Case file · Anomaly hotspot
SS Pacific vanishes
The Collins Line paddle steamer Pacific sailed from Liverpool for New York on 23 January 1856 with 186 people and disappeared.
1856 CE · 52.00, -30.00 · status: unexplained
The account
A message in a bottle reportedly found in the Hebrides said the ship was sinking among icebergs; its authenticity is doubtful. A wreck found off Wales in 1991 was claimed to be the Pacific, but the identification is uncertain. Position approximate.
The sceptical view
Collision with ice is the leading theory.
The researched reading
A Collins Line paddle steamer lost in a hard winter. Ice explains it.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 40% | Ice was unusually far south that winter; the Persia, on the same route, struck ice weeks later and survived. A collision with ice explains the loss. |
| Undetermined | 27% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| Something known, misidentified | 12% | A boiler explosion or fire on an early steamship was a known risk. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 6% | A vanishing ship invites a mystery framing. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | A message in a bottle found in the Hebrides in 1861 claiming she sank among ice is of doubtful authenticity. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 4% | Rogue waves are a known natural risk. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 4% | A wreck claimed found off Wales in 1991 is unconfirmed, but ice explains the loss. |
| Secret human technology | 2% | No hostile action in 1856. |
Official position: No formal finding; the ship was presumed lost to ice.