Ships are usually declared lost and assumed wrecked after a period
of disappearance. The disappearance of a ship usually implies all hands
lost. Without witnesses or survivors, the mystery surrounding the fate
of missing ships has inspired many items of nautical lores and the creation of paranormal zones such as the Bermuda Triangle. In many cases a probable cause has been deduced, such as a known storm or warfare, but it could not be confirmed without witnesses or sufficient documentation.
Many disappearances occurred before wireless telegraphy became available in navigation applications in the late 1890s which would allow crew to send a distress call. Sudden disasters such as military strike, collision, rogue wave, or piracy could also prevent a crew from sending a distress call and reporting a location.
Among the many missing ships on the list are submarines, which have limited communication, and provide the crew almost no chance of survival if struck by disaster underwater.
The advancement of radar technology by the end of World War II and today's Global Positioning System make it more likely that a distressed vessel will be located.
Most vessels currently listed as missing disappeared over a vast search area and/or deep water and there is little commercial interest in searching for the vessels and salvaging the contents. Often the search and recovery costs are prohibitive even with today's sonar and wrecking technologies and could not be compensated by salvaged valuables, if indeed there were any onboard.
The
Madagascar, the second Blackwall Frigate, was built for George and Henry Green at the Blackwall shipyard they co-owned with the Wigram family.
A one-eighth share in the vessel was held throughout her 16-year
career by her first master Captain William Harrison Walker, the
remainder continuing to be owned by various members of the Green
family. The Madagascar carried freight, passengers and troops between England and India until the end of 1852. In addition to her normal crew she also carried many boys being trained as officers for the merchant marine. Known as midshipmen
from naval practise, their parents or guardians paid for their
training, and they only received a nominal wage of usually a shilling a
month.
As a result of the Victorian Gold Rush the Madagascar was sent to Melbourne with emigrants under the command of Captain Fortescue William Harris. She left Plymouth on 11 March 1853 and, after an uneventful passage of 87 days, reached Melbourne on 10 June.
Fourteen of her 60 crew jumped ship for the diggings, and it is
believed only about three replacements were signed on. She then loaded
a cargo that included wool, rice and about two tonnes of gold valued at
£240,000, and took on board about 110 passengers for London.
On Wednesday 10 August, just as she was preparing to sail, police went on board and arrested a bushranger John Francis
who was later found to have been one of those responsible for robbing
the Melbourne Private Escort between the McIvor goldfield (Heathcote, Victoria) and Kyneton on 20 July.
On the following day two others were arrested, one on board the ship
and the other as he was preparing to board. As a result of these
arrests the Madagascar did not leave Melbourne until Friday 12 August 1853 and after leaving Port Phillip Heads she was never seen again.
When the ship became overdue many theories were floated, including spontaneous combustion of the wool cargo, hitting an iceberg
and, most controversially, being seized by criminal elements of the
passengers and/or crew and scuttled after the gold was stolen and the
remaining passengers and crew were murdered.
The side-wheeler SS Arctic sank September 27, 1854, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, after colliding with the 250 ton French iron screw steamer SS Vesta in the fog. A sister-ship to the SS Pacific that went into service in 1852, the 3,000-ton SS Arctic was at the time the largest and most splendid of the Collins Line steamships
and was in operation in the Liverpool packet. Casualties included 92 of
her 153 officers and men, and all her women and children passengers,
including the wife, the only daughter, and the youngest son of Collins
Line manager Edward Knight Collins. The total lost was near 400 souls.
There is a large monument in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, dedicated to all who lost their lives.
After the collision, the captain of the Arctic thought it would be safer to leave the site and steam toward land. The captain of the French vessel was upset that the Arctic
had left and not helped them. The French vessel started to sink. The
captain had to think fast. "Take anything you can and dump it into the
water" the captain orderd. The crew done as told. The French vessel
then started to float.
When the French vessel reached land, the captain wondered what had happened to the Arctic. He was told that the Arctic did not make it back to land!
The Waratah was a steamer, built by Barclay Curle & Co in Whiteinch, Glasgow (Scotland) and destined to be the flagship of the Blue Anchor Line. It was named Waratah after the emblem flower of New South Wales, Australia. The ship was supposed to serve as a passenger and cargo liner to Australia. It had 100 first class cabins, eight state rooms
and a salon whose panels depicted its namesake flower, as well as a
luxurious 'music lounge' complete with a minstrel's gallery. As well as
these luxurious quarters, Waratah was intended to serve the
strong emigrant trade from Europe to Australia. On the outward journey
her cargo holds would be converted into large dormitories capable of
holding nearly 700 steerage
passengers. On the return journey she would be laden with goods, mainly
foodstuffs. She was fitted out for carrying refrigerated cargo, could
carry food and stores for a year at sea, and had an on-board desalination plant which could produce 5,500 gallons (25,000 litres) of fresh water a day. She did not carry a radio, but this was not unusual for the time.
