Between 1276 and 1178 BC, a confederation of pirates known collectively as the Sea Peoples terrorized the coastal cities and civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean. For the most part, these pirates, who were the Bronze Age precursors to the Vikings of Scandinavia, preyed upon Egypt, which at that time was in its New Kingdom period.

What followed was a series of destructive raids that culminated in two major battles—the Battle of Djahy and the Battle of the Delta. The former, a land battle, was won by the army of Pharaoh Ramses III. The latter, a naval battle, not only repulsed one of the last major invasions by the Sea Peoples but may very well have saved ancient Egyptian civilization.

Despite their important role in history and the widely held notion that they were responsible for the Late Bronze Age Collapse, a near-catastrophic decline in civilization throughout the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, the Sea Peoples remain the subject of controversy.

Although there are many areas of consensus, some historians and archaeologists continue to discover new interpretations. The following 10 theories present a spectrum of the many different theories regarding the Sea Peoples.

10 The Philistines

Depicted as the archvillains of the ancient Israelites in the Old Testament, the Philistines settled the southern coast of Israel (which today includes the Gaza Strip). After establishing settlements, the Philistines formed a confederation of city-states that included Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron.

The Philistines came into conflict with the Israelites once they started expanding their power beyond their coastal domains. Because of this conflict, the Israelites not only demonized the Philistines but made actual demons out of their gods, including the fish god Dagon. Elsewhere in the Bible, the Philistines were synthesized in the form of the giant Goliath, a proud, loutish warrior who is bested by the small and humble fighter David.

Outside of the Bible, the Philistines are mentioned in several Syrian, Phoenician, and Egyptian letters. While it is generally considered that the Philistines were a group of Sea Peoples who settled the area, not everyone agrees on their exact origins.

One of the more common theories is that the Philistines were originally from the Aegean Sea region, with many more people claiming that the Philistines were Mycenaean Greeks. Archaeological digs near the ancient Philistine city of Gath uncovered pieces of pottery that bear close similarities to ancient Greek objects. Furthermore, a red-and-black ceramic bear taken from one of the excavations almost certainly points to the influence of the Mycenaean culture.

9 The Sardinian Connection

In the Medinet Habu, a mortuary temple dedicated to Ramses III, there is carved into the stone the most famous depiction of the Sea Peoples. Showing several battles, the relief closely identifies the Sea Peoples with several different types of headwear.

The most striking group is depicted wearing horned helmets. It is commonly believed that these fighters belong to the Sherden, one of nine groups named by Egyptian records. Again, because the ancient Egyptians were mostly interested in fighting and defeating the Sea Peoples, they did not keep detailed records concerning their origins.

However, several researchers have concluded that the Sherden people were from Sardinia. Specifically, the Sherden are considered part of the island’s Nuragic civilization, a little-known civilization that left behind numerous stone sites, including towers, houses, and burial complexes. The Nuragic people (so named because of their stone structures, or “nuraghe”) also left behind statues, including Bronze Age figurines showing Sardinian warriors wearing horned helmets.

8 The Sicilian Connection

Following the age of the Sea Peoples, the island of Sicily was divided between three major tribes—the Elymians, the Sicani, and the Siculi (sometimes referred to as the Sicels). While the Sicani were indigenous to the island, the Elymians are believed to have originally come from Asia Minor and had deep connections to the Greek city-states of the Aegean Sea.

The Sicels, on the other hand, were likely an Italic tribe from the mainland. All three tribes may have connections to the Sea Peoples, but it is believed that marauders from Sicily were part of the invasions by the Sea Peoples. Specifically, these Sicilian pirates were called the Shekelesh by the Egyptians.

For their part, the later Greek conquerors of ancient Sicily believed that the Sicels had fled to Troy after being defeated by the Egyptians. From there, they traveled to southern Italy and finally to Sicily. Modern historians seem to corroborate this belief that the Sicels and the Elymians were both defeated members of the Sea Peoples confederation who found shelter in Sicily.

7 The Etruscans

Few European civilizations remain as mysterious as the Etruscans. These inhabitants of northern and central Italy left behind a still mostly indecipherable alphabet and language, thereby forcing historians to rely for further information on Roman records as well as the colorful tombs that the Etruscans built for one another. The question of Etruscan origins is far from new because the ancient Greeks pondered the issue themselves.

While some ancient Greeks believed that the Etruscans were related to the Pelasgians, an Aegean tribe who spoke a dialect of Mycenaean Greek, Dionysius of Halicarnassus claimed that the Etruscans were in fact the native inhabitants of Italy. The most often repeated assertion comes from Herodotus, however. Herodotus (and later Virgil) believed that the Etruscans came from the Anatolian region of Lydia and were led to Italy by King Tyrrhenus.

Interestingly enough, one of the Sea Peoples were the Teresh, whom some ancient historians also called the Tyrrhenians. According to this theory, the forefathers of the Etruscans were originally Greek pirates who sacked and settled Lydia before being pushed out of Anatolia by a famine. This origin might explain the similarities between Etruscan and Greek religions.

6 Connection To The Balkans

While most of the Sea Peoples came from either the Aegean or the wider Mediterranean, many historians argue that groups from the Adriatic Sea also joined the migration. Specifically, Austrian historian Fritz Schachermeyr asserted in 1982 that the Sherden and Shekelesh were originally from the Adriatic and had connections to the ancient Illyrians.

Today, little is known about the Illyrians besides the fact that they were a tribal confederation that ruled much of modern-day Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, and Albania. Furthermore, it is also believed that certain Illyrian tribes settled the Italian peninsula and intermixed with local Italic tribes. Recently, two researchers with Vienna University dispelled another notion about the Illyrians—that their language directly influenced modern Albanian.

Although Schachermeyr’s theory is not commonly held among students of the Sea Peoples, there are those who continue to believe that a famine in the Balkans drove several tribes, including the Illyrians, to migrate over land and over water.

5 The Battle Of Troy

The Battle of Troy is the heart of The Iliad, one of the Western world’s oldest works of literature. The epic poem describes the protracted siege of Troy by several armies representing the many different tribes of Greece. Three of these tribes—the Danoi, the Teucrians, and the Achaeans—may have participated in the Sea Peoples invasions.

In the Great Karnak Inscription and the Merneptah Stele, these Greek tribes are called the Denyen, the Tjeker, and the Ekwesh, respectively. However, none of this is set in stone, even though the Aegean region certainly provided a majority of the pirates involved in the Sea Peoples confederation.

Insofar as the Trojan War is concerned, many believed that Homer’s poem was a fictional rendering of a real confrontation between a Greek confederation and the native inhabitants of Troy (who may be the ancestors of the Etruscans). Tantalizingly, the Tawagalawa letter, which was written by an unnamed Hittite king (generally believed to be Hattusili III) to the king of Ahhiyawa (an ancient Anatolia kingdom just south of Troy), speaks of an incident involving Wilusa.

Specifically, the letter tells of a recent war between the Hittites and Ahhiyawa over Wilusa. Many believe that Wilusa, which belonged to the kingdom of Arzawa, was the Hittite name for Troy while Ahhiyawa was the name the Hittites gave to the Mycenaean Greek civilization of Asia Minor. This isn’t mere speculation because archaeological evidence recovered from western Turkey certainly points to the fact that Bronze Age Greeks developed city-states not far from lands claimed by the Hittites.

4 The Minoan Connection

Although a majority of the Sea Peoples may have come from the Greek mainland, it has been speculated that the island of Crete, which was then home to the powerful Minoan civilization, also produced raiders who participated in the conquests of the Sea Peoples. At times, Crete has been connected to the Tjeker and Peleset peoples, both of whom were lumped in with the Sea Peoples confederation by ancient Egyptian authors.

Prior to the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the Minoans traded widely with the Egyptians and the civilizations of the Levant. Furthermore, in the Amarna Letters, Crete, which is called Caphtor, is included as one of the great regional powers that suffered under the constant attacks of the Sea Peoples. That being said, Minoan pirates, along with Mycenaean colonists who had settled both Crete and Cyprus, may have joined the Sea Peoples to capture livestock, booty, and slaves.

