The Strange Mystery of the Ghost Ship Carroll A. Deering

[Music] foreign early on a gray Monday morning a young surfman named CP Brady sat watch at his post at the United States Coast Guard Station number 183 at Cape Hatteras aside from the nearby Lighthouse the two-story Cedar Shake building was the highest point in the area with a view of the notoriously treacherous diamond shoals Midway through Brady's watch as the Morning Light slowly illuminated the Mist he saw a shape appear from the darkness a massive fully rigged five-masted Schooner soon emerged the ghostly vessel the rash by the waves rocked from side to side stranded far out on the shoals looking like a specter from another time neighboring station's big kennekeep Creed's Hill and Hatteras Inlet were all alerted and asked to stand by while the Cape Hatteras surfmen sprung into action and prepared to rescue the stranded sailors but when they arrived on the beach the January winds and heavy Surf made it impossible to reach the stranded schooner she was far enough away that they couldn't make out her nameplate or HomePort through the Mist even through a spyglass with no way to reach the ship and apparently no one on board needing rescue the surfman had no choice but to wait until the weather cleared before they could investigate the ghost ship that sat stranded on the diamond Shoal they wouldn't board the mysterious vessel for another five days [Music] with all this talk of strange disappearances and ghost ships do you ever get the feeling that someone might be watching you if you're not using a VPN you might actually be right and that's my totally natural and not at all awkward segue into this video sponsor nordvpn these days you are the product with everything you do online from the websites you visit to the things you buy all being tracked and sold to advertisers and who knows who else I don't need anyone knowing how much time I spend looking at pictures of the Normandy that's private and she's beautiful a VPN works by encrypting your online activities so 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small Schooners fishing craft and other Coastal vessels quickly gaining a reputation for quality and fine workmanship after 20 years Gardner Deering took full control of the shipyard and in 1905 he formally brought in his children Frank Harry Lydia and Carol into the business as partners forming the Gigi during company shipbuilders and ship agents on May 6 1905. by then the company was building large four and five masted Schooners and continued this work through World War One completing approximately one vessel every year by the end of the war the company had named a ship for each of Gardner's children and in 1918 construction began on the company's grandest vessel yet to be named for the now 86 year old's youngest son Carol the KLA Deering was a bit of a relic when she was launched on April 4th 1919 built long after nearly all new commercial and passenger ships were steel hold steam-powered vessels but in a lot of ways the Carol a Deering was the Pinnacle of Gardner deering's long shipbuilding career the oak framed five-masted Schooner was the largest vessel the yard had ever constructed her Oregon masts were 108 feet tall with 46 foot top masts she was 255 feet long with a beam of 44 feet and with three decks she came in at 1879 tons and was operated with a crew complement of 11. she carried an incredible 6 000 yards of sail and featured a steam engine on her voxel called a donkey that could raise and lower her twin anchors and hoist her massive sails she also carried two small lifeboats while the deerings didn't Christen their ships with champagne Carol's wife Annie called out I christened the Carol a Deering as the massive Schooners slid into the Kennebec River the Carol a Deering was co-owned by the deerings and several investors from throughout the Northeast she was commanded by William Barrett an experienced captain and a hero of the Great War the Schooner began her lucrative voyages transporting coal from the United States to South America within her first year she earned her owners over half of their initial investment but her promising start would soon come to an abrupt end the Carol a Deering left Hampton Roads Virginia on August 26 1920 with a load of coal Bound for Rio de Janeiro but on the 2nd of September she made a stop in Delaware where 54 year old Captain Merit took a hotel room to recover from a sudden illness after five days Captain Merit still hadn't recovered and he decided that he couldn't continue the voyage it's also reported that he didn't like the ship's crew and didn't wish to sail with them his previous crew refused to sign back on for this Voyage aside from first made Seawall e Merit who was Captain merit's son an engineer Herbert Bates the replacement crew was a hastily gathered group of unfamiliar Scandinavian Sailors with his father seriously Ill see while Merit sent a wire to Gardner Deering back in Maine requesting a relief captain his Portland neighbor the highly experienced schoonerman Willis B warmel was suggested for the job Captain warmau was 66 years old and he had been retired for six years by this time but he remained on call as