Niamh Shackleton
There are many things you might find floating in the middle of the ocean - but a perfectly intact sailboat probably isn't one of them.
In 2013, non-profit group Ocean Research Project were sailing across the Atlantic when they came across the boat located around 800 miles from Bermuda.
Spotting the ship that appeared to have no sign of life on it, a member of the team, Matt Rutherford - the first person in history to complete a non-stop, single-handed, voyage around North and South America - went onboard to investigate.
"This is one awfully abandoned sailboat; Wolfhound from the Irish yacht club," Matt said to the camera.
"I have no idea what's inside. I'm going to go search around - I hope I don't find any dead bodies or anything like that."
Advert
Upon going below deck, he was met with quite a mess, but luckily no dead bodies.
It was evident that people had been there at some point, however as there were household and personal items scattered around.
He went on to label the whole ordeal as 'absolutely crazy'.
Advert
"Here I am, 800 miles from Bermuda, 1500 miles from the United States standing on a very nice Swan 48 in the middle of the ocean," Matt said.
While the exterior of the belt was in pretty good shape, it wasn't sailable as the engine was no longer working.
The boat was 48ft long and, despite it being six feet longer than their boat, they proceeded to tow it across the ocean.
Matt and the other person onboard went on to spend then next 47 days towing the large vessel and eventually had to haggle with a freighter they passed to give them some gas.
Advert
But it still proved too much for their smaller boat and their engine ended up breaking too - meaning they sadly had to let the boat they were towing free.
It's believed that the boat had been abandoned for nine weeks before they stumbled across it.
Someone commented on the YouTube video: "The ship had only been left abandoned for 9 weeks back in 2013. This video, although released just four days ago on December 23rd, 2022, the abandoning of the ship occurred in February of 2013 and was found 9 weeks later, when these researchers stumbled upon it.
Advert
"9 weeks with nobody manning it and no anchor or anything is impressive as hell. Shows you how durable these beauties can be."
The vessel had been owned by Alan McGettigan, but he and his crew fell onto hard times when they lost battery power.
This was followed by engine failure which left the vessel without communications or navigation systems for eight days.
They were later rescued by a passing cargo ship.