Over the past day or so, there has been an article going around to different news sources about the hundreds of idle ships off the coast of Singapore as a result of the “steep slump in trade.” Here is a snippet of the article.

One of the largest fleets of ships ever gathered idles here, near one of the world’s busiest ports, marooned by the receding tide of trade. There may be tentative signs of economic recovery in spots around the globe, but few here.

Hundreds of cargo ships — 100,000 to 300,000 tonnes each, with the larger ones weighing more than the 130-ship Spanish Armada — seem to perch on the water rather than in it, their red rudders and bulbous noses, submerged when the vessels are loaded, sticking a few metres out of the water.

So many ships have congregated here — 735, weighing a total of more than 41 million tonnes — that shipping lines are concerned about near misses and collisions in the congested Strait of Malacca, the main shipping channel between the Indian and Pacific oceans.

The root of the problem lies in an unusually steep slump in trade, confirmed by statistics announced on Tuesday. READ FULL ARTICLE

After reading it I was thinking to myself – “Wow, hundreds of ships! Must be quite a site.”  So in standard gCaptain fashion, I turned to the internet to find pictures and thanks to Web 2.0 and the photo sharing site Flickr, I was able to find these along with a good video recently post on YouTube. [Continue Reading →]

The Queen Mary was in service for decades as both a World War II transport ship and a luxury liner. It wasn’t intended as such at the time, but the Queen Mary was named “The Grey Ghost” during the war because of the color she was painted to make her stealthy in the war-time waters.

In her time, the Queen Mary carried seasick sailors, destitute stowaways and wealthy vacationers. With this kind of history it’s not surprising she saw her own share of deaths, now a hair shy of 50. In fact, there are so many haunting that some parts of the ship are now barred from the public. But for the paranormally curious there are still haunted tours of the cabins and halls that housed death. You can also lodge at the Queen Mary but after reading this, you may have second thoughts.

Queen Mary Of the numerous deaths, there was a young seaman by the name of John Henry who lied about his age to procure a position on the Queen Mary and was soon crushed to death while trying to flee a fire. To this day, knocks and bright lights can be heard around engine room 13 where the young man met his untimely death. Ịts even been reported that the door to the engine room is sometimes hot to the touch or that mixed in with a ball of light is tendrils of smoke.

If spooky little girls like the ones in the Shinning scare you then you’ll want to stay clear of the pool area. A girl from third class thought she’d have some fun and slide down the banister but a sudden wave upset her course and she broke her neck on the fall. She now wanders the pool area and nursery looking for her doll or mommy. She is not alone though. In the 30’s and 60’s two other women met their unfortunate deaths in the pool area and are seen periodically in that area. [Continue Reading →]

It appears as though some less fortunate souls might have an alternative plan for the World Surfing Championship set to go off in Bali next month.  According to The Sydney Morning Herald:

AN ILLEGAL fishing ship whose captain is rumoured to have been murdered has thrown plans for the World Surfing Championship in Bali into chaos by running aground on the island’s best surf break.

Mystery surrounds the arrival of the Taiwanese vessel Ho Tsai Fa No. 18 off Padang Padang beach. Locals woke on Saturday to see the 30-metre-long vessel foundering on a reef, and reaped a barbecue bonanza by emptying its holds of tuna and shark.

Police are still trying to find the boat’s Indonesian crew and its Taiwanese captain, Tsai Wen-chen. Taiwanese authorities had requested Indonesia’s assistance to locate the boat several weeks ago after it failed to return from a fishing trip off Papua.

If you feel brave enough, you can catch the whole article HERE

Also check out some of our previous posts on ghost ships HERE and HERE