Where should forward-thinkers look when they seek innovative ideas? Perhaps to someone -- or something -- that's more innovative than they are.

From Saturday to Tuesday, more than 100 of the world's leaders in business, politics, education, sports, entertainment, the environment and technology gathered for a conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Nothing too weird about that. But among the many discussions of how to break new ground through global innovation, they spoke about UFOs.

That's right. Unidentified flying objects and the ongoing interest in finding life in outer space are on the roster at this unique event.

"Even if UFOs and aliens weren't real, just thinking about it is a big thing, enlarging the scope of our thinking to include a larger part of the galactic neighborhood instead of the planet," Friedman told AOL News on the eve of his departure for Saudi Arabia.

Sponsored by the official Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, the vision of the GCF program is to bring together business leaders, politicians and intellectuals who share a common interest in how competitiveness can be used to find real solutions to global challenges.

And GCF organizers think UFOs might offer some inspiration.

"Using knowledge gained from research in the fields of ufology and the search for extraterrestrial life, what might we possibly learn about hindrances to innovation in other areas of inquiry?" That's one of the topics described on the official GCF website, where the UFO panel theme is listed as Contact: Learning From Outer Space.

"After 52 years of study and investigation, I have concluded that the evidence is overwhelming that Earth is being visited by intelligently controlled extraterrestrial spacecraft. In other words, some UFOs are alien vehicles," said Friedman.

He added that he's "convinced, after my work for major corporations as a nuclear physicist, that technological progress comes from doing things differently in an unpredictable way. The future is not an extrapolation of the past.

In addition to Friedman, the panel included astrophysicist/computer scientist Jacques Vallee, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, author/journalist Nick Pope, and Egyptian scholar and member of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs Zaghloul El-Naggar.

"I'm convinced there's a phenomenon there, that there is a technology," Vallee told AOL News before heading to Saudi Arabia. "And I'm not kidding myself that we're going to discover a new form of propulsion tomorrow, just by looking at UFO patterns."

He explained that this is how he's always approached the mystery of UFOs.

"These things are real and they do something we don't understand, but if we're clever in watching and understanding the patterns, maybe we can learn something about physics that we didn't know before."

Vallee was the model for the French scientist portrayed by Francois Truffaut in the classic 1977 UFO film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." The following year, he, Friedman and I found ourselves at the United Nations, trying to get the international community to exchange UFO information.

Now, 33 years later, Vallee isn't surprised that the Saudi Arabia conference is including UFOs on its agenda.

"Well, I think the world is changing. It is a respectable subject," he said. "Certainly, internationally, what I've found is that people who are informed and are aware of the phenomenon are much more willing to support people doing serious research on it."

For his part in the weekend panel, Friedman did not present images of flying saucers.

"I'm not showing one picture of a UFO. I decided I wasn't going to put on a UFO dog-and-pony show. I'll say that we're dealing with a cosmic Watergate and that there are beings out there who have innovated far more than we have."

Michael E. Salla, Ph.D., on his website http://news.exopoliticsinstitute.org/index.php/archives/890, wrote that at five thousand dollars a ticket, some business leaders got more than they bargained for when they attended the first day of the Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF) being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They were told flying saucers are real, and they had better start thinking about the business implications of extraterrestrial life and technologies. Convened each year by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, the GCF brings together business and political leaders to discuss ways of promoting business competitiveness. For the first time at its annual conference, the GCF held a panel discussing UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Titled “Learning from Outer Space” the panel comprised five speakers who all endorsed the view that extraterrestrial life is real, and has many implications for the world as we know it.

The panel was held on January 23, and was a “main plenary” session meaning all GCF participants were able to attend and hear what the experts had to say about UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Up to 1000 participants included business and political elites such as former British and Canadian Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Jean Chretien; Jim Albaugh, President and CEO of Boeing; Andy Bird, chairman of Walt Disney International; Jared Cohen, Director of Google ideas, and many others. The advice they got was that the issue of extraterrestrial life is real, and they better start paying attention to the business implications. Here’s how the GCF summarized the panel presentations on its website:

"The unconventional and highly relevant topic of extraterrestrial life forms was addressed by yesterday’s panel discussion 'Contact: Learning from Outer Space'. Experts Zoaghloul El-Naggar, Stanton Friedman, Michio Kaku, Nick Pope and Jacques Vallee made compelling cases for the existence of living beings elsewhere in the galaxy, drawing upon empirical evidence, religious theology and logical reasoning.