On 5 November 1908, the Waratah set sail on her maiden voyage from London, England, with 689 passengers in third class accommodation and 67 first class passengers.
Her captain was Joshua E. Ilbery, a sailor with 30 years nautical
experience. The subsequent inquiry into her sinking raised some
disputed reports of instability on this voyage. On the ship's return to
England there was some discussion about stowage between the owners and
the builders.
On 27 April 1909, the Waratah
set out on her second trip to Australia. This was uneventful and on 1
July 1909 she set out from Melbourne on the return journey. She was
bound for the South African ports of Durban and Cape Town and was then to return to London. The Waratah reached Durban, where one passenger, Claude Sawyer, an engineer and experienced sea traveller, got off the ship and sent the following cable to his wife in London:
"Thought Waratah top-heavy, landed Durban"
The Waratah left Durban on 26 July with 211 passengers and crew. On 27 July , it passed the Clan McIntyre.
Later that day, the weather deteriorated quickly (as is common in that
area). A wind gusting to 50 knots (90 km/h) combined against the tide
and ocean swell to build waves up to 30 feet (9 m). That evening the Union-Castle Liner Guelph passed a ship and exchanged signals by lamp, but due to the bad weather and poor visibility was only able to identify the last three letters of her name as "T-A-H."
The same evening, a ship called the Harlow saw a large
steamer coming up behind her, working hard into the heavy seas and
making a great deal of smoke, enough to make her captain wonder if the
steamer was on fire. When darkness fell, the crew of the Harlow
could see the steamer's running lights approaching, but still 10-12
miles behind them, when there were suddenly two bright flashes from the
vicinity of the steamer and the lights vanished. The mate of the Harlow
thought the flashes were brush fires on the shore (a common phenomenon
in the area at that time of year). The captain agreed and did not even
enter the events in the log- only when he learnt of the disappearance
of the Waratah did he think the events significant.
The Waratah was possibly seen off the Transkei coast (East Coast of
South Africa) making its way back to Durban when it sank. The
eye-witness of the sinking was a police officer who patrolled the area
on horse back. He apparently reported the incident in the occurrence
book on his return to the station. What is known of him is that he was
related (Uncle) to the late Noel Staples Martin - to whom he passed on
the information verbally.
The Waratah was expected to reach Cape Town on 29 July 1909. It never reached its destination, and no trace of the ship was ever found.
The
Aurora (SY
Aurora) was a steam yacht built by Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd. shipbuilders in Glasgow, Scotland,
in 1876, for the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company. Her primary use
was whaling in the northern seas, and she was built sturdily enough to
withstand the heavy weather and ice that would be encountered there.
That strength proved useful for Antarctic exploration as well, and
between 1911 and 1917 she made five trips to the continent. Both for
exploration, as well as rescue missions.
Between the years 1876 and 1910, the Aurora made the annual trip from Dundee, Scotland to St. John's, Newfoundland to take part in the whale and seal hunt in the Arctic waters. There were a couple of notable events in this time. In 1884, the Aurora made a failed attempt to rescue the Greely Expedition to claim the reward money, and in 1891, the ship came to the rescue of the crew of the Polynia when it was crushed in sea ice.
In 1910, she was bought by Douglas Mawson for his Australasian Antarctic Expedition. The Aurora made the journey from Hobart, Australia to Macquarie Island, Mawson's base of operations, in December 1911. After establishing the base, they sailed south again, and arrived in Commonwealth Bay Antarctica, on January 7, 1912. At Cape Denison, her crew unloaded Mawson and his team, and helped set up the camp (Mawson's Huts), but then departed to return to Hobart so as not to get trapped in the sea-ice over the winter.
In December 1912, the Aurora returned to find that Douglas Mawson, Xavier Mertz, and Belgrave Ninnis
had set out on a sled expedition, and were overdue on their return. The
captain attempted to wait for the expedition to return, but poor
anchorage and extremely strong winds combined to cause the anchor chain
to break. At the end of January the ship had to leave or risk getting
stuck for the winter. Aurora left a team of six, including a
radio operator, behind with ample supplies, and departed. Mawson, the
sole survivor of the three, arrived in time to see the Aurora disappearing over the horizon. A radio call brought the Aurora back, but bad weather forced it to depart again, leaving Mawson and party behind.
