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ladies and gentlemen it’s your friend
Mike Brady from ocean liner designs now
disappearances can sometimes be very
hard to explain and this can be
especially true of ships it’d be hard to
imagine how a whole ship can just
seemingly disappear into thin air but it
has happened for centuries and continues
to happen to this day here are four of
the most fascinating ship disappearances
from recent history
laughs
[Music]
this first ship was Lost Without a Trace
and after messages in bottles began to
wash up on beaches it led to a
tantalizing mystery that still puzzles
experts to this day
long before the Titanic the White Star
Line had a fleet of impressive ships
that battled their longtime competitor
Cunard line for Atlantic dominance the
Lino neuronic was different to other
ships though she was built at a time
when the company wanted to increase its
capacity for transporting livestock
mainly American cattle back to Britain
at the time of her launch an
introduction in 1892 neuronic was the
largest cargo ship afloat she had
capacity for just 15 passengers but
probably the most comfortable aboard the
ship were the cows at the time much
livestock was transported and cramped
terrible conditions on leaky ships and
many died at sea at considerable expense
to their owners neuronic and her sister
ship bovik were different they offered
much better accommodation for the cattle
so they would survive the trip happy and
healthy neuronic was not destined to
have a long career however in February
1893 the ship departed Liverpool for New
York with 60 crew aboard as well as 14
passengers a pair of horses and 2 800
tons of assorted cargo there were no
cows for this leg of the trip these were
picked up in New York for the return
Voyage to Liverpool
neuronic set out from Liverpool and
stopped in North Wales before heading
out to sea but the ship was never seen
again
it was just supposed to be a 10-day
Crossing but when the ship failed to
show there was initially no alarm
it was coming in those days for ships to
be delayed by weather or even broken
propellers or machinery
this was 1892 a few good years before
wireless radio telegraphs would find

their way aboard ships so neuronic had
no way of messaging Shaw or other ships
to let them know what was going on but
after the passing of several weeks it
became clear that something had gone
terribly wrong
there was still no sign of neuronic but
in a typical PR move the White Star Line
called for calm and emphasized the
quality and safety of their ship they
stressed that the ship is recent built
with watertight compartments well
equipped handled and commanded by the
best officers in the Atlantic but then
in March the company began to express
concern for their ship a search was
mounted and ships crossing the Atlantic
were given extra Lookouts but it was all
for nothing the White Star Line of
Teutonic arrived in Ireland having
diverted themselves well South to look
for the ship that they found no trace
the White Star Line was forced to
recognize the situation they announced
we still hope that it can be safe but it
is unlikely that it will be found
because the Atlantic is crisscrossed by
Steamers and sailboats and it would
certainly have been spotted if it had
still been afloat
later that month the British steamer
Coventry spotted two of neuronics
lifeboats empty and adrift about 500
miles east of Halifax Nova Scotia one
was capsized and the other was swamped
by June 1893 the ship was clearly lost
and an inquiry was set up to figure out
the likely cause
rumors abounded and there were even
reports of messages found in bottles
washed up on beaches
one was supposedly found washed up on a
beach six weeks after The Disappearance
at Ocean View Virginia that said 3 10
a.m February 19th SS neuronic at Sea to
who picks this up report when you find
this to our agents if not heard of
before that our ship is sinking fast
beneath the waves it’s such a storm that
we can never live in the small boats
one boat has already gone with a human
cargo below God let all of us live
through this we are struck by an iceberg
in a blinding snowstorm and floated two
hours now it’s 3 20 am by my watch and
the great ship is dead level with the
sea
report to the agents at Broadway New
York New York mkerson company goodbye
all
the letter was signed by Mr John Olson
the Cattleman but the only problem is
that according to logs there was no John
Olson aboard the ship the inquiry
refused to accept the messages found in
bottles as genuine
later a new Theory emerged neuronics
cargo included dangerous chemicals like
potassium chlorate sodium sulfide and
calcium hypochlorite
if a storm had descended on the ship
those chemicals could have accidentally
mixed if their vessels and containers
broke in the rolling ship and the result
would have been catastrophic for
neuronic an explosion of immense size
could have crippled the ship and led to
a sudden sinking
a newspaper from the time ran a
Norwegian Captain’s report that having
spotted one of neuronic’s lifeboats
covered in Barnacles but clearly hastily
prepared for lowering this spoke of a
sudden and unexpected departure from the
ship but sadly for neuronics human
compliment there was virtually no chance
of rescuing the days before radio and
until the wreck is found its final fate
will remain a mystery
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now this next ship disappeared on its
maiden voyage but unlike the neuronic we
have a much clearer idea of what
happened the Hans head Toft was a brand
new combination cargo passenger ship
designed to carry refrigerated cargo the
ship wasn’t huge by any means only 82
