The Mystery of the Joyita.
The Joyita is a fishing boat that has become famous for its mysterious disappearance.
In 1955, the Joyita was found abandoned in the Pacific Ocean, between the Fiji and Tonga islands, with no crew on board.
Despite the fact that the ship was in a state of disrepair, no traces of blood or signs of struggle were found.
The story.
The Mystery of the Joyita began on October 3, 1955, at dawn. The ship set sail from the port of Apia, in the Samoa islands. It was supposed to arrive in the Tokelau islands after about 41-48 hours of sailing.
It never reached its destination and was only found five weeks after departure, exactly on November 10.
The subsequent investigation attributed much of the blame to Captain Miller. He was found guilty of undertaking the journey with only one engine available and other minor faults.
Furthermore, there was a lack of a functioning radio and adequate lifeboat. Even the license for carrying paying passengers had expired.
However, when the boat was spotted, it was drifting, many kilometers off the planned route and inside, there was no trace of the sixteen crew members and nine passengers.
They had all seemingly vanished into thin air.
Rescuers found the boat only partially submerged, much of it was still above water.
A normal boat would have sunk, but the Joyita remained afloat because its hull was lined with cork and the cargo consisted of fuel drums.
It was precisely the state in which the boat was found that raised many perplexities: why didn’t the crew simply stay on the ship, and why were none of their bodies found?
Hypotheses.
Several theories have been put forward, but no definitive explanation has been confirmed for The Mystery of the Joyita.
Some have speculated that Captain Miller was either dead or injured.
His absence or incapacity could have caused panic among the people when the boat began to flood.
The crew would then have been brought onto the life rafts. However, if things had happened this way, the missing cargo and equipment would still not be explained.
Another hypothesis, advanced by some newspapers like the Fiji Times, L’Hebdo and the Daily Telegraph, speaks of Japanese involvement.
It is believed that the Joyita and its crew passed through a fleet of Japanese fishing boats and saw something on those ships that they were not supposed to see.
This theory is supported by the fact that knives with the inscription “Made in Japan” were found on board the Joyita.
Some have thought instead of a possible abduction of the ship’s occupants by a Soviet submarine, in the midst of the Cold War.
The ship would have been rammed and attacked, with the crew and passengers killed and thrown overboard and the cargo stolen.
There has also been talk of an insurance fraud orchestrated by Captain Miller, who had accumulated huge debts after a series of unsuccessful fishing trips.
A final attempt at explanation refers to a possible mutiny attempt by the crew in the face of the captain’s decision to continue the journey once the ship began to take on water.
Conclusion.
The mystery of the Joyita remains unresolved, as the fate of the crew and the cause of the abandonment of the ship have never been fully clarified.
The mystery of the Joyita has become one of the most enigmatic disappearance stories in maritime history.
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