Octavius, The Iced Ghost Ship

Stock Image of a similar-looking Ship

The Octavius and it's Mystery

This is the tale of a mysterious ghost ship and arguably also one of the most famous. The story begins in 1761 when a three-masted schooner (a ship), Octavius departed from London for China. This trip was quite uneventful and went along smoothly with the Octavius successfully arriving in China in 1762. They unloaded their cargo and were heading back to the UK when the captain noticed that the weather was unusually warm. Due to this, the captain gambled on a return through the treacherous and then little known, Northwest Passage. The ship left but never ended up reaching the UK and it was assumed that they had fallen prey to the treacherous and icy Northwest Passage.

The story of the Octavius continues again on October 11, 1775, when it was seen again. A whaling ship called the Herald was working along the west coast of Greenland when they spotted the Octavius floating in the water. They tried contacting the crew of the ship but got no reply after which a 5 man boarding party was sent onto the Octavius. The boarding party was shocked to find the whole crew of 28 dead, frozen solid below decks and perfectly preserved. They found the ship’s captain sitting on his table with a pen in hand frozen midway through writing the entry for November 11, 1762, which was 13 years ago. Along with the captain, his cabin had a dead boy in a blanket, a dead woman and a sailor holding a tinderbox. The crew of the Herald were scared that the Octavius was cursed, so, instead of searching further into the ship, they quickly left it taking only the captain's log with them. Sadly, since the log was frozen solid, it slipped from the bookbinding and broke, leaving only the initial and final pages intact.

From later reading of the log and as the legend goes, the ship's last recorded position was 75N 160W, which is about 400km north of Canada and was when the ship got trapped in ice. The crew survived for a few days but the cold ended up overtaking them and they died of hypothermia and froze. The ship was believed to have broken loose from the ice at some stage because, when found by the Herald, the Octavius was off the coast of Greenland. This would mean that The Octavius with her frozen crew managed to float its way through the Northern Passage. This passage would only later be accomplished by a living crew around 1905, more than 200 years after this tale. What's strange is that after all of this, the Octavius was never seen again.

Theories

The mystery of how the Octavius became a ship with a frozen crew has been more or less solved through the captain's log as being trapped in ice. One other thing that remains a mystery though is where the ship went after that as it was in pretty good condition and there are 3 theories that I found possible and/or interesting.

1. Storm Theory

This is probably the most popular and common theory just because it is quite likely and is something that actually happens quite often. According to this theory, the aimlessly floating Octavius must've ended up in a large storm. Due to the lack of crew, countermeasures against such a storm would be impossible and the ship would have succumbed to the heavy waves and weather. While this is a great theory the only problem is that the ship seemed to be in great seaworthy condition considering that it had floated around for at least 10 years. Another thing is that the Octavius was a three-masted schooner which is known to be excellent for long voyages with trade winds

2. Melting Ice Theory

This is a much lesser-known theory but one that I find very interesting. In this theory, it is assumed that the ship must have been damaged somehow and have holes in its hull but they were blocked off by ice. It is possible for water to freeze in the cracks and holes sealing the hull and getting the ship to a condition in which it could sail. While this would be how it stayed afloat, when it got to hotter temperatures, the ice would melt causing water to leak into the ship and ultimately the ship sinking. This would explain how the ship was afloat for so long and why it suddenly disappeared while also being a very interesting theory. The assumed path of the ship for its 10 years missing is also in colder conditions which adds to the likeliness of this theory.

3. Paranormal Theory

You cant have a ghost ship story without this theory of paranormal involvement being there. According to this theory, the ship had been haunted when it got stuck in the ice and may have actually sank. It is assumed that the ship may have never gotten free and the one seen by the Herald was actually a ghost ship. This would explain how the ship managed to stay afloat for so long and if ghosts are true I'm sure the woes of a whole crew would be enough to produce a ghost ship. On the other hand, a physically existing ghost ship just seems very far fetched.

Conclusion

As with every ghost ship story, I personally really like it and find it very interesting. This whole mystery in itself is very intriguing as the being stuck in ice adds a nice twist, but, one thing I find strange is the reaction of the crew of the herald. Finding a ship lost for so many years would invoke more curiosity in people and would likely lead to a search instead of running away but maybe things were different back in the 1700s. As for the theories, I think the first theory of the storm along with the ice theory would explain this mystery well. If the holes were blocked by frozen ice and weakened, a large storm would probably be able to take advantage of the loss in structural integrity and cause the hull to collapse. Although, this is just speculation and well probably never know what really happened.

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