The Mystery Of The Ghost Ship MV Joyita
Wikimedia CommonsThe MV Joyita was found in poor condition in 1955.
The MV Joyita was an American merchant vessel built in 1931. The U.S. Navy acquired the vessel during World War II and later sold her to the Louis Brothers Firm.
The vessel switched hands several times before finally landing in the possession of Katharine Luomala, a University of Hawaii professor.
On October 3, 1955, the MV Joyita sailed from Samoa to the Tokelau islands in New Zealand. At the time of her departure, the MV Joyita carried sixteen crew members and nine passengers.
Although only one of her engines was running properly, the crew felt the voyage would be safe given the short time she was expected to travel — only 48 hours.
However, authorities reported the ship overdue when she failed to appear after three days. Although the vessel never sent out a distress signal, the New Zealand Air Force decided to patrol the waters in case the ship was in peril.
Five weeks later, on November 10, a merchant ship traveling to the Funafuti atoll nearly 600 miles away stumbled upon a drifting ship. The vessel did not respond to calls from the captain, alarming the crew and prompting them to hop aboard.
An investigation of the drifting boat found that she was empty. No passengers were aboard, and a substantial amount of cargo was missing. The lifeboat and life vests were also missing.
Broken boat pieces and bloody bandages lay on the deck. The boat’s radio was inoperable and set to 2182 kHz, the international distress frequency.
An official investigation into the fate of the MV Joyita found that a faulty pipe allowed water to enter the hull, potentially causing a panic among the passengers on board.
Strangely, officials could not understand why the captain would give the order to abandon ship given that the vessel was nearly unsinkable. Even after five weeks adrift at sea, the vessel was still buoyant.
The life rafts on the boat were questionable at best, and officials surmised there weren’t enough life vests for every passenger. So why did they abandon ship?
Theories of pirate attacks or mutinies surrounded the story of the ghost ship MV Joyita, but authorities have not discovered any further evidence of the passengers’ whereabouts.
