Freaky 21st century Ghost ship story

[JohnnyRingo]

This is so bizzarre and reads like a pirate saga from 200 years ago:

After four months at sea, ghost ship with 11 petrified corpses washes up in Barbados
· Letter left by dying man gives clue to investigators
· Dozens of others thought to have perished en route


The white ghost ship rolled in the Atlantic swell as the rescue boats approached it 70 nautical miles off Ragged Point, one of the most easterly places on the Caribbean island of Barbados.
The yacht was unmarked, 6 metres (20ft) long, and when Barbadian coastguard officers boarded it, they made a gruesome find. The boat's phantom crew was made up of the desiccated corpses of 11 young men, huddled in two separate piles in the small cabin. Dressed in shorts and colourful jerseys, they had been partially petrified by the salt water, sun and sea breezes of the Atlantic Ocean. They appeared to have come from far away.

<snip>

The story of the 11 dead and some 40 other would-be immigrants from Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Gambia starts on Christmas Day last year at Praia, a port in the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde. There, for €1,300 (£890) each, they were promised a trip to the Canary Islands by a mysterious Spaniard.

Their boat was to be a motorised yacht, recently repaired but bearing no name and no flag. They paid to make the voyage, assuming that the Spaniard - a mechanic based in the Canaries - would be skippering the boat. At the last moment, however, a Senegalese man took over and the Spaniard disappeared. Several then refused to make the journey. One, according to the El Pais newspaper yesterday, jumped from the yacht as it set sail. It is by no means clear what happened next.



<Entire article>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1785108,00.html?gusrc=rss

[No Exit]

1. Good God! "11 young men"...

... and those were the ones whose bodies hadn't washed into the ocean.

You're right, that is an amazing article.

And even now, I can't help relating this finding of "11 young men" to a general view about young men: they are risk-takers, they are naive, they are inexperienced, and as a result, these young men fell prey to the workings of this obvious con artist who took their money and sent them to their death.

Sent them to their death.

Reminds me of something my wingnut friend said about Iraq while he was visiting this past weekend: "Well, when I think about the troops and the deaths, I have to remember that these soldiers VOLUNTEERED..."

I smacked him down with, "Yeah, sure, they 'volunteered' after being LIED TO and promised bonuses, etc., that they will never get!" Then I told him, hey, when *I* was 18, I might've fallen for con jobs like what these military recruiters are selling.

(Isn't it wonderful to get together with friends and barbecue on a nice holiday?)

[Raine]

2. Very strange

and sad. :-(

[DELUSIONAL]

3. That is a tiny boat -- length of 20 feet --

for 11 bodies (alive or dead) -- and then even more were presumed to be aboard this ill fated boat.

What a sad story and the note from the dying man.