events. Here are stories of ominous ghost ships, such as the Flying Dutchman, said to appear as an omen; and of mysterious figures that are glimpsed aboard haunted ships, such as the Queen Mary, where visitors have seen the figure of a lone woman. Nautical mysteries such as theMary Celeste, a ship found empty and adrift in 1872, make up the final section of this book. Ghost Shipsexplores the tragedy and what lies behind these amazing narratives and enduring legends.

Author Biography

Angus Konstam has worked as chief curator in museums on both sides of the Atlantic, but usually spends the summer in North Carolina. He specializes in books on naval or military history, but has been able to draw on his training as a historian, maritime specialist, and archaeologist to write numerous other historical works.

Introduction	p. 6
Superstition and the Sea
Sailors' Superstitions and the Power of the Sea	p. 10
Sea Monsters	p. 12
Doomed Vessels
Unlucky Ships	p. 16
Ladies of the Ocean: Doomed Liners	p. 18
Loss Unexplained: Unsolved Naval Disasters	p. 26
Still on Patrol: Lost Submarines	p. 36
Haunted and Phantom Ships
The Supernatural at Sea	p. 42
Haunted Ships
The SS Great Eastern (1858)	p. 44
HMS Asp (1850)	p. 49
The Yacht Spray (1895)	p. 53
The SS St. Paul (1918)	p. 57
SS Queen Mary (1934)	p. 60
Phantom Ships
The Flying Dutchman	p. 62
HMS Eurydice (1878)	p. 65
20th Century Phantoms
TS Kobenhaven, SS Tricolor, USS Thresher	p. 69
Nautical Mysteries
The Empty Ocean	p. 76
Ultimate Nautical Mystery: the Mary Celeste (1872)	p. 78
Lost in the Bermuda Triangle: the USS Cyclops (1918)	p. 86
An Edwardian Tragedy: the SS Waratah (1909)	p. 96
Lost in the Ice: Erebus and Terror (1847)	p. 108
Alone in the Atlantic: the Teignmouth Electron (1969)	p. 115
Adrift in the Pacific: the Joyita (1955)	p. 122
Mysteries of the Sea
The Abiding Attraction of Sea Mysteries	p. 136
Exploring the Mystery	p. 138
Ships and Places to Visit	p. 139
Some Useful Web Sites	p. 140
The Phantom Ship (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)	p. 141
Index	p. 142
Bibliography	p. 144
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Excerpts

Excerpt from pg. 17:
In October of 1967, The Queen Mary made her way to Long Beach, CA where she was going to be converted into a floating hotel. During the transition between ship and hotel, strange things began happening.
A secretary was walking past the engine room when she heard a clanging noise as if a worker was in there doing some repairs. She went in to investigate and the noise immediately stopped. The woman went on her way and the noise started again. As she started to enter the engine room again, the noise stopped. The woman fled the area.
Another incident occurred in the area of the boat which housed the swimming pool. No one was allowed in that area of the ship, and the pool was completely drained. However, next to the pool was a woman dressed in a one piece bathing suit that looked to be from the early 1950's. The woman was about ready to dive into the empty pool. The crewmember yelled for the woman to stop and she disappeared. Later, while checking the ship's records, the crewmember discovered that a woman had drowned in the swimming pool.

Excerpted from Ghost Ships: Tales of Abandoned, Doomed, and Haunted Vessels by Angus Konstam
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