The Mystery Of The Ghost Ship MV Joyita
Wikimedia CommonsThe MV Joyita was found adrift and abandoned in the South Pacific in 1955.
The MV Joyita was an American merchant vessel built in 1931. The U.S. Navy acquired the ship during World War II and later sold it to a private owner.
The vessel changed hands a number of times, and its last captain would be a British sailor named Thomas H. “Dusty” Miller, who was living in Samoa.
On October 3, 1955, the MV Joyita sailed from Samoa en route to the Tokelau Islands, an island territory of New Zealand. At the time of the vessel’s departure, the MV Joyita carried 16 crew members and nine passengers.
Though just one of the ship’s engines was running properly, the crew felt the voyage would be safe given that it was supposed to be a two-day trip.
When the ship failed to arrive on time, authorities became very concerned. Although they hadn’t received a distress signal from the vessel, the Royal New Zealand Air Force patrolled the waters in case the ship was in peril.
Weeks later, on November 10th, a merchant ship traveling to the Funafuti Atoll stumbled upon a drifting ship, tipped very heavily to one side. When the captain called out to the vessel, there was no response, alarming the crew.
Wikimedia CommonsThough the ghost ship Joyita was in poor condition, it was extremely buoyant — and it was unlikely that it would sink.
An initial investigation of the boat — which turned out to be the MV Joyita, about 600 miles off course — found that it was empty. No passengers were aboard, and most of the cargo was missing. The lifeboats were also gone.
Chillingly, the windows of the deckhouse were broken, and bloody bandages were discovered on the deck. The vessel’s (faulty) radio was set to 2182 kHz, an international marine distress radio frequency.
An official investigation found that a faulty pipe allowed water to enter the ship’s hull, likely causing panic among the people on board.
But officials could not understand why the captain would decide to abandon ship, given the vessel’s extreme buoyancy. Despite the MV Joyita’s poor condition, it was still afloat even after weeks adrift at sea. In contrast, the lifeboats on the boat were questionable at best. So why did everyone leave?
Countless theories emerged as to what caused the MV Joyita to become a ghost ship, including a pirate attack, a mutiny, and even supernatural forces. But authorities have never been able to confirm what exactly happened.
