Ghost Ships: Tales of Abandoned, Doomed, and Haunted Vessels

by Angus Konstam

There are few images more chilling than an abandoned ship drifting alone at sea. Ghost Ships is an anthology of the best true-life—and sometimes, still questionable—accounts of vessels that, for whatever reason, never made port. These stories demonstrate that the real mysteries of seafaring life are even stranger and more unnerving than any fictional account

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Paranormal, Supernatural, Maritime

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Angus Konstam is a Scottish writer of popular history. Born in Aberdeen, Scotland and raised on the Orkney Islands, he has written more than a hundred books on maritime history, naval history, historical atlases, with a special focus on the history of piracy.

Reviews

[Weylin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fair at best. The author spends most of his time debunking tales, not sharing them. Perhaps I inferred what he did not imply, but I felt he was a bit contemptuous of anyone that read these tales.

Do you remember that famous skit from SNL way back in the 70s with William Shatner? They had a mock Star Trek convention and Shatner got up on stage to talk to his fans. He told them, “Get a life!” . Then proceeded to ridicule them for loving Star Trek. That was how this book felt. I could hear the author saying, “So you are reading a book about ghost ships and the unexplained? Clearly you need some reality. Stop being a gullible idiot.”

[Samantha Pope · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as I'm researching maritime mysteries and polar expeditions. I am particularly interested in the Franklin expedition to discover the North West Passage in 1845 and while the book had a fair amount of detail about this, much was missing. Since publication of this book, the two ships - Erebus and Terror - have been found so obviously that's not an issue - things date. But it was known even in Victorian times that there had been claims and evidence pointing to some of the terrible things the crew endured that were not mentioned here at all. Of course this is a book that covers many different mysteries and therefore huge detail cannot be included for each case but the fact that the condemned crews of both boats would have succumbed to scurvy and cannibalism, for example, are not mentioned at all.
It was interesting reading about all the other mysteries but I felt that there was something lacking in each retelling. I understand Konstam is a sceptic and he wishes to debunk myths but what makes these stories so engaging and interesting is their roots in seafaring lore and this book just doesn't capture that. Additionally, there are quite a few errors which led me to wonder about how carefully the information had been checked or at least proofread. Some of the photos in the book are not even credited so I didn't know what I was looking at!
So, three stars for being interesting but it could and should have been so much more.

[Madeline McCrae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a lot more story-telling and incredulous, spooky tales of ships at sea. However, there were far fewer stories than expected and the author chose to practically explain the stories selected without much of the “dun, dun, dun” factor portrayed in the cover and title. I would give it a 3.5 because the author’s writing showed a lot of time and research put in.

[pallav mishra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underwhelmed. Just a slick presentation of a few true incidents. These are not tales- more like Wiki accounts.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very well researched and written, but the title and cover art are incredibly misleading. There's absolutely nothing spooky about this book whatsoever. It wasn't even particularly mysterious. Especially with the author's propensity to try and explain every single case. However, if you want a good conglomerate of maritime mishaps, this is your book!

3 stars because I was interested enough to finish it.

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice, fact-based overview of various mysteries of the seas. Whets your appetite for more detailed information about these ships and other unsolved mysteries.