Those who worked as a seafarer know how romantic and… boring it is. How easy it is sometimes to earn an order of magnitude more in the ocean than on land, and how difficult it is sometimes to endure the vagaries of Neptune, from natural storms to unexpected ship arrests in inhospitable ports of the fifth and seventh worlds. Like for weeks on the endless horizon nothing happens and does not change, and then suddenly you meet something that makes your eyes sparkle and your skin tremble. For example, in the middle of the Atlantic, a catamaran is found with no signs of life on board, but with freshly caught fish. Or a buoy that was lost 100 years ago, and has been floating somewhere for some reason since then.

To visit a ghost ship is a pleasure for everyone. No matter how brave a Sinbad the sailor is, stepping on the deck of the Flying Dutchman, the old sea dog can easily, excuse me, crap out of fear. In the age of GPS and genetic engineering, most people, even shamelessly brave, are still.

Most of the "meetings" with ghost ships are fiction, but we can't get away from real meetings either. At the same time, everything is quite understandable and necessarily decorated with sentimental stories and epithets. Without which our unusual world would be too boring.

Losing a ship or a ship in the infinity of the oceans is not so difficult. And it's even easier to lose people.

1. "Carroll A. Dearing"

The five-masted schooner Carroll A. Dearing was built in 1911. The vehicle was named after the shipowner's son. "Deering" carried out cargo flights, the last of which started on December 2, 1920 in the port of Rio de Janeiro. Captain William Merritt and his son, who served as chief mate, had a team of 10 Scandinavians. Merrita's father and son suddenly fell ill, and a captain named W.B. Wormell had to be hired as a replacement.

Leaving Rio, the Dearing reached Barbados, where it stopped to replenish provisions. Temporary XO McLennan got drunk and began to vilify Captain Wormell in front of the sailors, provoking a riot. When McLennan yelled that he would soon take the place of captain, he was arrested. But Wormell forgave him and bought him out of jail. Soon the ship set sail and ... the last time it was seen "non-ghostly" on January 28, 1921, when a sailor from a lightship was hailed by a red-haired man standing on the forecastle of a passing schooner. Ginger reported that the Deering had lost anchors. But the lighthouse worker could not contact the emergency service, because. his radio was out of order.

Three days later, Deering was found aground near Cape Hatteras.

When the rescuers arrived, it turned out that the ship was completely empty. No crew, no logbook, no navigation equipment, no lifeboats. In the galley, undercooked naval borscht froze on the stove. Unfortunately, the schooner was blown up out of harm's way with dynamite, and there was nothing more to explore. It is believed that the Deering crew disappeared without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle.

2. Baichimo

The Baichimo trading ship was built in 1911 in Sweden for the Germans and is designed to transport the skins of northern animals. After the First World War, the German skin carrier passed under the British flag and cruised along the polar coasts of Canada and the United States.

The last voyage of Baichimo (with a live crew and a cargo of fur on board) took place in the autumn of 1931. On October 1, off the coast, the ship fell into an ice trap. The crew left the steamer and went to seek shelter from the cold. Not finding people, the sailors built a makeshift hut on the shore, hoping to wait out the cold and continue sailing when the ice thawed.

On November 24, a storm broke out. And when it calmed down, the sailors saw with amazement that the ship had disappeared. At first they thought that the transport with furs sank during a storm, but after a couple of days the walrus hunter told that he had seen Baichimo 45 miles from the camp. The sailors decided to save the precious cargo, and to abandon the steamer would not survive the winter anyway. The team and furs were delivered deep into the mainland by plane, and the Baichimo ghost ship was met by sea workers here and there, in the waters of Alaska, repeatedly over the next 40 years. The last fact was documented in 1969, when the Eskimos saw Baichimo frozen into the Arctic ice of the Beaufort Sea. In 2006, the Alaska government announced an official search for the legendary ghost steamer, but the operation was unsuccessful. Unfortunately or fortunately?

3. Eliza Battle

The Eliza was launched in 1852 in Indiana. It was a luxury river steamer, which was ridden only by the rich and statesmen - with their wives and children. On a cold night in February 1858, cotton bales ignited on the deck of the ship, a wooden steamer caught fire, fanned by a strong frosty wind. The Eliza Battle was on the Tombigbee River. In the smoke and fire, 100 people died, another 26 were missing. The ship sank at a depth of 9 meters and rests at the crash site to this day.

It is said that during the spring floods, with a full moon at night, you can see how a river steamer emerges from the bottom and walks along the river back and forth. Music is playing and a fire is burning on board. The fire is so bright that the name of the ship is easily read - "Eliza Battle".

4. Yacht "Joita"

The Joita was a luxury "unsinkable" yacht owned by Hollywood film director Roland West from 1931 until the war, then converted into a patrol boat and served off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands until 1945.

October 3, 1955 "Joita" sailed to Samoa with 25 souls on board and a not quite serviceable engine. The yacht was expected on the islands of Tokelau, 270 miles from Samoa. The voyage was supposed to last no more than two days, but on the third day the Joita did not arrive at the port. And no one signaled SOS. Planes were sent to search, but the pilots did not find anything either.

5 weeks passed, and on November 10 the yacht was found. She was still swimming, but it was not clear where, with the engine running at half power and a strong roll. 4 tons of cargo disappeared, as well as the crew and passengers. All clocks stopped at 10-25. Despite the fact that the yacht, lined with a crust, was unsinkable, all life rafts and life jackets disappeared from the Joita. The investigation found that the ship's hull was unharmed, but the fate of the crew and cargo remained unclear.

Someone put forward a lovely version. Say, this is the work of the surviving Japanese militarists, who dug in on a lonely island and make pirate attacks.

The Joita was repaired, the engine was replaced, but no one wanted to go out to sea on a ghost ship, and in the mid-1960s, the unsinkable riddle was sawn into pins and needles.

The most famous of the ghostly sea vehicles is the Flying Dutchman, the eternally evil wanderer who was promoted in Pirates of the Caribbean. Before the Hollywood fairy tale, we met the Flying Dutchman on the pages of books, in the music of Wagner and the songs of the Rammstein group. It's time to see you face to face. We continue our nightmarish sea voyage and right on our course it is the most ...

5. "VolatileDutchman»

Not everyone knows that the “flying Dutchman” is not the nickname of the ghost ship itself, but of its captain.

"Flying Dutchmen" refers to several different ghost ships from different centuries. One of them is the real owner of the brand. The one with whom trouble happened at the Cape of Good Hope.

The legend says: “The captain of the ship, Hendrik van Der Decken, rounded the Cape of Good Hope on his way to Amsterdam. Rounding the cape was difficult because of the monstrous winds, but Hendrik vowed to do it (yes-yes-yes!), Even if it required to fight the elements until the Day of Judgment. The team also asked to be protected from the storm and turn the ship back. Nightmarish waves pounded the ship, and the brave captain sang obscene songs, drank and smoked some herbs. Realizing that the captain could not be persuaded, part of the team revolted. The captain shot the main rebel and threw his body overboard. Then the heavens opened up, and the captain heard the voice “You are too stubborn a person”, to which he replied: “I never looked for easy ways and did not ask for anything, so dry up before I shot you too!”. And he tried to shoot into the sky, but the gun exploded in his hand.

The voice from heaven continued: “Damn you and sail the oceans forever with the ghostly crew of the dead, bringing death to everyone who sees your ghost ship. In no port can you land and not know peace for a moment. Bile will be your wine, and red-hot iron your meat.”

