• Ghost Ship and the Land of Oz

Posted: **Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:44 pm**

Australian "ghost ship" mystery puzzles rescuers wrote:Australian rescuers were on Friday trying to solve the "Mary Celeste" style mystery of a yacht found floating off the coast with its engine running, food on its table ready to eat, but no crew.

The 12-metre (36 feet) catamaran was found 80 nautical miles off Townsville on the northeast coast, but there was no sign of the three crewmen who had set sail from Queensland state bound for Australia's west coast on Sunday.

"What they found was a bit strange in that everything was normal, there was just no sign of the crew," Jon Hall from emergency management in Queensland told local radio on Friday.

Hall said the yacht's sails were up but one was badly shredded. He said the engine was running, there was food on the table, a laptop was turned on, and the radio and global positioning satellite (GPS) were working.

Three life jackets and survival equipment, including an emergency beacon, were found on board, but no life rafts.

The Mary Celeste was an abandoned "ghost ship" found off the coast of Portugal in 1872. None of the Mary Celeste's crew or passengers were ever found.

The KAZ 11 was spotted adrift on the outer Great Barrier Reef on Wednesday. Rescue crews boarded the vessel on Friday but there was no sign of the three crew men, aged 56, 63 and 69.

Police said weather conditions at sea on Sunday and Monday were rough. "There was a fair sort of a wind out there but it's improved since then, so who knows what could've happened," said Police Chief Superintendent Roy Wall.

Rescuers have retrieved the boat's GPS system to analyse data for clues to the mysterious disappearance of the crew.

"That will now enable us to track backwards where this yacht has actually been in the last few days, and we're hoping that can pinpoint the search area for the missing crew," said Hall.

I know what you're thinkin' . . . but I figure pirates woulda taken the Laptop and the GPS they found.

Posted: **Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:29 pm**

Mundane possibilities: Mass suicide made to look like an accident so family members could collect on life insurance... Could be an actual accident; it did say the weather was bad, so maybe they honestly washed overboard. Possibly an animal attack...

Paranormal posibilities: Too many to list on my lunch break.

Keep your ears open, and let us know if anything comes of this?

Posted: **Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:32 pm**

Saw this on the BBC news this morning. It's defintely got my interest piqued.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:48 pm**

Mass suicide is mundane?

Your sense of humour rocks...

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:14 pm**

Compared to a group of spirits appearing and draging the crew off to their doom?

Yep, suicide is mundane.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:30 pm**

Well mass suicide is never mundane, in my opinion..

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:44 pm**

The familes are aparently shouting about kidnapping now.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:20 pm**

Are they fishing for a lawyer?

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:22 pm**

Why? Did the lawyer go overboard too? :lol:

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:23 pm**

:P

I mean the "family" always finds something to complain about and hope a lawyer picks up their case?

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:25 pm**

Someone has to do the ugly jobs.

Anyway, this does not seem to have generated a lot of attention.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:32 pm**

You can never trust Russian beaureau chiefs with anything timely or accurate or the other way around though.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:34 pm**

soooooooo true.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:37 pm**

I am just waiting for one of them to publish a Cold War piece and prove they not actually read what their reports are submitting.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:46 pm**

Very funny, but true.. I have seen some photographs that I swear were from the 1980s republished as late as 1998..

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:49 pm**

These are interesting times in which we live.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:53 pm**

Preach it sister. :lol:

Why? Did the lawyer go overboard too?

Bert, had I actually been in my body when I read this, I more than likely would have been in tears from laughing so hard.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 7:23 pm**

If you don't quit posting here, you will be in tears. I guarantee that.

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:09 pm**

GhostSpider wrote:Preach it sister.

Why? Did the lawyer go overboard too?

Bert, had I actually been in my body when I read this, I more than likely would have been in tears from laughing so hard.

I aim to please :lol:

Posted: **Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:13 pm**

It was just so well timed.