"Mr. Friedman opened his remarks with a bold statement, 'Flying saucers are real!' and this summed up the perspective of the panel members. Mr. Pope explored the potential business implications of outer space, such as the profitability of alien branding or sponsorship.

"While El-Naggar was also convinced of their existence, he raised the interesting point that it may not be ethical to spend resources trying to contact alien societies when we still face war and poverty in our own society.

"Mr. Vallee encouraged more academics to analyze the evidence. However, on behalf of his successful Venture Capital fund, he said, “We are not ready to invest in this type of research, but we think that somebody should.”

The 2011 GCF conference panel on Outer Space has opened the door for world business leaders to seriously consider the implications of evidence concerning UFOs and extraterrestrial life. A graphic summarizing GCF discussions by artist, Sunni Brown (top right), reveals the prominence given to issues of extraterrestrial contact and the overwhelming changes new energies will bring to humanity. Business leaders are poised to do what political leaders have so far failed to do – proactively deal with compelling evidence that we are being visited by galactic civilizations who have advanced technologies to share with humanity.

Source: AOL News
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/22/ufos-help-innovative-thinkers-look-to-the-future/

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Some astronomers think detecting an extraterrestrial radio signal is a matter of when, not if. What goes on in the immediate aftermath of such a discovery? Here's what happened the last few times we thought we'd heard from E.T.

The first, and most famous, potential E.T. signal is the so-called Wow! signal. SETI researcher Dr. Jerry Ehman found the signal in 1977 with Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope. The signal appeared as a coded set of intensity readings, 6EQUJ5, which Ehman circled and wrote, "Wow!" next to on the printout. It was a notable signal because it was much more intense than galactic background noise, and was found very close to the frequency astronomers expect to find alien transmissions, 1420 MHz. That's the frequency hydrogen atoms resonate at, and hydrogen is the most common element in the universe.

What happened after the signal was found? Not much. Scientists tried to find the signal again to help pinpoint its origin, but no one has ever been able to track it down. It was apparently not a continuous signal, because only one of the Big Ear's two detectors caught it. Over the ensuing decades, hours and hours of telescope time have been devoted to scanning that area of the sky, and nothing like the Wow! signal has been heard there since. It's still a very mysterious thing, because most terrestrial origins have been ruled out. That leaves secret military or government technology, or a natural phenomenon in space that we haven't found yet. Or aliens.

Another E.T. signal was found using the massive Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia in the late 1990s. It was clearly artificial, broadcasting in a pattern of uniformly spaced frequencies. Unfortunately, it turned out to be NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. It took the better part of a day to figure that out, however, so in the meantime, excited astronomers were calling colleagues and friends to tell them the news. Word of the discovery made its way to Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan's widow. She called the New York Times' science reporter, who thankfully did not yell, "Stop the presses!" Instead, he called astronomers to confirm – by that time, they'd realized it was a false alarm. How will the government react when we detect alien signals from space?

That situation is most interesting for what didn't happen. For one thing, black helicopters did not descend instantly on Green Bank. Scientists were not spirited to undisclosed locations. A shroud of government secrecy did not enclose the entire operation. There was no conspiracy. In fact, the types of officials who could actually pull off something like that are pretty far out of the loop. They don't really hang with the astronomy crowd.

The astronomers also didn't follow the voluntary protocols accepted by SETI researchers. Those protocols say: first, call the U.N., certain world leaders, and rich people who give a lot of money to SETI. Then, hold a press conference. Those are pretty non-binding protocols. If it happened today, we'd probably call it the OMG! Signal, named for the Tweet sent out by the researcher who first found it.