3 The Dorian Invasion

Although it has been argued that the Sea Peoples undertook their voyages for plunder, some historians have claimed that the Sea Peoples were fleeing from invasions in their own homelands.

Regarding Mycenaean Greece, Carl Blegen of the University of Cincinnati proposed the idea that the Greek people of the central coast were forced to flee their homes due to the Dorian invasion from the mountainous south. While most contend that the various Mycenaean city-states collapsed due to natural disasters, there are many who still contend that Mycenaean Greeks fled burning city-states and joined the Sea Peoples confederation to find new homes.

The entire concept of the Dorian invasion comes from ancient Greek legend, specifically the Heracleidae, or the sons of Hercules. In the story, the exiled descendants of Hercules, who had been promised all of Greece, started a war to recapture their father’s lost land.

From this, certain historians proposed a theory concerning the successful conquest of Mycenaean Greece by Greek-speaking tribes from Laconia. Accordingly, Doric Greek, which was spoken by the inhabitants of Sparta and Pylos, became the ruling language of post-Mycenaean Greece, better known as the Greek Dark Age.

There are many problems with this theory, especially considering the dearth of archaeological evidence supporting it. But it does offer an interesting answer as to why the once-powerful city-states of Mycenaean Greece collapsed.

2 A Greater Indo-European East

Considering that most of the Sea Peoples came from Europe, it has been proposed that their incursions into the eastern Mediterranean form a sort of Indo-European migration period. Although it is not certain, it is likely that most of the Sea Peoples spoke different Indo-European languages, from Mycenaean Greek to the various Italic languages of Italy and Sicily.

Similarly, the degree to which the Sea Peoples created permanent settlements in the eastern Mediterranean is in dispute, but they were likely joined by a concurrent land migration coming from both Europe and Asia Minor. Some have proposed the dubious theory that “Land Peoples” from as far north as the Carpathian Mountains joined this migration, while others have noticed that the Lukka, one of the named Sea Peoples, seem similar to the Lydians or Luwians, two Indo-European peoples from western and central Asia Minor.

Indeed, the Anatolian kingdom of Kizzuwatna, which is today located in southwestern Turkey, may have included settlers from both Phoenicia and Mycenaean Greece. Furthermore, Hittite records may point to some Indo-European migrations predating the Sea Peoples, such as the conquests of Attarsiya, a Mycenaean Greek general who not only helped to establish the Greek kingdom of Ahhiya but also invaded Cyprus and various Hittite vassal states, including Arzawa.

1 Outsized Influence On Greek Mythology

As previously mentioned, some scholars believe that The Iliad recalls an ancient war between the Mycenaean Greek state of Ahhiyawa and the Hittite Empire. Similarly, The Odyssey details the attempts of the Greek general Odysseus to return to the island of Ithaca after serving in the Trojan War. Although these are the most famous examples of Greek legends dealing with the eastern Mediterranean, other legends point to a possible Greek memory of settlement in the Near East.

For instance, the story of Zeus, the chief god of the Olympians, and his battle with the monster Typhon likely comes from Cilicia, a kingdom in southern Anatolia controlled by the Hittites. Before the collapse of Mycenae, Greeks settled Cilicia in large numbers. From there, the Greeks absorbed Hittite and Cilician legends, including the story of a sea dragon defeated by a thunder god.

The Greek story of Teucer, one of the heroes of the Trojan War, similarly showcases a familiarity with the ancient Near East. It is said that Teucer and his men settled Crete and Cyprus and then set out on many voyages that took them through Canaan and Phoenician cities such as Sidon. It is possible that the story of Teucer, as well as other stories concerning the travels of Greek heroes following the Trojan War, may be parables about Mycenaean Greek settlement in the Near East during the age of the Sea Peoples.

Benjamin Welton is a freelance writer based in Boston. His work has appeared in The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, , Metal Injection, and other publications. He currently blogs at literarytrebuchet.blogspot.com.

There are few jobs more dangerous than deep sea saturation diving, where divers ascend to depths as great as 985 feet (300 meters) to repair subsea structures. On these often month-long dives, divers live in pressurized chambers to keep them from getting decompression sickness. However, at those great depths, sometimes things go awry. Here are 10 deep sea diving accidents that will shiver your timbers.

Related: Top 10 Deadliest Industrial Accidents That Were Avoidable

10 Byford Dolphin Accident

The Byford Dolphin accident is one of the most major deep-sea accidents to have happened. This incident took place in 1983 on the Byford Dolphin, a drilling rig that was operated in the North Sea.

It happened like this. On a normal day at work, two divers climbed into the rig’s diving bell, a transportation chamber to take them down to depth before heading down to the chamber system far below the surface. At first, all seemed to go well, with the divers taking turns resting and heading out to work on the rig.

One fatal day during their time underwater, however, two divers were resting in their decompression chamber while another two divers made their way to the chambers in the diving bell. Everything was going as planned as the two tenders—the “drivers”—secured the bell to the chambers. The two divers on board would soon proceed to their own compression chamber. However, as the tenders were preparing to depart, they failed to seal off the diving bell properly from the chambers before beginning their ascent.

What ensued was that the chambers were suddenly decompressed from nine atmospheres to one atmosphere, and the air rushed out of the chambers. Tragically, three of the divers inside the chambers at the time were killed in a horrible way—through explosive decompression. Essentially, the nitrogen bubbles in their blood expanded, causing them to boil from the inside out. The fourth was sucked out of a very narrow opening, ejecting his internal organs. One of the divers in the bell was also killed in the accident.^[1]

9 Wildrake Accident

The Wildrake accident took place in August 1979 on an oil rig in the North Sea. During this dive, two commercial divers—Americans Richard Walker and Victor Guiel—climbed into a diving bell aboard the MS Wildrake, a support vessel on the oil rig.

Unfortunately, the diving bell became separated from the lift wire that was used to lower it and pull it up while the bell was at a depth of 525 feet (160 meters). That meant that there was no electricity or heat supplied to the diving bell.

The oil rigging company did its best to rescue the two divers who were inside the diving bell, but their attempts would take nearly twenty-four hours. In that time, the fate of the two divers in the bell was sealed—by the time the rig managed to pull the diving bell back to the surface, the pair of divers had passed away due to hypothermia.^[2]

8 DOF Subsea Accident

Not all diving accidents have occurred in the North Sea. One nasty deep sea diving accident that occurred took place in 2017 off the northeastern shore of Australia and was run by a company called DOF Subsea Australia.

In this particular accident, DOF Subsea Australia sent several divers down between 778 and 885 feet (237 and 270 meters) to work on an underwater pipeline. This was actually one of the deepest saturation dives in Australian waters, which meant that it was a pretty big deal.

Unfortunately, it seems that the company didn’t see this dive as a big deal. They failed to give their divers the proper gases needed to work at those depths. When the divers returned to the surface, they began complaining of hallucinations, tremors, and cognitive issues, stating that they’d even noticed these symptoms setting in while they were on the ocean floor.

Upon further investigation, it turned out that the divers were suffering from high-pressure nervous syndrome, which takes place due to divers breathing helium at deep depths. While the symptoms were reversible and the divers didn’t suffer any permanent health issues, DOF Subsea Australia was court-ordered to pay for their negligence.^[3]

7 Drill Master Accident

The Drill Master accident occurred in 1974 in Norway and was a tragedy that wound up costing two commercial divers their lives. In this particular accident, the two divers in question, Per Skipnes and Robert John Smyth, were getting ready to work on a rig called the Drill Master.

While inside the diving bell at a depth of 321 feet (98 meters), the drop weight on the bell malfunctioned and was released. This caused the diving bell to go shooting up to the surface.

