ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A Facebook post with an image of a ship has garnered over 19,000 shares since being posted Wednesday, claiming that the vessel is "a fully intact 1700s-era ghost ship washed ashore near St. Augustine on Wednesday, baffling both locals and experts."
Some commentors on the post have raised eyebrows about it, mentioning that the ocean water at St. Augustine isn't as vibrant as seen in the post, while others have hopes of flocking to the precious jewel for the opportunity of exploring it.
The post further states that the "mysterious vessel" washed ashore in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, as "the Category 4 storm churned the Atlantic [Ocean]."
THE QUESTION
Did a 1700s-era ghost ship wash ashore near St. Augustine, Fla. in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton on Wednesday?
THE SOURCES
- Maritime archaeologist Chuck Meide
- First Coast News Meteorologist Robert Speta
- Google Lens
THE ANSWER
No, a viral Facebook post about a 1700s ghost ship washed ashore near St. Augustine after Hurricane Milton isn't true.
WHAT WE FOUND
Chuck Meide, the director of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, told First Coast News Friday, Casper Planet's post is not true. He is a maritime archaeologist who dives into archaeology related to the maritime history of St. Augustine and the entire First Coast region.
"The ship depicted is completely intact, and you just don't get that," he said. "In Florida waters, you know, we have warm water most of the year and we have critters like ship worms and other things that eat up the wood of shipwrecks. So, what is much more typical for a Florida shipwreck to look like is just the lower most part of the ship that happened to get buried. But, having a fully intact ship like that is just literally impossible."
The archaeologist elaborated saying the only locations in the world where a fully intact ship could emerge from the depths of the ocean, like the one in the post, would be in "places like the Baltic Sea ... off the coast of Sweden and Norway, and like the Great Lakes, and Lake Champlain ... where it's extremely cold and freshwater."
Meide further explained that the idea of pieces of a ship washing ashore after a hurricane is "totally plausible and has happened before."
Other flaws noticed in the post, giving reason to it being untrue, is the color of the water which is typically seen in areas of South Florida rather than Northeast Florida, the post stating that Milton was a "Category 4 storm" that churned the Atlantic, as well as the profile's bio mentioning that the Facebook page posts satire.
According to First Coast News, On Your Side Meteorologist Robert Speta, Milton was a Category 1 hurricane when it crossed into the Atlantic Ocean after passing over Central Florida; it was a Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall.
Using the Google Lens tool, a reverse search of the ship revealed the vessel, called the "Flying Dutchman," was located on one of Disney's private islands, Castaway Cay, from 2006-2010. It was designed after a supernatural, fictional ship that appeared in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead's Man Chest" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" movies with the same name.
