SS President vanishes
The transatlantic steamer President, then the largest ship in the world, left New York for Liverpool on 11 March 1841 and was never seen again, with 136 people aboard including the Irish actor Tyrone Power.
1841 CE · 41.00, -63.00 · status: unexplained
The account
She was last sighted labouring in a storm off the Nantucket shoals. Bottles with supposed messages from the ship turned up later; all were judged false. Position approximate.
The sceptical view
An overloaded early steamship in a severe gale is the likely cause.
The researched reading
A large but fragile early steamship vanished in a known severe storm. No wreck was found, but nothing about the loss needs an unusual explanation.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Undetermined | 42% | 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. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 40% | She was last seen labouring in a severe March gale off the Nantucket shoals. An overloaded, underpowered early paddle steamer foundering in heavy North Atlantic seas needs no further cause. |
| Something known, misidentified | 6% | The only “mystery” is a familiar kind of loss being read as an enigma. Paddle steamers of 1841 had weak hulls and machinery, and several were lost without trace in that era. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 4% | Hoaxes surround the case: the bottle messages said to come from the ship were all judged false. They are fakes about the loss, not its cause. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 3% | A rogue wave, which was poorly understood in 1841, could have overwhelmed her suddenly. That would still be a natural cause. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 3% | Nothing points beyond an ordinary loss at sea. The share stays this low because the wreck has never been found. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 1% | Witnesses play no part here, so perception is barely relevant. |
| Secret human technology | 1% | Not applicable to an 1841 shipwreck. Listed only for completeness. |
Official position: No formal inquiry reached a finding; contemporaries assumed she foundered in the March 1841 gale.