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    • The 18th century ghost ship of St. Augustine isn’t real, but others are
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    The 18th century ghost ship of St. Augustine isn’t real, but others are

    Vaseline Posted on

    Rumors began circulating online Wednesday about a “ghost ship from the 1700s” washing up near St. Augustine in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

    Never mind that Hurricane Milton made landfall on October 9, exactly one week before the alleged ghost ship sighting, and regardless of the fact that Milton made landfall on the other side of the state, the story succeeded in navigating his way through social media. media platforms.

    With over 21,000 shares on the original post, it was clear that people had taken another bite of the apple only to realize it was an onion – of the satirical kind, to be clear.

    While the claim is certainly timely with Halloween just around the corner, the unfortunate reality is that the source of the story, Casper Planet, is a Facebook page that writes fun (and completely fake) news stories in the same vein as The Onion. .

    In a follow-up story posted to the page Friday morning titled “Tourists outraged after discovering non-existent 18th century Florida pirate ship wasn’t real all along,” the page continued its fun with the story.

    “This week, shock waves rippled through the tourism community as visitors visited Florida’s famed beach where the ‘legendary’ 18th century pirate ship washed up after Hurricane Milton discovered an inconvenient truth: the ship does not exist,” the post said.

    Augustine’s 18th century ghost ship may not be real, but it’s still a fun story

    According to the Casper Planet post, the ghost ship “emerged from the depths of the ocean when the Category 4 storm (Hurricane Milton) churned up the Atlantic Ocean and sent the old ship beached.”

    The Gulf of Mexico is technically part of the Atlantic Ocean, but Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, on the central west coast of Florida.

    The path essentially bisected Florida as it bisected the peninsula and traveled eastward as it left Florida’s east coast as a minor hurricane near Brevard and Indian River counties, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the northernmost part of the area.

    The satirical story used a fake quote from a made-up marine archaeologist to increase the legitimacy of the story.

    “This is unprecedented. To see a ship of this age, in such good condition, emerge from the ocean during a hurricane – it is both fascinating and chilling,” said the completely fictional Dr. Andrew Clarke.

    A real-life maritime archaeologist sheds light on why “18th century ghost ships” didn’t exist in Florida

    NBC affiliate First Coast News spoke with Chuck Meide, the director of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, who further debunked the story by shedding some light on what happens to most shipwrecks.

    His first problem with the story was the depiction of the ship. Although it looked beaten and battered, it was still intact. Most of the wood from a ship hundreds of years old would have been eaten by ‘critters like shipworms’.

    In cases where part of the ship survives, the lower part of the ship is usually all that remains as it becomes buried beneath the seabed.

    Hurricanes occasionally cause ‘ghost ships’ to wash ashore

    The plausibility of a hurricane causing a ghost ship to wash ashore is actually rooted in reality.

    A 45-foot “ghost ship” washed up on Pensacola beach on June 18 as Tropical Storm Alberto was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico. The boat, named Lady Catherine III, was battered, but no one was on board, according to Weather.com.

    It was eventually discovered that the boat belonged to a Texas man, Michael Barlow, who had to abandon ship earlier that month after being caught in the storm.

    In 2017, another 45-foot sailboat named Cuki broke loose from her anchorage in Key West during Hurricane Irma. According to USA Today, the boat drifted more than 300 miles along the east coast of Florida before coming ashore at Spessard Holland South Beach Park.

    The boat remained in Spessard Holland South Beach Park for two years before being scrapped. The owner, Key West resident Jeffrey Sundwall, is incarcerated at the Jackson Correctional Institute in Malone, Florida. He was convicted last July of sexual abuse, possession of cocaine, attempted obstruction of a criminal investigation and 20 counts of possession of child pornography.

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