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Ghost Ships: Spectral Ships & Vessels

Who can shed any light on the reports of this phantom 921-ton naval training ship that went down March 24, 1878, losing 358 hands? She has appeared often over the years, most interestingly to Prince Edward and the film crew of the Crown and Country television series on October 17, 1998, who apparently got some footage.

Has anyone seen this footage? Does the Eurydice still haunt the seas?
 
I'm afraid this is all the name means to me:
http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/G ... pkins/6106

But some googling turns up the Times report:

THE LOSS OF THE EURYDICE (26th March 1878)

The wreck of the Eurydice, the training-ship for young ordinary seamen, off the Isle of Wight, and almost within sight of Spithead, for which place she was standing, at the end of a pleasant and successful cruise to the West Indies, is a disaster which calls vividly to mind the loss of the Captain off Cape Finisterre. With this exception, there is nothing to compare with the calamity which occurred on Sunday afternoon, so far as the Navy is concerned, though the loss of life has frequently been exceeded by the sinking of emigrant vessels. The circumstances are similar in many respects to those attending the loss of the Captain, both ships having turned over and sunk during a gale of wind, all their sail being at the time set. So far as can be ascertained, the Eurydice had 368 souls on board at the time, though thus is very much a matter of conjecture, as, besides her own. officers and crew, she was bringing home a number of military officers, supernumeraries, and invalids from the West Indies. Hence considerable uncertainty exists both as to the names and numbers of the sufferers. The Eurydice was a wooden sailing, fully-rigged ship of 921 tons displacement, and was at one time considered one of the smartest and quickest 26-gun frigates in the service. She was built about 1843. Last year she was converted into a training-ship for ordinary seamen at Mr. John White's yard at Cowes, and was completed for sea at Portsmouth Dockyard. She was commissioned on the 7th of February, 1877, and finally sailed from Portsmouth on the 13th of November with a crew of about 300 ordinary seamen and the officers named below. All the officers and crew are lost, with the exception of two seamen. Captain Hare had been at one time commander of the St. Vincent, training-ship at Portsmouth, and was selected for the command from his knowledge and experience of young seamen. Lieutenant Tabor was a thoroughly efficient sailor, having had command of the Cruiser in the Mediterranean. The Eurydice was accompanied from Portsmouth by the training brig Martin, and was eventually joined at Madeira by the Liberty from Plymouth. All the vessels were filled with ordinary seamen, whom it was considered necessary to inure to the sea by a long cruise; and, as they were all draughted from the home training-ships, the distress caused by their loss is spread over the whole country. They were, of course, mostly unmarried men, and in this respect the crew differ from that of the Captain, who were principally able-bodied seamen and petty officers. The Liberty arrived at Portsmouth a few days ago, the Eurydice being detained for the purpose of taking up supernumeraries. Captain Hare, however, informed Lieutenant-Commander Hicks that he expected to be home almost as soon as the Martin.

The Euydice left Bermuda on the 6th inst... Continued:

http://www.pdavis.nl/Eurydice.htm
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Rense.com manages this:

Prince Edward Says He
And Film Crew Saw A Ghost Ship
The Mirror (London)
From Gerry Lovell <[email protected]>
10-17-98

The 34-year-old prince told yesterday how he spotted the phantom galleon while filming the second of his Crown and Country TV series on the Isle of Wight.

Edward was telling the story of HMS Eurydice, a 26-gun frigate which capsized and sank in Sandown Bay during a blizzard in 1878.

He said: "We were talking about a ghost ship on the Isle of Wight and how we could illustrate this three-masted schooner that just disappears.

"Suddenly someone said 'Look, there's one now,' and sure enough out to sea there was a three-masted schooner.

"It was not arranged by us. It simply appeared.

"Someone said 'We'll wait until it gets a little closer to the shoreline' and then come the moment, someone else said 'Where's it gone? ' We looked and it had disappeared."

The prince added: "I am quite convinced as far as ghosts are concerned that there are too many stories, coincidences, occurrences and strange happenings.

