19th-century “ghost ship” suddenly appears on the shore

Many New Jersey residents are taking their cameras to Stone Harbor Beach to capture a strange phenomenon: a part of a shipwreck suddenly excavated by the ghostly hand of nature and placed on the sand.

According to Stan Sperlak, board member of the Cape May County Museum in New Jersey, the area where the wreck was discovered had long been marked as a dangerous area for sailors before the Hereford Lighthouse was built. The remains of the ship are nearly 8m long.

After more than 130 years of being buried, part of a "ghost ship" suddenly appeared on the coast of New Jersey - USA.

The identity of the ghost ship remains unclear, but initial data suggests it may be the DH Ingraham, a lime merchant ship that caught fire and disappeared near shore in the late 19th century.

The accident occurred about 1.5 miles from the present-day Hereford Lighthouse, and the local newspaper account of it is still in circulation. The 1887 article states that on December 4, 1886, at 10:30 p.m., in a northeasterly gale and a heavy snowstorm, a member of the Hereford Inlet harbor patrol suddenly spotted what appeared to be a torch in the sea.

"Ghost ship" in New Jersey attracts photographers.

The patrolman immediately thought of a ship in distress and called for help. The lighthouse had not yet been built. A small boat was launched and after 2 hours of groping in the snow and darkness, they reached the crew at 10 am, by which time the lime ship was already on fire.

Five sailors had managed to get into a small boat and were stranded nearby. They were taken to a lifeboat and the group continued to brave the storm to find a way to shore. The ship, of course, was left in flames.

Coincidentally, the New Jersey coastline also experienced a severe storm in 2018, with the shoreline constantly shifting due to high winds and blowing sand. And those could be factors that cause the sand levels on the shoreline to change and"ghost ship"buried suddenly appeared.