Among those who subsequently met the "Flying Dutchman" are such experienced and non-superstitious persons as Prince George of Wales and his brother, Prince Albert Victor.

In 1941, on the beach in Cape Town, a crowd of people saw a sailboat that went straight for the rocks, but disappeared into the air at the moment when the crash was supposed to occur.

6. "Young Teaser"

This nimble corsair schooner was built in 1813 for the sole purpose of robbing British Empire merchant ships that ply the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia. At that time, what we call Canada belonged to the British, who were resented after the 1812 between the United Kingdom and the United States.

From Nova Scotia, the fast Teaser brought good trophies. In June 1813, corsairs of the English administration were chasing the schooner, but the Young Teaser managed to escape in a magically thickened fog. A few days later, the schooner was cornered by the 74-gun British battleships La Hog and Orpheus. It was decided to board the Young Teaser. As soon as the five boarding boats approached the ship, the Teaser exploded. Seven Britons survived and told how a corsair in the rank of lieutenant ran to the arsenal of a schooner with a burning piece of wood and looked crazy. Most of the dead privateers found peace in unsigned graves in the Anglican cemetery at Mahone Bay.

Soon, eyewitnesses of strange phenomena began to appear one after another. Allegedly saw "Young Teaser" afloat on fire. In the summer of the following year, curious locals organized a boat cult trip to the place of the schooner's death in order to see the ghost closer. And a ghost the size of a ship, having allowed itself to be admired, disappeared in clouds of fire and smoke. Since then, tourists from all over the country have been gathering in Mahone Bay every year. And "Young Teaser" explodes in their eyes again and again. The ghost especially likes to appear on foggy nights with a full moon.

It is believed that the ghost ship Octavius ​​was discovered by whalers off the western coast of Greenland in October 1775. On board the Octavius ​​was a dead crew, each of the sailors seemed to have been frozen at the moment of death. The captain paused with a pencil in his hand over a magazine, next to him stood a frozen woman, a boy wrapped in a blanket and a sailor with a keg of gunpowder in his hands.

The terrified whalers grabbed the ghost ship's logbook and found out that the last entry dates back to 1762. That is, "Octavius" has been in a frozen state for 13 years.

In 1761 the ship left England for South Asia. To save time, the captain decided not to go around Africa, but to lay a short but dangerous Arctic route along the northern coast of America. Recall that neither the Suez nor the Panama Canal existed in the project yet. Apparently, the ship was frozen in the ice in the waters of the north and was the first to dare to travel along the northwestern route long before the appearance of icebreakers.

More "Octavius" did not catch anyone's eye.

8. "Lady Lovibond"

In February 1748, Captain Simon Reed took his young wife Annette aboard the Lady Lovibond to honeymoon in Portugal. At the time, the presence of a woman on a ship was considered bad luck.

The captain did not know that his first mate, John Rivers, was head over heels in love with Reed's wife and was going crazy with jealousy. In a fit of rage, Rivers stalked back and forth on the deck, then pulled out a coffee nail and killed the helmsman. The bad first officer took the helm and led the schooner to Goodwin Sands, in the southeast of England, on the banks of Kent. "Lady Lovibond" ran aground, the entire crew and passengers of the schooner died. The verdict of the investigation was "accident".

50 years later, a phantom sailboat was seen sailing along the shallows of the Goodwin Sands from two different ships. In February 1848, local fishermen observed the remains of a shipwreck and even sent out lifeboats, but they returned empty-handed. In 1948, the ghost of "Lady Lovibond" in a green glow caught people's eyes again.

A ghost ship makes itself felt every 50 years. Therefore, if you don't have specific plans for February 13, 2048 yet, you can make a note on the calendar. Goodwin Sands has destroyed almost more ships than the Bermuda Triangle. Two warships lie at the bottom next to the Lady.

"Mary Celeste" is the greatest mystery in the history of navigation. To this day, there are disputes about the reasons for the mysterious disappearance of 8 crew members and two passengers from the ship.

In November 1872, the brigantine "Maria Celeste" set off with a cargo of alcohol from New York to Genoa under the command of Captain Briggs. Four weeks later, the ship was discovered near Gibraltar by the captain of the Dei Gracia, who was friends with Briggs and was not averse to drinking with him. Approaching the Mary Celeste and boarding the brigantine, Captain Morehouse found the ship abandoned. There were no living or dead people on it. The cargo of alcohol was intact and, apparently, the brigantine did not fall into a strong storm, it was afloat. There were no signs of crime or violence. What could have caused the brave Captain Briggs to evacuate so hastily is unclear.

The ship was transferred to Gibraltar and repaired. After the repair, "Mary Celeste" worked for another 12 years and ran into a reef in the Caribbean Sea.

Versions of the sudden devastation of the brigantine are different, and there are many of them. For example, an explosion of alcohol vapors in the aft hold. Or the collision of the Mary Celeste with a floating island of sand. Or the conspiracy of Captains Briggs and Morehouse. Someone even seriously talked about the intrigues of aliens.

10. Gian Sen

The list of ghost ships is replenished even today.

An Australian patrol aircraft spotted an 80m tanker of unknown origin in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 2006. The name of the ship, "Jian Sen", was blacked out, but quite legible on all the documents that the customs officers managed to find on the empty tanker. There was no evidence that Gian Sen was illegally fishing or transporting illegal immigrants. There was quite a lot of rice.

It is assumed that the ship was towed without a team, but the cable broke. The drift of the ghost ship continued for more than one day, so the engines of the Gian Sen could not be started. The ship was sunk in deep water. Down there, it's beautiful and peaceful. Politicians spoke out that on such tankers, Indonesians illegally deliver migrants to drugs.

A strange thing: in the middle of the sea to meet a drifting ship with no signs of life on board. Empty. There is not anyone. Silence. And he sways on the waves - calmly, calmly, as if it were necessary, as if he did not need anyone else. It was as if he had already swum enough with these "conquerors of the seas", and he was so tired of them that he was only glad to part with them on occasion ... Terribly.

Sailors say that in the ocean - especially in the Atlantic - this happens often: empty fishing boats, small yachts, sometimes even liners come across - "", for example, is still looking for the last shelter. In most cases, by the appearance of the ship, it is immediately clear what happened to it, and the main cause of maritime disasters, of course, will always be nature - the storm is not easy to defeat even for experienced sailors. But sometimes the disappearance of the crew is simply impossible to explain.

Imagine: a perfect whole, undamaged boat, its engines and generators are working, the radio and all emergency systems are in order, there is untouched food and a working laptop on the dining table, as if the crew hid from you somewhere in the hold compartment a minute ago, but you they searched everything and did not find a single soul on board. You might think that this is just another marine tale, but in fact this is an excerpt from a police report about the disappearance of three members of the crew of the KZ-II catamaran yacht in April 2007.

Do you think we've got you intrigued now? In this material, we have collected the most famous and mysterious stories about ships that were found at sea at different times under the most mystical circumstances: without a crew on board or with dead sailors who died for an unknown reason, or as ghosts, reminiscent of the tragic events of the past.

M. V. Joyita, 1955

It was a luxury yacht built in 1931 in Los Angeles for film director Roland West. During World War II, MV Joyita was outfitted and operated as a patrol boat off the coast of Hawaii until the end of the war.

October 3, 1955 MV Joyita set sail from Samoa to the island of Tokelau - a distance of approximately 270 nautical miles. Just before the trip, she discovered a clutch malfunction on the main engine, which they could not fix on the spot, and the yacht went to sea under sail and with one auxiliary engine. There were 25 souls on board, including a government official, two children and a surgeon who was supposed to perform an operation in Tokelau.