Now, it would have been bad enough if that was all that happened. However, the bottom door of the diving bell was open at the time. This meant that when the rig shot up to the surface, the pressure in it changed rapidly, and both divers wound up dying due to decompression sickness and drowning.^[4]

6 Star Canopus Accident

The Star Canopus accident took place in Scotland in 1978 and was part of a routine dive alongside the Beryl Alpha platform out in the North Sea. On this particular dive, two divers named Lothar Ward and Gerard Prangley climbed into the diving bell to head down for a routine dive.

Unfortunately, the drop wire, life support, and guide wires were all severed by a loose anchor. Instead of slowly lowering the diving bell to depth, the bell plunged down to a depth of more than 328 feet (100 meters).

A rescue mission was launched, and more than thirteen hours later, the two divers were finally recovered. Tragically, by that time, they had both passed away due to drowning and hypothermia.^[5]

5 Stena Seaspread Accident

The Stena Seaspread accident took place in the North Sea in 1981. During this accident, two divers named Phil Robinson and Jim Tucker were more than a hundred meters below the ocean surface in a diving bell, having just completed work on the oil rig.

Although all seemed to have gone well, what the team didn’t know was that strong tides had damaged the umbilical cords to the bell, which meant that the diving bell was no longer receiving air or pressure.

Of course, as soon as the surface team realized what had happened, they set about launching a rescue operation. They began pulling the diving bell up to the surface. However, they realized that the bell had lost pressure and that the divers were at risk of decompression sickness.

The rescue team, thinking fast, lowered a second dive bell to the divers’ depth, and rescue divers helped move the two men from the broken bell into the new one. The rescue was a success, and all parties involved made it back to the surface unharmed.^[6]

4 Venture One Accident

Part of another seemingly routine dive, the Venture One diving accident, took place in 1977 in the North Sea. In this particular accident, two divers named Dave Hammond and Craig Hoffman were set to lower a blowout preventer to 525 feet (160 meters) for the Venture One drilling rig.

As part of the operation, the divers had to cut several loose wires on the blowout preventer. Hoffman waited in a chamber in the diving bell while Hammond went out to work on the rig. It was while Hammond was working on the rig that a strange electrical sound was heard over the communications radio.

Hammond rushed back to the diving bell to check on his dive partner, only to find him floating unconscious outside the diving bell. Hammond pulled Hoffman back into the bell, and after doing his best to resuscitate him, it was finally declared that Hoffman had died.

Both men were brought to the surface, and an investigation showed that Hoffman had died by drowning. It’s thought that he fell out of the diving bell with his mask off, inhaled water, and died.^[7]

3 Waage Drill II Accident

The Waage Drill II accident took place in 1975 when two divers named Robert Edwin and Peter Holmes were working in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland.

On this dive, the two divers headed down to 394 feet (120 meters) to do a short dive, untangling some rope along the rig. After completing the job, the two divers headed back to the diving bell to decompress.

As they were sealing off the bell, however, they noticed a gas leak. Despite their best efforts, they weren’t able to put a stop to the leak and were forced to move into a deeper chamber attached to the bell. This is where things really started to go awry.

Their supervisor, who was outside the chamber, began feeding helium into it to seal it off from the gas leak. However, because the gauge inside the chamber wasn’t working, he didn’t realize he’d overcompensated and sent too much helium into the chamber.

This caused the inside pressure to drop to a depth of 650 feet (200 meters) and the temperature to rise to a whopping 120°F (48.9°C). The two men inside the chamber were unable to breathe properly at this temperature and, after a few hours, died of hyperthermia.^[8]

2 Bibby Topaz Accident

The Bibby Topaz is a more recent diving accident that occurred in 2012. In this awful accident, a diver named Chris Lemmons was working on a subsea drilling structure with the support of a vessel named the Bibby Topaz.

However, while Chris was underwater, the Bibby Topaz’s positioning system malfunctioned, and it drifted 625 feet (190 meters) off course. The good news is that Chris managed to get out of the underwater structure safely, where he could await rescue. However, in the process, he snagged his umbilical support cord. This cord is what provided him with air, hot water, and communications.

That left the terrified diver trapped on the seafloor in total darkness. The good news is that back on the surface, the Bibby Topaz managed to regain their position and immediately realized what had happened. After just 40 minutes on the seafloor, they managed to pull Chris back to his diving bell and get him the medical help he needed. Chris thankfully survived the ordeal, and since then, the Bibby Topaz has made efforts to improve safety for its divers.^[9]

1 Johnson Sea Link Accident

The Johnson Sea Link accident took place in 1973. What happened is that a submersible named the Johnson Sea Link was sent down off the coast of Key West to help sink an artificial reef in the area.

There were two divers aboard the vessel, Edwin Link and Albert Stover, as well as the pilot of the submersible, who were meant to check out conditions on the reef below.

However, while under the water, the submersible got trapped in the wreckage of the very destroyer it was supposed to be monitoring.

Rescue efforts were launched immediately, and the submersible was eventually recovered. While the pilot of the ship made it to the surface alive, both divers had passed away due to carbon dioxide poisoning.^[10]

Hundreds of people head off to sea each day, whether for fishing jobs, military conquests, or a plethora of other reasons. However, not all sailors who head off to explore the great blue ocean return. Here are ten sailors who were eerily lost at sea.

Related: 10 Shipwrecks That Are Still Unexplained

10 John Cabot

Giovanni Caboto was an Italian sailor who was born around 1450. However, it wasn’t until around 1495 that he decided to set his sights on becoming an explorer. To help finance the trip, he headed to Spain but was unable to secure funds from the king. So after anglicizing his name to John Cabot, he journeyed to England to get the support of the British crown.

King Henry VII agreed to finance his journeys, and John Cabot set off on a successful expedition following a more northerly route than Columbus had taken just five years earlier. After 20 days, he reached land, thinking it was Asia, naming it “New Found Land” or Newfoundland. Not finding the treasures that other explorers had discovered, he did note the mass quantities of cod. He staked claim to the land in the name of the king of England and, soon after, returned to England.

A year later, on his return trip, however, John Cabot wouldn’t have quite so much success.

In about 1498, he headed off on another expedition to further chart a route departing west from Europe to Asia. And that’s the last anyone heard of him. After heading off with five ships to support his journey, no more records were made about John Cabot.

To this day, we still don’t know if John Cabot disappeared while at sea or made it to a different continent but just didn’t write about it. So, for now, he’s thought to have been lost at sea on his final adventure.^[1]

9 Vasco de Ataíde

Vasco de Ataíde was a sailor from Portugal who, in 1500, joined Pedro Cabral on a trip to India. While the voyage was a success overall, poor Vasco de Ataíde never made it to his final destination.

What happened was that Ataíde was captaining one of the ships in Pedro’s fleet. The ship left Cape Verde along Africa’s west coast in late March 1500. However, that was the last that was seen of them.

Neither Ataíde nor the rest of his hundred and fifty crew members were seen again. And oddly enough, according to historical records from the time, there were no strong winds or storms that could have caused the ship trouble. To this day, it remains a mystery what happened to Vasco de Ataíde and his crew.^[2]

8 Gaspar Corte-Real

Gaspar Corte-Real was born in Portugal around 1450 and, like many other young men of his time, had a thirst for adventure and exploration. In 1500, Gaspar launched his sailing career, heading off on a voyage west from Portugal in the name of the king.

Gaspar made his way to Greenland but, unable to make a safe landing, was forced to return to Portugal. One year later, he gathered enough money and supplies to head out on a second mission to the icy continent.

Once again, he was unable to land in Greenland due to the icy terrain and ended up heading further south to Labrador. There, he captured several indigenous people, who he put in his boats to take back to Portugal.

Several months later, two of Gaspar’s three ships made it back to London. Notably absent, however, was Gaspar himself, who had been aboard the third missing ship. No one knew what had happened to Gaspar or his remaining boat, and to this day, he remains lost at sea.^[3]

7 Miguel Corte-Real

If the name Corte-Real sounds familiar, that’s because Miguel Corte-Real was Gaspar Corte-Real’s brother. After his brother failed to return home from his expedition to Greenland in 1501, Miguel was distraught.

