The MV Joyita
The merchant vessel Joyita was found drifting and abandoned in the South Pacific in November 1955, with all 25 people who had been aboard missing.
- Region
- Fiji
- Country
- Fiji
- Category
- Ghost Ship
- Date
- 10 November 1955
- Continent
- Oceania
The report
The Joyita left Apia, Samoa, on 3 October 1955 bound for the Tokelau Islands with 25 people aboard. On 10 November 1955 the merchant ship Tuvalu found her drifting north of Vanua Levu, Fiji, listing heavily and hundreds of miles off her course, with nobody on board. The liferafts, logbook and navigation instruments were missing, while a doctor's bag and bloodied bandages were found on deck and the radio was tuned to the distress frequency. A February 1956 inquiry found the fate of those aboard inexplicable on the evidence, and theories such as mutiny, an accident or piracy remain unproven.
Sources and further reading
Location
-15.9, 179.3