00:00 There is a ship drifting somewhere in the ocean without a crew.
00:06 The last time someone saw it was more than 50 years ago.
00:12 Its history recalls that of the Dutch Flying.
00:15 A ship doomed to sail forever and bring disaster to anyone who sees it at sea.
00:20 At least according to the legend.
00:23 Unlike the Flying Dutchman, the SS Beechemo was definitely real and built for a German company in Hamburg.
00:30 And started as an ordinary freight ship.
00:33 It exchanged supplies between Hamburg and Sweden in the Baltic Sea from 1914.
00:38 It had a powerful steam engine and a steel hull.
00:42 A few years later, it became British property.
00:46 In the 1920s, a Canadian company bought it for about $18,000, a huge sum at the time.
00:53 The new owner, the company of the Bay of Hudson, actively used the ship for several years.
00:59 He often sent it on a trip from his port of attaché in Scotland to Siberia, Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
01:07 It also crossed the Panama Canal and even the Suez Canal, with fur seals on board for sale.
01:14 Sometimes, it also transported passengers.
01:17 It had made nine successful trips before this series of chances came to an end.
01:22 From the 1930s, the SS Beechemo encountered problems with ice and storms.
01:28 When it was caught in the ice for the first time in October 1931, part of the crew managed to escape to Alaska.
01:36 15 of the 22 sailors decided to stay with their ship and try to save it.
01:41 They had fur seals and other precious cargo on board, worth about $58,000.
01:47 The company sent them supplies to survive the winter.
01:50 They set up a camp near the ship using traps, tarps and other materials, and unloaded the cargo.
01:56 At the end of November, a blizzard swept the region and it seemed that he had taken the ship with him.
02:02 The ice platform had survived, but the ship had detached.
02:06 Some crew members were sure that he had sunk.
02:09 But shortly after, they received news from a local who had spotted their ship about 72 km from their camp.
02:16 The crew continued their life, and the ship began its journey as a fugitive ship.
02:22 People saw the SS Beechemo about once a year, and this until 1969.
02:28 It was mainly spotted off the coast of Alaska.
02:32 Some men went to Nome with their dog sled, some prospectors, explorers and treasure hunters claimed to have seen the SS Beechemo.
02:40 Someone tried to get on board and take it to the port, but ended up stuck on it for days due to a terrible weather.
02:48 Others were more lucky and managed to take a rescue canoe, some furniture and other valuable ship objects.
02:55 Those who approached the ship saw that it was damaged and that the propeller was missing.
03:00 Yet it remained afloat without crew for at least 38 years, and became the longest-sailing ghost ship in history.
03:08 In 2006, the Alaska authorities launched a project to solve the mystery of this "ghost ship of the Arctic"
03:15 and finally find the SS Beechemo, whether still on the surface or underwater.
03:20 So far, the project has not succeeded.
03:23 The SS Beechemo remains one of the 4,000 ships estimated to have disappeared off the coast of Alaska.
03:30 If the legend of the 17th century is not lying, this ghost ship could sail somewhere along the Flying Dutchman.
03:37 It belonged to the Dutch East Indies Company.
03:40 Its captain managed the impossible for the time and sailed from Holland to Indonesia in just three months.
03:47 It was said that it was flying over the sea and some bad language explained that it had made a pact with the forces of evil to get there.
03:55 Once the ship was on its way home, its captain and crew disappeared without a trace.
04:01 There are many versions of what happened to it.
04:04 One of the first says that it had tried to enter the port at Cape Bonespérance,
04:09 was caught in a terrible storm and sank because there was no captain to save it.
04:14 Another legend says that the captain refused to obey the heavens to let the ship sink during the storm.
04:20 A form of frightening light then struck the ship and the crew,
04:24 and it was then condemned to sail eternally without rest.
04:27 Many sailors claimed to have seen the Flying Dutchman.
04:31 Duke Diorque, who was to become king of England, mentioned seeing him in the Australian waters.
04:36 Just after having spotted the ship, the man who had seen it first fell from the top of the mast and did not survive.
04:42 There were other encounters with this legendary ship until the middle of the 20th century.
04:47 The ships almost collided with it while the Flying Dutchman did not emerge from nowhere.
04:52 Scientists have a more logical explanation for this mystery.
04:56 The Fata Morgana.
04:57 Not to be confused with Hakuna Matata.
05:00 When you are at sea on a hot day and the air seems to be wavy,
05:05 it looks like what you see on the road on a hot summer day.
05:09 This is due to what is called atmospheric refraction.
05:12 When light passes through different layers of air with different temperatures and densities,
05:17 it curves and bends.
05:19 Sometimes, under certain conditions, this curvature of the light can create optical illusions that are really strange above the ocean.
05:26 Like the appearance of the Flying Dutchman.
05:29 The phenomenon of Fata Morgana can make objects appear distant, deformed, stretched, or even raised above the horizon.
05:36 So you can see a ship in the distance.
05:39 But because of the way the light curves, it will seem to float above the water or even disappear and reappear.
05:45 A Fata Morgana is most often observed in the polar regions,
05:48 especially above large ice sheets that have a uniformly low temperature.
05:54 However, you can see it anywhere, even in the deserts and above lakes on hot days.
06:02 The first stories about ghost ships date back to ancient Greek and Roman mythology.
06:07 One of the most famous ghost ships in history is the Mary Celeste.
06:11 This brigantine traveled from New York to Genoa and was entirely loaded with supplies,
06:16 but she was deprived of a crew when she was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872.
06:23 The crew's personal effects were also present, perfectly intact.
06:27 The last registration in her onboard journal was made 10 days earlier.
06:31 We still do not know what happened to her crew,
06:34 and the ship has inspired many scary and legendary stories.
06:39 The Lady Lovie Bond was another legendary ghost ship,
06:45 which is said to have sunk off the shores of the Kent in the middle of the 18th century.
06:49 The story goes that the captain of the ship, Simon Reed, had just gotten married
06:54 and had taken his young wife on board for a cruise celebration,
06:58 despite the superstition that it could bring bad luck.
07:02 They were on their way to Portugal when the second, who was also in love with the captain's new wife,
07:07 driven mad by jealousy, attacked another crew member,
07:11 then took control of the ship and headed directly to the dreadful banks of Goodwin.
07:17 No one on board survived, and it is said that the Lady Lovie reappeared like a ghost ship every 50 years.
07:25 At present, many ships are abandoned and intentionally become ghost ships.
07:31 There are thousands of them floating in the rivers, lakes, canals and coasts of the United States.
07:37 Some people lose their boats in storms and other extreme weather conditions.
07:43 Others have to abandon their boats because their maintenance can cost up to 10% of the price of the boat.
07:48 In addition, the mooring of a ship can cost several thousand dollars each year.
07:52 Many boats are made of glass fiber, so their owner cannot simply recycle them as used metals.
07:59 So, when they want to get rid of them, they often tend to tie them to a dock and sneak away discreetly,
08:05 to let them float far from the shore or to try to sink them.
08:09 When these ghost ships sink in shallow waters,
08:12 they can damage the coral reefs, mangroves, tides, australian habitats and wetlands.
08:19 In addition, they can collide with regular ships that do not expect it and cause serious problems.
08:26 So, do not do that.
08:28 It's said.
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