Determined to find his brother and bring him back home to safety, Miguel gathered a crew and three ships of his own. In 1502, he set off from Portugal to search for his brother.

The voyage was initially a success, and the group arrived at the landing sight of Gaspar. Armed with these new clues, the three ships decided to divide and conquer to have a better chance of finding Gaspar. The plan was to meet on August 20th to discuss their findings.

However, when the date of the rendezvous arrived, Miguel’s ship didn’t turn up. There was no trace of what had happened to the second Corte-Real brother, and he was eventually declared lost at sea.^[4]

6 Diego de Nicuesa

Not all imperialist explorers were from Portugal. One Spanish explorer who decided to seek his fortune by venturing off to faraway lands was a man named Diego de Nicuesa. Backed by the Spanish crown, Diego de Nicuesa headed to Santo Domingo in 1502, the first of many voyages to Latin America.

The voyage was a success, and he was commissioned several times over the next few years to head to various parts of Latin America, including Panama and Costa Rica, where he governed Spanish colonies.

In 1510, however, his luck ran out. Rebellions were brewing due to hunger and illness, and Diego de Nicuesa headed off to put down one particular uprising. When he arrived, however, the colonists were waiting for him. Instead of letting Diego within their city walls, they loaded him and seventeen crew members onto a boat and shipped them off to Santo Domingo.

Somewhere out in the open waters, however, the boat disappeared. It never made it to Santo Domingo, and neither Diego nor his crew members were ever seen again.^[5]

5 Francisco de Hoces

Francisco de Hoces was a Spanish military man who, in 1526, joined the Loaísa Expedition to the Spice Isles. He was set to command a ship named the San Lesmes, which was one of seven other ships that were part of the expedition.

At first, things went well, and the fleet made its way to the Pacific Ocean. However, soon they were faced with strong gales. During one of these gales, the San Lesmes, with Francisco de Hoces aboard, disappeared.

Although no one knows for certain what happened to De Hoces or why his ship was lost at sea, it’s thought that the ship was blown as far away as Easter Island or New Zealand. Still, there’s little evidence to support this theory, and today, the general consensus is that poor Francisco was lost at sea. Part of the deadly water he traversed was later called the Drake Passage or the Mar de Hoces.^[6]

4 Roche Braziliano

Roche Brazilano was, unlike many of the more law-abiding sailors on this list, a pirate who launched his career of crime in 1654. He was said to have been an incredibly cruel pirate who threatened to shoot down anyone who wouldn’t take a drink with him.

After a rather successful career, however, Roche Barziliano’s pirating ways came to a rather abrupt end. You see, in 1671, he and his entire crew simply vanished.

What’s stranger still is that there are no records about what might have happened to Roche. So today, there’s still much speculation as to whether the ship capsized, was captured, or suffered some other fate. For now, this sailor remains lost at sea.^[7]

3 Dirk de Lange

Dirk de Lange was the captain of a ship called the Ridderschap van Holland. The Ridderschap van Holland was a merchant ship designed to trade in the East Indies. While most of its sailing career was successful, there was one fated voyage, however, that led to the disappearance of the ship, its captain, and its crew.

In 1694, Dirk de Lange, his crew, and his trusty ship sailed for Indonesia on the boat’s fifth voyage. They managed to land at Cape Good Hope for a short period of time before continuing on their journey to Indonesia. However, after departing the cape, the ship was never seen again.

With no trace of the ship or what had happened to her and her crew, Dirk de Lange was declared lost at sea. Today, some historians speculate that the crew was captured by pirates. Others suspect that poor Dirk capsized off the coast of Western Australia. Either way, the seamen and their effects have yet to be found.^[8]

2 John Coxon

John Coxon was a pirate who dedicated his life to terrorizing the town of Santa Marta, Colombia, in the Caribbean. It’s thought that he started operations around 1677 and spent much of his life plundering and pillaging the area.

At least, he did until around 1688. In 1688, after receiving a pardon from Jamaican authorities, John Coxon simply vanished. No one knows what happened to Coxon or his ship, despite years of attempting to track down clues.

The only clue about what may have happened to poor John is an account left by some of his crew members. The crew members cited Coxon’s ship as being extremely heavy, so perhaps the captain and his boat went down due to the weight.^[9]

1 Michel de Grammont

Michel de Grammont was born around 1645 in Paris and originally started life as a nobleman. However, after killing his sister’s would-be-lover, he fell out of favor with the court and was forced to turn to a new profession. He chose pirating as his new trade and set sail in 1670 on a ship called Hardi.

During his conquests, Michel de Grammont made his way around a number of Spanish forts, including Trujillo, Gibraltar, La Guaira, Cumana, Veracruz, and Puerto Cabello.

He made numerous conquests throughout his career, but in 1686, his pirating days came to an end. In April that year, he set off for a raid with a fellow French pirate named Nicolas Briguat. When Brigaut was caught, he sent word for Grammont to come and rescue him.

However, Grammont’s rescue mission never arrived. It turned out that he’d been caught in a storm along the way, and he and his crew had disappeared for good.^[10]

Everyone loves going to the beach, especially on a hot day. The ocean is a beautiful place almost anywhere in the world, with so many entertaining water activities you can enjoy. Whenever you think of the ocean, hopefully, good memories come to mind. Whether you go with your family or significant other, it’s always a good time.

The ocean also has some amazing sea creatures you can see, like whale watching or spotting dolphins alongside your boat. However, the waters of the deep blue sea also hold creepy and gruesome-looking animals. Where there is good, there is also bad. The ocean has a balance of some of the friendliest creatures. But it also has some of the scariest-looking species lying beneath its surface.

Related: Top 10 Fish That Hunt Land Animals

10 Sarcastic Fringehead

The sarcastic fringehead lives off the northeast coast of the Pacific Ocean and is often referred to as a tube benny. They mostly live in burrows or tube-like structures. Some have even been found to live in soda bottles. Most creatures are known to be territorial, and the sarcastic fringeheads are no different. The males are more likely to be the ones protecting their homes, so this is why females usually lay their eggs in the males’ burrows.

Females have even created this system where they make the male species more competitive and engage in territoriality. To establish dominance and protect its food sources, the male tube bennies will open their mouths wide. In comparison, their mouths are about four times as big when open. Both males will open their mouths and compare to see who has the biggest mouth. Whoever has the smallest mouth has to surrender and leave. Ah, so it’s even true in the fish world….

Though the sarcastic fringeheads have unusually wide mouths, they don’t have a history of eating big prey. Actually, they are known to eat planktonic prey like squid eggs. Because they live in burrows, they are rarely caught by fishermen. Luckily, staying very well hidden helps to limit their risk of extinction. So although they look scary, you don’t have to worry about them bothering you.^[1]

9 Northern Stargazer

The real name of the northern stargazer is Astroscopus gottatus, but it is also known as the Popeye fish. Living primarily on the ocean floor, this is by far one of the strangest-looking fish. They have large heads with flat foreheads and spotted flat bodies. Their nostrils, eyes, gill slits, and most of their mouths are found on top of their heads. In addition to its odd looks, this fish also breathes through its nostrils rather than bringing water in through its mouth—a very unfishlike characteristic. The northern stargazer’s pectoral fins are helpful when burying themselves in the sand. These sea creatures can grow up to twenty-two inches in length and weigh up to 20 pounds.

They mostly feed on small fish and crustaceans. The northern stargazer will hide on the ocean floor with only their eyes and mouth sticking out. Then they will proceed to suck in their prey, using their large mouths. Remarkably, these creatures have an organ on top of their heads that creates an electric charge up to 50 volts. Because of this ability to electrocute other fish, they have been considered one of the meanest fish in the ocean. Oh, and they are also venomous!^[2]

8 Deep Sea Dragonfish

The deep sea dragonfish lives in deep waters at about 5,000 feet in depth. They are located mainly in the north and western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. By far the most gruesome-looking fish with a long slender body. In addition, they have sharp fang-like teeth. Although the black dragonfish looks intimidating, they can only grow to be about six inches. Usually, the males are much smaller than the females. Because the deep sea dragonfish lives so deep in the water, not much is known about their mating habits.