The trip was supposed to take no more than 2 days, but MV Joyita did not arrive at the port of destination. The ship did not give any distress signals, even though its course ran along a fairly busy route, which is often plying by Coast Guard ships and which is well covered by relay stations. The search for the yacht was carried out on the territory of 100,000 square meters. miles by aviation forces, but MV Joyita could not be found.

Only five weeks later, on November 10, 1955, the ship was found. It drifted 600 miles from its planned route half submerged. 4 tons of cargo, crew and passengers were absent. The VHF radio was tuned to the international distress frequency. One auxiliary engine and bilge pump were still running, and the lights in the cabins were on. All clocks on board stopped at 10:25. The doctor's bag was found with four bloody bandages. The logbook, sextant and chronometer were missing, along with three life rafts.

The search team carefully examined the ship for damage to the hull, but did not find any. The fate of the crew and passengers could not be determined. Intriguing was the fact that the MV Joyita, with cork wood interiors, was virtually unsinkable, and the crew knew this very well. The missing cargo also remained a mystery.

Theories have been put forward in a variety of ways, ranging from the most bizarre, like the Japanese Navy, which still did not stop fighting after the end of World War II, located in some isolated base on one of the islands. Insurance fraud, piracy, rebellion were also considered as versions.

MV Joyita was restored, but, probably confirming her curse, she ran aground several times. In the late 1960s, the ship was sold for scrap.

Ourang Medan (Orang Medan, or Orange Medan), 1947

“Everyone is dead, it will come for me” and “I am dying” were the last two messages received from the crew of the cargo ship Ourang Medan in the Gulf of Malacca in June 1947. They were received along with SOS signals by two ships at once - British and Dutch - which is taken as another confirmation of the veracity of this mystical story.

The first message came in Morse code, the second - by radio. The ship in distress was searched for several hours, and the first to find it was the Briton Silver Star. After unsuccessful attempts to greet Ourang Medan with signal lights and whistles, it was decided to drop off a small team. Rescuers immediately went to the wheelhouse, from where the sounds of a working radio were heard, and found several crew members there.

All of them, including the captain, were dead. More bodies were found on the cargo deck. The Ourang Medan sailors were all allegedly lying in protective postures with horrified expressions on their faces. Many were covered in frost, and along with one of the crew groups, a dead dog was found, frozen stiff like a statue on all fours, snarling at someone into the void.

Suddenly, somewhere in the depths of the cargo deck, an explosion sounded, a fire started. Rescuers did not fight the fire and hurried to leave the vessel full of the dead. Over the next hour, Ourang Medan sounded a few more explosions, and it sank.

It is quite reasonable to believe that the story of Ourang Medan, if it was a disaster, is mostly fiction. Some argue that such a ship did not exist - at least, the name "Ourang Medan" was not found in the Lloyd's lists. But conspiracy theorists believe that the name of the vessel was fictitious, since the crew was engaged in the transport of smuggling, and the same smuggling - you never know what cargo was on board - caused the tragedy.

Octavius ​​(Octavius), 1762-1775

The English merchant ship Octavius ​​was discovered drifting west of Greenland on October 11, 1775. A boarding team from the whaler Whaler Herald boarded and found the entire crew dead, frozen. The captain's body was in his cabin, death found him writing something in the logbook, he was still sitting at the table with a pen in his hand. There were three more stiff bodies in the cabin: a woman, a child wrapped in a blanket, and a sailor holding a tinderbox.

The boarding party left Octavius ​​in a hurry, taking only the logbook with them. Unfortunately, the document was so damaged by cold and water that only the first and last pages could be read. The journal ended with an entry in 1762. This meant that the ship had been drifting dead for 13 years.

Octavius ​​left England for America in 1761. Trying to save time, the captain decided to follow the then unknown Northwest Passage, which was first successfully passed only in 1906. The ship was stuck in the Arctic ice, the unprepared crew froze to death - the discovered remains say that this happened quite quickly. It is assumed that some time later, Octavius ​​was freed from the ice and drifted on the open sea with a dead crew. After an encounter with whalers in 1775, the ship was never seen again.

KZ II, 2007

The crew of the Australian catamaran KZ-II went missing in April 2007 under unclear circumstances. The story received a wide public outcry, as it resembles a similar case with the crew of the brigantine Mary Celeste (Mary Celeste).

On April 15, 2007, KZ-II departed Airlie Beach for Townsville. There were three crew members on board, including the owner. A day later, the yacht stopped communicating, and on April 18 it was accidentally discovered drifting near the Great Barrier Reef. On April 20, a patrol landed on the KZ-II and did not find any of the crew members on board.

At the same time, the ship did not have any damage, except for a torn sail, all systems worked properly, the generator and engine were turned on, and untouched food and a laptop were found on the dining table. The search for sailors continued until April 25, but did not bring any results.

The official version of what happened was a series of events, partially restored from the recordings of a video camera found on board the KZ-II. It is believed that at first one of the sailors dived into the sea for some reason. Perhaps he wanted to free a tangled fishing line. At the same moment, the wind began to carry the yacht to the side, something happened to the first sailor in the water, and the second sailor rushed to help him. The third sailor who remained on board tried to direct the yacht closer to his friends, for which he turned on the engine, but quickly realized that the wind was hindering the movement. He tried to quickly remove the sail and at that moment, for an unknown reason, he himself was overboard. The yacht began to go into the open ocean on its own, and the sailors could no longer catch up with it and eventually drowned.

Young Teazer (Young Teaser), 1813

The privateer schooner Young Teazer was built in early 1813. It was an amazingly fast and promising vessel, which already in the first months of the hunt showed itself quite well on the trading routes off the coast of Halifax. In June 1813 Teazer began to pursue the Scottish brig Sir John Sherbrooke. The schooner was able to escape in the fog, but soon the 74-gun ship of the line HMS La Hogue attacked her trail and drove the Teazer into a trap in Mahone Bay off the Nova Scotia peninsula. At dusk, HMS La Hogue was joined by HMS Orpheus, and they began to prepare for an attack on the privateer, who now had nowhere to go. HMS La Hogue dispatched five boarding parties to Young Teazer, but as they approached, the schooner exploded. The 7 surviving members of the Young Teazer crew subsequently unanimously claimed that it was First Lieutenant Frederick Johnson who detonated the ammunition, thus destroying both the ship and himself, and 30 other crew members, whose unidentified remains lie today in the Anglican cemetery in Mahone Bay.

Shortly after the tragic events, locals began to claim that they saw a flaming Young Teazer rise from the depths. On June 27, 1814, people in Mahone Bay were amazed to see the ghost of a schooner in the same place where she was destroyed. The ghost appeared and then silently disappeared in a flash of flame and smoke. This story spread so quickly across the country that onlookers began to specially flock to Mahone Bay the following June. The Young Teazer is said to have reappeared that time, and has reappeared every year since, and locals still claim that the schooner is periodically visible on foggy nights, especially on the first day after the full moon.

Mary Celeste (Marie Celeste), 1872

This ship can safely claim the title of the biggest maritime mystery of all time. So far, the investigation into the disappearance of his crew has not progressed a single step, and even after 143 years is the topic of much debate.

On November 7, 1872, the brigantine Mary Celeste left New York for Genoa with a cargo of alcohol. On the afternoon of December 5, she was discovered 400 miles from Gibraltar without a crew. The ship sailed with raised sails, had no damage and, as it turned out later, even the hold with valuable cargo was not touched.

