A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a fictional ghostly vessel, such as the Flying Dutchman, or a physical derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the Mary Celeste. The term is sometimes used for ships that have been decommissioned but not yet scrapped, as well as drifting boats that have been found after breaking loose of their ropes and becoming carried away by the wind or the waves.
A reefer ship is a refrigerated cargo ship typically used to transport perishable cargo, which require temperature-controlled handling, such as fruits, meat, vegetables, dairy products, and similar items.
RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner, built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor of the 1911–1917 Laconia. The new ship was launched on 9 April 1921, and made her maiden voyage on 25 May 1922 from Southampton to New York City. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was converted into an armed merchant cruiser, and later a troopship. She was sunk in the South Atlantic Ocean on 12 September 1942 by torpedoes. Like her predecessor, sunk during the First World War, this Laconia was also destroyed by a German submarine. Some estimates of the death toll have suggested that over 1,658 people were killed when the Laconia sank. The U-boat commander Werner Hartenstein then staged a dramatic effort to rescue the passengers and the crew of Laconia, which involved additional German U-boats and became known as the Laconia incident.
SS Maheno was an ocean liner belonging to the Union Company of New Zealand that operated in the Tasman Sea, crossing between New Zealand and Australia, from 1905 until 1935.
SS Waratah was a passenger and cargo steamship built in 1908 for the Blue Anchor Line to operate between Europe and Australia. In July 1909, on only her second voyage, the ship, en route along the coast of the Colony of Natal from Durban to Cape Town, disappeared with 211 passengers and crew aboard. No trace of the ship has ever been found and her fate remains unknown.
SS Georgia was an oil tanker that was built in the United States in 1908 as Texas and spent most of her career in the United States Merchant Marine. In 1917 she was renamed Georgia. In 1927 she was transferred to Dutch ownership, and shortly thereafter ran aground and was lost on Haisborough Sands off the coast of Norfolk, England.
The Mataafa Storm of 1905, was a storm that occurred on the Great Lakes on November 27–28, 1905. The system moved across the Great Basin with moderate depth on November 26 and November 27, then east-northeastward across the Great Lakes on November 28. Fresh east winds were forecast for the afternoon and evening of November 27, with storm warnings in effect by the morning of November 28. Storm-force winds and heavy snows accompanied the cyclone's passage. The storm, named after the steamship Mataafa, ended up destroying or damaging about 29 vessels, killing 36 seamen, and causing shipping losses of US$ 3.567 million on Lake Superior.
Marlborough was an iron-built two-decked merchant sailing ship which disappeared in 1890. She was built by the firm of Robert Duncan and Co., Port Glasgow and launched in 1876 for her owner John Leslie, who later sold her to the Albion Line. Marlborough disappeared during a voyage in January 1890, and has not been seen or heard from in over a century. Searches and investigations have yielded nothing conclusive, and the ship's ultimate fate, and that of her crew, remains unknown.
Pioneer was a 19th-century paddle-steamer gunboat used in New Zealand. Built in Sydney to the order of the New Zealand colonial government by the Australian Steam Navigation Company, she cost £9,500. Launched in 1863, she was towed across the Tasman Sea by HMS Eclipse, leaving Sydney on 22 September and arriving at Onehunga on 3 October 1863.
The Advance was a composite schooner built in 1874 at Auckland, New Zealand, that was wrecked when she drifted onto rocks at Henrys Head, Botany Bay, New South Wales, Australia, on 12 June 1902, whilst carrying ballast between Wollongong and Newcastle, New South Wales.
USAT McClellan was a United States Army transport ship that saw service during the Spanish–American War and World War I. She also participated in the occupation of Veracruz in 1914.
The Fitzroy was a steel-hulled steamship built in 1912 at Old Kilpatrick, Scotland in 1912. Thirty-one people were killed when Fitzroy capsized in a gale whilst carrying a general cargo between Coffs Harbour and Sydney off Cape Hawke, New South Wales on 26 June 1921.
Koraaga was a Castle-class steel-hulled trawler built in 1914 by Smith's Dock Company, South Bank, Middlesbrough. She was requisitioned as an auxiliary minesweeper operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in October 1917 for minesweeping duties during World War I, but she was never commissioned. Koraaga returned to be operated commercially as a fishing trawler until she wrecked when she struck a reef off Bass Point whilst carrying returning to Sydney. She was refloated on the tide after having becoming stranded and drifted till she was finally lost five miles (8.0 km) east of Black Head, Gerringong on 10 September 1931.
The Merksworth was an iron steamer screw built in 1874 at, Paisley, that was wrecked when it swamped whilst carrying coal between Newcastle and Sydney and was lost off Stockton Beach on 7 May 1898.
Caesar Roose (1886–1967) was a New Zealand ship owner and operator, flax and timber miller, businessman, entrepreneur, community leader and philanthropist. He was born in Mercer, Waikato, New Zealand in 1886.
SS Port Nicholson was a British refrigerated cargo ship owned by the Port Line. She entered service shortly after the First World War and was sunk by a German U-boat in the Second World War. Her wreck has subsequently been discovered, attracting attention with claims that she was carrying a large cargo of platinum ingots and other precious metals when she was sunk.
SS Hertford was a refrigerated cargo steamship that was launched in Germany in 1917, seized by the United Kingdom in 1920 as World War I reparations, and sunk by a U-boat in 1942 with the loss of four members of her crew.
SS Dorrigo was a cargo and passenger steam ship. It was built under the name of Saint Francois by the Smiths Dock Company at the South Bank in Middlesbrough on the River Tees in Northeast England for the Compagnie Navale de l'Océanie for the Pacific Island postal and general trade service, for which it sailed the waters of the Pacific from 1914 to 1921. The ship suffered minor damage during the First World War during the Bombardment of Papeete, prior to coming into the hands of the Langley Bros who placed it in the Sydney to Coffs Harbour route from 1922 to 1925. Upon the demise of the Langley Bros shipping firm in 1925 the vessel came into the service of John Burke and Co and was used for the Northern Queensland runs prior to its loss on 4 April 1926.
Langton Grange was a refrigerated steam cargo ship built in 1896 by the Workman, Clark & Co. of Belfast for Houlder Brothers & Co. of London to transport meat and other produce from Australia and South America to United Kingdom.
Suffolk was a refrigerated steam cargo ship built in 1899 by the Sunderland Shipbuilding Co. of Sunderland for Federal Steam Navigation Company of London to transport meat and other produce from Australia and South America to United Kingdom.
