Sunken ‘ghost ship’ could haunt Gulf fish

The week began promisingly with the discovery of a mystery “ghost ship” drifting in the Gulf of Thailand with no crew, cargo or documents aboard — not even any defiant rodents. First spotted by Chevron oil-rig workers, the dilapidated Fin Shui Yuan 2, appeared to be a freighter of Chinese origin. Unfortunately, the vessel sunk in rough seas off the Nakhon Sri Thammarat coast while being towed towards land by the Thai Navy.

For a fleeting moment it looked like Thailand might have its own version of the Mary Celeste which was found abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores back in 1872. Alas, judging from photographs of the sunken cargo ship, it appears to be bit of a rust-bucket that may have been deliberately abandoned.

The bottom of the sea is probably the best place for this wreck as long as it doesn’t spook out the resident fish. The red snapper and groupers are known to be quite superstitious and wouldn’t take kindly to the seafaring ghouls with their octopus-like appendages that featured in Pirates of the Caribbean, arriving on their patch. It might attract a few tourists though.

Thailand’s “ghost ship” admittedly does not quite capture the imagination of the Mary Celeste, an American brigantine that was discovered nearly 150 years ago with the lifeboat missing and not a sign of the 11 souls on board — Capt Benjamin Briggs, his wife, two-year-old daughter and eight crew.

Unsolved mystery

The Mary Celeste mystery is particularly fascinating because it remains exactly that…a mystery. There has been no definitive explanation of what actually happened on its ill-fated voyage from New York to Genoa.

Carrying a cargo of industrial alcohol, it was found drifting by the vessel Dei Gratia. Its sails and rigging were damaged, but it was seaworthy. The cargo had not been touched and there were plentiful supplies of food and water. The boarding party found the ship’s log of the Marie Celeste and its last entry, nine days previously, showed no indications of any problems. So what went wrong?

Sea monsters and waterspouts

Not surprisingly there were numerous complex conspiracy theories as to why a still seaworthy ship had been abandoned. There were suggestions of foul play, including piracy, mutiny, insurance fraud and even a giant octopus, none of which were particularly convincing.

Among the natural phenomena given as an explanation was the ship being hit by a huge waterspout, while some even suggested a collision with a stray iceberg. An explosion caused by fumes of the alcohol cargo was another theory.

Perhaps the most plausible explanation is that it was hit by rough seas and fearing the vessel might sink and being within sight of land the captain decided to take the lifeboat to shore but it never made it.

Written off

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle managed to muddy the waters somewhat in 1884 when he anonymously wrote a fictional short story based on the Mary Celeste in which all aboard were murdered by a former slave seeking vengeance. Because of his gripping style his version of events was misinterpreted by many as what actually happened. In addition, Conan Doyle spelling the name Marie Celeste rather than Mary, prompted this incorrect spelling in assorted reference books. Conan Doyle was of course to later experience considerable fame courtesy of a certain character called Sherlock Holmes.

Ghost train

The “ghost ship” ship sparks memories of a “ghost train” that created a brief stir in Thailand back in 1992. A spruced up old steam engine left Makkasan railway works in Bangkok for a new home at the Ratchaburi railway museum, about 125km south of Bangkok. It sounded a straightforward enough journey but the engine never arrived at its planned destination. It simply disappeared. A search party was sent out to hunt for the rogue engine which was eventually located a few weeks later in a Chon Buri siding, on a totally different route to Ratchaburi.

A subsequent inquiry prompted an alarming outbreak of amnesia from everyone involved including the engine driver who could not remember taking a wrong turning. It turned out it was all a “misunderstanding”, always a popular explanation when there is a cock-up in Thailand. The public was told that the engine was being used for “educational purposes”.

An urgent press conference was called to clear things up “once and for all” but unfortunately the head of the investigating committee lust happened to have “gone on leave”.

The media were eventually told that the engine’s mystery journey was “a secret”. Case closed.

Sounding off

Following last week’s item concerning the rural Isan soundtrack at night, a reader pointed out I missed the most important component … very loud music.

He says on New Year’s Eve someone in a neighbouring village “had the music cranked up so loud it made my windows rattle” and this intrusive racket with that familiar thumping bass sound continued until 4am. There was a brief respite, but by 5am the music had returned.

Disturbed by the racket the reader decided to investigate and discovered the new noise came from other villagers getting their own back. Upset at being kept awake, they were driving past the rogue villager’s house with their sound systems at full blast.

If they were going to be deprived of sleep, they were ensuring the original perpetrator would suffer the same fate.