To help survive in the ocean, this sea creature can produce its own light by a chemical process known as bioluminescence, which this fish utilizes amazingly—it can illuminate its whole body. The deep sea dragonfish uses its flashing light in the dark waters to attract prey or even potential mates. It survives on small fish and crustaceans or whatever else it can lure near its mouth. Its black-lined stomach helps disguise the prey as it’s digested since many of its meals also practice bioluminescence. So as long as you don’t follow those flashing lights in the deep sea, you’re pretty safe.^[3]

7 Gulper Eel

The gulper eel is one unnatural-looking sea creature, mostly found in the tropical, temperate ocean. Known for its wide mouth, one of the gulper eel’s nicknames is “umbrella mouth.” Its mouth is larger than the eel’s entire body. It is loosely hinged and can open wide enough to swallow its prey whole. The prey is then kept into the lower jaw of the gulper eel’s mouth, which resembles something like a pelican’s mouth.

With its unusual features, the gulper eel is much different in appearance compared to other eels. This sea creature has small eyes that can only detect traces of light rather than form images. The tail is long in length and has a pink light at the end of it. The eel’s body is not primarily built for chasing prey, so it uses its “tail light” to lure crustaceans—its primary diet—close, allowing its huge mouth to snap up the prey. This abnormal-looking sea creature can also grow between three and six feet in length—though that’s mostly all tail. Still, not something you want to get near!^[4]

6 Fangtooth Fish

The fangtooth fish live well over 16,000 feet deep in the sea. Though they might migrate to the surface at night to catch their prey. This sea creature has a mouth filled with long, pointed teeth and is more active than most deep-sea creatures, actively searching for its prey. Their sharp teeth help ensure that the limited food source of the deep ocean finds itself in the fish’s mouth on the first strike.

It is one of the few deep ocean species that do not have a light-producing organ. Because of this, the fangtooth fish relies on its sense of smell. Thankfully, the fangtooth fish can only grow up to seven inches, making it relatively harmless to humans.^[5]

5 Frilled Shark

The frilled shark looks like a prehistoric sea creature. It can grow up to seven feet in length with fins located far back on its body. This shark has rows of long teeth with three long points for snagging its prey—they prefer the soft-bodied squid. They are active predators and have been known to swallow their prey whole, regardless of its size.

The frilled shark has the same swimming traits as an eel in a serpentine motion. Humans will rarely encounter this sea creature as it lives in deep ocean water. It has been accidentally caught by bycatch in fisheries. Sometimes they are kept and eaten as food. Because of this, the frilled sharks are threatened with extinction.^[6]

4 Angler Fish

There are more than 200 species of angler fish living in the deep depths—over 900 meters or 3,000 feet) of the Atlantic and Antarctic Oceans. Usually dark grey or brown in color, their heads are large, with enormous crescent-shaped mouths. In their mouths sit sharp, translucent teeth. As adults, some species can grow up to three feet in length.

The female angler fish holds one distinctive feature. It’s a piece of dorsal spine that protrudes above the mouth like a fishing pole. This feature baits the prey, which can be twice its size—an easy meal for the angler fish. Males are much smaller compared to females, growing to only about eight inches at maturity. An odd characteristic of male anglers is that they will latch onto females, remaining attached for life. During this process, they lose their eyes and internal organs—all except the testes. A female will carry six or more males on her body, allowing easy reproduction. Wow, most women can’t even handle one!^[7]

3 Giant Isopod

The giant isopod is one of the biggest crustaceans, closely related to shrimp and crabs. Amazingly, the giant isopod has existed for over 160 million years. They have seven pairs of legs with a hard exterior, possessing the ability to roll into a ball for protection like its relative, the land pillbug or “roly-poly.” The giant isopod resides on the deep ocean floor and is normally always in a state of semi-hibernation. They commonly limit their expenditure of energy for movement and breathing. Its overlarge size results from abyssal gigantism—a condition seen in animals living in deep ocean water. Think giant squid!

Because they are carnivores and scavengers, they feed on live and dead animals. But they can go a long period of time without eating. The longest recorded time was four years. Since food is scarce on the sea floor, they will eat in abundance when food is available.^[8]

2 Goblin Shark

The goblin shark is one of the creepiest-looking sea creatures. It has a long prominent snout that’s covered with special sensing organs that help find electric fields in deep, dark water. The goblin shark has an unusual coloration to its body. It ranges from a pinkish color to a purplish grey color. A bright blue surrounds the edges of its fins.

Its jaw can protrude rapidly to help catch and devour its prey. This sea animal usually dines on fish, squid, and crustaceans. It has been recorded that the goblin shark’s jaws differ in length. At 16 feet when fully mature, it’s definitely not something you want t meet in the murky depths.^[9]

1 Vampire Squid

The vampire squid is neither a squid nor an octopus, according to scientists. Granted, the sea creature has eights arms and two thin, long filaments, but the name comes from the dark color and the skin that connects the arms. It resembles a cape, much like one worn by a vampire. They live in dark waters deep in the ocean. When the vampire squid is frightened, it inverts its cape in a threatening show by putting its large spines on full display. These spines line the underside of its many arms.

The vampire squid feeds on plants and animal matter. Because they are relatively harmless, they depend on finding food particles rather than aggressive hunting. The sea creature uses a sticky cell on its tentacles to capture these bits of food. Unlike most octopuses or squids, the vampire squid does not squirt black ink. It will squirt out a substance that contains bioluminescent material to distract or confuse any predators. Like most deep-sea creatures, it can produce light at the tip of each of its arms, typically used for communication.^[10]

The ocean is home to a vast array of life forms on a scale most of us will never appreciate. Over 226,000 of them have been identified, but it’s estimated there may be up to 1 million different creatures lurking down there. The internet is rife with lists of some of the most unusual, but they often repeat themselves and pick creatures we’ve all seen before like goblin sharks or gulper eels. Weird, for sure, but also well known. Lucky for us, there are still thousands and thousands more to choose from. Here’s ten of the strangest. 

10. Duobrachium sparksae

No one will accuse Duobrachium sparksae of having an easy to pronounce or remember name, but until someone coins a better one, that’s all we have. It’s a kind of comb jelly and it was only discovered in the waters near Puerto Rico back in 2015. 

The little critter survives in very deep waters, about 3,900 meters below, and it resembles a sort of living bubble. Scientists remarked, with the long tendril-like appendages hanging off of it, it looks a bit like a hot air balloon. When viewed from the tentacle side, it looks like a box. 

The central blob actually has two arms from which much longer tentacles can extend. The retractable tentacles are 12 to 22 inches in length and root the creature to the sea floor, helping to control its position. 

9. Mariana Snailfish

Deep sea life is always interesting because the environment is about as alien as it can possibly get on our planet. The creatures that live beyond where even light can penetrate and where pressure would crush us to smithereens are often incredibly and unusual to our eyes. And scientists have discovered what they think may be the deepest living fish of all – the Mariana Snailfish. 

Inhabiting the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, you can see these fish yourself if you can make the journey down 26,000 feet. They grow to under a foot in length and have translucent skin and no scales. 

Their diet seems to consist of tiny crustaceans that also make their home at depth and, as you’d expect, they don’t have to endure a lot of predators at that depth. 

8. Pink See-Through Fantasia

There’s no way an animal that managed to snag the name “pink-see-through fantasia” is anything but weird, so rest easy that this one lives up to its name completely. In fairness, the proper name for his deep sea cucumber is enypniastes and some people will also call it the headless chicken fish, so you have some choice.

The cucumber uses bioluminescence to ward off predators and has transparent skin. That ensures that its mouth, stomach and anus are all visible no matter what angle you’re looking at it from. It’s also fairly small, ranging from four inches to just nine inches in length. 

