The Last Voyage of Jenny
“May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days. I am the only one left alive.” – Was the captain’s last entry in the ghost ship Jenny’s log book. Jenny was an 1800’s English schooner that became frozen in ice crossing the Drake Passage in 1823.
Very little in this world is as fascinating and terrifying as a ghost ship. A vessel wandering aimlessly on the vast oceans instills the true meaning of being a ghost. The history of phantom ships dates back to the early 1700’s, with many pieces of ghost ship lore having no known origin date at all. Add in a frozen Antarctic passageway, and Ghost Ship Jenny takes the terror of ghost ships to another level.
Date of Discovery
The ship set sail in 1822 and went missing in 1823. According to Polar Record, it was rediscovered in 1840 by a whaling ship “Hope.” By the time of discovery, the ship had been encased in ice for almost 7 years. Other accounts place the discovery in 1860, however, the most commonly agreed-upon timeline is 1840. On either timeline, the frozen bodies of the crew were encased in ice for no less than 7 years or up to 27 years.
Ghost Ship Jenny’s – Frozen Crew
The article from Globus in 1862, a popular German magazine, recaps the fantastic re-discovery of the ghost ship Jenny. As the story goes the whaling ship, named “Hope,” happened upon Jenny after the ice had broken revealing what appeared to be a fully manned ship. To the horror of the men aboard the whaling ship, the crew for the Jenny were actually frozen in place and had been for 7 years. It is reported that Captain Brighton of the ship Hope found the captain of the ghost ship Jenny still with pen in hand as he scribed the last entry. Some say that Captain Brighton properly buried the ship’s captain, crew, wife, and dog all at sea. Other urban legends state that the Jenny and Crew are still aimlessly lost at sea.
To this date the ship remains a true ghost ship as it has yet to be seen aside from reports that are nearing 200 years old. Are the crew of the phantom ship Jenny still frozen somewhere at the bottom of the ocean near the drake passage or is the ship still completing it’s doomed journey?
Ghost ship Jenny is one of many ghost ships out there, but the way in which it went missing and was re-discovered surely makes it one of the most terrifying.
Books About Ghost Ship Jenny
References
Tritone’s love of horror and mystery began at a young age. Growing up in the 80’s he got to see some of the greatest horror movies play out in the best of venues, the drive-in theater. That’s when his obsession with the genre really began—but it wasn’t just the movies, it was the games, the books, the comics, and the lore behind it all that really ignited his obsession. Tritone is a published author and continues to write and write about horror whenever possible.