So we know how scientists would react (pretty much like you and I would). How would the world react? Hysteria? Religious revival? Looting? We can learn both from the Wow! signal and the recent discovery of arsenic-based life by NASA researchers. The world simply waited to see what happened next. Scientists went about their business of confirming the information, which, as we saw in the Wow! case, could take years and years. Doubt has already been cast on the arsenic research. After a brief period of excitement and media interest, it will fade from view until something gives us a reason to pay attention again. And there might not be much of that coming either, because even if we can definitively confirm an alien signal, we'll have no idea what it's saying. That could take decades to decipher, if it's possible at all.

Source: io9
http://io9.com/5743271/how-will-the-government-react-when-we-detect-alien-signals-from-space

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Arkansas residents rang in the new year by waking up to find hundreds of dead birds littered around their neighbourhood in Beebe, northeast of Little Rock.

Rumours and conspiracy theories were rife as to the cause of so many of the birds dying but a new report by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission today revealed the deaths of the red-winged blackbirds were from 'blunt force trauma'.

Laboratory tests carried out on 13 of the birds 'ruled out bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, pesticides and avicides (chemicals used to kill birds) as causes of death', the commission said in a statement.

In the report released yesterday the tests showed that hemorrhaging in the birds were 'consistent with blunt trauma'.

'In most instances, such traumatic injuries in wild birds are due to flying into stationary objects such as trees, houses, windows, power lines, towers etc', the report concluded saying as many as 5,000 birds died in the incident.

Terrified residents had hurried indoors as the tiny creatures thudded down around them on New Year's Eve.

One hit a woman walking her dog, while another resident had to use an umbrella to protect herself. Local man Shane Roberts said it sounded like hail pelting on his roof. ‘I turn and look across my yard and there’s all these lumps,’ he said.

Milton McCullar, the town’s street department supervisor, said: ‘It was like a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.’ He didn’t need to spell out which film. The emergency switchboard lit up as everyone rang in alarm.

‘Some of them were a little panicked, they thought it was the end of the world,’ said Eddie Cullum, the local police chief.

The residents’ unease only increased when environmental clean-up workers turned up wearing white hazardous suits, helmets and gas masks to clear away the birds.

Officials initially blamed high-altitude hail or lightning hitting the birds.

The prime suspect was New Year fireworks, which could have startled the birds from their roosts and send them crashing into houses, trees and each other. But fireworks go off every New Year. Why hadn’t this happened before?

Dan Cristol, an academic and co-founder of the Institute for Integrative Bird Behaviour Studies, said he found it difficult to blame fireworks unless ‘somebody blew something into the roost, literally blowing the birds into the sky’.

The incident was one of many reports of dead animals this year.

ARKANSAS FISH DEATHS STILL A MYSTERY

The mystery of what killed tens of thousands of fish that washed up along the Arkansas River late last year can't be solved, state wildlife officials announced this week. None of the tests conducted on fish or water samples from the area turned up anything conclusive.

The fish kill stretched about 17 miles downstream from the Ozark-Jetta Taylor Lock and Dam, and included about 83,000 freshwater drum and 1,000 other fish, including yellow bass, white bass, bluegill and sauger.

"Fish kills are not that uncommon," said Game and Fish Commission district fisheries supervisor Bob Limbird. "But kills of this magnitude in Arkansas are rare."

Fish collected from the kill were sent to the aquaculture center at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which ran tests for diseases and parasites. "We can say conclusively that the drum were not killed from a bacterial or viral infection, or from parasites," said Game and Fish Commission fish pathologist Kelly Winningham.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality also conducted tests on fish and water samples. Water samples were tested for metals, nutrients and minerals to assess water quality. Fish samples were tested for metals. A drum sample was tested for toxins such as pesticides and other organic chemicals. All samples were within normal values for the Arkansas River, according to the agency. The drum sample did not show any toxins.

Winningham said fish kills can occur for many reasons _ stress, starvation, water pollution, disease, parasites, toxic algae, and severe or extreme weather.