The brigantine was discovered and identified by Captain Morehouse from another merchant ship sailing in a parallel course. He, as it turned out, knew the owner of the Mary Celeste, Captain Briggs (Briggs), and respected him as a talented sailor - which is why Morehouse was very surprised when he realized that the brigantine he met was absurdly deviating from the known course. Morehouse tried to honk and, having received no answer, began to pursue the brigantine. Two hours later, his team landed on the Mary Celeste.

The ship seemed to have been abandoned with haste. Personal items were not touched, including jewelry, clothes, a supply of food, as well as the entire cargo. The boats were missing, as well as all the papers in the captain's cabin, with the exception of the diary, where the last entry is dated November 25 and reports that Mary Celeste has left the Azores.

There were no signs of violence on board. The only visible damage was copious water marks on the deck, suggesting that the crew abandoned the ship due to inclement weather. However, this contradicted the personality of Captain Briggs, who was characterized by relatives, friends and partners as a skilled and brave sailor who decided to leave the ship only in case of emergency and in case of mortal danger.

Morehouse took control of the brigantine and delivered it to Gibraltar on 13 December. There, a comprehensive survey of the ship was carried out, during which the inspectors found several stains in the captain's cabin that looked like dried blood. We also found several marks on the rails, which could have been left by a blunt object or an ax, but there were no such weapons on board the Mary Celeste at the time of the study. The ship itself was declared undamaged.

The versions of what happened were piracy, insurance fraud, a tsunami, an explosion caused by fumes from the cargo, ergotism from contaminated flour that drove the crew crazy, a mutiny, and several supernatural explanations. There is also a version that the crew of the Mary Celeste reached the coast of Spain, where in 1873 they found several boats from an unknown ship and several unidentified corpses in them.

Over the next 17 years, Mary Celeste passed from one owner to another 17 times, with often, as they say, tragic and fatal cases. The last owner of the brigantine flooded it to set up an insured event.

Lyubov Orlova, 2013

One of the most famous ghost ships of recent years is the Lubov Orlova liner, which was lost in 2013 while being towed in the Caribbean Sea and has since appeared here and there in the Atlantic.

The liner, named after the famous Soviet actress, was built in 1976 and was part of the fleet of the Far Eastern Shipping Company. In 1999, the ship was sold to a company from Malta and was involved in regular voyages to the Arctic. In 2010, the ship was arrested for debts and, after two years of inactivity in Canada, was sent by tugboat to the Dominican Republic for scrap. During towing in the Caribbean, there was a severe storm and the towing cables could not stand it. The crew of the tugboat tried to capture the out of control ship, but due to weather conditions, this was not possible - the ship was abandoned in neutral waters.

The search for the ship was unsuccessful. Its automatic identification system, a system that relays the geographic position of ships, was offline, making it impossible to locate. Canadian authorities announced that, since the ship can now only be in neutral waters in any case, Canada no longer bears responsibility for its fate - the search was stopped. It was believed that Lyubov Orlova was lost forever in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Unexpectedly, on February 1, 2013, Lyubov Orlova was spotted drifting 1,700 km off the coast of Ireland. It was discovered by the Canadian oil tanker Atlantic Hawk, which, in order to prevent the now famous “ghost ship” from becoming a real danger to nearby oil rigs, towed the ship to neutral waters, where it was forced to leave again. February 4 "Lyubov Orlova" was 463 km from St. John's, Canada. The Canadian authorities again refused to take any measures and the responsibility for the vessel was fully assigned to its owner. A few days later, Lyubov Orlova was again lost.

During the year, the 4,250-ton vessel, whose remains are valued at RUB 34 million, managed to avoid the scrutiny of the owner company's search crews and scrap metal hunters. The popularity of the ghost ship has risen to the appearance on social networks of fake users under the name "Lyubov Orlova" / "Lyubov Orlova" and the site whereisorlova.com, dedicated, however, to other ghost ships. The phrase “Where is Lyubov Orlova?” turned into a meme and, as they say, began to be printed on T-shirts and mugs.

In January 2014, the ghost ship was again seen drifting 2.4 thousand km. off the west coast of Ireland. Experts believed that the ship was moving towards the shores of Great Britain, where it was pushed by recent storms. The British authorities were preparing for a meeting with a celebrity, especially fearing that the drifting ship could be inhabited by cannibal rats, but Lyubov Orlova disappeared again.

Lady Lovibond (Lady Lovibond), 1748

In the 18th century, sailors firmly believed in omens, and quite often their superstitions were fueled by situations that are quite understandable and even prosaic by today's standards. Maybe that's why the "edifying" story of the sailing ship Lady Lovibond made it so popular, and the legend so long-playing.

On February 13, 1748, newly married Simon Reed and Annette set off on their honeymoon from Britain to Portugal on Reed's ship, the Lady Lovibond. Even before going to sea, John Rivers, Reed's first mate, fell in love with the captain's wife and was now going crazy with love and jealousy. Reeves began to have uncontrollable fits of anger, one day he broke into the helmsman and, having lost his temper, killed him. Rivers then took control of the ship and steered it to the Goodwin Sands, the infamous shoal in the English Channel. The ship was wrecked, no one escaped.

In 1848, a hundred years after the tragic events described, local fishermen saw a sailboat crashed on the Goodwin Sands. Rescue boats were sent to the crash site, but no vessel was found. In 1948, after another hundred years, the ghost of Lady Lovibond was again seen on the Goodwin Sands by Captain Ball Prestwick and was described by him exactly like the original ship of 1748, albeit with an eerie greenish glow. The next appearance of the ghost ship is expected in 2048. Let's wait.

Eliza Battle, 1858

Built in 1852 in Indiana, the Eliza Battle was a luxurious wooden steamer for the entertainment of presidents and VIPs. On a cold night in February 1858, a fire broke out on the main deck of the steamer on the Tombigbee River, strong winds helped the fire spread throughout the ship. About 100 people were on board that flight, of which 26 people could not escape. Today, locals say that during the spring floods, during the big moon period, Eliza Battle reappears on the Tombigbee River. She floats upstream with music and lights on the main deck. Sometimes they see only the silhouette of the ship. Fishermen believe that the appearance of Eliza Battle promises disaster to other ships that still sail this river.

Carrol A. Deering (Carroll A. Deering), 1921

The five-masted cargo schooner Carrol A Deering was built in 1911 and named after the owner's son. On December 2, 1920, she set sail from Rio de Janeiro to Norfolk, USA, two months later she was found stranded and abandoned by the crew.

The investigation into the circumstances of the disappearance of the Carrol A Deering crew, which was conducted under the supervision of US Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, made it possible to partially restore the chain of events preceding the disappearance of the schooner and collect eyewitness accounts.

So, it was established that in early January 1921, on the way to the USA, Carrol A Deering made an intermediate stop on the island of Barbados, where a quarrel occurred between Captain Wormell and First Officer McLellan, and the latter threatened to kill the captain. After a quarrel, McLellan looked for work on other ships, claiming that the Carrol A Deering crew did not follow orders, and Captain Wormell did not allow him to punish the sailors. Hiring McLellan was turned down. The next few days in Barbados, he was often seen drunk with the Carrol A Deering team, for brawl McLellan even landed in prison, from where he was rescued by Captain Wormell. On January 9, 1921, the schooner went to sea, and what happened to her next is still a mystery.

