The Ghost Ship Resolven
It was a typical August morning in 1884 when the HMS Mallard sailed straight into one of Newfoundland’s great maritime mysteries.
The Mallard, a Royal Navy ship tasked with enforcing fishing treaties in Newfoundland waters, was patrolling Trinity Bay when its crew spotted something strange—about 40 kilometers off Catalina, a ship with all sails set, drifting erratically. The Mallard moved in for a closer look.
The vessel was a merchant brig named the Resolven. Though Welsh in origin, it had arrived in Newfoundland in June 1884 with a load of salt from the Mediterranean. Just three days earlier, it had departed Harbour Grace en route to Snug Harbour, Labrador, to pick up a shipment of cod bound for Europe.
As the Mallard approached, the crew saw no obvious reason for the ship’s erratic behavior. Attempts to signal or communicate went unanswered. With no response, a boarding party was sent to investigate.
At first glance, everything appeared normal. The lamps were lit, a fire still burned in the galley, and food sat on the table—everything as if the crew had just stepped away. But there was one chilling detail: the Resolven was completely deserted.
It was a ghost ship.
The Resolven had suffered significant damage, but it remained afloat. According to an article published at the time in the Harbour Grace Standard, the ship’s stem was smashed, the rudder unshipped, and both the jib boom and bowsprit had been carried away. The lifeboat was also missing. It appeared the crew may have deliberately damaged parts of the vessel to make launching the escape craft easier.
The Mallard stayed nearby, expecting the crew might return to their drifting ship—but they never did. Attention then turned to the possibility that the crew had been rescued by a passing vessel. That hope soon faded.
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The term ghost ship has multiple meanings. Perhaps the meaning that most readily pops to mind is a supernatural ship like the legendary Flying Dutchman. The Flying Dutchman is said to be a spectral ship, doomed to sail the world, never able to make port. Newfoundland has many such ghost ships.
The Resolven is a ghost ship in the sense that is was found sailing without a crew, much like the famed Mary/Marie Celeste. In 1872 the Mary Celeste was found drifting in off the Azores. It was in good shape but completely abandoned. None of the crew were ever seen again.
The crew of the Resolven was never seen again.
What happened to them has become the stuff of legend.
The Resolven Mystery
Some claimed the Resolven had struck an iceberg. The theory, reported in early news coverage, suggested the crew—likely inexperienced with navigating near ice—panicked, abandoned ship, and were lost when their lifeboat swamped. Apparently, there was a late-season berg in the area at the time.
But as the years passed, darker theories emerged. Some speculated that criminal intent played a role in the crew’s disappearance. Words like mutiny and piracy began to surface. According to reports, Captain John James was carrying a significant sum of gold coins—gold that, according to some accounts, was never seen again.
Could that gold have been motive enough to kill or maroon the crew? And if so, how does that explain the damage to the ship? Did the Resolven strike the iceberg after being abandoned? If theft was the goal, it wasn’t entirely successful—a small package containing £100 was still aboard, as well as the captain’s gold watch.
To this day, no one knows what really happened to the Resolven’s crew during that fateful voyage. The ship itself was towed back to Harbour Grace, where it was auctioned. Four years later, while transporting lumber from Nova Scotia, it was wrecked for good.
For over a century, that was the end of the story. But thanks to the internet, a new chapter has begun.
The Resolven Resolved?
Will Wain, a Welsh writer and great-grandson of Captain John James, began sharing his research online—and his story caught the attention of former residents of Deer Harbour on Random Island. They had a mystery of their own.
Around the same time the Resolven disappeared, the body of a man in a captain’s uniform was found on a beach near Deer Harbour. The man, according to local lore, was discovered sitting upright under a tree, facing the sea. The people of Deer Harbour buried him respectfully, but they never knew who he was. For generations, the story lived on: could he have been from the Resolven?
Adding to the intrigue, some versions of the tale suggest that one of the men who found the body came into a sudden, unexplained sum of money. Could that have been the missing gold?
The mystery endures.
Will Wain continues to share his Resolven investigation through a website and social media presence. It’s well worth a look—and if you have any stories, memories, or clues that might shed light on this maritime mystery, please share.
I’d love to hear them.
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About the Resolven, Harbour Grace Standard, September 6, 1884
Ghost Ships of NL, KarinMB
Ghost Ship of Trinity Bay, Will Wain
The Mystery of The Resolven, Sea Stories from Newfoundland, Michael Harrington, 1958
The Mystery of the Resolven, Newfoundland, July, 1948
SS Resolven, Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador
Dangers of the Deep, Evening Telegram, August 30, 1884
A telegram was received…, Evening Mercury, August 30, 1884
Inspired by a true story, 11-year-old Samuel and his family are stranded on an iceberg after a shipwreck. They are adrift more than 100km from land, fighting for survival.