Lost Viking Ship in California?
I wanted to know more about this story, as much as I can. I’m hoping I can catch someone who lives in this area of California, namely near the Anza-Borrego State Park. I’ve studied Vikings and this “supposed lost ship” story always intrigued me. I want to know if anyone else has heard more details.
The story goes like this (from a website):
“It was 1933, and Myrtle Botts was traveling with her husband, enjoying the famous annual wildflower bloom in what’s now Anza-Borrego State Park, in the Colorado Desert of inland southern California. They met an old prospector who swore he’d seen the remains of a Viking longship protruding from the side of an arroyo, well enough preserved that the distinctive round shields were still mounted along its sides. He wrote directions for Myrtle on how to find it. A paper, purporting to be those original directions, is preserved at the Julian Pioneer Museum in Julian, California.
Following the directions, Myrtle went and found the ship. She returned to fetch her husband along, but before they could get there, an earthquake brought down the wall of the arroyo, access was blocked, and the ship has not been seen since. Erosion in the arroyo has since washed away whatever the directions may once have led to.”
If anything, it’s just an interesting lost ship story, not necessarily from Vikings.
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That story, with all its dodges to make it utterly unverifiable, has all the trappings of a real whopper. I’d say it’s just as likely that before the earthquake, a whole tribe of sasquatches moved the longboat to the invisible burial grounds where cloaking devices provided by intergalactic aliens render it impossible for humans to ever detect the remains of a bigfoot.
lol @ETpro I just choked on my coke, so thank you for that!!
That would be a really cool story if it were true.
Let’s look at this rationally. There’s no possible way that a Viking longboat ever sailed around the southern tip of South America and wound up on the coast of California. The idea is insanely far-fetched. Now there are other possible explanations. Since this was 1933, maybe it was a replica, maybe it was something from the military back then that she mis-identified as a longboat. Maybe it was a naturally-occuring rock formation that looked like a longboat, or even a beached whale or other washed-up marine animal that appeared that way. Pareidolia is a powerful psychological phenomena that’s hardwired into everyone’s brain the same way optical illusions are.
Or the woman could have been hallucinating, dreaming, etc. or she could have been intentionally deceitful to gain wealth/attention/etc. There are so many perfectly rational explanations for this.
Edit: Just realized this is in the desert. I mis-read it before.
As @elbanditoroso pointed out in the article, there are several versions of the story and even more if you dig further on line. More likely, if it exists(ed) it was a boat, either a fishing vessel or dory that was used and sank within the period of say 1650 – 1900. They know the Colorado occasionally floods the Salton Sea expanding its’ boundaries way beyond those we presently see.
Eh if the ship was that easy to spot, and if it was legit, somebody would have found it way before that, and most likely removed it. Also, the earthquake thing seems way too convenient…and even if that did happen, I’m not able to believe that the ship just vanished, must have been one hell of an earthquake…pieces and remains of the ship should have easily been salvageable. (if it was in good shape, which this story says it was)
There are very few Viking ships that have been found, here are some links;
The Skudelev Ships
Oseberg, Tuneskipet and the Gokstad ship.
Viking ship museum.
@gorillapaws There’s a theory that they could have come over through Canada. Yeah, coming from under South America is ridiculous, but that’s not what the theory is. Back then, the rivers and ocean levels were different, yada, yada, yada.
@Symbeline There actually was a big earthquake there in 1933. I looked it up on the wiki before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Long_Beach_earthquake
Regardless, I’m just really curious what it might be. Did anyone think to use the map in that museum? I want to know if it’s still there.
I read from this site that mentiuons the Chinese ship called a Junk found in California.
This Bill Hartz wrote of his findings. Check under the heading Sacramento Junk for a detailed snynopsis of his research.
website :
http://hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=91
Very Interesting. There were others before Europeans who discovered America.
Yeah, this all sounds a bit far fetched. I’ve heard the story, but have never been able to verify it.
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