Mysteries of the Sea Vol 2: Ghost Ships & Desert Galleons | Unexplained Maritime Disappearances
episodePreviously titled “591: Mysteries of the Sea Vol 2: Ghost Ships & Desert Galleons | Unexplained Maritime Disappearances” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What are ghost ships and their mysteries?
The sea doesn't forgive. It doesn't negotiate. Millions of lives have been lost since humans first sailed beyond the side of land. Sometimes the sea doesn't kill. It takes. ships found adrift completely intact and completely empty meals half eaten on tables navigation equipment still working logs that stop mid-sentence no signs of struggle no evidence of evacuation the people are just gone some ships disappear and return days later others decades later Ghost ships reappear in strange places, some right where they started, some 1,000 miles off course. In fact, one ghost ship was so far off course, it was found in the desert. It was December 4th, 1872. Captain David Morehouse stood on the deck of his ship, the Dei Gratia. He was halfway between the Azores and Portugal when he spotted a vessel acting strange. Morehouse raised his spyglass. The ship's sails were set wrong for the wind. It drifted erratically, like there was nobody at the helm.
Yeah, sounds like every New Jersey driver.
Please don't interrupt when I'm setting up a scary scene and leave New Jersey alone.
Sorry, sorry, but you ever drive to Fort Lee with the GWV backed up?
I have.
That's scarier than this story.
So Morehouse changed course to investigate. As he got closer, he signaled the ship. No reply. Morehouse could feel it. Something was very wrong. As the Dei Gratia came alongside, Morehouse saw there was nobody on deck. This was a 100-foot merchant brigantine, a 250-ton cargo ship. This is the middle of the day. There should be at least six or seven men working, but there wasn't a soul in sight. The ship's name was painted on her hull, Mary Celeste, an American vessel that left New York weeks earlier. Morehouse recognized the name. He knew her captain, Benjamin Briggs, a respected sailor with 16 years' experience. Briggs was competent and reliable. None of this made sense. When his first mate asked permission to board, Morehouse took a moment to calculate the right move.
He had his own crew to protect. Every sailor knows the risks when he sets sail. Usually you come back safely, but sometimes the sea has other plans. Add weather, a shallow reef, pirates. He didn't see any evidence of any of these. That made the situation more unsettling. Every instinct he had told him to leave the Mary Celeste adrift. But there was a nagging voice in the back of his mind. What if it were you? Morehouse sighed and said to his first mate, permission granted.
So, hang on, hang on. You're saying the mate was a mighty sailing man, the skipper, brave and sure?
You did it again.
You what? I'm trying to break the tension.
I'm trying to create tension. Oh. We seem to be at an impasse. The boarding party found the ship in good condition. Captain Briggs' belongings were in his cabin undisturbed. His papers were in order. His pipe was by his chair. His pocket watch was there, still ticking. Another cabin contained women's clothing neatly folded in drawers. Men's jackets hung on a coat rack, clean and pressed. A book sat on a nightstand with a bookmark wedged between dry pages, as if someone was just there quietly reading. Another cabin held children's toys, arranged and orderly, as if waiting for their owner to return. All the beds were made. The ship felt lived in. The boarding party continued their search, but the more they looked, the more uneasy they became. The galley showed signs of recent use.
A meal was still on the table, half eaten. There's plenty of food and water aboard, still fresh. In the hold, they counted over 1,700 barrels of industrial alcohol. That ruled out pirates. They wouldn't have left the alcohol.
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Chapters
2 chaptersSpeakers
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