How Shipwreck helped populate Bermuda: 5 Incredible ship stories
Shipwrecks are some of the worst things that can happen in the ocean. There have been too many maritime disasters in the history of mankind to count. Insidious weather, challenging geographic conditions, sheer bad luck, human error – a million things can go wrong at sea.
Shipwrecks have occurred all over the world. Sunken ships can tell many interesting stories, but how do those Shipwrecks help populate Bermuda?
5 incredible shipwreck stories
1. Méduse
The Medusa was a frigate of the French Navy tasked with delivering a group of French officials to their colony in Senegal in 1816. An inexperienced captain ran the ship aground, causing it to sink later. Some of the passengers chose to stay on board, the rest went on five boats and an impromptu raft to seek salvation. Their agonizing journey in the open ocean turned into hell.
Some passengers went insane, others committed suicide, and among other things, there were several cases of cannibalism. Two weeks later, the French ship Argus rescued 15 survivors, and this catastrophe has become a terrible legend.
In 1980, the remains of the ship were discovered by French maritime archaeologists off the coast of Mauritania. The found artifacts were transferred to the museum.
2. Hydrus shipwreck
In 2015, divers discovered The Hydrus in Lake Huron, a vessel that was lost in the Great Storm of 1913. A 436-foot steamship was capsized by a storm while carrying a large cargo of iron ore, dragging the entire crew into the abyss.
More than 250 sailors died on Lake Huron during this storm. Overall, more than 6,000 shipwrecks have occurred in the Great Lakes region.
3. Mary Celeste
On November 7, 1872, Captain Benjamin Briggs sailed on the Mary Celeste from New York to Genoa with his wife and young daughter, the ship also contained 1,701 barrels of denatured alcohol. On December 5, 1872, the ship was found empty and drifting in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The cargo was intact, all the personal belongings of the captain and crew members were intact, although the lifeboat was missing. Everyone on board just disappeared. Various theories have been put forward over the years. Assumed everything was possible – from the rebellion and underwater earthquakes to aliens. The mystery of this ship has never been solved.
In August 2001, the remains of a ship matching the description of the Mary Celeste were found, but further research showed that it could be a completely different ship.
4. HMS Terror
In the fall of 2016, scientists discovered the old British research ship HMS Terror, which was thought to be lost for almost 170 years. The ship, along with another ship HMS Erebus, set off in 1845 to look for the shortest route to Asia through the Arctic. It has been perfectly preserved. The goals were not achieved, and both crews (129 people) died.
5. Governoren
In Foyne Harbor, Enterprise Island, Antarctica, lies the wreck of the Governoren, a massive ship that sank at the turn of the 20th century. In 1915, this large whaling cruiser, capable of turning a whale into whale oil on board, ran into trouble. One night, a crew member accidentally knocked a lamp off the table during a party.
With the Governoren filled with a thousand gallons of whale oil destined for Norway, the ship quickly caught fire. A miracle happened – all 85 crew members were able to escape. The charred remains of the ship are still drifting aimlessly in the cold Antarctic waters.
6. Sea Venture
The Sea Venture carried the first settlers of Bermuda in 1609. Interestingly, these people did not actually intend to stay in Bermuda. If not for a coincidence. A severe storm caused the ship to crash into rocks on the east side of Bermuda, forcing passengers to disembark. The islands might not have been inhabited for a long time if not for this incident. The shipwreck was an important milestone in the history of Bermuda. The remains of the ship were found in 1958.
