Octavius

Referenced in 1 episode

Definition

A legendary 18th-century ghost ship said to have been discovered in 1775 drifting near Greenland, with its captain frozen at his desk mid-log entry. Supposedly it had been trapped in Arctic ice for 13 years, though the story is widely considered folklore with little documentary evidence.

Related episodes

A Tale of Ghost Ships Three!

Astonishing LegendsSep 27, 2026

In 1933, a Scottish botanist reportedly saw the abandoned steamship Baychimo drifting past the Alaskan coast on an ice floe, appearing upside down in a strange mirage with no crew aboard. Abandoned two years earlier, the Baychimo kept resurfacing across the Arctic for decades and became one of history's most famous ghost ships. This episode examines the Baychimo alongside two other legendary vessels, the frozen Octavius and the Ourang Medan, whose crew was reportedly found mysteriously dead shortly before the ship exploded and sank.

FS 5