"Unfortunately, we probably will never know exactly what killed these fish," said Game and Fish Commission assistant fisheries chief Chris Racey. "But the testing has eliminated the largest public concerns of disease, parasites and toxins. We have no reason to think fish caught in the Arkansas River are unsafe to eat."

Source: The Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351122/Cause-mass-bird-deaths-Arkansas
-revealed-new-report.html

BOGOTA – Residents of a community northeast of Colombia claim that 2000 fish have turned up dead since last week, following last week’s appearance of a strange, flashing object seen briefly over a local swamp.

The incident occurred at the village of El Llanito in the jurisdiction of the city of Barrancabermeja. Residents saw a flying object in the skies last Friday, according to local media.

Shortly afterward, dead fish were found floating in the swamp, but unlike other similar cases ascribed to the lack of oxygen, residents of El Llanito are startled by the fact that fish display burn marks on their scales.

According to Magaly Gutiérrez, director of a community organization, the phenomenon lasted some 20 seconds and was seen by many.

The RCN radio network pointed out that residents of the neighboring village of Puente Sogamoso, in the jurisdiction of Puerto Wilches, claimed seeing a round object flying “sideways” on the same day that the fish deaths at El Llanito occurred.

Juan Tercero, president of the Asociación de Acuicultores y Pescadores de El Llanito, said that the dead fish present burn marks and began floating since the “strange light was seen in the swamp” according to statements appearing in Bucaramanga’s Vanguardia Liberal newspaper.

Environmental authorities from Barrancabermeja visited the swamp to collect samples that will hopefully reveal the causes for the fish deaths, according to RCN.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)

Source: Scott Corrales/Inexplicata
http://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2011/01/colombia-ufo-responsible-for-killing.html

Ghost Ships are defined as: “fictional haunted ships, or ones found adrift with their entire crew either missing or dead, or one which has been decommissioned but not yet scrapped”. I have therefore not included supposed Haunted Ships such as the Queen Mary or the USS Hornet.

Carrol A. Deering

The Carrol A Deering was a 5 mast Schooner, built in 1911. Named for the owner’s son, she was a cargo vessel and her final voyage found her sailing from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, on December 2nd, 1920. The Master, William Merrit, and his first mate, Sewall Merrit (his son), had a crew of 10 Scandinavians. Both fell ill and Captain W. B. Wormell was recruited as a replacement.

After leaving Rio, the Deering stopped in Barbados for supplies. Here, the First Mate, McLennan, got drunk and complained to a fellow Mariner about Captain Wormell, his incompetence at disciplining the crew and his inability to Navigate the ship without the aid of McLennan. McLennan was arrested after he was overheard boasting “I’ll get the Captain before we get to Norfolk, I will”. Wormell forgave him, bailed him out and the Deering set sail for Hampton Roads.

The Vessel was not sighted until January 28th, 1921, when a Lightship keeper was hailed by a red haired man milling around on the foredeck. The man told the Lightship keeper, in a foreign accent, that the Deering had lost her anchors, but the Keeper was unable to relay the message due to a malfunctioning radio.

3 days later, on January 31st, the Deering was found aground on Diamond Shoals, off Cape Hatteras. Boarding of the ship was delayed due to bad weather and eventually rescue personal made it on to the vessel on February 4th. What they found made the Deering one of the most written about maritime mysteries in history. The Deering was completely abandoned. The logs and Navigation equipment were missing, as were 2 of the ships lifeboats. The Galley was midway into preparation for the following days meal. Unfortunately, the vessel was scuttled with Dynamite before a full investigation into the mystery could take place.

The crews disappearance occurred in the Bermuda Triangle, and several other vessels had disappeared in the same period and region as the Deering, including the sulfur freighter Hewitt. Many theories became popular during the investigation including Paranormal explanations, mutiny, piracy and Rum-runners stealing the vessel to sail to the Bahamas. The formal investigation ended in 1922, without any official ruling on the mysteries surrounding the apparent abandonment of the Carrol A. Deering.

