A yacht with a deceased captain on board was found off the coast of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean. It turned out to be 59-year-old famous German traveler Manfred Fritz Bayorat. Death happened about a year ago, and the body managed to mummify. The circumstances of his death remain a mystery. However, this is not the first story about a "ghost ship".
Traveler's End
Bayorat on his ship Sayo has been sailing the seas for about 20 years, covering a distance of half a million miles during this period. He definitely preferred a warm climate to a cold climate, which determined his routes. An experienced sea wolf managed to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, visit the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and Aegean seas. Repeatedly he sailed to the island of Martinique in the Caribbean - perhaps this was due to the memory of his ex-wife Claudia, with whom they sailed there together. They divorced in 2008, and in 2010, Claudia died of cancer. They have a daughter, Nina, who also holds the position of captain on a cargo ship.
A 12-meter yacht drifting 40 miles offshore was stumbled by two Filipino fishermen. The ship had a broken mast. The captain's corpse was found in the wheelhouse next to a radiotelephone: he probably tried to send a call for help, but did not have time … The body, apparently, quickly turned into a mummy: this was facilitated by the heat, dry wind and salty air.
The cabin was half submerged. There were the captain's personal belongings - clothes, canned food, old photographs. It is curious that among them was a letter addressed to the late wife of the captain: “For 30 years we have walked the same path with you. But then the power of the demons turned out to be stronger than the will to live. You left. Let your soul find peace."
No signs of violence were found on the corpse, as were no traces of the presence of a weapon on board and a second person who could be a potential killer. It is unlikely that the yacht crashed during the captain's life - Bayorat's friends believe that he could not go to sea in stormy weather … Most likely, the old sailor died of a heart attack, experts said.
And yet this death leaves many questions. The last time Bayorat got in touch was about a year ago, congratulating his friend on his birthday on Facebook. Although no one has been found to have seen him in person since 2009, he regularly used social media to communicate.
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It turns out that the Sayo yacht has turned into a real ghost ship. Do not think that the stories about such courts refer only to the distant past. There are many similar incidents today.
"Ghost ships" of the XXI century
On 3 January 2003, the Australian Coast Guard stumbled upon an empty Indonesian fishing schooner High Em 6. The ship's holds were filled with freshly caught mackerel, but none of the 14 sailors were on board.
In 2006, a completely deserted tanker Yan Seng was discovered in the same area. In the same year, history repeated itself off the coast of Sardinia, where the Italian coast guard detained the two-masted sailing ship Bel Amica without people …
In January 2008, communication was lost with the Russian bulk carrier Kapitan Uskov en route from the port of Nakhodka to Hong Kong. Neither the ship itself nor the 17 people on board were ever found. True, a month later, the Japanese coast guard stumbled upon a rescue motorboat from "Uskov". But no traces of people were found …
Guest from the past
On May 16 last year, an unknown vessel appeared in the Caribbean Sea, in the no-navigation zone west of Havana. After unsuccessful attempts to contact the intruder's crew, three Coast Guard patrol boats set off to intercept it.
It turned out that this is an old ship built at the beginning of the last century. There was no one on board. A little later it became clear that this is the legendary SS Cotopaxi, which mysteriously disappeared in 1925.
On November 29, 1925, SS Cotopaxi departed from Port Charleston in South Carolina towards Havana. Two days later, the crew stopped communicating. Since then, nothing has been known about the ship.
The logbook, which was kept by the ship's captain who served with the Clinchfield Navigation Company, was cut short by the estimated date of the disaster - December 1, 1925. Although the notes contained many interesting details concerning the daily life of the crew, there was not even a hint of what happened …
Margarita Troitsyna