What Happened on the MV Joyita?

In Haruki Murakami’s surrealist fantasy The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Lolita-esque spitfire May Kasahara recalls a house on the block where she used to live that carried a distinct air of malice. It was later known that an unspeakable act occurred there  in the Miyawaki family, dubbing the outcast property the “Hanging House.” But it wasn’t just the act of what happened that had the town thoroughly spooked. It was the aftermath.

“Whatever you call it,” May writes, “once the people who lived there had disappeared, the whole look of the house changed …. The minute the Miyawakis left, it got this know-nothing look in its face, like, ‘I never heard of anybody called Miyawaki.’…As soon as they were gone, it turned into this totally self-sufficient vacant house that had nothing to do at all with the Miyawaki family….”

So goes the masked and mysterious side-eye of the MV Joyita, a merchant vessel discovered over 600 miles off its chartered course, with all 25 of its passengers vanished.

Now dubbed the Mary Celeste of the Pacific, the Joyita was once the pleasure-yacht of Mary Pickford. It was a large, capable vessel passed from hand to hand until it ultimately landed a steady job as a cargo cruiser. It had a cork bottom, which made it practically impervious to sinking, and it was deemed and used as a reliable ship. The initial trek was mundane enough; On October 3, 1955, Joyita set sail carrying 16 crew members, 9 passengers (including 2 children), and trading cargo such as timber, medical supplies and foodstuffs. Notable members of the crew included the intrepid Captain “Dusty” Miller; his oft-at-odds first mate, Chuck Simpson; a World War II surgeon, and a copra buyer. The ship was scheduled to arrive on October 5, 1955 at the Tokelau Islands to pick up more copra. Upon embarking, everything seemed completely normal–except for the fact that of the ship’s two engines, the clutch engine was busted. Captain Miller made the call that it was safe enough to set sail anyway. That was the last time anyone on the Joyita would ever be seen again.

Here’s what we do know: After a vigorous search, 5 weeks later the hulking vessel was seen lumbering in the middle of nowhere, dilapidated, tipped to the side and partially submerged, but still floating. No passenger was present. When they hulled the ship back to shore, it was discovered that a pipe had rotted away, letting water into the vessel, causing it to sink. However, there is a host of other subtly horrifying details that continue to baffle to this day.

Most of the windows were smashed, as well as the flying bridge, and someone had erected an awning on the deck house. Since the clutch engine wasn’t working, the ship was running on the starboard engine, and it looked like an auxiliary pump was connected between them in an attempt to…do what? Bizarrely, the starboard engine was also found completely covered by mattresses. The navigation lights were on. All the electric clocks on the ship were hooked up to the generator, and all stopped dead at 10:25 PM, indicating whatever occurred was at night. The dinghy and all three of the life rafts were missing, along with 4 tons of cargo. The doctor had left his bag behind, but most of the tools were missing, replaced by 4 lengths of bloody rags. The radio was found tuned to the ship distress station, but there was a break in the wires (which was subsequently hidden by paint) so the range of reach would have been limited to 2 miles. All of the navigational equipment was gone, including the logbook. But most baffling of all, there was no need to flee, as the captain would have known, because the ship would only partially sink. The discoverers of the ship couldn’t understand why the passengers just didn’t wait for help.

Does this sound like nightmare fuel to you? To me, it sounds like the perfect Steampunk mystery. (Just ignore the fact that it’s the 50s). Let’s take a look at some reputable theories.

Mutiny/Incapacitated Captain – Captain Miller was no green sailor, and he knew the Joyita well. Even though they were in trouble, he would have known that the ship would hold and that help would soon be on the way. It was only a 2-day trek, after all. But panic is a powerful instigator. When water began to enter the ship, perhaps there was a scuffle and Captain Miller was somehow thrown overboard by a clock to the face a la dour first mate Chuck Simpson. This could also explain the bloody rags and smashed windows. The crew and passengers, freaking out, would have grabbed all their belongings and abandoned the vessel, when they were inevitably eaten by sharks.

Foul Play – Looks like Dusty was in some bad debt. Maybe he thought capsizing the boat was the best way to cut his losses? This could explain why he thought it was acceptable to set sail with only one working engine, and why his ship wasn’t fully maintained, and why the radio wire was broken. He could have thought it was acceptable given the short trek; he would just deploy the crew and passengers on the life rafts and they would all float to safety. Chuck Simpson discovered his plan once the ship started sinking, they engaged in an epic scuffle (hence the bloody rags), and eventually abandoned the ship. They were all eventually attacked and eaten by sharks.

The Japanese – If you think a gang of vengeful Japanese WWII soldiers hanging around several years after the war just waiting for the right time to get even with a bunch of cargo traders sounds crazy, maybe you’re just not a paranoid racist. There were still very strong anti-Japanese sentiments in the Pacific, particularly among competing fishermen, and when the rumor circulated that Japanese miscreants posing as fishermen attacked the ship, it was awhile before the theory was ruled out.

Pirates – Pirates are ubiquitous and it doesn’t take a lot to be one except a dream, a boat, some friends, and a weapon. The Joyita was a sizable vessel with plenty of cargo and it is not impossible that some vagabonds attacked, looking to garner the goods, especially if it looked like the ship may have been in trouble. Maybe they rounded up the crew and deployed them on life rafts which they subsequently torpedoed, took the goods, and abandoned the ship. But why would the navigational equipment then be missing? Also, what is the deal with those mattresses?

Cthulhu – Most likely. 

For some reason I could only find artists’ renderings of this “gentleman of the sea.”

Zombies – This is the least credible theory because zombies are historically afraid of water. But all the elements are there for a traditional zombie tale: bloody rags, smashed ship, stopped clocks, missing logbook. Maybe the captain had an infection and one by one he turned the crew. There could have been a revolt, led by the copra buyer, and they attempted to fortify themselves behind mattresses. Then, it became evident that whatever was making people sick was coming from the starboard engine, and they ineffectively tried to cover it up. The remaining survivors took the cargo and deployed the life rafts, but uh-oh, on one of the rafts was a person who was hiding their illness until it was too late. Happens every time.

It is obvious that someone or something was an antagonist here. 25 people are unaccounted for, and its likely they will never be. What’s more, the most chilling part about this tale is the Joyita herself. She is the only survivor of the fated trek, and even though she was found busted and broken, she was still bobbing along, doing what she was supposed to. It is as though by surviving, she is maintaining her innocence and feigning ignorance that a crew ever existed at all, despite the nightmarish evidence against her. Like the house in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, the Joyita seems to have gotten away with a great secret. She has never been trustworthy since.

Pictures via The Fiji Times and Wikimedia Commons.

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