''Lene Marie'' was a
ketch-rigged
tall ship
A tall ship is a large, traditionally- rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or fe ...
, of overall and 200 tons
displacement. She was built in
Denmark in 1910 as a
Baltic trader just before
World War I. During the
Second World War the ''Lene Marie'' sank in the
Baltic Sea during a storm. She was raised by the Americans as part of their efforts to rebuild Denmark after the war.
When it was no longer economical to continue using the ''Lene Marie'' as a commercial
vessel she was converted into a private
yacht. Her
hold was turned into a
saloon and
cabins were added. The
fo'c'sle, containing the
crew quarters, remained almost unchanged during the conversion. Several crew members reported encountering a
ghost
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
in the fo'c'sle at night. According to legend this was the ghost of a
sailor who drowned in his
bunk when the ship sank in World War II.
In November 1996 ''Lene Marie'' was lost en route from
New York City to
Bermuda. Three days into the voyage she ran into a storm. After two days the ship was taking on water and had lost three sails. A crew member was injured attempting to rig a replacement sail. The bearings in the main engine started to fail which would have left the ship without propulsion or its main pumps. As a result of the engine problems it was decided to abandon the ship and a radio distress call was made. The crew were all successfully transferred to the freighter MV ''Arctic'' which had responded to the distress call.
References
First-hand description of the sinking, from a member of the crew*Conversations with crew members, 1993.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lene Marie
1910 ships
Tall ships of Denmark
Tall ships of the United States
Individual sailing vessels
Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
Maritime incidents in 1996