MV Joyita
The MV Joyita once it had been floating adrift for several months. Photo: abandonedspaces.
The MV Joyita was a luxury yacht that 25 passengers mysteriously disappeared from in the South Pacific in 1955. What cold have happened to the passengers and crew of the MV Joyita?
History of the MV Joyita
MV Joyita was a 69-foot wooden yacht built in 1931 for movie director Roland West, who named the boat Joyita, in Spanish meaning "little jewel", after his wife, actress Jewel Carmen.
In October 1941, the United States Navy purchased the Joyita and used her as a patrol boat on the Big Island of Hawaii until the end of World War II.
The Joyita ran aground in 1943 and was badly damaged. The Navy was still badly in need of ships so the boat was repaired. The ship became surplus to requirements after the war and was sold to the Louis Brothers firm.
After this the Joyita went through several new owners being used as a trade ship and a fishing boat.
The disappearance of the MV Joyita’s Passengers
Dr. Bert Hodgkinson, one of the ship’s missing passengers. Photo: abandonedspaces.
Joyita left Apia Harbor in Samoa on the 3rd of October 1955 at 5AM. The boat was headed for the Tokelau Islands which are about 270 miles away. The Joyita was due to depart the previous day but had fallen behind schedule due to an engine failure. The Joyita eventually left Samoa using just one engine.
The MV Joyita was carrying a cargo of various foodstuffs, 80 empty 45 gallon drums, timber and medical supplies.There were 25 people onboard, sixteen crew members and nine passengers.
The MV Joyita’s voyage was expected to take about 48 hours, arriving in Tokelau on the 5th of October. When the boat didn’t arrive as expected a search and rescue mission was launched. From the 6th to the 12th of October 100,000 square miles of ocean was searched but no sign of the MV Joyita or her passengers was found.
There was no sign of the MV Joyita until the 10th of November when Gerald Douglas, captain of the Tuvalu merchant ship, stumbled upon the Joyita some 600 miles from where she went missing.
The ship was in pretty bad shape and severely flooded. The passengers and crew were nowhere to be seen. Four tons of the ship’s cargo was also missing. The recovery party noticed that the Joyita’s radio was tuned to 2182 kHz which is the international marine distress radio channel.
Damage to the MV Joyita
Barnacles had grown high above the usual waterline showing that the Joyita had been floating on her side for some time.
Parts of the boat were dented and smashed. There were broken windows and doors.
The MV Joyita was missing a dinghy and three life rafts.
The ship’s starboard engine was found to have been covered by mattresses. The port engine was still disassembled.
A pump had been rigged up in the engine room but it was not properly connected.
The radio on board was damaged and only had a range of about two miles which would have made it nearly impossible to call for help.
The electric clocks on board had stopped at 10:25pm and the switches for the lights were all on implying that whatever happened happened at night.
Much of the ships navigational equipment.
A doctor's bag was found on deck contained medical equipment and bloodstained bandages.
From the amount of fuel left onboard it was calculated that the MV Joyita was abandoned within 50 miles of Tokelau.
The ships cork lining and cargo of empty drums meant it was almost impossible for it to sink. It is unknown why the crew abandoned the Joyita because of this.
Theories about what happened to the MV Joyita
The most puzzling aspect of the MV Joyita mystery is why the passengers and crew abandoned the boat when it was pretty much unsinkable. A few explanations have been put forward as possibilities.
Injured captain
Captain Miller was very experienced with the MV Joyita and would have known about the ship’s unique ability to stay afloat. This has lead some to speculate that something happened to the captain before the ship got into trouble. The bloodstained bandages onboard could have belonged to him.
Without the Captain to reassure the passengers and crew about the Joyita’s ability to stay afloat they may have panicked and tried to escape in the ship’s life rafts.
Japanese involvement
A newspaper headline claiming the Japanese were involved in the disappearance of the MV Joyita. Photo: Wikipedia.
The disappearance of the MV Joyita occurred about 10 years after the end of World War II when Japanese flotillas were still active in the area.
The Fiji Times and Herald wrote an article at the time claiming that the Joyita had been attacked by the Japanese for seeing something they shouldn’t have.
There was still very strong anti-Japanese sentiment after the war in parts of the Pacific.
These theories gained traction when some Japanese fishing knives weer found on board. The knives were old and broken however and were probably left on board the ship when it was used for fishing in the past.
There was also a theory that the crew was kidnapped by a Soviet submarine as cold war paranoia was beginning to grow at the time.
Insurance fraud
Captain Miller had a large amount of debt owing after several unsuccessful fishing trips. This sees unlikely as Captain Miller was relying on using the Joyita for regular government charters between Samoa and Tokelau which paid well.
Mutiny
British author and subsequent owner of Joyita, Robin Maugham, spent years investigating the MV Joyita’s past and published his findings in a book called The Joyita Mystery in 1962.
Maugham believed that the Joyita’s troubles began with the flooding from the broken pipes. He thinks the mattresses covering the starboard engine were put there to stop water from spraying up onto the electrical switchboard.
Perhaps Captain Miller knew the Joyita was unsinkable and wanted to press on to Tuvalu but his crew may have been less confident and wanted to turn back. This could have led to a struggle in which the Captain sustained a serious injury and was unable to lead the ship.
The flooding would have eventually caused power failure and the rest of the crew may have believed abandoning the ship wold be the safest option.
What do you think happened to the MV Joyita? Let us know in the comments.
If you enjoyed this article you may also like to learn about some other ghost ships: The Mary Celeste and The Ghost Ship Jenny.