"There is something definitely out there, but what it is I don't really know.

"I cannot believe it is just some people's imagination. There is more in it than that.

"I have never met a ghost, but I have always wanted to meet a ghost. There is only one way to find out whether they really do exist."

Edward's film crew captured the ghost ship on video after the sighting last May.

And in another strange twist, the tape jammed in the machine when they went to view it. The programme's director, Robin Bextor, said last night: "Edward was doing a piece to camera near Chine, on the Isle of Wight, when someone spotted this ship.

"We filmed it for a while, then decided to wait so we would catch it sailing off into the horizon. We assumed it was a training vessel. Like the rest of us, Edward was pleased at our stroke of luck at seeing it because it saved us time and money getting footage of something similar.

"We were packing up the cameras and took our eyes off it for a few minutes, but when we went to film it again, it had gone."

Edward spoke of the sighting during a briefing in Portsmouth yesterday about the new ITV series. The ghost ship will be seen in the October 27 programme.

The sinking of the Eurydice, with the loss of more than 300 lives, was seen by the young Winston Churchill, who was visiting the Isle of Wight with his nurse. They watched from a clifftop as the ship capsized.

There have been several other sightings of a three-masted vessel off the~Isle of Wight where many ships have gone down. Retired teacher Robin Ford, 57, from Ventnor, spotted the eerie form of a galleon during a beach barbecue with friends.

He said: "It moved slowly towards the shore, then it just seemed to up-end and slipped silently out of view."

Last night, sailing ship enthusiasts added to the mystery by saying they knew of no vessel in the area at the time Edward saw the ghost ship.

Hilary Painter, of the Sail Training Association at Portsmouth, said: "We have two training ships that sound like that, but on that particular week they were both away."

Becky Lacey, of the Jubilee Sailing Trust at Southampton said: "We have a three-masted square rigger called the Lord Nelson, but she was in Newcastle that week."

Barbara Hoyle, of the Sea Cadet Corps at Gosport, added: "We have the Royalist, which is a two-masted square rig brig, but she was not at sea that week."

http://www.rense.com/ufo/ghostship.htm
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If it was in the Mirror it must be true. ;)

edit: And, of course, publicity hunting would be below someone of Prince Edward's standing and reputation.

Also:

The Ghost Of The Eurydice

The legend of the haunting of the Eurydice began on the very day she sank. On the afternoon of the 22nd March 1878 in Windsor, the Bishop of Ripon and Sir John MacNiell were dining with Sir John Cowell when MacNiell suddenly exclaimed, "Good Heavens! Why don't they close the portholes and reef the sails?". When asked by Cowell what he meant, he replied that he didn't know, but had had a vision of a ship coming up the Channel under full sail with her gunports open while a great black squall attacked her.

Since she sank, several people witnessed sightings of a phantom three masted ship which vanished if approached. Many of these have blamed on "freak reflections of light on mist". Yet in the 1930s Commander Lipscomb was in command of a submarine which was forced to take evasive action to avoid striking a full-rigged ship which promptly vanished...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-nireland/A853742
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Though i can't find any more substantiation of these claims.
 
I'm sure that I've seen either the clip or a still of the Prince Edward film in question, with the ship clearly visible... maybe it was in the FT?
 
'Tis an omen, I tell 'ee!

This reminds me of a claim that George V (or possibly VI), when a naval cadet, once saw the Flying Dutchman. Could the Prince Edward/Eurydice connection be, er, connected in some way? A sort of "Prince sees ghost ship" meme?

And if the George in question was VI, could this be an omen that Edward will unexpectedly come to the throne? George VI was a younger son and only made it due to the abdication of Edward VIII. There's talk of Charles renouncing his claim, possibly including his direct descendents in that (Edward VIII did this when he abdicated), so a couple of Range Rovers collide and bingo - Edward IX!

Remember folks, you read it here first...
 
Sorry to ruin a great prediction, but it was George V, who saw the Flying Dutchman on 11 July 1881.
 
