A ship found drifting in the Pacific was still afloat but all 25 passengers had vanished

On October 3, 1955, the motor vessel Joyita left Apia, Western Samoa, bound for the Tokelau Islands with 25 people aboard — 16 crew and 9 passengers, including a government medical officer carrying a supply of surgical instruments and drugs. The 69-foot wooden ship never arrived.

Five weeks later, on November 10, a merchant vessel found Joyita drifting 600 miles west of her course, listing heavily to port with her superstructure partially submerged. The ship's hull was lined with cork, making it virtually unsinkable. No passengers, crew, cargo, or life rafts were aboard. The logbook, sextant, mechanical chronometer, and all three of the ship's clocks were missing. Four tons of cargo — including the medical supplies — had vanished. One curious detail: the radio was tuned to the international distress frequency of 2182 kHz, but it could only transmit within a two-mile radius because of faulty wiring.

A commission of inquiry found that a pipe had corroded below the waterline, flooding the engine room, but could not explain why the passengers abandoned a vessel that was still afloat. The ship had enough cork in its hull to stay above water indefinitely. Theories have included piracy by Japanese fishermen, Soviet abduction, insurance fraud, and murder. No trace of any of the 25 people was ever found.