You’re not likely to find this creature in your own travels. It hangs out at depths around 2,500 meters although they have a range of about 1,000 meters up and down through the water column. They use tiny webbed fins to swim and use little tentacles to push sediment into their mouths to eat. 

7. Pyura chilensi

Amazingly, this curious creature isn’t one of these new, bizarre discoveries of the last few years. This creature, a tunicate, was actually first described back in 1782. And it’s just as weird to most people today as it was back then, simply because it looks like a rock that has guts and blood inside of it.

The pyrua chilensi doesn’t just look like a rock, it lives like one, too. It can’t move anywhere on its own, so it just filters water, sucking it in and feeding on microorganisms along the way. How does an immobile rock monster reproduce? Well, they’re all born male, but part of the way through life they become hermaphrodites and just breed with themselves, shooting both sperm and eggs into water around it until they meet, fertilize, and germinate into a new living rock. 

Despite the creepy appearance, people actually eat them, and you can cook them or enjoy them raw. Enjoy might be a bit of a stretch though, since the taste is described using words like “bitter,” “iodine,” and “soapy.”

6. Zombie Worms

The deep sea osedax, also known as the zombie worm, has no mouth or anus and drills into whale bones. That’s a pretty intense resume for anything living on land, sea or air. Despite not even having a digestive tract let alone a mouth, these mysterious worms wait for whale fall, which is what happens when a whale dies and then sinks to the bottom of the sea. They then latch onto the corpse. Their flesh secretes acid, which allows them to bore right into the bones. Once inside, a symbiotic bacterial process allows for the digestion of fats and enzymes that the worms then absorb. It’s not the easiest way to get a meal, but it works for them. 

If none of that was weird enough, then know that the worms you can see are always female. Males remain in the larval stage their entire lives, living in a slime tube that encases the female, and existing solely to fertilize her eggs when the time comes. 

5. Beehive Shrimp

The idea of animals living in colonies or hives is very common up here on the surface. Ants, bees, termites and many more live in this way where one queen seems to rule the roost and the rest of the colony serves her needs. They call this eusociality and it’s only been observed in one marine species – a shrimp known as Synalpheus regalis. 

These tiny shrimp live in coral and sponges and come in a variety of bright colors. They’re snapping shrimp, which means they have one giant claw and one little claw to make them look either intimidating or hilarious depending on your perspective.

Like any good hive society, the shrimp have a queen. Colonies can grow to over 300 members, but there is only one female capable of reproduction. Hive members care for the young, protect their colony from predators, and work in a communal way to accomplish tasks. 

4. Stubby Squid

Discovering a new species is exciting for anyone in the scientific community and traditionally those of us who just have a passing interest in animals just hear about it secondhand. But the stubby squid is one creature whose discovery you can actually watch first hand on video since it was recorded by researchers on the E/V Nautilus back in 2016. And this may be the only time in history that we’ll ever know of for sure when a new species’ discovery was accompanied by laughter from everyone involved because the animal looked so goofy.

You can hear the crew puzzle over what the little creature might be, then laugh as they zoom in and point out that it looks like it has googly eyes. The tiny creatures are between 0.3 inches and 3 inches in length, which accentuates just how funny the eyes look since they’re so large relative to the rest of it. 

3. Phronima

Phronima is the name of a terrifying but blessedly small ocean parasite that some believe inspired the alien queen from the movie Aliens. Right away that’s a creepy thought for any living thing, but in both looks and behavior the phronima scores big points for being monstrous.

The parasites are found almost everywhere on earth in the oceans, except in polar waters. Unlike other, similar species, phronima swim in open waters instead of waiting for food to find them on the sea floor. This is because they’re on the hunt for a ride. 

Phronima, which have dangerous if tiny claws, hunt down other creatures called salps. A salp is a barrel-shaped tunicate that, for all intents and purposes, looks like a small, living piece of Jell-O. A phronima will hunt down a salp and use its claws to hollow out the inside, then move right in. 

The phronima can now sail the seven seas, protected inside their sort-of living boat, eating and drinking and reproducing as they go. Somehow, the salp, which is a peculiar life form to begin with, doesn’t fully die despite being hollowed out. The outer cells stay alive, so the whole salp boat structure maintains its shape and protects the phronima inside.

As far as the link to Alien goes, the story seems to be wholly anecdotal. That said, there are some convincing side by side photos that suggest the alien queen, rather than HR Giger’s original alien, may have been inspired by the little monster. 

2. Pigbutt Worm

How do you make a list of strange sea creatures and not include one that is legitimately named the Pigbutt Worm? If that sounds too uncouth for you, you can use its alternate name “flying buttocks.”

Discovered in 2007, the pigbutt worm is a worm but it’s round, the size of a hazelnut and yes, it looks like a flying butt. It floats about around 3,000 to 4,000 feet below the surface and their tiny mouths are caked in mucus to complete the image in your mind. 

Nearly every other species of worm closely related to the pigbutt lives in a tube, so this free-floating bum is a standout on its family tree. The working theory is that they float around in clouds of detritus and tiny bits of bio-matter and then eat whatever sticks to their mouth mucus. 

1. Giant Siphonophore

The word “giant” sets up some expectations and when we’re talking about the ocean, there’s a standard to live up to. This is the home of the blue whale, the largest creature that has ever existed, after all. So if there’s something in the sea called a giant siphonophore, it better be impressive. Luckily, the name isn’t just smoke and mirrors, this thing really is huge. It’s not as bulky as a blue whale by any means, but it’s no slouch.

There are nearly 200 kinds of siphonophores in the sea and describing them isn’t all that easy in layman’s terms. To start with, they’re colonial organisms, which means it’s not “a” thing, but a group of things. But they’re not all the same things. Different parts have different functions. There’s a sort of “main” part that you might consider a head, and then other parts that develop independently which can help the whole organism eat or swim or digest and other such functions. Think of it a bit like a deep sea Voltron, several small parts that are assembled to make a functional whole. 

The giant siphonophore is about as thick around as a broom handle. Not so giant at all. However, it can also grow to be upwards of 130 feet long. That makes it one of the longest creatures in the world by a longshot, only having to compete with the bootlace worm which has been observed to grow slightly longer. That said, one that was seen off the coast of Australia was estimated to be about 150 feet long. 

Lucky for those of us who are not giants, the giant siphonophore is relatively harmless and feeds on small crustaceans and other animals which can best be described as gelatinous. It uses bioluminescence to attract its prey and uses a toxin similar to that employed by jellyfish to poison its prey. That part does sound dangerous, but you need to remember that these are deep sea creatures. They actually can’t exist near the surface and their bodies will burst if they are brought up to surface pressure.

Ocean cities. Settlements in seas. Famed writer Jules Verne was on to something with “Propeller Island,” after all.

In this account, we explore some of the most ingenious ways in which human settlements have taken a marine form that thrive in modern times, while paying respects to some real-life versions of Atlantis found below the waves.

10. MS The World

The brainchild of Knut U. Kloster, MS The World is remarkable and globally unique condo at sea. With everything from sports facilities to a grocery store, this “largest residential yacht on the planet” is an apartment ship with 165 residential apartments, in total measuring 644 feet, 2 inches long and 98 feet wide. A board of directors elected by the residents, plus committees, plan out the ship’s travel routes, budgeting and on-board activities, along with shore stops.

The attractive vessel is a place to reside, with its fully livable apartments that range from its little studio residences to middle ground studio one or two-bedroom apartments, regular two-bedroom apartments, all the way up to three-bedroom suites with a full range of amenities. One to three expeditions (typically informed by 20 or more relevant experts, for planning) take in culture, scenery, and natural history of places like Madagascar, the British Isles/Hebrides, and the Northwest Passage.

9. Kansai International Airport

A masterpiece of Japanese engineering, Kansai Interntional Airport, opened in 1994, is an airport in the middle of the sea. Well, in the middle of Osaka Bay, offshore of Japan’s main island, Honshu, to be exact. Originally planned to be floating, the airport was instead built on sand, creating a runway-shaped construction surrounded by water, with all the amenities expected at an airport.