Darn! But it was still before he became King, wasn't it? So the "Prince sees ghost ship" thing is still going on.
 
Track Memory?

Is it not possible than when a ship sails a given route year after year, even decade after decade, that some sort of "track memory" may be established in the sea?

Something akin to this has been reported concerning humans for centuries. For just one example, the well-known story related by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Out walking one day he was approached and passed by an older version of himself on horseback. Several years later, out riding, Goethe oassed the younger version of himself!

And this "track memory" idea has been put forth previously to explain the appearances of "phantom carriages" on roads which they had once regularly traversed.
 
Ghost Ships Vs. Ghost Ships Vsw. Ghost Ships

The phrase "ghost ship" gets forced into THREE quite different usages:

1. Ships such as the Mary Celeste, the Joyita and the High-Aim 6, discovered abandoned and crewless;

Edit: These cases are now removed to their own dedicated threads:

Derelict Ships & Vessels (Abandoned; No One Aboard)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/derelict-ships-vessels-abandoned-no-one-aboard.66755/

Death Ships (Derelict Vessels With Corpses Aboard)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...s-derelict-vessels-with-corpses-aboard.66754/

2. Transparent vessels, such as the Flying Dutchman. One of the most famous sightings of this type was made by a British warship in the 1880s, with the future King George V and his younger brother among the witnesses; and,

Ghostly / spectral ships and vessels remain the focal topic in this thread (which has been re-titled to more clearly indicate its topical focus.

3. Ships which are reputedly haunted, such as the QUEEN MARY.

There's now a thread dedicated to haunted ships (including jinxed ships whose misfortunes were attributed to ghosts or similar entities):

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/haunted-ships.66756/

I oftentimes find this at least momentarily confusing. For example, I erroneously expected this thread to be about the SECOND usage. So is there a better word or phrase for at least two of these three categories?

P. S. No, "mirage" doesn't seem to explain the second type. Mirages don't sail or move TOWARDS the percipients! (Or MIGHT they?)
 
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I could provide some UK ships under the 3rd category but I don't think this is the right place to put them - and the current discussion on the subject in the Ghosts thread doesn't quite match that remit.
 
DrPaulLee said:
I could provide some UK ships under the 3rd category but I don't think this is the right place to put them - and the current discussion on the subject in the Ghosts thread doesn't quite match that remit.
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What is it that seems to make the examples unsuitable for posting in the Haunted & Cursed Ships thread (in the Ghosts: General section)?
 
OK, I missed your comment made at 6.17 today - before then, a lot of the discussion was about ships that didn't have a spook on board.
 
EnolaGaia said:
The Squando is a "ghost ship" in two senses - it was allegedly cursed / haunted when in service, and its ghost is alleged to sometimes appear in the vicinity of San Francisco.
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We have to make sure Gattino gets on this. He'll be in SF in February.

Tho' I have to say, despite living in SF for many years, I never saw anything in the Bay weirder than a submarine periscope sailing along.
 
Lordmongrove, you are the master sommelier of creepy stories! Thanks for another good one!
 
Hakai magazine explores all things nautical, with a nice collection of Fortean material (Mary Celeste, Mignonette, Ourang Medan etc.) in this article:

hakai.png


https://hakaimagazine.com/article-short/nightmares-from-the-sea/

Mod Edit:

Nightmares from the Sea​

From the safety of land, it’s easy to romanticize the ocean. Its shades of blues and greens evoke paradise, while its surface rises and falls hypnotically. But these mesmerizing qualities belie the ocean’s perilous nature. For when you leave terra firma for the sea, you’re at the mercy of its mercurial moods. With every storm, death rears its head, confronting you with a fate too terrifying to imagine. Perhaps that’s why the ocean lies at the heart of countless legends: people want to seek answers from the unknown, to be enthralled by the horrible. From a monster that unnerves a ship’s hardened crew to a luxury liner that simply disappears, here are five tales of depravity and horror set on the deep blue sea.
 
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