The Why Files: Operation Podcast
591: Mysteries of the Sea Vol 2: Ghost Ships & Desert Galleons | Unexplained Maritime Disappearances
Thu, 01 May 2025
Throughout maritime history, ships have been found drifting with crews mysteriously vanished, leaving behind half-eaten meals and personal belongings undisturbed. The Mary Celeste in 1872, the Carroll A. Deering in 1921, and even modern vessels like the Kaz II in 2007 share the same eerie pattern – perfectly seaworthy ships abandoned in an instant. Some ghost ships reveal more disturbing scenes, like the Ourang Medan, where an entire crew was found dead with faces frozen in terror. Others seemingly travel through time, appearing decades after their disappearance or in impossible locations. Most fascinating is the legend of a Spanish galleon found deep in the Mojave Desert, miles from any ocean. These maritime mysteries span centuries and oceans, reminding us that despite our technology, some things remain beyond human understanding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emt5Sez9jhc&t=76s Sources: Baltic Sea Anomaly, Atlantis, and Underwater Alien Bases | Mysteries of the Ocean Pt 1 • Baltic Sea Anomaly, Atlantis, and Und...
Chapter 1: 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.
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Chapter 2: What happened to the Mary Celeste?
The engineer was in the engine room, the helmsman at the wheel, the navigator by his charts, the cook in the galley, everyone at their post, everyone dead, all in the same terrified poses. Below deck, they found the ship's dog. Its lips were still curled back in a final growl. Whatever happened here had been fast.
The bodies had no wounds, no signs of struggle, no blood, no evidence of fire or flooding. In the cargo hold, barrels were stacked neatly lining the walls. Becker slowly crossed the room to read the labels. Then there was a sudden creak from inside the hold. The men froze. The creak turned into a groan, the sound of metal bending. Then came the smell, sharp and bitter, chemicals.
The air burned their lungs. Morrison choked out the order to fall back. The men scrambled to the deck, gasping. Morrison called for tow cables. They had to get the ship to port for investigation. Well, as the boarding party worked, they noticed black smoke seeping from below decks. Then came a deep rumble. The temperature on the Rang Medan suddenly rose, and something was throwing off heat.
Morrison ordered immediate evacuation. They barely made it back to the Silver Star when the Ourang Medan exploded. The blast launched it completely out of the water before it crashed down and broke apart. Morrison and his crew watched as it sank to the bottom of the sea. The Ourang Medan is still one of the most disturbing maritime mysteries.
The crew's expressions of terror have never been explained.
Did they check the deck for K-pop? Ice cream joint, ice cream joint.
K-pop wasn't invented yet. I miss the before times. So we have ghost ships where the entire crew vanishes, and ghost ships where the entire crew is dead. But there's another type of ghost ship, even more mysterious. The ghost ships that travel through time.
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