The airport is connected to Honshu by a narrow strip for rail and road transport, and has been judged as an engineering disaster due it its history of sinkage into the soft sands and mud of Osaka Bay and the subsequent costs. The airport nevertheless received recognition as an American Society of Civil Engineers “Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium” award recipient in April 2001. The airport notably weathered a 120 mile-per-hour typhoon in 1998 and survived the 1995 Kobe earthquake without destruction despite the thousands of deaths on Honshu.

8. Jules’ Undersea Lodge

While not quite a full city or even a town, Jules’ Undersea Lodge is a most unique hotel that requires SCUBA certification for guest access. Located in Florida, the structure is located 21 feet below the waves. Celebrity visitors to the lodge have included Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler and former Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau.

The lodge itself is located in a mangrove environment with 42-inch windows while hot showers, music and movies, beds with a view of wild fish outside, and a kitchen containing a microwave and fridge are present in the lodge. A variety of stay packages ranging from just a few hours to a full overnighter are available, along with dive training if the required certification is not already held by visitors.

7. Palm Islands

The United Arab Emirates is a land home to some of the world’s most remarkable feats of marine engineering. Take the Palm Islands, a set of stunning marine archipelagos with rays and centerpieces that can be most fully appreciated from aerial views or space photographs. The islands include Palm Jumeirah, a precisely palm leaf shaped archipelago, Palm Deira Island, and Palm Jebel Ali, located along the Dubai coastline. Started in 2001, the developments contain a vast array of dwellings and commercial buildings constructed on the rays and stems. Breakwaters protect the construction works on the islands.

The project scale was most impressive. The first of the Palm Islands, Palm Jumeirah, utilized a whopping 3 billion cubic feet of sand, dredged from the Persian Gulf, built into the palm shape with GPS, while mountain rock totaling seven million tons was used to form the seven-mile breakwater protection system. Near the Palm Islands are two more human-made archipelagos, The World, named after its construction in the likeness of a map of the Earth, and The Universe, built to resemble the Milky Way Galaxy.

6. Neft Dashlari (Oily Rocks)

Extending from overturned scrapped tankers and connected by trestles and pipes is an expansive ghost city in the Caspian Sea. Located off the coast of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Neft Dashlari, or Oily Rocks, is one of the strangest urban areas on the planet. A ramshackle yet industriously constructed network of oil drilling facilities, stores, and apartment buildings stands bizarrely perched throughout the settlement. Neft Dashlari gained the amenities of an entire town including stores, educational facilities, and homes, plus libraries and service centers. Dormitories with five stories and hotels were among the grander structures built.

The community was literally built on top of overturned ships, which serve as building foundations. The site holds the Guinness World Record for being the first ever offshore oil platform. Neft Dashlari is now largely abandoned, with only some settlement remaining. A dark episode in the history of Neft Dashlari was the perhaps less than surprising, with the disappearance of three workers following the collapse of living accommodations into the Caspian Sea.

5. The Boat City of Aberdeen Harbour

Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has a complicated cultural history. Aberdeen Harbour exists in stark contrast to the towering and densely clustered skyscrapers for which Hong Kong is famous. Here in the harbor, there are large congregations of boats on which dwellers live and work. Restaurants are included in the amenities offered by the “boat city,” adding significantly to the tapestry of the village as a unique attraction.

Despite some viewing the floating neighborhood as a visual disturbance, the boat city is gaining an established place in Hong Kong’s culture. Movie depictions of Hong Kong make good use of the boat city for both panoramic views and as the setting for great action scenes. In historic times, the pirate life of the boat city was colorful, to say the least.

4. Ko Panyi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwSsOpOni7s

The image is incredible. One of Thailand’s most fascinating sights is the aerial view of Ko Panyi. With multi-colored roofs, the buildings of the village on stilts extend outward in a rough question mark shape around the base of a precipitous stony island, formed from a single mini-mountain that rises from Phang Nga Bay. Ko Panyi is in southern Thailand’s Phang Nga Province on the Malay Peninsula, between the Thai border with Myanmar to the north and Malaysia to the south.

A testament to the resourcefulness of its founders, Ko Panyi was established by Toh Baboo, friends and family who were Muslim ocean travelers who arrived around 200 years back but were unable to settle on land as foreigners upon arrival in Thailand. Today, the 300 families numbering almost 1,500 individuals live in the village that clusters around the rock. Dwellings, restaurants, a mosque, and even a floating football pitch are among the features of the village.

3. Fadiouth, Senegal

In the African nation of Senegal, a section of coastline known as Petite Côte is a village of fishers that is divided between a land-based section of settlement, Joal, and a much stranger island portion of the village, Fadiouth. Joal-Fadiouth’s two sections are connected via a wooden footbridge, 1,312 feet in length. Fadiouth is bizarre because it is on an entirely human-made island, and that island is made from discarded yet rather precisely placed seashells.

Over the last century (and more), villagers have been toiling at a two-fold project. On one hand, they have been harvesting marine mollusks for food, and on the other, casting the shells aside. This has created the huge midden that grew into the island supporting Fadiouth. Fastened by mangrove roots and other coastal wetland plants, the shell island resists the tides. The theme everywhere is shells. The famous cemetery is made of shells, while streets and buildings sport shells. The population is Christian and Muslim and is known for its close community held together by residential embrace of religious diversity.

2. Halong Bay Floating Villages

Vietnam is home to a spectacular floating village group that has achieved world recognition for its cultural and architectural uniqueness. Amongst pillar-like mountains that emerge from the waters of Halong Bay are four floating villages comprised of multiple buildings on rafts that form a fishing community. The four villages in Halong Bay contain 1,000 villagers and are named Cua Van, Ba Hang, Vong Vieng, and Cong Tau.

Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the villages provide a base for fishing lobster, shellfish, finned fish, and squid. Larger vessels resemble land-based houses in their design, while smaller boats are moored to the dwelling boats, which can themselves move around or anchor to neighboring dwellings to allow convenient forays through the bay. The largest village, Cau Van, hosts the Floating Cultural Center, which seeks to preserve the villages under the auspices of the Ha Long Ecological Museum.

1. Urban Rigger

A floating apartment is a novel concept and even more-so when the apartment complex is made of upcycled structures. The Urban Rigger project in Copenhagen, Denmark is just such a remarkable development, with 72 studio apartments for students fashioned from shipping containers. Floating by the shoreline in the Copenhagen neighborhood of Refshaleoen, the project was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group after being first dreamt up by original founder Kim Loudrup, who encountered great challenges in finding his son student housing in Denmark.

Students appreciate the sustainable, livable design of the mini community on the water, the first residents having arrived in 2018. The shipping containers that make up the apartments focus on making the best use of natural light and are fitted with their own bathrooms and kitchens, while common areas include gardens, a gym, and laundry facilities. Residents can go for a swim right from their doorstep.

Mankind has been creating boats for about 8,000 years now. The earliest boats were either rafts or canoes and obviously pretty simple in their construction and function. If you’ve ever seen a modern super-yacht or aircraft carrier you know how significantly the times have changed. But the path from ancient raft of reeds strapped together up to your modern aircraft carriers is far from a straight line. There have been a number of curious twists and turns along the way.

10. SS Baychimo

You may not have heard of the SS Baychimo but it’s one of the most unusual ships in all of naval history. The thing that makes it unusual is the fact that, as of right now, no one even knows where it is.

Launched in 1914 by the Hudson Bay Company, the SS Baychimo was originally named Ångermanelfven after a river in Sweden, where it was built. It was a massive vessel that weighed 1,322 tons and was over 200 feet long. It was used throughout the Arctic of Canada to deliver provisions after the war. Prior to that it made runs from Sweden to Germany.

