Ghost Ship

[Jeff]

There was mention on the news last night and I see the NYTimes has an article on their web site (A Fishing Boat Falls Prey to Mutiny? Pirates? - by RAYMOND BONNER):

"Jan. 17 — Somewhere in the Indian Ocean, before the sun's rays bounced off the waves on the third day of 2003, something happened aboard the High Aim No. 6, a long-line fishing boat.

When the Australian Navy came upon the 80-foot vessel six days later, on Jan. 9, it was drifting, on full throttle, the main gas tank dry. The auxiliary fuel tanks, full, had not been switched on. When the sailors boarded, they found 10 tons of valuable bonito tuna in the refrigerated hold.

A partial carton of Marlboro cigarettes and a jar of Nescafé were on the dash above the helm in the wheelhouse, along with the captain's reading glasses. The crew members' clothes and international documents were neatly where they should be.

But there was no crew. Vanished. Gone.

What happened to the crew of the High Aim has baffled Australian investigators and salty sea veterans, as well as the residents in this sparsely populated, far-off corner of Australia, who have come to call it "the ghost ship."

...

[Jeff]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/18/in...ia/18GHOS.html

[Nomad]

Great Jeff now how am I going to fall a sleep to-nite when your telling ghost stories?? On a more serious note: Didn't something like that happen about 2-3 years ago?? Or was it longer than that??

[Mike D]

Nomad

Probably the best known of similar unexplained mysteries is the Mary Celeste, here’s a good site.
http://www.deafwhale.com/maryceleste/

I don’t know why you feel spooked about such incidents, go to this site
http://www.moontide.freeservers.com/links.html
and scroll down to mystery ships and also to ghost ships then thank your lucky stars you haven’t met the infamous Dutch captain. Now he’d spook you if anyone could!

Happy dreams oooo - OOOOOOOO - oooo

Michael

[Willallison]

The latest theory relating to the High Aim is that she was attacked by pirates. A detailed search of the vessel revealed that some of the electronics and a few other things were gone. The crew are assumed to have been killed and turfed over the side.....
A pretty extreme means of getting a new chartplotter.......

Probably patagonian toothfish poachers and a few of the Tassie patagonian toothfishermen took matters into their own hands since our federal govt is too pussy footed to shoot the poachers from military aircraft patrolling the southern oceans!

Shoot first - ask questions later Will, works for me! ;o)

Cheers!

[Willallison]

No such thing as a response that's too extreme as far as Im concerned either Trouty.

You could do with a few of them guns up your way to stop some of those other boats too....

This is a web site I found to have some information on the problem of piracy.
http://www.iccwbo.org/ccs/imb_piracy...acy_report.asp
This is a growing problem and will only get worse. I know it can be a hassel but maybe carrying a gun is better than just being killed and thrown to the fish. I would hate to see my wife raped and murdered or a crew member for a friggin radio. I would rather shoot a couple of them even if they killed me at least a couple of the bastards would not be going home. my stainless 300 win mag comes to mind as it will punch a hole through 1/2" plate steel and I can start nailing them at 500 yards.

[SailDesign]

Guest,
You say "my stainless 300 win mag comes to mind as it will punch a hole through 1/2" plate steel and I can start nailing them at 500 yards."
How are you going to tell, from 500 yards, that they are pirates? They could be coming your way to ask for some fresh water, or just for a chat coz their radio is bust.
I'm with you on the desire to do damage if it is warranted, but "shoot first" is not a valid argument, and could even be used by them against you.
Get a sawn-off 20-bore and wait till they're climbing the rails with knives in their teeth... ;-)

[MarkC]

Gee! Haven't the imaginations run rampant.

Here is another take.

The crew has run out of beer so they stop in an Indonesian port - tie onto an old mooring and jump in the dingy and go ashore. The Captain is sick of the broken radar so he gives the mate $500 dollars and sends him to the repair shop. He cant get the part out so he takes the unit in the second dingy. The repair will cost $1,200 so the mate returns, picks up the Captain who is going to argue with the repair technicians.

A bad storm is brewing - the Captain and crew stop in a cheap hotel to eat.

The mooring parts, the boat drifts with the wind and current. No local fishermen are out because of the bad weather - the boat drifts with the current. No other fisher is going to attempt to salvage the boat because the insurance companies do not pay - or make the salvage so difficult - even getting petrol money for the tow takes a court case (so as is in Australian waters - as I have been told - 'they' just take some equipment off and leave the boat).

Australian immigration patrols find the boat.

No pirates, murders, cult suicides, unsolved alien abductions, methane gass bubles, giant squid, time portals...

[SailDesign]

MarkC says:
"No pirates, murders, cult suicides, unsolved alien abductions, methane gass bubles, giant squid, time portals..."

You're no fun.... ;-P

[Willallison]

so as is in Australian waters - as I have been told - 'they' just take some equipment off and leave the boat

...not to mention, wrong.....

[MarkC]

How wrong????

This was told to me (quietly) by fishers in New South Wales in 1998. They were commenting on abandoned yachts. In the same conversation a Sydney sailing instructor discussed the fustration experienced with an insurance company after a yacht salvage incident. The fishers added this comment somewhat sheepishly.

Certainly not worth getting your back 'up' about. But if you are offended, then by all means be offended!

[Willallison]

not at all offended - just not sure that I believe that Oz fishermen - or fishermen of almost any nation in fact - would steal equipment off an abandoned boat and not report its location to the relevant authorities (as doing so would indicate they were the ones who nicked the gear).....

[MarkC]

Yes - I put forward the possibility as just one out of a million that could have happened. No one knows for sure. I was told (stripping a boat) does happen. To me it is just as plausible as heavily armed Thai pirates or a North Korean heroin deal gone wrong.

I respect fishermen - but are they the salt of the earth? Well, not all of them - for example, there was the Lucan family settling a dispute over a school of tuna with a shot gun - there was the tuna boats buying hash and heroin from foreign trawlers off the Australian bite, there was the Greek charged in Adelaide with scuttling his trawler for the insurance, the lobster fisher who horified tourists with catching and hacking up a dolphin to use as bait. These were all just in South Australia - and probably all more scallywag than evil.