Baychimo

Built in Sweden in 1911, the Baychimo was a Pelt trader along the routes of North West Canada. She was given to Great Britain by Germany as part of War reparations.

The 20 year old Cargo Steamers final (crewed) voyage occurred in October 1931, carrying a cargo of fur. The vessel became ice packed off the coast of the town of Barrow. The crew temporarily abandoned the vessel and headed 1/2 a mile inland in search of shelter from the freezing conditions. The ship eventually broke free of the ice a week later, on the 8th October, and the crew returned, only to become trapped in ice, again, on the 15th October. 15 crew members built a makeshift shelter some distance away, intent on waiting out the winter and eventually sailing the ship free.

On the 24th November, a blizzard struck. When it calmed, the crew found that the Baychimo had vanished, presumed sunk in the storm. Several days later a seal hunter informed the crew that he had sighted the vessel about 45 miles from their camp. The crew tracked the vessel to retrieve their precious cargo and left the Baychimo to its fate.

Over the next 4 decades there were numerous sightings of the Baychemo along the coast of Canada. Several boardings were attempted, few were successful, the ones that were often resulting in the salvagers becoming trapped inside due to adverse weather conditions. The last confirmed sighting occurred in 1969, 38 years after she was abandoned, she was found frozen in an ice pack. In 2006, the Alaskan Government began an operation to locate the ‘The Ghost ship of the Arctic’ but, to date, they have been unsuccessful.

Trapped in Ice, floating or at the bottom of the ocean, the fate of the Baychimo remains a mystery.

Eliza Battle

Launched in Indiana in 1852, the Eliza Battle was a luxury wooden hulled paddle steamer regularly entertaining Presidents and VIPs. Disaster struck on a cold night in February 1858, when the steamer navigated the Tombigbee. A fire started on cotton bales on the main deck and soon spread out of control.
 
The strong winds helped the fire spread quickly over the upper deck. Out of control, the Eliza Battle drifted downstream, coming to rest at Kemp’s Landing. Men died in efforts to save their loved ones and women died in their efforts to save their children, though, fortunately, there were few aboard the ill fated final trip of the Eliza Battle. Of the estimated 100 people on board, 26 souls were lost, mainly attributed to death by exposure. The ship sank in 28ft of water, and its wreck remains to this day.

During the spring floods, late at night during the full moon, it is said the riverboat can be seen rising out of the water and floating up the river with music playing and fires burning on the deck, sometimes only the outline of the steamer is sighted. The fire is so bright a name plate bearing the name Eliza Battle can be seen on the side of the vessel. Local fisherman believe that sighting the Eliza Battle is a sign of an impending disaster and ill omens to ships still plying the Tombigbee River.

MV Joyita

The MV Joyita was a luxury yacht, built in 1931, in Los Angeles for Movie Director Roland West. During the Second World War she was outfitted as a Patrol Boat and worked around the coast of Hawaii until the end of the War.

On October the 3rd, 1955, the Joyita set sail from Samoa bound for the Tokelau Islands 270 nautical miles away. Her departure had been delayed due to a clutch malfunction on the port main engine, the clutch was not repaired and the Yacht sailed on one engine. There were 25 souls on board, including a Government Official, 2 children and a surgeon on his way to perform an amputation. Though the journey should have taken no more than 2 days, by the 3rd day Joyita had not arrived in port. No distress call had been received even though the vessels course would have kept her well within radio range of coast guard and relay stations. A 100,000 sq mi search was conducted by aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force but there was no sign of the Yacht, her crew or passengers.

It was not until November 10th, 5 weeks later, that the vessel was found. The Tuvalu sighted the Joyita 600mi from her planned route. The vessel was listing heavily to port with her deck edge partially submerged. 4 tonnes of cargo were missing and none of the crew members were onboard. The ships VHF radio was tuned to the International Distress Frequency. The vessel was found to still be running on one Engine, with an auxiliary pump rigged but not running. All the clocks on board had stopped at 10:25 and switches for cabin and navigation lights were on. A doctor’s bag was found on the floor with 4 blood stained bandages. The logbook, sextant and chronometer were missing, along with 3 life rafts.