January 16, 1921 Carrol A Deering was seen off the Bahamas. She sailed with one sail, despite favorable weather conditions, and performed strange maneuvers, periodically laying back on her course. On January 18, she was spotted at Cape Canaveral, on January 23 - at the Cape Fear lighthouse. On January 25, in the same area, the cargo steamer SS Hewitt, which followed the same course as Carrol A Deering, disappeared without a trace - this circumstance also got into the Carrol A Deering materials, but there was no direct connection between the incidents.

On January 29, the schooner in full sail passed the lighthouse of Cape Lookout. The lighthouse keeper even took a photo of her. According to him, a red-haired sailor on board Carrol A Deering shouted over the loudspeaker that the schooner had lost its anchors during a storm, and asked to convey a message to the ship's owners. The caretaker was unable to transmit the message due to the fact that the radio was broken at the lighthouse. Later, he noted that he was surprised that the crew of the schooner crowded on the quarter quarters, where only the captain and his assistants have the right to be, and even a simple sailor spoke to him from the ship, and not the captain or assistant.

On January 30, the schooner was seen sailing under full sail off Cape Hatteras, and on January 31, the US Coast Guard reported a five-masted sailboat that had run aground in the same area. His sails were raised, the boats were gone. Due to stormy weather, Carrol A Deering was only able to get on February 4 - no people were found on board. There were no personal belongings, documents, including the logbook, navigational equipment and anchors. Three pairs of shoes of different sizes were found in the captain's cabin. The last mark on the found map was dated January 23, and it was not made in the handwriting of Captain Warmell.

In 1922, the Carrol A Deering investigation was closed without any official conclusion. The schooner, which was slowly collapsing aground and could pose a danger to navigation, was blown up. Its skeleton remained in the same place for a long time, until it was finally destroyed by a hurricane in 1955.

Baychimo (Baychimo), 1931

Baychimo was built in Sweden in 1911 by order of a German trading company. After the First World War, it passed to Great Britain and for the next fourteen years it regularly served on routes along the Northwest coast of Canada, transporting furs. In early October 1931, the weather deteriorated sharply, and a few miles from the coast near the city of Barrow, the ship got stuck in the ice. The team temporarily left the ship and found shelter on the mainland. A week later, the weather cleared up, the sailors returned on board and continued sailing, but already on October 15, Baychimo again fell into an ice trap.

This time it was impossible to get to the nearest city - the crew had to arrange a temporary shelter on the shore, far from the ship, and here they were forced to spend a whole month. In mid-November, a snowstorm broke out that lasted several days. And when the weather cleared up on November 24, Baychimo was not in the same place. The sailors thought the ship was lost in a storm, but a few days later a local seal hunter reported seeing Baychimo about 45 miles from their camp. The team found the ship, removed the precious cargo from it and left it forever.

The story of Baychimo did not end there. For the next 40 years, he was occasionally seen drifting along the northern coast of Canada. Attempts were made to get on board the ship, some were quite successful, but due to weather conditions and the poor condition of the hull, the ship was abandoned again. The last time Baychimo was in 1969, that is, 38 years after the crew left it - at that time the frozen ship was part of the ice massif. In 2006, the government of Alaska attempted to locate the Arctic Ghost Ship, but all attempts to locate the ship were unsuccessful. Where the Baychimo is now - whether it lies at the bottom or is unrecognizably overgrown with ice - remains a mystery.

Flying Dutchman (Flying Dutchman), 1700s

This is probably the most famous ghost ship in the world, the popularity of which was added by the Pirates of the Caribbean, and even the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants, where one of the characters was called Frying Dutchman - the Frying Dutchman.

There are many legends associated with this ship, forever roaming the oceans, and the main one concerns the Dutch captain Philip van der Decken (sometimes called Van Straaten), who returned from the East Indies in the 1700s and carried a young couple on board . The captain liked the girl so much that he faked the death of her betrothed and proposed to her. The girl refused Van der Decken and threw herself overboard in grief.

Immediately after that, at the Cape of Good Hope, the ship got into a storm. The superstitious sailors began to murmur. In an attempt to prevent the mutiny, the navigator offered to wait out the bad weather in some bay, but the captain, desperate and drinking after the suicide of his beloved, shot him and several other dissatisfied. One of the popular versions of the legend says that after the murder of the navigator Van der Decken, he swore by the bones of his mother that no one would go ashore until the ship passed the cape; he brought a curse and is now doomed to eternal sailing.

Usually people watch the "Flying Dutchman" in the sea from afar. According to legend, if you get close to it, the team will try to send a message to the shore to people who have long been dead. It is also believed that meeting with the "Dutchman" promises illness and even death. The latter is explained by yellow fever, which is transmitted by mosquitoes that breed in containers with food water. Such a disease can destroy the entire crew, and a meeting with such an infected ship could really be fatal: mosquitoes attacked living sailors and infected them.

"Flying Dutchman"- the legendary sailing ghost ship that cannot land on the shore and is doomed to sail the seas forever. Usually people observe such a ship from afar, sometimes surrounded by a luminous halo.

According to legend, when the Flying Dutchman meets with another ship, its crew tries to send messages to the shore for people who are no longer alive. In maritime beliefs, meeting with the "Flying Dutchman" was considered a bad omen.

Ships that were found in the oceans abandoned, with a dead from unknown causes or a completely absent crew, also began to be called ghost ships. The most famous and classic of these is certainly "Mary Celeste"(Mary Celeste).

In December 1872, this ship was found by the captain of the brig Deia Gracia. He began to send signals, but the crew of the Mary Celeste did not answer them, and the ship itself swayed limply on the waves. The captain and sailors landed on a mysterious brigantine, but the ship was empty.

The last entry in the ship's log was made in November 1872. It seemed that the crew had only recently abandoned this ship. There was no damage to the ship, there was food in the kitchen, and there were 1,700 barrels of alcohol in the hold. "Mary Celeste" a few days later was delivered to the roadstead of Gibraltar.

The Admiralty could not understand where the crew of the brigantine had gone, the captain of which was the sailor Briggs, who had been driving sailboats for more than twenty years. Since there was no news of the ship, and its crew never showed up, the investigation ceased.

However, among the people, the news of the mystical disappearance of the Mary Celeste team spread with incredible speed. People began to wonder what happened to Briggs and his sailors? Some leaned towards the version that the ship was attacked by pirates, others believed that the problem was a riot. But these were just guesses.

Time passed and the mystery of "Mary Celeste" went beyond the local, because. She was being talked about everywhere. It is worth noting that with the end of the investigation, the stories about the mysterious ship did not stop. The newspapers often appeared stories about the brigantine, journalists described the most diverse versions of the disappearance of the team.

So, they wrote that the entire crew died as a result of an attack by a huge octopus, that an epidemic of plague broke out on the ship. And in the Times it was said that all the passengers on the ship were killed by Captain Briggs, who went crazy. And he threw the bodies overboard. After that, he tried to swim away on a boat, but she sank with him. But all these stories were just fiction and assumptions.

From time to time, charlatans came to the editorial offices and pretended to be the surviving sailors of the Mary Celeste. They received a fee for "real" stories and went into hiding after that. After several incidents, the police were already on the alert. In 1884, in the London almanac Cornhill, the memoirs of Shebekuk Jephson, a sailor who was on that ill-fated ship, were written. However, later it turned out that the author of these "memoirs" was Arthur Conan Doyle.

Most ghost ships drift in the North Atlantic. True, no one can accurately name the number of wanderers - it changes from year to year. Statistics show that in some years the number of "Dutch" drifting in the North Atlantic reached three hundred.

