Posted on 05/28/2006 6:10:43 PM PDT by Pokey78
Letter left by dying man gives clue to investigators
· Dozens of others thought to have perished en route
The white ghost ship rolled in the Atlantic swell as the rescue boats approached it 70 nautical miles off Ragged Point, one of the most easterly places on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The yacht was unmarked, 6 metres (20ft) long, and when Barbadian coastguard officers boarded it, they made a gruesome find. The boat's phantom crew was made up of the desiccated corpses of 11 young men, huddled in two separate piles in the small cabin. Dressed in shorts and colourful jerseys, they had been partially petrified by the salt water, sun and sea breezes of the Atlantic Ocean. They appeared to have come from far away.
The sea-battered yacht, identified by one local ship's captain as of French design, was towed into the port at Willoughy Fort, Bridgetown, and the bodies, by now wrapped in plastic bags, were heaved on to the quay. In a part of the world where legends and myths have often been furnished by the sea, the mystery of the dead men soon provoked curious speculation.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
X Files episode alert!
Arkanside !
original story with pic on May 1st.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=155451975
POLICE forensic experts were last night trying to determine how 11 people, believed to come from an African country, perished at sea.
The badly decomposed bodies were discovered in the cramped cabin of a 20-foot unnamed boat drifting about 70 nautical miles off the Ragged Point, St Philip coastline yesterday morning.
Police and Coast Guard officials were up to press time unable to verify their origin, but preliminary investigations indicated the deceased, believed to be all men, hailed from western Africa.
Among some of the personal items found on board the floating graveyard were an undisclosed sum of euro currency and a document indicating travel aboard one of Senegal's airlines.
Sources close to the investigations believed the men, who were mostly dressed in shorts and colourful jerseys, might have died from hunger and thirst or exposure to the elements.
Earlier reports had indicated that the men were shot.
Sources also believe the men might have been refugees whose vessel went adrift and were probably exposed to the elements for several days before collapsing and dying of hunger.
The drama surrounding one of Barbados' worst cases of mass casualties began last Saturday morning when a fisherman reported the grim discovery to the Coast Guard.
The HMBS Trident, with a joint team of police forensic and Coast Guard officials, set sail from its Willoughby Fort base around 5 p.m., taking close to 18 hours to tow the vessel and its dead crew to land.
"On board the Trident was a forensic team from the Police Force and a medical practitioner. Once the vessel was located, we brought her into Carlisle Bay and handed over to the HMBS Endeavour which subsequently towed the boat to Willoughby Fort," Coast Guard spokesman, Captain Sam Cumberbtach, told a press briefing yesterday.
Sources indicated that because of the stench and "mummified" composition of the bodies, it was difficult to assess their ages.
Officials from the Port Health Department cleared the boat for any possible communicable diseases before forensic officers were allowed to investigate and remove the bodies, which were tagged and bagged for removal by workers from Two Sons Funeral Home.
Dozens of people gathered on the Wickham-Lewis Boardwalk along the Wharf Road to get a glimpse of the boat and the victims.
I saw Godzilla do this a few times.
That's a pretty small "yacht"!
I guess they're getting smaller.
French design?
Sea going " coyotes ". Some SOB's took their money and cast them adrift.
When I sailed back from England in a 36' sailboat, we met a crowd of people who were in a single handed race from England to the Carribean. You had to be single handed and your boat had to be 21 feet or under. The record for the crossing is 6 feet, and yes it has been done on a sailboard.
Prayers for the poor souls. May they rest in peace.
Only the dead and fools would sail the ocean in a 20 foot boat!
"...and yes it has been done on a sailboard."
Geez!.
So, someone puts a gun to your head and says 'Climb Everest or try this crossing on a sail board'. Which do you do...which do you do...?
How very very sad.
Not me.
I blame the aliens.
Interesting theory. Condolences to their families and friends.
What makes it a ghost ship as opposed to a ship with dead bodies on it?
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