Phantom Ships

Australians Roger and Ann Dowling and their two teenage sons, Jon and Mark, were sailing around the world in their 32-foot sloop SHANA. By August of 1983, they were off the east coast of America, heading for Bermuda. "We were becalmed for two days," Roger later reported to Dick Donavan of the Weekly World News, "and we were surrounded by a dense white fog. What bothered me the most however," said Dowling, "was that my compass was acting strange. It just kept swinging from one point to the other, I had no idea where we were. I couldn't get the engine started and my radio was on the blink." At twilight of the third day, with his wife and sons sleeping in the cabin below, Roger was sitting on deck, dozing at the helm, when he saw something sail out of the fog and cross the bow of his sloop. "I watched in horror as an ancient man-of-war lifted out of the sea," he said. "I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was dreaming. It was carrying tattered sails, and worn battle-flags were flying from the mast-head, but the hulk itself was hardly moving. I called to my wife and the boys to come on deck quick, and when they saw the old moss covered ship, stark terror flooded their eyes."

"I just screamed," reported Anna Dowling. "I've never known such icy fear in all my life. There were horrid silent corpses, motionless, but staring down at us from the rail."

"Then, without so much as a whisper of a sound," said Roger, "the phantom-ship just sank out of sight. There wasn't even a ripple in the water. It just vanished. Almost at once, the haze lifted, the compass settled down and the wind picked up. I didn't even ask the others if they wanted to head on to Bermuda. I just turned the SHANA around and headed for the nearest American port."