Quite a lot of wandering ships are found in sea areas remote from shipping lanes and rarely visited by merchant ships. From time to time, the "Flying Dutchmen" remind of themselves. Either they are carried by the current to coastal shallows, or they are thrown by the wind onto rocks or underwater reefs. It happens that the "Dutch", which do not carry running lights at night, cause collisions with oncoming ships, sometimes with serious consequences.

"ANGOSH"

In 1971, under mysterious circumstances, the Portuguese transport Angosh was abandoned by the team. It happened off the eastern coast of Africa. The Angosh transport with a gross tonnage of 1684 registered tons and a carrying capacity of 1236 tons left the port of Nacala (Mozambique) on April 23, 1971 for another Mozambique port, Porto Amelia.

Three days later, the Angosh was discovered by the Panamanian tanker Esso Port Dickson. The transport drifted without a crew, ten miles from the coast. The newly-minted "Flying Dutchman" was taken in tow and brought to the port. Inspection showed that the ship had suffered a collision. This was evidenced by the serious injuries he received.

The bridge bore obvious traces of a recent fire. Experts have established that it could be the result of a small explosion that occurred here. However, it was not possible to explain the disappearance of 24 crew members and one passenger of the Angosh.

"MALBORO"

In October 1913, a storm brought the schooner Marlboro to one of the bays of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. The assistant captain and several members of his crew boarded and were shocked by the terrible sight: the bodies of the crew members were scattered all over the sailboat, dried up like mummies.

The masts of the sailboat were completely intact, and the whole schooner was covered with mold. The same thing was going on in the hold: dead crew members everywhere, dried up like mummies.

As a result of the investigation, an incredible fact was established: a three-masted sailing ship left the port of Littleton in early January 1890, heading for Scotland, to its home port of Glasgow, but for some reason never arrived at the port.

However, what happened to the crew of the sailboat? Had the calm deprived him of the sail of the wind and forced him to drift aimlessly until all the supplies of drinking water were exhausted? How could it happen that a sailboat with a dead crew did not crash against the reefs in twenty-four years of drifting?

"ORUNG MEDA"

In June 1947 (according to other sources - at the beginning of February 1948), British and Dutch listening stations, as well as two American ships in the Malacca Strait, received a distress signal with the following content: “The captain and all officers lie dead in the cockpit and on the bridge. Maybe the whole team is dead." This message was followed by an illegible Morse code and a short phrase: "I'm dying."

No more signals were received, but the place of sending the message was determined by triangulation, and one of the American ships mentioned above immediately headed for it.

When the ship was found, it turned out that its entire crew was indeed dead, including even the dog. No visible injuries were found on the bodies of the dead, although it was obvious from the expression on their faces that they were dying in horror and great agony.

The ship itself was also not damaged, but members of the rescue team noted an unusual cold in the depths of the hold. Shortly after the inspection began, suspicious smoke began to appear from the hold, and the rescuers had to hastily return to their ship.

Shortly thereafter, the Orung Medan exploded and sank, making further investigation of the incident impossible.

"SIBERD"

On a July morning in 1850, the inhabitants of the village of Eastons Beach on the coast of Rhode Island were surprised to see a sailing ship coming from the sea under full sail to the shore. It stopped in shallow water.

When people boarded, they found that coffee was boiling on the galley stove, plates were arranged on the table in the saloon. But the only living creature on board was a dog trembling with fear, huddled in a corner of one of the cabins. Not a single person was on the ship.

Cargo, navigational instruments, maps, sailing directions and ship's documents were in place. The last entry in the logbook said: "Beamed Brenton Reef" (this reef is only a few miles from Eastons Beach).

It was known that the Seabird sailed with a cargo of timber and coffee from the island of Honduras. However, even the most thorough investigation conducted by the Americans did not reveal the reasons for the disappearance of its crew from the sailing ship.

"EBAY ESS HART"

In September 1894, the three-masted barque Ebiy Ess Hart was spotted in the Indian Ocean from the German steamship Pikkuben. A distress signal fluttered from its mast. When the German sailors landed on the deck of the sailing ship, they saw that all 38 crew members were dead, and the captain went crazy.

UNKNOWN FRIGATE

In October 1908, near one of the major Mexican ports, a half-flooded frigate was found, with a strong roll to the port side. The topmasts of the sailboat's masts were broken, the name could not be established, and the crew was absent.

There were no storms or hurricanes in this region of the ocean at that time. The search turned out to be fruitless, and the reasons for the disappearance of the crew remained unclear, although a wide variety of hypotheses were put forward.

"HOLCHU"

In February 1953, the sailors of the English ship "Rani", being two hundred miles from the Nicobar Islands, discovered a small cargo ship "Kholchu" in the ocean. The ship was damaged, the mast was broken.

Although the lifeboats were in place, the crew was absent. In the holds there was a cargo of rice, in the bunkers - a full supply of fuel and water. Where the five crew members disappeared is still a mystery.

"KOBENHAVN"

On December 4, 1928, the Danish sailing training ship Kobenhavn left Buenos Aires to continue its circumnavigation. On board the sailboat was the crew and 80 pupils of the maritime school. A week later, when the Kobenhavn had already covered about 400 miles, a radiogram was received from the board.

The command reported that the voyage was going well and that everything was safe on the ship. The further fate of the sailing ship and the people on it remains a mystery. The ship did not arrive at its home port, Copenhagen.

They say that later he was met many times in various parts of the Atlantic. The sailboat allegedly went under full sail, but there were no people on it.

"JOYTA"

Until now, the history of the ship "Joyta" remains a mystery. The ship, thought to be lost, was found in the ocean. It sailed without a crew or passengers. “Joyta” is called the second “Mary Celeste”, but if the events that took place on the “Mary Celeste” took place in the century before last, then the disappearance of people from the board of the “Joyta” refers to the second half of the 20th century.

"Joyta" had excellent seaworthiness. On October 3, 1955, the ship, under the command of Captain Miller, an experienced and knowledgeable sailor, left the port of Apia on the island of Upolu (Western Samoa) and headed for the shores of the Tokelau archipelago.

It did not arrive at the port of destination. Searches were organized. Rescue ships, helicopters and planes surveyed the vast ocean area. However, all efforts were in vain. The ship and 25 people on board were listed as missing.

More than a month passed, and on November 10, Joyta was accidentally discovered 187 miles north of the Fiji Islands. The vessel sailed in a semi-submerged state and had a large roll. There were no people or cargo on it.

They died without a fight. Catastrophes of Russian ships of the 18th–20th centuries. Chernyshev Alexander Alekseevich

Missing

Missing

It is hard to imagine that a warship or a submarine with a crew of tens or hundreds of people can disappear without a trace. But such cases, though rare, have happened in the history of the Russian fleet. Of course, the reasons for the disappearance of ships are rocks, waves, typhoons, mines. But the disappeared ships took with them the secret of their death. There were no witnesses to their disappearance. There was no documentary evidence of death either in the archives of Russia or in the archives of other countries (including former opponents).

Buer "Lustikh" BF. Participated in the Northern War of 1700–1721. In 1704–1715 delivered food and cargo to seaside fortresses, shipyards and ships of the squadron. In 1716 he sailed with the fleet to Copenhagen (he was loaded with gunpowder). On the way back he went missing.

Gekboat "Astrabad" CFL. In 1731 he went missing in the Caspian Sea.

The deck boat of the Black Sea Fleet (Lieutenant Maltsov) in September 1772 was sent from Kafa (Feodosia) to Kerch and went missing.