an interim Captain for occasions such as this one when he received the telegram from the deerings asking him to perform one last run he was on vacation with his wife and their daughter Lula Hormel he quickly accepted and headed to Delaware to assume command on September 8 1920 Captain warmouth signed on with the Carol a Deering joining him was a new first maid Charles B McClellan a hastily located sailor from Boston they soon began the long Voyage to Rio arriving there in November without incident while in Rio Captain warmel had dinner with an old friend fellow Captain George a Goodwin during the dinner where Mel told his friend that he had a worthless first mate and his second mate wasn't much better but he said that if anything bad occurred his engineer Herbert Bates was a fellow Mainer and would have his back the Deering left Rio on December 2nd 1920 and stopped in Bridgetown Harbor in Barbados for his supplies as they dropped anchor first mate McClellan got into an altercation with Captain warmau apparently screaming I'll kill you before it's over old man the captain ordered McClellan off the ship where he and the rest of the crew began a five-day bender on Shore while in Bridgetown Captain warmel told another captain Hugh L Norton Master of the Schooner Augusta w snow that he was having serious trouble with his first mate who was habitually drunk on Shore and unable to handle the crew properly treating them with what were Mao felt was totally uncalled for levels of brutality Captain Norton recalled that Captain were Mal was in excellent Health when he spoke with him but other Witnesses reported that the old Captain didn't seem well he told Captain Norton that he would sail the Deering no further than Virginia once there he would head home to Maine Captain warmau also confided in another Captain GW bunker the two openly discussed the possibility of mutiny and while warmau was seriously concerned he felt that he could trust his engineer Herbert Bates and having one man on his side would be enough to get them to Virginia Captain bunker wasn't so sure but where Mao also felt that the ship being empty kept him safe because there was no cargo for the crew to steal removing any Financial incentive for Mutiny after his meeting with Captain warmel Captain Norton would soon cross paths with first mate McClellan Norton claimed that McClellan seemed at least partially sober at the time the first mate claimed that he was having serious trouble with the crew but Captain wormell interfered whenever he tried to discipline the men so he felt that he had no authority to do his job he also claimed that because of warmel's poor eyesight he had to do all of the navigating on his own McClellan then grew desperate and told Captain Norton that he needed a new ship he asked if Norton would sign him on his mate but Captain Norton of course refused judging McClellan to be of poor character McClellan then immediately proved him right when he got angry at the refusal and began shouting Captain Norton his first maid and the captain of another vessel all reportedly heard McClellan yell out another threat well then I'll get the captain before we get to Norfolk I will mcclellan's drunken Bender was Reckless enough that he finally caught himself arrested ultimately Captain wormell decided to forgive him he paid his bail and had him brought back to the ship to dry out the Carol a Deering raised anchor and left Bridgetown for Hampton Roads Virginia on January 9 1920. what happened to her over the next several days remains a mystery by the morning of Friday February 5th the weather was clear enough that rescue crews were able to approach the mystery ship the Coast Guard Cutter Manning and a salvage tug called the rescue soon arrived on the scene as they drew near they could finally read her nameplate Carol a Deering of Bath Maine the Coast Guard repeatedly called out to the derelict Schooner but they received no reply with no signs of Life on board the coast guard gave the rescue's Captain James Carlson the okay to board the vessel Captain Carlson and four of his men boarded a small boat and motored over to the Schooners port side they climbed a single rope and boarded the ship the men marveled at the sight of the ghostly Schooner waves washed over her decks and Spilled into her holds by this point her hole was giving way to the unrelenting Surf and she seemed to roll in opposite directions not long from breaking apart her Keel was measured to be buried nearly 14 feet into the sea floor it was clear that there would be no hope of salvaging the nearly brand new Schooner Captain Carlson and his men began searching the ship the wind had shredded two of her top sails but this likely happened while she was stranded on the shoals her two anchors and one of her anchor chains were missing as the men moved aft the mystery grew they found that someone had been preparing a meal in the galley with a pot of pea soup a pan with slabs of spare ribs and a pot of coffee on her stove Strangers still they found that her steering gear was ruined and her wheel was broken the Pinnacle box was smashed in and shattered the rudder was disengaged 15 feet from its stock nearby a nine pound