This is the ghastly moment a sailor made the grim discovery of a mummified adventurer on board a ghost ship.
The crew member, who was on a round-the-world yacht race, jumped into the ocean and swam out to the vessel after his team spotted it without a mast, Daily Mail reports.
Initially, the sailor thought nobody was on board after he shouted out to see if anyone was there, and no-one responded. But, as he moved towards the cabin, he discovered the mummified body of German mariner Manfred Fritz Bajorat, 59.
The video shows eerie footage of the boat drifting without a mast, and a crew member jumping into the water to make his way over to investigate.
The sailor’s team, LMAX Exchange, was competing in the Clipper 2015-16 Round The World Yacht Race when they discovered Bajorat’s boat on January 31, as they were crossing from Airlie Beach, Australia to Da Nang, Vietnam.
But, after liasing with the U.S. Coast Guard in Guam, the team was told to leave the boat and carry on racing as they couldn’t provide further assistance. USCG Guam then took over the investigation.
The Clipper Race Director, Justin Taylor, notified the German Embassy in London, who informed the German Police and Coast Guard. They were then able to trace the sailor and his next of kin through the boat’s registration details.
Bajorat’s vessel was then not rediscovered until February 25, when two fishermen found it 40 miles off the coast of Barobo town in the Philippines – drifting more than 1,000 nautical miles from where it was first discovered.
The LMAX Exchange team said:
As a team we found comfort that he was found and that peace will be given to his friends and family who have been looking for him. Our words and thoughts were shared for the sailor as he now rests in peace.
That must have been a very, very eerie experience.