Aurora returned to Commonwealth Bay on December 12, 1913, to pick up the seven men, and return to Australia.
In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton tasked the Aurora to help set up supply depots along the route for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. After being delayed by sea ice in McMurdo Sound in January 1915, the Aurora managed to make her way further south, and sent teams off to set up the depots. Eventually she made her way to Discovery Bay on March 12, 1915, where she anchored and continued to offload supplies. In May, the Aurora was trapped in the ice, and was carried out to the sea, stranding the men that were setting up the depots. It was not until February 12, 1916 that the ship escaped from the ice, making it back to Dunedin, New Zealand on April 3.
The Australian, New Zealand and British governments agreed to fund the refit of the Aurora for the rescue of the Ross Sea Party. Shackleton's expedition funds were fully expended. After his legendary ordeal on the Endurance in the Weddell Sea sector, Shackleton arrived in New Zealand during December 1916.
The three governments involved were adamant that he would not lead the
rescue expedition and at their insistence John King Davis was appointed
to captain the Aurora. After negotiation Shackleton sailed aboard the Aurora, but Captain Davis had total authority on the voyage. On January 10, 1917, the ship pulled alongside the pack ice near Cape Royds and worked its way to Cape Evans. One week later, the seven survivors of the original ten members of the Ross Sea Party were headed back to Wellington, New Zealand aboard the Aurora.
The
Aurora was last seen in 1917, when she departed Newcastle, New South Wales, bound for Iquique, Chile with a cargo of coal. Lloyd's of London posted the ship as missing on 2 January 1918; it was believed she was a casualty of World War I.
The second USS
Conestoga (AT-54)
was an ocean-going tug in the United States Navy.
Originally built as the civilian ship Conestoga in 1904 by Maryland Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland, she was purchased 14 September 1917 for the World War I duty and designated 'SP-1128. She was commissioned 10 November 1917, Lieutenant (junior grade) C. Olsen, USNRF, in command.
Assigned to the Submarine Force, Conestoga carried out towing duties along the Atlantic coast, transported supplies and guns, escorted convoys to Bermuda and the Azores,
and cruised with the American Patrol Detachment in the vicinity of the
Azores. At the end of the war she was attached to Naval Base No. 13,
Azores, from which she towed disabled ships and escorted convoys until
her arrival at New York 26 September 1919. She was then assigned to harbor tug duty in the 5th Naval District at Norfolk, Virginia.
Conestoga (which had received the hull number AT-54 in July 1920) went to the Pacific in late 1920. She was at San Diego, California and Mare Island, California,
during the first three months of 1921. On 25 March of that year the tug
steamed out of Mare Island, with a barge of coal sailing via Pearl
Harbor planning to take up an assignment as station ship at Tutuila, American Samoa.
Commanded by Lt. Ernest Larkin Jones, Conestoga was never
seen again. Despite an extensive search, the only trace found of her
was a lifeboat bearing the initial letter of her name.
S. S. Hewitt was built for the J. S. Emery Steamship Co. of Boston, Massachusetts, as the Pacific, a steel hulled, bulk freighter. (She had one sister ship named Atlantic. She was sold to the Berwind White Coal Co. and became a collier.) Hewitt
was delivered in September 1914 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co. of
Quincy, Massachusetts. She was a working ship with few frills. She was
purchased by the Union Sulfur Co. in 1915. After a refit, she was
renamed Hewitt and assigned in the U.S. registry with number
212560 and home port of New York City. Exactly what modifications, if
any, Union Sulfur Co. made are unknown, but she probably remained
mostly as she was built.
Hewitt plied the route along the U.S. coast. During World War
I she delivered vital sulfur to ammunition and chemical industries.
Apparently, no war-related incidents were reported. After the war, she
remained with Union Sulfur Co.
Under command of Capt. Hans Jakob Hansen, she left fully loaded from Sabine, Texas on January 20, 1921. She was bound for Portland, Maine, with a stop in Boston. She made her regular radio call on January 25,
and reported nothing unusual. She was last seen 250 miles north of
Jupiter Inlet, Florida. From that time to this, she remains missing. No
further radio signals from her were received. A huge search along her
route found nothing.
The ocean has traditionally provided the men of
the Cayman Islands with work, and its people with food. But for all its
abundant offerings, the sea is also a vast and merciless force of
nature, kindly one minute and treacherous the next.