Ship "Asia" BF (captain of the 1st rank N. V. Tolbuzin). Participated in the war with Turkey 1768-1774. In 1770, as part of the 3rd Archipelago squadron of Rear Admiral I.N. Harp, "Asia" moved from Revel to the port of Ausa on the island of Paros. In 1771 and 1772 the ship was cruising in the Archipelago, blockading the Dardanelles. On February 7, 1773, he left the island of Mikono for the island of Imbro, and on February 9 he went missing. 439 people died. A few days later, they found only a mizzen mast nailed to the island of Mikono and several other shipwrecks.

Brigantine "Hope of Prosperity" OFL. In 1782 she left Okhotsk with a cargo to Nizhnekamchatsk and went missing in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Two years later, it became known that the brigantine was thrown onto one of the Kuril Islands. The entire crew was killed.

Boat "Mius" AzFl (Captain? Lieutenant Ya. I. Lavrov). July 22 - September 9, 1782 moved from Kherson to Smyrna, taking the Russian consul I. I. Khemnitserov there. Returning to his homeland, on October 22, the bot left Constantinople, but did not arrive in Kherson. Lost in the Black Sea.

Frigate "Crimea" Black Sea Fleet (N. F. Seliverstov). On August 31, 1787, as part of the squadron of Rear Admiral Count M. I. Voinovich, he left Sevastopol to the coast of Bulgaria in search of Turkish ships. On September 8, near Cape Kaliakra, the squadron got into a strong storm that lasted five days. On the night of September 9, the frigate went missing.

In 1790 (during the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–1790), 8 gunboats went missing in Finnish skerries. These were small sailing and rowing vessels about 20 m long, armed with two guns, the crew of each boat consisted of 70 people, including 60 rowers.

Transport No. 3. Black Sea Fleet (Lieutenant K. T. Alekseev). Former Turkish, taken by the brig "Orpheus" from Sizopol on May 4, 1829. On September 28, 1829, as part of a rowing flotilla detachment, he left Sizopol for Nikolaev. On October 6, during a strong storm, he fell behind the detachment and went missing.

Schooner "Strela" BF (lieutenant M. E. Shalukhin). As part of a detachment of small vessels under the command of Rear Admiral A.P. Lazarev, on the way from the Gulf of Bothnia to Cape Dagerort on a stormy night of August 20, 1831, near Cape Dagerort, she parted with the detachment during a storm at night and went missing. The Phoenix and Zeal brigs sent to search for the schooner found no trace of her. Died: commander, 3 officers, 3 cadets and 47 lower ranks.

Brig "Kuril" OFL (Captain? Lieutenant A. I. Grigoriev). In 1850, he participated in the transfer of the military port from Okhotsk to the port of Petropavlovsk. On July 5, 1850, he left Okhotsk with cargo and 38 passengers and went missing.

Found in the following year, the wreckage on the island of Akhta, apparently belonging to a military ship, allows us to guess the place of the wreck of the brig on this island or near it.

Tender "Kamchadal" OFL (navigator Kuzmin). In 1850–1858 maintained communication between the ports of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. On October 11, 1858, he left Nikolaevsk-on-Amur with provisions for Udsk. The air temperature in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is -11°С. The tender did not arrive at its destination. The exact place and time of the death of "Kamchadal" is unknown.

Clipper "Oprichnik" BF. On June 24, 1858, as part of the 2nd Amur detachment of captain 1st rank A.A. Popov, he left Kronstadt for the Far East. In Nikolaevsk? on? Amur, the detachment joined the Far Eastern Squadron. Clipper explored the coasts of the Japanese and Korean Islands.

In 1861, the Oprichnik, under the command of Captain? Lieutenant P. A. Selivanov, set off on his way back to the Baltic. He left Shanghai on 31 October. After refueling in the port of Batavia (Jakarta), on November 26, 1861, the clipper entered the Indian Ocean and went missing.

In June 1862, the Naval Ministry issued an order to search for the Oprichnik clipper, Russian naval agents in different countries were instructed to find out if there was any information about the ship in foreign ports. It turned out that on the night of December 13-14 in the center of the Indian Ocean, on the way of ships from Batavia to the Cape of Good Hope, a severe hurricane raged. According to the records in the logbook of the Dutch barque Zvan, the wind reached 11 points. The same barque was seen by an unknown ship, the course of which passed to the center of the hurricane. In this area, 6 different ships were lost, and several were saved and corrected at the Cape of Good Hope and on the island of Mauritius.

The search for the crew of the "Oprichnik" did not bring results. According to the conclusion of the Naval Ministry, based on the evidence of ships that were at that time in the Indian Ocean, the clipper probably died on the night of December 13-14, 1861 at a point at latitude about 22 ° south, longitude about 67? hurricane.

However, later Russian sailors concluded that the death of the Oprichnik in a hurricane is possible and to some extent probable, but far from proven.

Died: commander, 7 officers, 14 non-commissioned officers and 73 lower ranks.

In memory of the crew of the "Oprichnik" in 1873, a monument was erected in Kronstadt, built at the expense of relatives and colleagues of the dead sailors.

The auxiliary cruiser (security cruiser) "Lieutenant Dydymov" Sibfl (Senior Lieutenant B. I. Semenets) as part of Rear Admiral G. K. Stark's White Siberian Flotilla left Vladivostok on October 24, 1922. "Lieutenant Dydymov" - the flagship of the 3rd division sailed under the flag of captain 1st rank A.V. Solovyov. On November 23, 1922, the flotilla arrived at the port of Fuzan, and then headed for Shanghai. On the morning of December 4, when the ships were 150-180 miles from Shanghai, a squall suddenly came up from the northeast, which turned into a storm with a force of 8-9 points. Lieutenant Dydymov did not arrive in Shanghai. He was last seen on the evening of December 4 from the minesweeper Paris. The cruiser had almost no progress, it turned either along the wave or against it. The minesweeper himself was damaged, so he could not provide assistance. The circumstances of the death of "Lieutenant Dydymov" remained unclear. On the ship, 11 officers, 3 midshipmen, 34 crew members and 29 passengers were killed.

The submarine "S? 2" of the KBF (Captain? Lieutenant I. A. Sokolov) participated in the Soviet? Finnish War of 1939–1940. January 1, 1940 the boat went to a position in the Gulf of Bothnia. In the evening of the next day, she reached the Aland Islands and received permission to cross the South Kvarken. There was no more contact with the boat. On January 18, an order was transmitted to C? 2 to leave the position and return to the base. There was no answer, the boat was missing. The Minsk leader, sent to search for "C? 2", did not find the boat. The Finns also did not find the boat. Either she was blown up by a mine, or she became a victim of ice. Tana of the death of "C? 2" has not been disclosed to date.

The Soviet naval base, located on the Khanko (Gangut) peninsula at the end of August 1941, found itself deep behind enemy lines. Its defenders lacked ammunition, gasoline, medicines, food. The command of the Baltic Fleet attempted to deliver goods to Hanko by submarine.

Submarine "P? 1" BF (captain? Lieutenant I. I. Loginov) on September 9, 1941 at 8.00 left Kronstadt for Hanko, having on board 19.6 tons of cargo (154 boxes of canned food; 200 100? mm, 100 76 mm and 100 45 mm shells; up to 2 tons of medicines and other cargo). The boat was accompanied by the base minesweeper "BTSH? 211" and a patrol boat. In the evening, in the area of ​​Gogland Island, the escort parted ways with "P? 1". It was planned that the boat would make a further transition on the surface at a speed of 18 knots.

