Have you seen this week’s news in Newfoundland? The shipwreck from the 1800s that freed itself from the seabed and embedded itself just off the beach at Cape Ray? Because that is definitely not a haunted ship about to turn the local residents into zombie ghosts. No sirree. That is a genuine archaeological project that isn’t at all reminiscent of the start of every apocalyptic b-movie ever. Seriously folks, let us step back from the death boat and carry on with our lives without fear of the release of whatever nightmares reside on that trap over there. Or send those guys in the Mystery Machine to take a look. Maybe they’ll pull the mask off the mysterious ghost captain and realise that it’s fine, it’s really just a fae from another dimension. Wait, what?
These sorts of events are fascinating to me. The stories - real or imagined - that reside in the timbers capture the imagination of people around the world. The local facebook group is doing a fantastic job of keeping the masses informed, and I’m sure will continue to do so as investigations continue. Whilst shipwrecks are not uncommon (there are over 37,000 in England’s waters alone) what makes this one capture the imagination is just how visible and accessible it appears. Whilst specialist equipment will be needed to carry out a full exploration, anyone can wander down to the beach and see this untouched piece of history. Amazing.
This certainly isn’t the first shipwreck to have been washed ashore in recent times. In October, the hull of a ship thought to be The Esk, a whaling boat from 1826, washed up on the Yorkshire coastline after Storm Babet. In 2018, a section of wreckage appeared on the Florida coast, believed to be another ship from a similar era. The Cape Ray ship is particularly exciting as it seems to be one of the more complete vessels to have emerged in this way. Now, the trick will be preserving it - not just from waves, weather, and the risk of sea ice - but also from so-called treasure hunters. Shipwrecks are famously difficult to protect, and never more so than when they suddenly become accessible to the masses, rather than those with industrial-standard equipment.
Shipwrecks are one thing, but ghost ships are decidedly spookier - these are vessels that are found adrift, with no sign of inhabitation. Some of these are widely accepted to be myths, such as that of the Flying Dutchman, doomed to sail forever with its crew of the dead. Sailors over several hundred years have claimed to see such a ship bathed in a ghostly light, widely viewed as a bad omen. Well, it’s hardly going to be a good omen now, is it? Other ghost ships are well-documented in historical, rather than folkloric, records. These famously include the Mary Celeste - an abandoned vessel without any crew, nor sign of what may have befallen them. The mystery attached was latterly exacerbated by fanciful reporting and outright fiction. I can’t wait to see what writers around the world do with the Newfoundland shipwreck as inspiration!