meters or 271 feet long and about
2875 gross registered tons the ship was
built in Denmark and was named after one
of the former Prime Ministers of the
country the Danish Ministry of Defense
secretly strengthened it to take 40
millimeter anti-aircraft guns in the
case of the outbreak of war in January
1959 the ship set out on its maiden
voyage from Copenhagen for Greenland a
voyage of around 2100 miles or 3 400
kilometers she made the first leg of the
voyage in record time and began to call
on ports before preparing for the return
trip she departed with 40 crew and 55
passengers on board including a Danish
parliamentarian critically as well as a
cargo of frozen fish the ship was
carrying a Monumental archive 3.25 tons
of files relating to greenlandic history
and genealogy but then disaster struck
in the late afternoon of January 30 a
distress call was received by the U.S
Coast Guard vessel Campbell Hans head
Toft had struck an iceberg and was
sinking fast a Mayday in general
emergency was declared but aircraft
couldn’t be launched to help because the
weather was just too poor Han’s head
Toft was on her own sinking without help
nearby
an hour later another message was
transmitted declaring that the engine
room had flooded and then at 5 41 PM
another message requesting immediate
assistance as the ship was sinking but
then there was silence nothing was ever
heard of the Hans head Toft again
the Coast Guard ship Campbell reported
that conditions were the worst ever seen
with huge seas and driving freezing
winds the crew and passengers of Han’s
head Toft could not have stood a chance
search was made for the ship but no
lifeboats were spotted if they could
even launch them in the terrible Seas
they must have been swamped and sunk
on February 7th the search was called
off and Hans head Toft was declared a
total loss
aside from the tragic loss of life a
huge Archive of files that went down
with the ship was a major blow for
greenlandic genealogical studies
nine months after the ship sank a lone
life preserver washed ashore in Iceland
with the ship’s name on it it stands
today as the only piece of the ship to
ever be found
so what happened how could such a modern
ship be lost to an iceberg after all the
lessons learned in the past well Han’s
head Toft was different to other modern
ships of the era because instead of
having an all-welded Hull the ship’s
plates were riveted together at the time
this had been criticized ships in the
far Northern Atlantic were far more
likely to encounter icebergs and rivets
are prone to popping under pressure in
the event of a ship colliding with ice
because the ship’s engine room had
flooded it seems likely that a scrape
with an iceberg opened up a huge seam
along the ship’s side as rivets failed
rendering the watertight compartments
useless
the ship rests on the bottom of the
Atlantic and discovered to this day
the Hans hentoff disappearance can be
logically explained but sometimes ships
just vanish and leave us guessing then
wild theories take over this is
especially true of this next ship the
lovely yet doomed SS waratah
waratah was built in 1908 a passenger
cargo ship of considerable size for the
time at 465 feet or 142 meters in length
and some
9339 gross registered tons the ship was
designed to carry passengers and cargo
on the long Voyage between Britain and
Australia and she had space for 432
passengers and cabins and another 600
immigrants in temporary dormitories
within the ship’s cargo holds the ship’s
first class was relatively comfortable
and even featured a nursery for children
as well as luxurious music Lounge for
performances like other ships of the
time waratah featured a suite of safety
features like watertight compartments
and a cellular double bottom which her
owners declared made her practically
immune from any danger of sinking but
unfortunately this would soon prove not
to be the case
on her second voyage in April 1909 the
ship had departed Britain for Australia
and disembarked her passengers and cargo
then she began to make the return Voyage
to Britain the ship’s Captain ilbery was
not impressed with the new ship and he
complained to the vessel’s owners that
it did not have the inherent stability
of the company’s previous vessels there
was even a heated exchange between the
ship’s owners and Builders over this
after waratah’s made in Voyage but while
a solution was considered the ship set
off in its second voyage
waratah was steaming along the South
African Coast with almost 100 passengers
aboard and A Cargo of flower Dairy
frozen meat and tantalizingly 7 800 bars
of gold bullion the ship made it to
Durban South Africa and disemparked a
few passengers
one was an engineer and experienced sea
traveler Mr Claude Sawyer who sent a
message to his wife that said thought
waratah top heavy landed Durban Sawyer
was meant to sail all the way through to
Cape Town but decided to get off earlier
because he was worried about the sea
keeping behavior of the ship
waratah left Durban on the 26th of July
with 211 passengers and crew and was
spotted the next day by a smaller ship
the clan McIntyre the captain of that
ship recall it was the worst weather
he’d ever experienced in his 13 years at
Sea with massive waves and powerful
winds
waratah sailed off into the Distance
buffeted by the Sea and was never
properly seen again
in the midst of the driving Seas waratah
plowed ahead intending to reach Cape
Town on July 29th but when the ship
failed to reach its destination concern
began to mount just like neuronic though
this took some time because it was still
common for ships in that era to be weeks
overdue
finally in August that year a search was