Sledgehammer was found sound but Carlson wasn't sure if the hammer was used to destroy the ship's equipment or if someone was attempting a repair he also wasn't sure if some of this damage occurred before or after the ship's grounding her two boats were missing both Davids and Falls were way out over her sides and the boats had been cut from their Falls she had two red lights high in her rigging a signal that meant the ship was in distress below her quarter deck Captain wormell's cabin was in a state of disarray with clothes strewn about and the bed unmade it appeared that someone was using the spare room meant for guests so the captain in the chart room two or three pairs of rubber boots that didn't seem to belong to the captain they scattered about on the floor his trunk and other personal belongings were all missing as were the ship's navigational equipment log and other papers the crew's personal effects were also gone Captain warmel's Bible was found and Carlson had it sent back to his family three cats nearly starved to death were also found and rescued from the ship captain Carlson an experienced salvageman had no idea what to make of the strange scene he found on board the Carol a Deering the mystery of what happened to her crew and why they abandoned a perfectly intact and valuable ship would soon become a national obsession the Carol a deerings departure from Barbados was not the last time she and her crew were cited before running a ground in North Carolina on the afternoon of January 29th the Cape Lookout light ship spotted a five masted Schooner approaching from the south after days of wind storm and fog the weather was finally clearing impressed by her beauty the light ship's engineer James Steele took a photo as the Schooner Drew near [Music] a red-headed man called out from the ship using a megaphone and said that they had lost both anchors in a gale off Frying Pan Shoals and after the light ship convey word to their owners the man's appearance and manner of speaking didn't seem like that of a captain or an officer and he spoke with the Scandinavian accent as the Schooners sailed past at around four knots Thomas Jacobson the captain of the light ship also noticed that several of her crew seemed to be Milling about her quarter deck a space typically reserved for the captain the light ship's Wireless set was not working at the time so they would ask the next Wireless equipped vessel to pass on the Schooners message almost as soon as the Schooner disappeared on the horizon a steamer with an antenna for wireless equipment approached from the south Captain Jacobs quickly raised the letters rqk to signal that he had an important message but the steamer didn't slow down the light ship let out four blasts from its steam whistle another widely honored signal to establish contact but immediately following the signal the steamer changed course away from the light ship and the men on board hastily covered their name plates with canvas Captain Jacobs was greatly unnerved by the strange event as the mysterious steamer disappeared on the horizon following the same course as the Deering the final sighting of the Caraway Deering was equally mysterious on Sunday January 30th only one day before the Deering grounded Captain Henry Johnson of the steamship Lake Elon cited a five-masted schooner though they couldn't see her nameplate the location and their description of the vessel suggests they must have seen the Deering Captain Johnson reported that while there was nothing out of the ordinary about the Schooners appearance her course was strange as she appeared to be steering straight for the dangerous Shoals around Cape Hatteras while it was an odd sight Captain Henry assumed that the crew of the Schooner would soon spot either the beacon from Cape Hatteras light or the light ship at diamond shoals not thinking much of it awake Elon continued on her course as the Wayward Schooners sailed out of view soon numerous investigations were launched to determine what happened to the crew of The Carol a Deering including one led by Future president Herbert Hoover who was then the Secretary of Commerce he wanted to know why so many vessels from numerous nationalities all seem to have disappeared in roughly the same area at around the same time as the Deering was the only one of these ships to reappear it was hoped that she could offer some Clues but it was soon concluded that many of these disappearances could be explained by a series of severe hurricanes in the area as the deering's course was traced it appeared that she was sailing away from these storms that led her investigators to believe that Mutiny was the most likely explanation until a startling Revelation was uncovered a local fisherman named Christopher Columbus gray soon came forward with a message he found in a bottle in the waters off Buxton Beach the message read Deering captured by oil burning boat something like Chaser taking off everything handcuffing crew crew hiding all over the ship no chance to make Escape finder please notify headquarters Deering the letter seemed to confirm that the Deering fell victim to piracy a theory backed up by the mystery steamship seen by the Cape Lookout