At the Shipping Registry’s Centennial
celebrations on Cayman Brac, Sister Islands MLA Moses Kirkconnell
admitted that, as a child, in a vain attempt to keep his father Capt
Moses “Junior” Kirkconnell home, he used to hide his passport when it
was time for him to go back to sea.
He told how women and children would listen
avidly to the radio every evening to hear news of the ships crewed by
fathers, husbands and sons.
To illustrate the risks that the men took in
going to sea in those days, and the very real worries of the families
they left behind, Mr Kirkconnell reminded those gathered of his
grandfather’s ship, the
Nunoca.
He related its tragic story, as told by the late Lee A Ebanks of West Bay in his autobiography, “Lest it be Lost”:
“It was in the month of September 1936, that one of the greatest tragedies in the annals of the Cayman Islands occurred.
“This was the mysterious disappearance of the
good ship Nunoca with all hands on board. She had succeeded the
motor-vessel Noca on the Cayman/Tampa run, hence the name Nunoca.
“The Noca was an old sub-chaser during World War
I, and was purchased by Capt Charles Farrington of West Bay, who
operated this ship between Cayman, Isle of Pines and Tampa, Florida.
“For many years she kept regular cargo and
passenger services on this route, and had practically become the
lifeline for the Cayman Islands.
“In due course, Capt Farrington decided to
replace his old ship with a new and better one, so he got a firm of
local ship-wrights, Messrs James Arch & Sons, to build him a vessel
to his own specification.
“One of the shareholders was Moses Kirkconnell of
Cayman Brac. This gentleman soon acquired the controlling interest in
the company and Capt Farrington soon sold out his entire interest to
him, and after making a few trips delivered up the ship.
“Capt Moses Kirkconnell took charge of the beautiful Nunoca, succeeding Capt Farringdon as Master.
“On the third trip to Tampa from Cayman after the
change of captains, the Nunoca mysteriously disappeared with Capt
Kirkconnell and all the crew and passengers on board.
“After the usual number of days had passed for
her to arrive at Tampa, there was no news of her arrival, all ships
trading in the area were alerted and a search was made by the United
States Coast Guard, with no positive results.”
“It was hard for those concerned to reconcile themselves to such a loss, and all sorts of rumours sprang up.”
“There was much conjecture as to the cause of the
ship’s disappearance, as well as much wishful thinking as to the fate
of the crew and passengers, but none of these rumours could be
substantiated and the loss of the Nunoca with all souls on board still
remains a mystery.”
USS
Capelin (SS-289), a
Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the capelin, a small fish of the smelt family. Her keel was laid down by Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 20 January 1943 sponsored by Mrs. I.C. Bogart, and commissioned on 4 June 1943, Lieutenant Commander E.E. Marshall in command.
Capelin sailed from New London, Connecticut, on 3 September 1943, bound for Brisbane, Australia, and duty with Submarine Force, Southwest Pacific. Her first war patrol, conducted in the Molucca Sea, Flores Sea, and Banda Sea between 30 October and 15 November, found her sinking a 3127-ton Japanese cargo ship on 11 November off Ambon Island.
Capelin returned to Darwin, Australia,
with a defective conning tower hatch mechanism, excessively noisy bow
planes, and a defective radar tube. These flaws were corrected, and Capelin put out on her second war patrol 17 November 1943, in the Molukka Sea and Celebes Sea, and she was to pay particular attention to Kaoe Bay, Morotai Strait, Davao Gulf, and trade routes in the vicinity of Siaoe Island, Sangi Island, Talaud Islands and Sarangani Island. She was to leave her area at dark 6 December.
Capelin was never heard from again. Bonefish(SS-223) reported having seen an American submarine on 2 December 1943 in the area assigned to Capelin at that time. The Navy broke radio silence on 9 December, but without success.
Japanese records studied after the war listed an attack on a supposed United States submarine on 23 November, off Kaoe Bay, Halmahera,
but the evidence of an actual contact was slight, and the Japanese
state that this attack was broken off. This is, however, the only
reported attack in the appropriate area at that time. Enemy minefields
are now known to have been placed in various positions along the north
coast of Sulawesi (Celebes) in Capelin's area, and she may have been lost because of a mine explosion. Gone without a trace, with all her crew, Capelin remains in the list of ships lost without a known cause.
Capelin received one battle star for World War II service. Her single war patrol was "successful." She is credited with having sunk 3,127tons of shipping.