A subsequent enquiry found that the vessels hull was sound and that the fate of the crew was ‘inexplicable on the evidence submitted at the inquiry’. The missing life rafts were especially intriguing as the vessel was cork lined, making her unsinkable, a fact the Master and the crew would have been fully aware of. No mention of the use of the medical equipment was in the investigation. The missing cargo also remained a mystery.

Theories ranged from the outright bizarre: Remaining Japanese forces from World War II were to blame for the disappearances, operating from an isolated island base to the more believable: insurance fraud, piracy, mutiny.

The Joyita was repaired, but ran aground on several more occasions, being dubbed a cursed ship she was eventually sold for scrap in the 1960s.

Flying Dutchman

Probably the most famous Ghost Ship, The Flying Dutchman has been popularized by ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ and for the big kids amongst you ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ (The Frying Dutchman). But what many people will not know is that ‘The Flying Dutchman’ refers to the Captain of the vessel, and not the vessel itself.

Several Spectral ships around the World are known as ‘The Flying Dutchman’ but I am going to refer to the original, located off the Cape of Good Hope. Here is the embellished tale:

“The Captain of the vessel, Hendrick Van Der Decken, was voyaging around the Cape of Good Hope with a final destination of Amsterdam. He swore to Round the Cape if it took him ’til Doomsday’. With a terrible storm abound, Van Der Decken refused to turn the ship around despite the pleas of the crew.
Monstrous waves pummeled the vessel while the captain sang obscene songs, drank beer and smoked his pipe. Finally, with no options remaining, several of the crew mutinied. The Captain, aroused from his drunken stupor shot dead the lead mutineer and threw his body overboard, above him the clouds parted and a voice billowed from the Heavens.

‘You’re a very Stubborn Man’, to which the Captain replied ‘ I never asked for a peaceful voyage, I never asked for anything, so clear off before I shoot you too’ Van Der Decken made aim to fire into the sky but the pistol exploded in his hand.

‘you are condemned to sail the oceans for eternity, with a ghostly crew of dead men. Bringing death to all who sight your spectral ship, and to never make port or know a moments peace. Furthermore, gall shall be your drink, and red hot iron your meat’”

There have been many sightings of The Flying Dutchman, often by reputable and experienced seamen, including Prince George of Wales and his brother, Prince Albert Victor of Wales,

According to Admiral Karl Doenitz, U Boat crews logged sightings of The Flying Dutchman off the Cape Peninsula. For most or all of these crews, it proved to be a terrible omen. The ghostly East Indiaman was also seen at Muizenberg, in 1939. On a calm day in 1941, a crowd at Glencairn beach saw a ship with wind-filled sails, but it vanished just as it was about to crash onto the rocks.

Young Teazer

Built in 1813, the Young Teazer was an American Privateer Schooner preying on sea trade of the British Empire off the coast of Halifax. She was a remarkably fast vessel taking many prizes from Nova Scotia, several right at the mouth of Halifax Harbour. In June, 1813, the Teazer was chased by the Nova Scotian Privateer Brig Sir John Sherbrooke, but Teazer was able to escape into the Fog. Shortly after, HMS La Hogue, a 74-gunned third rate ship of the line, pursued the Schooner as she was reportedly cornered in Mahone Bay. With nightfall pending, La Hogue was joined by HMS Orpheus and the vessels prepared to board Young Teazer, which had no where left to run.

The La Hogue sent a five boat boarding party towards the Schooner. As the boats approached, the Young Teazer exploded. 7 of the crew survived and claimed they last saw the Teazers First Lieutenant, Frederick Johnson, running to the main magazine with flaming embers, considered mad Johnson threw the embers into the ammunition killing himself and 30 other crew members, many of whom lie in unmarked graves in an Anglican Cemetery in Mahone Bay.

Soon after the tragic event, eye witness reports began to surface that the Young Teazer had reemerged from the depths as a fiery spectral ship. The Following year, on June 27th, people of Mahone Bay were startled to see an apparition sailing into the same water where the Young Teazer had been destroyed.