During the campaign, the boat did not get in touch and did not arrive at the rendezvous point with the boats and minesweepers of the Hanko naval base either at regular time (06:00 on September 11, 1941) or at the reserve time (02:00 the next day it did not arrive. Already on September 17, it was officially announced “Missing in action while performing a combat mission.” 54 crew members were killed.

Possible reasons for the death of the boat: undermining the Yuminda or Corbetta obstacles on a mine, personnel error or equipment failure.

The submarine "Shch? 211" of the Black Sea Fleet (captain? Lieutenant A. D. Devyatko) on November 16, 1941 went on another military campaign in the Varna region. She did not get in touch and did not return to the base at the appointed time.

In September 2000, in the area of ​​​​Cape St. Atanas (during the war it was called Cape Akbupnu), south of Varna, the skeleton of the "pike" "X" series was accidentally discovered with the first and partially second compartments destroyed. Other submarines of this type, except for the Shch? 211, did not disappear in this area. At the same time, it is not clear what could have led to such extensive destruction of the hull, since the nearby Romanian barrier consisted of mines with an explosive weight of 30 kg, the impact of which could not have had such an effect. The same can be said about the depth charges used by the enemy in 1941, and there is not even information about a similar attack at that time and place. So the mystery of the death of "Shch? 211" has not yet been fully disclosed.

The submarine "K? 3" of the Northern Fleet (Captain? Lieutenant K. I. Malofeev) on March 14, 1943 went on the next (eighth) military campaign. She never got in touch and did not return to the base at the appointed time. But unlike most cases when the boats went missing, the enemy recorded her presence in position for a long time. On March 17, "K? 3" unsuccessfully attacked one convoy, on the 21st - another. And if in the first case the boat remained undetected after the volley, then in the second, the three hunters established clear hydroacoustic contact with it and dropped a hundred bombs. A large release of oil and solarium, air bubbles and wood chips were observed on the surface. Since the depth of the sea at the alleged place of her death was 215 m, a diving survey and a lot search were not carried out. And yet, on March 28, another convoy going to Kirkines was subjected to a new attack within the K? 3 position, during which the Germans recorded the passage of three torpedoes. The enemy guards found nothing and dropped 19 bombs only to thwart a second attack. To this day, it is not possible to establish the true cause of the death of the Katyusha, the most effective in terms of torpedo and artillery attacks.

The guards submarine "K? 22" of the Northern Fleet (captain of the 3rd rank V. F. Kulbakin) went to sea on February 3, 1943 as part of a tactical group together with the "K? 3". On February 6, a meeting with the enemy took place, but K? 22 could not go on the attack - the target was obscured by the flagship K? 3. During the attack, the boats lost each other and met only in the afternoon. They then returned to shore and continued their surface search. With the onset of dawn on February 7, the submarines sank, but for another seven and a half hours they spoke using sound underwater communications. At 19.37, "K? 22" was called from the flagship with an order to move to the surface position, but she did not answer him. "K? 22" did not show up later, and she did not arrive at the base. Since there were no enemy anti-submarine ships nearby at the time of the loss of communication, the command considered a mine explosion to be the cause of death. After the war, it turned out that a minefield had indeed been in this area since May 1942. It was located at a distance of 6-7.5 miles from the coast in an area that was considered dangerous, and it was recommended to swim in it at a working depth of immersion (75 m).

Submarine "K? 1" SF. (Captain of the 2nd rank M.F. Khomyakov) September 5, 1943 headed for a position to the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya. After September 9, she did not get in touch and did not return to the base at the set time - on September 28 she did not return.

A post-war study of enemy documents does not give grounds to assert that K? 1 was the victim of an attack by an aircraft, surface or submarine. The most likely cause of death is an explosion on a floating mine, which was carried by the Gulf Stream to Novaya Zemlya from the entire water area of ​​the North Atlantic, the Norwegian and Barents Seas. However, it is impossible to completely exclude crew errors in an emergency situation (M. F. Khomyakov had never sailed on K-type submarines before) or undermining mine banks exposed by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper off the northern coast of the archipelago a year earlier.

Submarine "Shch? 208" of the Black Sea Fleet (Captain? Lieutenant N. M. Belanov). On the night of August 23, 1941, she entered the area of ​​the Portitsky arm of the Danube, where she was ordered to act against convoys sailing between Constanta and Sulina. To protect this route, the Romanians already in the spring of 1942 set up four anti-submarine minefields parallel to the coast. Since there were no attacks by enemy PLO forces in this area at that time, it remains to be assumed that mines turned out to be the reason for the disappearance of Shch? 208.

Submarine "Shch? 213" of the Black Sea Fleet (Captain? Lieutenant N. V. Isaev). On the night of September 28, 1942, the boat set off on the sixth and last campaign against enemy communications, N.V. Isaev was supposed to get in touch only before leaving the position at the Portitsky arm of the Danube on the evening of October 14. But that did not happen. Most likely, the “pike” fell victim to the same Romanian minefields on which the Shch? 208 had previously died. However, another version cannot be ruled out. On the last day of the Shch? 213 patrol, 5.5 miles east of the Portitsky raid, the signalmen of the German big hunter Xanten discovered a torpedo trail stretching to the stern of the ship. The hunter dodged the torpedo, detected an underwater object with hydroacoustics, bombed and allegedly even observed evidence of the target sinking. Only a diving examination will help to finally reveal the cause of the death of Shch? 213 - after its skeleton is discovered.

Submarine "S? 12" BF (captain of the 3rd rank A. A. Bashchenko). On July 26, 1943, she left Kronstadt for the base minesweepers. Having made a stop at Lavensari on the 30th, the boat began to force the Gogland anti-submarine position. On August 1, she charged the battery off Keri Island without interference and headed for the deep-sea passage near Nargen Island, blocked by enemy anti-submarine nets and mines. After that, "S? 12" did not get in touch anymore and did not return to the base at the appointed time.

Submarine "V? 1" SF (captain of the 2nd rank I. I. Fisanovich). British submarine "Sunfish", handed over to the Soviet fleet in 1944

On April 10, 1944, she was enrolled in the Soviet Navy under the designation "B? 1" and on May 30, the Naval flag of the USSR was raised on it. After being accepted by the Soviet crew, the boat under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Hero of the Soviet Union I. I. Fisanovich left Rosyt on July 25 and headed for the Kola Bay, but did not arrive at the base. The boat sailed alone without an escort. There are several versions of her death. According to one of them, "B? 1" was mistakenly sunk by a British aircraft, it may have blown up on a floating mine, but the most likely cause of death is an accident.

Submarine "S? 117" (until 1949 "Sch? 117" "Mackerel") Pacific Fleet (captain of the 2nd rank V. A. Krasnikov). On the night of December 15, 1952, she left Sovetskaya Gavan to participate in joint exercises of the 90th submarine brigade of the 7th Navy. Soon the boat commander reported about the failure of one diesel engine and about the continuation of the campaign under the second one that remained in service. At 03.15 a message was received from the boat that the diesel engine had been put into operation. This was the last radio message.

According to the plan of the exercise, from 16:00 to 17:00, the boat was supposed to report the discovery of the exit from the port of Kholmsk of the ship? target TsL? 27, representing the enemy. However, neither in these terms, nor later, the boat did not get in touch and did not respond to requests. The search for "S? 117" in the Tatar Strait did not give results: the depths on the route of passage from Sovetskaya Gavan to Kholmsk range from 100 to 1150 m. There were 52 people on board the "S? 117": 12 officers, 5 foremen and 35 sailors.