The Mystery of The Lady Lovibond

Stock Image of a Creepy Ship because there were no cameras in 1748

The Lady Lovibond & It's Wreck-

The Lady Lovibond was a three-masted schooner that was wrecked, on the Goodwin Sands, off the Kent coast of south-east England on February 13, 1748. This particular date was also a Friday the 13th which is considered a very unlucky and ominous day. The legend surrounding it and the reason its called a ghost ship is that people have seen it many years after its wreckage. Sightings and reports all claim that every 50 years after the wreckage, the lady Lovibond was seen by some ships and usually with an eerie white glow

The story of the wreckage is that on 13 February 1748 the ship, which was captained by Simon Reed (In some reports named Simon Peel), who had just been married to a lady named Annetta and the cruise was a form of celebration for them. At the time, Simon and Annetta who were accompanied by their first mate Rivers and about 50 or so wedding guests were travelling from London to Oporto. Unknown to Simon, Rivers was also madly in love with Annetta and was enraged with envy. In a fit of anger and jealously, Rivers used a heavy belaying pin from the ship's rail to kill the helmsman with one heavy blow. He then proceeded to seize the helm and intentionally steered the ship into the treacherous Goodwin Sands, eventually leading to the ship drowning within hours of it setting sail and killing everyone on board.

Some people may be wondering as to how the story of the wreckage is known because everyone on board had died. Well, there was a subsequent inquiry into the wreckage which found it as a “misadventure” because at the time of the wreck it had been a clear, stormless night so the inquiry found no other reason for the ship to sink other than sabotage. The first mate River's mother also gave a statement saying that her son had vowed to have his revenge on the captain even at the cost of his own life. Adding to the proof of some sort of mishap, the Goodwin Sands are known to be very treacherous and unsafe making it very unlikely that a group of sailors on a celebratory cruise would choose to go there on their own accord.

Sightings-

The tale of the Lovibond actually became a ghost ship legend 50 years later in 1848 when it was first seen as a ghost ship. 2 ships, "The Edenbridge" captained by James Witalke and a small fishing boat spotted a ship very similar to the Lovibond, and Captain Witalke claimed to have nearly collided with the ship during which he got close enough to hear celebratory sounds from the ship. The Lovibond then proceeded to sink to which rescue boats were sent from the Edenbridge but by the time they reached where the ship was seen, it had disappeared. On the 13th of February and fifty years after this sighting, in 1898, the ship was seen again. Local residents of a town in Kent saw a ship with three masts on its way to a collision with the Goodwin Sands. Like the Edenbridge incident, rescue boats were sent but no wreckage or evidence of a ship was found as if it had suddenly vanished into thin air.

The Lovibond was last spotted in 1948, still following the legend and being seen 50 years post the last sighting. Captain Bull Prestwick spotted her. He stated that the ship looked very real although it gave off an eerie white glow. After this, in 1998 there were no recorded sightings of The Lovibond even though many seamen made their way to the site where it is usually seen to catch a glimpse of the ghostly ship. This is very disappointing as it breaks the continuous 50-year chain but who knows if ghosts ship follows a schedule or not and when they'll be seen.

Skepticism-

As with most ghost ship stories, there is heavy skepticism for The Lady Lovibond as well. The most prominent point that skeptics state is that there is no historical evidence for the Lady Lovibond being wrecked on the Goodwin Sands during the 1700s, and most sources such as surveys and local newspapers have no reports of it. Most stories and reports of The Lady Lovibond and its wreck closely follow those written by George Goldsmith Carter in his 1953 book 'The Goodwin Sands,' but the first reliable story of the ship is from a 1924 article in the Daily Chronicle. Although an oral version of the story may have circulated during the early 19th century, it seems unlikely that there aren't any Victorian collectors of such tales who would have known of and spoken about the tale before this. It is believed that the ship was either fabricated as a ghost tale or a tale for Valentine's day as both these days are just a day apart. The other possibility is that this ship did exist but the tale is misdated and actually took place between 1914 and 1924.

Conclusion-

I personally really like this legend as a story about love and how jealousy led to the demise of everyone and the ship had some sort of otherworldly connection and came back every 50 years. What makes me doubt the legitimacy of the original story and especially the date of it is the lack of records of anything related to The Lovibond before 1924. Personally, I think that this must be a true tale from the early 1900s which may have been connected to other unrelated shipwrecks of similar ships. This is possible because the Goodwin Sands are quite treacherous and have seen more than a few boats and ships wreck making it easy for people to mistake them for the same ship and stretch a tale into an everlasting legend. This would also explain why there are no records of a shipwreck at the time and why there were no sightings of the ship in 1998 when it was supposedly going to turn up. 

Thanks a lot for taking out the time to read my post and I hope you enjoyed it! For any future post suggestions or comments please feel free to contact me on any of our social media pages or leave a comment below! I also found an interesting poem about this legend which you can see by clicking here.