mounted the Royal Navy ship HMS Hermes
was sent with two other warships to look
but the Seas were still so heavy that
Hermes Hull was breached and the ship
had to be dry docked on August 10th some
exciting news came from Durban The
Vessel seemingly matching waratah’s
description had been spotted slowly
making its way towards the port in
Australia the message was even read out
in Parliament and in the city of
Adelaide where atar’s first Australian
Port of Call the town Bells were rung
but in the end the ship was found not to
be waratah and the vessel was still
missing for four months the Royal Navy
and the waratah’s owners searched
chartering vessels to find the ship but
in the end no confirmed trace of her or
a passengers and crew was ever found no
lifeboats no life preservers nothing
there were reports of a life preserver
washing ashore on New Zealand with the
ship’s name on it but this is hard to
prove and in the end inquiries had
nothing to work with except the
discussions regarding the ship’s
stability before the departure
the inquiry found that the ship had been
well built and was safe as could be at
the time but many former passengers from
the maiden voyage in the first leg of
the second voyage recalled pitching and
rolling and the ship taking on a
dangerous list confusingly though other
passengers and crew came forward to
discredit these reports stating that the
ship was stable and handled well at Sea
no obvious answer was evident and in the
end only wild theories could be put
forward for consideration
one Theory had waratah experience a
dramatic cargo shift as she was carrying
over 1 000 tons of lead and 300 tons of
lead or concentrate this can liquefy
creating a dangerous situation for the
ship as its stability is upset this free
surface effect could cause a Cap’s eye
as in today or concentrate is treated as
a hazardous cargo for this very reason
another theory is that waratah
experienced an explosion maybe of her
coal dust or a boiler which would have
sunk the ship in minutes
but the most likely explanation is
possibly the most horrifying a freak
wave in Heavy Seas waves can band
together to create one massive seemingly
random Rogue Wave which can have
devastating consequences for any ship in
their path waves like this have damaged
massive transatlantic passenger liners
one even rolled the mighty Queen Mary
about 50 degrees onto its side and that
ship was almost nine times larger than
the waratah if the ship really was
experiencing stability issues then a
rogue way of catching it unaware would
result in a capsizing and immediate
sinking a nightmare situation for any
ship’s passengers and crew leaving no
time for preparing or lowering the
lifeboats in the end the ship’s owners
the blue anchor line faced bankruptcy as
ticket sales dried up it entered
voluntary Liquidation in 1910 and sold
all its assets off to p o like the other
ships on this list today the waratah’s
wreck lies somewhere on the sea floor
rusted and corroded but still bearing
the clues that could help solve the
mystery of the ship’s loss if only it
could ever be found
Our Last Ship today was revolutionary
for its time but like others on this
list disappeared with all hands and only
messages in bottles give us a clue as to
what might have happened
the Collins line was an American
passenger steamship company doing its
best to compete with its British
competitors like Cunard line this was in
the very early days of steamship
Services across the Atlantic before then
passengers had to Brave wild seas in
rickety sailing ships and the trip took
weeks instead by 1849 passengers could
Sail on combination passenger ships like
Collins lines Pacific which along with
its three sister ships was the fastest
safest and most luxurious ship of its
Day January 1856 the ship set out from
Liverpool for New York with 45
passengers and 141 crew captained by
experience Skipper ASA Eldridge who had
previously set a world record for the
fastest time across the Atlantic by a
Clipper sailing ship that year the
icebergs had been particularly heavy and
captains were warned of their presence
the ship sailed off in New York but
disappeared somewhere along the way this
was long long before the Advent of
wireless communication and the Pacific
seemed to have just vanished Into Thin
Air other ships were sent to trace out
Pacific’s route but no sign of the ship
could be found then in 1861 five years
after The Disappearance The Message in a
Bottle was found washed up on the beach
of an island off the Scottish mainland
in it was a chilling message it said on
board the Pacific from Liverpool to New
York ship going down confusion on board
icebergs around us on every side I know
I cannot Escape I write the cause of our
loss that friends may not live in
suspense
the finder will please get it published
w m Graham after checking Pacific’s
passenger manifest indeed included a
British sea captain Mr William Graham
who was sailing for New York to take
command of his own ship although the
messages veracity couldn’t be definitely
confirmed it Remains the only and most
likely explanation as to the ship’s
disappearance a collision with an
iceberg in the night would have been
devastating to the ship in an era before
many of the safety measures we are
familiar with today
unfortunately owing to the vast size of
the North Atlantic Ocean we may just
never know the ultimate cause of
Pacific’s loss and it will forever
remain a mystery
ladies and gentlemen it’s your friend
Mike Brady from ocean liner designs
thank you so much for watching this
video please think about liking and
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stay safe stay happy and I’ll see you
again next time