Case file · Anomaly hotspot
The five-masted København vanishes
The Danish training ship København, one of the largest sailing ships ever built, left Buenos Aires for Australia on 14 December 1928 with 75 crew and cadets and disappeared.
1928 CE · -37.00, -12.00 · status: unexplained
The account
Her last radio message, on 22 December, gave no hint of trouble. A long search found nothing. For years afterwards sailors in the South Atlantic and off Chile reported a five-masted ghost ship. Position approximate.
The sceptical view
Collision with an iceberg in the Southern Ocean is the most likely cause.
The researched reading
A great sailing ship lost in the Southern Ocean. An iceberg or storm explains it.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 40% | The route across the Southern Ocean in the southern summer passed through iceberg fields; a collision at night, or capsizing in a storm, is the most likely fate. |
| Undetermined | 30% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| Something known, misidentified | 10% | Rigging or structural failure in a five-masted sailing ship is possible. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 8% | Reports of a “ghost ship” sighted later are not reliable. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 5% | Rogue waves are a known risk in that ocean. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 3% | Ice and storm explain the loss. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 2% | No fabrication in the core facts. |
| Secret human technology | 2% | No covert action in 1928. |
Official position: A Danish maritime inquiry concluded the ship was probably lost to an iceberg or storm.