Aivasovsky Ivan Constantinovich storm 1872 IBI

The ''Lady Lovibond'' (sometimes spelled ''Luvibond'') is the name given to a legendary

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

that is alleged to have been wrecked on the

Goodwin Sands Goodwin Sands is a sandbank at the southern end of the North Sea lying off the Deal coast in Kent, England. The area consists of a layer of approximately depth of fine sand resting on an Upper Chalk platform belonging to the same geologi ...

, off the

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

coast of south-east England, on 13 February 1748, and is said to reappear there every fifty years as a

ghost ship A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a fictional ghostly vessel, such as the ''Flying Dutchman'', or a physical derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the ''Mary Celest ...

. No contemporary records of the ship or its supposed sinking have been found. The story goes that the ship was at sea on 13 February because her captain, Simon Reed''Sailing's Strangest Moments'', p. 24
John Harding, 2004 (in some accounts named Simon Peel), had just been married, and was celebrating the occasion with a cruise. According to several accounts, the ship was bound for

Oporto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

in Portugal. Despite the longstanding sailors' superstition that it was bad luck to bring a woman on board, Reed had brought his bride Annetta with him on the ship. According to legend, the first mate, John Rivers, a rival for the hand of the captain's young wife, was pacing the decks in jealous anger. While the captain, his wife and their guests were celebrating the marriage below deck, the first mate was seized with a fit of jealous rage. Casually drawing a heavy, club-like

belaying pin Properly securing a line to a belaying pin starts by leading the line under and behind the base of the pin to begin the figure-8 pattern left, Lines coiled and secured by belaying pins A belaying pin is a solid metal or wooden device used on tr ...

from the rail, the mate walked softly up behind the crew member at the wheel and felled him to the deck with one crushing blow. Rivers then seized the wheel and steered the ship onto the treacherous Goodwin Sands, killing everyone aboard.Fanthorpe 2004, p.27. A subsequent inquiry into the disaster recorded a verdict of misadventure. The first supposed sighting of the phantom ''Lady Lovibond," on 13 February, 1798, was reported by at least two ships: the "Edenbridge," captained by James Westlake, and a fishing smack. It's alleged 1848 appearance convinced local seamen that a wreck had occurred – they sent out lifeboats from

Deal A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, ...

in hopes of rescuing the survivors. Captain Bull Prestwick allegedly sighted her in 1948 and reported that she looked real, but gave off an eerie white glow. There was no reported 1998 sighting. The Goodwin Sands are England's most fertile grounds for ghost ships, and are also the location of the legendary island of

Lomea Goodwin Sands is a sandbank at the southern end of the North Sea lying off the Deal coast in Kent, England. The area consists of a layer of approximately depth of fine sand resting on an Upper Chalk platform belonging to the same geologi ...

. The ''Lady Lovibond'' shares the area with two other phantom vessels: a liner called the , and the ''Shrewsbury'', a man-of-war. Researchers George Behe and Michael Goss came to the conclusion that there are no reliable

primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...

s that mention the Lady Lovibond before a 1924 article in the ''

Daily Chronicle The 'Daily Chronicle' was a British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the '' Daily News'' to become the ''News Chronicle''. Foundation The ''Daily Chronicle'' was developed by Edward Lloyd out of a local newspap ...

''. They speculated that the ship may have been a fabrication from the journalist, or based on a ship that sailed into view between 1914 and 1924. Behe and Goss speculate that stories about the ship may have been invented for

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

and there were similarities with the story from other fictional ghost stories.Behe, George; Goss, Michael. (2005). ''Lost at Sea: Ghost Ships and Other Mysteries''. Prometheus Books. pp. 26-30.

References

{{Reflist Sailing ships Kent folklore Legendary ghost ships