A rumor circulating on-line in October 2024 claimed a “ghost ship” from the 1700s had washed ashore close to St. Augustine, Florida, after Hurricane Milton. The posts included a picture of what seemed to be an previous wood ship stranded on a sandbar.
For instance, on Oct. 16, 2024, the Fb web page Casper Planet posted (archived) the picture paired with a caption that started:
1700s Ghost Ship Washes Ashore in Florida After Hurricane Milton
In an eerie aftermath of Hurricane Milton, a completely intact 1700s-era ghost ship washed ashore close to St. Augustine, Florida, on Wednesday, baffling each locals and consultants. The mysterious vessel, which had been misplaced to time, emerged from the ocean’s depths because the Class 4 storm churned the Atlantic, sending the traditional ship onto the seaside.
(Fb web page Casper Planet)
On the time of this writing, the put up had acquired round 2,200 reactions and 1,700 feedback, a lot of which expressed doubt within the put up’s claims. One commenter, for instance, wrote: “Yea… that completely isn’t the water in nor close to St Aug.” One other wrote: “Is that this actually actual or an AI generated put up?”
Different readers appeared to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life occasions. Variations of the declare unfold on X (archived), on Instagram (archived), in addition to elsewhere on Facebook (archived).
Nevertheless, there have been no credible reviews that such a ship had washed ashore in St. Augustine after Milton. A Google search for the phrases “St. Augustine ghost ship after Milton” on Oct. 18, 2024, returned nothing associated to the declare past a Sportskeeda.com article debunking it.
The outcomes of reverse image searches carried out utilizing Google Pictures and TinEye indicated that the picture included within the put up the truth is confirmed the Flying Dutchman — a prop ship utilized in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. In keeping with the fan-run Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki, the ship first appeared within the franchise’s second film, 2006’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Useless Man’s Chest.”
According to multiple Disney fan websites, from 2006 to 2010 the Flying Dutchman was on show simply off the coast of Castaway Cay, a personal island within the Bahamas that, based on its official website, is “reserved solely for Disney Cruise Line Company on Bahamian and Caribbean cruises.”
Though we now have not but recognized the unique photographer of the picture used within the put up underneath investigation right here, the resemblance between the ship that photograph depicted and the Flying Dutchman was apparent from quite a few photos and videos posted to web sites together with TripAdvisor, Flickr, and YouTube between 2006 and 2010, when Disney reportedly eliminated the prop ship from Castaway Cay.
For instance, the photograph collage beneath reveals the picture from the Fb put up concerning the “ghost ship” on the left and a 2007 Flickr photo of the Flying Dutchman on the suitable.
(Fb web page Planet Casper/Flickr consumer scmikeburton)
Particulars of the ship are seen within the video embedded beneath, which was additionally dated to 2007.
We’ve reached out to the Walt Disney Firm for official affirmation that the ship proven within the put up was certainly the Flying Dutchman — a prop ship constructed for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies — and we are going to replace this story if and once they reply.
Finally, the rumor about an 18th-century ship washing ashore in St. Augustine originated with Casper Planet — a Fb web page that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. Its Information part states:
Delivering the Snews that does not matter on to your Snews feed. Did we are saying that is satire? Satire, satire, humor, satire and opinion, names/places are made up
The fictional story unfold roughly over per week after Hurricane Milton made landfall simply south of Sarasota, Florida, on Oct. 9, 2024.
Casper Planet has a history of creating up tales for shares and feedback, typically counting on artificial-intelligence (AI) writing software program to do its storytelling. The AI textual content detectors ZeroGPT and Quillbot each indicated that some or the entire web page’s put up concerning the “ghost ship” was written utilizing AI software program.
Snopes has addressed different satirical claims stemming from the account prior to now, together with the assertion {that a} photograph authentically confirmed Mickey Mouse dropkicking a toddler at Disneyland.
For background, right here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that decision their output humorous or satirical.