In 1931 it got trapped in the ice off the coast of Alaska. The crew left the ship and walked to the nearest town. Later, as the weather grew worse, storms ravaged it and at one point the temperature went from -60 all the way up to zero. When the crew went to check on the ship trapped in the ice they discovered it no longer was trapped. It just wasn’t there anymore.

Over the next several decades the ship was sighted again and again, sailing as a ghost ship across the ocean. It was last seen in 1969, nearly 40 years after it had been set loose to do its own thing.

Because it’s been so long since it’s been seen most people assume it sank some time ago, but no wreckage has ever been found and the path it managed to wander through the oceans was one that spanned hundreds of miles. So it’s entirely possible that it’s still out there somewhere. 

9. Project Habakkuk

During the Second World War, the British planned to create an aircraft carrier unlike any that had ever been seen before. Called Project Habakkuk, it wasn’t a vessel created from steel or wood; it was to be a 2,000 foot long vessel made from a substance called pykrete. Pykrete is what happens when you mix wood pulp into water and then freeze it. The result is even stronger than concrete. Bullets ricochet right off it. The entire vessel would be one giant, dirty ice cube.

While Habakkuk never came to fruition for the British in the war, a test version of it was constructed in Canada. Set into Lake Patricia in Alberta, Canada, the scale model was 60 feet long and weighed 1,000 tons. A 1-horsepower motor was used to keep it frozen. The project was eventually abandoned due to numerous impracticalities.

8. The FLIP Buoy 

The Floating Instrument Platform, or FLIP, is what happens when you want to have both a boat and a buoy at the same time and can’t decide between the two. It’s a research vessel on which scientists will spend weeks at a time doing studies on the open water. And while in motion it’s a ship that’s over 355 feet long, when it’s ready to do work the ballast tanks fill with water down three hundred feet of its entire length, causing it to flip forward at a right angle until only the habitable end is sticking up out of the water.

With three hundred feet of vessel under the water and just the last 50 ft floating above, it’s able to weather nearly any kind of rough seas without a risk of flipping over or sinking. The length of the vessel is well below the water that is disturbed by surface waves, so it’s simply bobs calmly on top of the water.

When the research is done, compressed air is forced into the ballast, the water drains out, and the boat flips back into position so that it can sail home again.

7.  The Plongeur Submarine

The French Plongeur submarine has a special place in history. It was the first submarine that was able to propel itself through mechanical power. First launched in 1863, you can imagine how terrifying it must have been at that time to trust a machine to take you under the water and somehow keep you alive.

Earlier subs had been powered by human energy — crews pedaling to keep the ship moving like an underwater bicycle. The Plongeur had a compressed air-powered engine and was far larger than anything before it. At 140 feet long, the ship also contained 23 tanks of compressed air which took up 403 cubic feet of space. 

The Plongeur made several successful journeys before it was decommissioned, mostly out of fears of its unstable design, it’s limited air supply, and the fact that technology improved enough to make better vessels 

6. Camel Supply 

If you’ve ever wondered how camels travel the world, then wonder no longer. The tale of the USS Supply, the most uncreatively named supply ship in US Naval history, can answer that question for you. 

In 1855, US Secretary of War Jefferson Davis crafted a mission to acquire camels so that the US Army could have a camel division. The goal was to have camels to navigate deserts in Mexico. The thinking was clearly that since camels were adapted to desert climates in the Middle East, they could handle desert climates in North America just as easily and give soldiers an upper hand. 

A 60 foot long camel barn was constructed on the USS Supply. By 1865 the ship had reached the Middle East and was loaded down with 33 camels from different regions of the Middle East to see which would adapt best to life in North America. 

It took 87 days to get back to America and inexplicably, despite leaving with 33 camels, they arrived home with 34 since a new one had been born along the way. Camels adapt well to ocean travel. A second trip brought back 41 camels.

The USS Supply had proven its worth as a camel carrier, but the camels themselves ended up being a failure as they adapted poorly to combat, they smelled terrible, and they had rather unpleasant attitudes if they didn’t like the person who was handling them. 

5. The Hughes Glomar Explorer

While the idea of a covert spy ship doesn’t seem that unusual, the Hughes Glomar Explorer was the CIA‘s clever attempt to retrieve a sunken Soviet vessel without anyone having any idea what was going on. The plan was for it to sneak in and snag a Soviet nuclear sub and then take off again without any outward sign that anything that ever happened.

The Explorer was originally built after a Soviet ballistic missile nuclear sub sank at the height of the Cold War. The Soviets were unable to determine exactly where the sub had gone down so they couldn’t salvage it themselves. Then the US Navy discovered it. 

The top secret construction of the vessel proved to be one of the strangest missions the CIA has ever conducted. The final product was so large it couldn’t even fit down the Panama Canal. The front and back ends of the ship were meant to bob and weave on waves while the center remained stable. The reason for that was it was essentially one of those giant claw machines you see in supermarkets. The plan was to grasp the sunken submarine some 17,000 feet below the surface of the ocean and make off with it. The ball bearings were apparently the size of bowling balls. 

Even more impressive than the construction was the fact that this all had to be done super secretly. Obviously the Soviets would not have approved if word got out, so the CIA came up with a cover story. Billionaire Howard Hughes designed the ship so he could farm manganese nodules at the bottom of the ocean. Front companies were set up and stories were leaked to the press. 

The ruse worked for a time, but the claw apparatus broke and then the cover story was blown. They never actually managed to retrieve the sub, but it was an impressive effort. 

4. USS Wolverine 

Most everyone knows what an aircraft carrier looks like. They’re the largest vessels on the sea and weigh upwards of 40,000 tons. It’s hard to imagine, then, that there was a second kind of aircraft carrier designed for use in freshwater. The Great Lakes had their own aircraft carriers, including the USS Wolverine. It was originally a side paddlewheel steamer that transported people from Cleveland to Buffalo. 

The Navy purchased the vessel in 1942 and set it up as a freshwater training aircraft carrier in the Great Lakes. It had none of the armaments that a normal carrier is outfitted with, and was smaller than a modern carrier, but it saw extensive use as a training vessel for pilots. In fact, over 17,000 pilots trained to land and take off from the Wolverine during the Second World War. 

3. HMS Zubian

During the First World War the Royal British Navy had two Tribal-Class warships known as the HMS Zulu and the HMS Nubian. Both vessels were badly damaged in 1916 but not destroyed. So, in a feat of naval ingenuity, the front of the Zulu was welded onto the back of the Nubian to create a brand new vessel – the HMS Zubian.

Despite being a Frankensten vessel, the Zubian saw extensive service during the war and proved its worth more than once. It even managed to sink a German U-Boat in 1918. The threat of submarines was so great the Navy couldn’t afford to lose any ships if they could avoid it, and forging a new ship from two old ones was more cost-effective and faster than starting from scratch.

2. Baron of Renfrew

We live in what some people call a disposable culture these days. Everything from razors to coffee pods are designed to be used and tossed out. That seems normal to us, but the idea of a 304 foot long wooden ship, the largest wooden ship ever built, being built to be tossed out still seems a little odd.

The Baron of Renfrew was built as a single use vessel. It was a little bit of a scam, meant to ship timber from the New World to Europe. The ship itself would be taken apart when it got where it was going and the wood that was used in its construction would be tax exempt because it was part of the ship, as opposed to the cargo. Things didn’t go quite as planned and the ship started taking on water. Timber washed up on shore in France, having almost reached its destination.

1. Ramform Titan

When you need to measure seismic activity or do surveys at sea the Ramform Titan is the ship on which to do it. Shaped like a giant wedge of cheese, the Titan has an insanely powerful engine that produces 26.4 megawatts of power. For some perspective, a giant wind turbine produces about two megawatts of power, which is enough to power about 400 average homes. So the engine here could power over 5,000 homes.

The massive design is meant to be stable in any weather, so crews could safely work even in the middle of a storm at sea. The vessel is capable of running survey streams behind it, 24 in total, that can span well over 100 kilometers in length. In fact, in 2015 they ran 129.6 kilometers of streamers during a survey, breaking a world record.