As it came nearer they recognized it as the privateer, and then it vanished in a huge puff of flame and smoke. The story spread through the country, and on the next anniversary many more were on hand, watching for “the fire ship.” Sure enough, it appeared again, and it is legend to this day that many persons have witnessed the appearance of the ghost ship, and have seen it disappear in flame.

If you are standing on the deck of a ship at sea, the apparition appears to threaten to ram your vessel. Many report an overwhelming sense of fear when they see the phantom pirate ship. The Ghost Ship, known locally as ‘The Teazer Light’ can be seen on foggy nights, most notably those that fall within 3 days of a full moon.

Octavius
The Octavius was allegedly discovered West of Greenland by a whaler on October 11th, 1775. Crewmembers of the Whaler Herald boarded the assumed derelict Vessel, discovering the entire crew dead, frozen, apparently at the moment of their death. The Captain was found in his cabin, also frozen at his desk with his pen in hand, still writing in his log. He was accompanied by a dead woman, a child covered in a blanket and a sailor holding a tinderbox.

The petrified boarding party left in a hurry, taking only the log back to the Herald. Unfortunately, its frozen state meant that it slipped from its binding and they only recovered the first and last pages. The partly complete entry in the log was dated 1762, meaning the vessel had been in the state they discovered it for 13 years.

The Octavius had left England for the Orient in 1761. The Captain opted to take the treacherous, but much shorter route of the unconquered North West Passage. It is believed the ship became trapped in ice whilst traveling past Northern Alaska. The discovery of the ship meant that the Octavius was the first ship to Navigate the North West Passage, albeit the crew never lived to witness it. The ship was presumed to have broken free of the ice in the winter months and the crew, dead from exposure, drifted with the winds for 13 years. The Octavius was never seen again after this strange encounter.

Lady Lovibond

13th February, 1748 – Celebrating his marriage, Simon Reed took his new bride, Annette, aboard his ship, the Lady Lovibond, for a cruise to Portugal. At the time it was considered bad luck to bring a woman onboard. Unbeknownst to Reed, his First Mate, John Rivers, was in love with the Captains wife and paced the deck in an uncontrollable rage. Overcome with jealousy, he attacked the helmsman with a belaying pin, killing him instantly. Rivers took the wheel and steered the Lovibond towards the notorious Goodwin Sands. All souls were lost and the subsequent inquiry ruled a verdict of Misadventure.

50 years later to the day, 2 separate ships witnessed a phantom ship sailing the Goodwin Sands. On the 13th February, 1848, local fishermen saw a vessel wreck on the area and lifeboats were sent out to investigate, with no sign of ship on the sands being found. In 1948, the ghost of Lovibond was seen again by Captain Bull Prestwick and was described as looking real but having an eerie green glow.

Unfortunately, you will have to wait until the 13th February, 2048, for the next sighting, as she is said to appear only once every 50 years: don’t forget to mark your calendar. The Goodwin Sands are England’s most fertile grounds for ghost ships, and are also the location of the legendary island of Lomea. The Lady Lovibond shares the area with two other phantom vessels: a liner called the SS Montrose and the Shrewsbury, a man-of-war.

Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste can rightly claim the title of the greatest maritime mystery of all time, and is definitely the most documented case of a missing crew. To this day the events that lead to the 8 crew and 2 passengers apparently vanishing from the face of the Earth are a topic of great controversy and debate.

On December 13th, 1872, onlookers witnessed a small 2 masted sailing vessel entering the Bay of Gibraltar. The Mary Celeste had sailed from New York on November 7th, and was bound for Genoa; she had a cargo of 1701 barrels of Alcohol. On the Afternoon of December 5th, Captain Morehouse of the Dei Gratia came upon a Brigantine following a parallel course that he recognized as the Mary Celeste. He and the Master, Captain Briggs, were close friends and had dined together before setting sail. Morehouse was alarmed to see the Celeste Yawing irrationally, surprising as he knew Briggs to be a talented seaman.