light ship the story was further legitimized when it was found that the bottle containing the message was manufactured in Brazil in the handwriting match that of the deering's engineer Bates but as the letter was further scrutinized its authenticity soon fell into question while the handwriting was set to match chief engineer Bates it soon became clear that it also matched someone else's handwriting Christopher Columbus gray and after further questioning from federal authorities gray soon admitted that he had faked the letter apparently he thought the discovery would help him land a coveted job at the Cape Hatteras light station somehow that actually worked because he did end up getting a job with the lighthouse service so I guess petty crime does pay another popular Theory at the time was that the Deering did indeed get caught up in the Hurricanes that ravaged the area this idea was popular among most government officials particularly the weather bureau with both of her anchors lost and her steering gear damaged it's thought that the crew raised the distress signal found on her wreck and soon hailed a sulfur freighter called the Hewitt which was known to have been in roughly the same area at the time the crew then evacuated the damaged Schooner for the relative safety of a 5 000 ton steamship the Hewitt last made radio contact on the 26th of January 1921. no further trace of the vessel has ever been found if she picked up the crew of the Deering they met the same mysterious fate that claimed the Hewitt and her crew in addition to bad weather and piracy Mutiny is another widely held Theory the tension between captain warmel and first officer McClellan was well documented and supported by several witnesses it's believed that after something sparked an altercation captain warmel and maybe engineer Bates were murdered in a fit of rage the crew then lived on the ship for a bit longer before abandoning the Schooner knowing that their crimes would soon be found out in the small boats they were at the mercy of the Seas churned up by the nearby hurricane they might have been lost there in the sea but maybe with some luck they made it to land they hid the boats and they Blended back into Society lost forever to the anonymity of History the story of the Carol a Deering and her missing crew made headlines all around the world journalists poured over the various explanations from the mundane to the supernatural several connected The Disappearance to a story about a Soviet plot to seize American ships anti-communist anxieties were reaching a fever pitch at the time but there's no evidence that this plot if it was even real was ever carried out and there's nothing tangible linking it to the Deering a much more mundane theory is that after suffering damage in the storms the Deering grounded with her crew on the diamond shoals and they abandoned her in the lifeboats sometime in the night before the Schooner was spotted then the tiny boats broke up in the heavy surf drowning the men before they could reach land without much else evidence and no traces of the crew ever turning up the inquiries were soon closed without any definitive conclusions captain warmel's daughter Lula warmel unsatisfied with the lack of answers fought her entire life to keep the story in the press and pushed investigators to follow every possible lead her efforts are a big reason why we know so much about the mystery today in the months that followed it quickly became clear that the Caraway Deering was beyond saving various parties removed anything they could from The Phantom ship and after an attempted Salvage she was deemed a navigational Hazard and her wreck was destroyed with dynamite on March 4th 1921. portions of her wreck washed ashore and it said that some of her Timbers were used by locals to build houses in the area the Carol a Deering was the last ship built by the Gigi Deering Shipyard Gardner Deering would die at the age of 88 later that year his legacy is now kept Alive by a mystery that tantalized the nation and confounds investigators to this day thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed this video help out the channel by leaving a like and comment down below letting me know what you think happened to the Carol a Deering and if you haven't done so already hit that subscribe button for more ocean liner history thank you again to nordvpn for sponsoring this video check them out in the link below I'd also like to give a special thank you to my patrons for making videos like this possible if you'd like to help this channel grow consider joining the bagel boats crew over on patreon where you can get special perks like behind the scenes updates and early access to videos all right crew that's all I've got until the next one be nice to people [Music] oh

Channel: Big Old Boats

Views: 236,390

Keywords: ghost ship, bermuda triangle, carroll a deering, carol a deering, carroll a. deering, ghost ships, outer banks, diamond schoals, ghost story, haunted ship, carol deering, carroll deering, ocean history, sea travel, history, history mystery, mystery, ghosts

Id: ZLNM4yMABOM

Length: 22min 0sec (1320 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 22 2022