There have been several maritime tales about ghost ships that journeyed to the ends of the world, ran by the phantom crew, and deemed not to come back at all. One of the famous and scary maritime stories is the mysterious Octavius ship.
It started back in 1761 when Octavious arrived at the London port to transport cargo to China. It left its origin filled with crew, the skipper, and his family. They safely traveled to China and unloaded their shipment. They went on again and carried another load that was meant for British destination. However, the weather was terrible, so the captain thought of going back home. He made a bold move by taking the Northwest Passage, a never-before traveled route. Sadly, that was the last voyage of Octavious, nobody has heard of it, the crew and the skipper’s family after that incident.
Abandoned Ship
In October 1775, the Herald ship was sailing along the Greenland waters and found a ship drifting through the wind. When they got near, they figured the strong weather badly beat the boat because of the torn and tattered sails.
The Herald’s captain ordered to search inside the watercraft, they later found out that it was Octavius. The crew began their search, and to their surprise, they discovered the 28 crewmen froze to death inside their quarters. As they checked the captain’s cabin, he was found seated at his table, holding a pen with the logbook laying flat in front of him. All other things on the desk remained untouched. Unfortunately, they saw the wife and the boy wrapped in a blanket on the bunk, both froze to death.
The rescuing crew was frightened, they took the ship’s record and left Octavius. Due to their frantic reaction, the loosely fastened middle pages of the record book were left behind. They only had the first and final pages that helped the Herald master piece together a portion of the voyage story. The captain of the wrecked ship powered through the Northwest Passage, but the vessel was caught up in the Arctic ice, which led to the entire crew’s death. The last known location of the Octavius vessel was somewhere north of Alaska.
Octavius was found by the whaler Herald at the west of Greenland
The Last Location Of The Wrecked Vessel
The Octavius sailed to the Greenland coast, and many have concluded that it eventually got out from being stuck and continued its passage. This led them to reach the other side, where the Herald located them. The majority of the Herald crew were petrified of the wrecked ship and thought it was cursed. Hence, they quickly ran away from it. There is no sign of the said abandoned ship until today, but many have heard of its eerie tale.
It took more than a hundred years later before an attempt was made to take a similar passage. Fortunately, this time the result was successful.
Even if the death of the crew and the skipper’s family were concluded, the reason behind a man who froze to death in the middle of writing on his logbook remained a mystery even up to this day.