After 2 hours of attempted hails with no reply, Morehouse proceeded to board the out of control vessel.

The Celeste appeared sea worthy and seemed to have been abandoned with haste. All of the ship’s papers were missing with the exception of the Captain’s Log, with the last entry stating the ship had passed the Azores on November 25th. Stories arose of warm cups of tea, half eaten breakfast and still smoking pipes, these stories are most likely untrue but it was clear the vessel had been abandoned in a hurry, but there were no signs of violence or a struggle. A six-month supply of uncontaminated food and fresh water was still aboard, and the crew’s personal possessions and artifacts were left untouched, all the cargo was accounted for with the exception of 9 barrels being empty.

There was water damage to the vessel which lead some to believe the Celeste was abandoned due to inclement weather, but this contradicts Briggs personality: he was described as a brave and courageous man who would only abandon ship if there was an imminent risk of loss of life. Morehouse sailed the Celeste into Gibraltar, arriving on December 13th.

A marine surveyor who was charged with investigating the mystery discovered what he believed to be a few spots of blood in the captain’s cabin, an “unclean” ornamental cutlass in Briggs’ cabin, a knife and a deep gash on a railing that he equated with a blunt object or an axe, but while he did not find such a weapon on board, he believed the damage was recent. He found no trace of any damage to the vessel and she was found seaworthy.

Many explanations were put forward for the events: Piracy, Insurance Fraud (Briggs and Morehouse colluded), murder by the crew of Dei Gratia, Sea quake or other phenomena, an explosion caused by the fumes from the cargo, Ergotism from contaminated flour causing the crew to become mad, mutiny and several paranormal explanations.

Over the next 13 years the Mary Celeste changed hands 17 times, with several tragic deaths. Her final Captain deliberately grounded her to make a false insurance claim. In 2001, the National Underwater and Maritime Agency claim to have found the wreck of the Mary Celeste, although skeptics claim that there are hundreds of similar wrecks in the area and cannot determine with any certainty the identity of the vessel.

Ourang Medan

In June, 1947, frantic Morse Code messages were received from the Dutch freighter Ourang Medan. The message was received by many ships and several responded. The message reported ‘All officers including captain are dead lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead.’ A second message was received shortly after, this time a voice over the radio simply stating ‘I die’. Dutch and British listening posts were able to triangulate the position and vector a rescue attempt to the Ourang Medan.

After several hours the Silver Star the arrived on scene. After failed attempts to hail the vessel using whistle signals and flashing lights. they assembled a small team and boarded the apparently undamaged Ourang Medan. They first ventured to the bridge where a radio was playing, several members of the Ships’ Company, including the Captain, were found dead, more corpses were discovered on the Cargo Deck including a dog standing on all four legs, frozen and snarling into thin air.

No survivors were found on board, but what was most disturbing was the nature of the bodies, all frozen in place looking up towards the sun, their arms outstretched, mouths gaping, and a look of immense horror on all their faces. A trip to the communications room revealed the author of the SOS messages, also dead, his hand still on the Morse sending key, eyes wide open and teeth bared. Strangely, there was no sign of wounds or injuries on any of the bodies. The crew of the Silver Star attempted to enter the Cargo Bay but a small explosion from an unknown source soon resulted in an uncontrollable inferno. Beaten back, they were forced to abandon the vessel and return to the safety of the Silver Star. Within minutes the vessel sank to the depths of the ocean floor.

Although there are no clear records of a ship by the name Ourang Medan existing, many conspiracy theorists believe the vessel was acting under a false name and was transporting something that ‘officially’ did not exist.

The fate of the Ourang Medan and her crew remain a mystery. Speculation has been made that pirates killed the crew and sabotaged the ship, although this doesn’t explain the peculiar grimaces and lack of injuries on the corpses. Others have claimed that clouds of methane or other noxious natural gases could have bubbled up from fissures on the sea bed and engulfed the ship. Even more fantastical theories involving aliens and ghosts abound.

Source: Popgive
http://www.popgive.com/2011/01/ghost-ships.html