They float through the chilling pages of many stories about the sea: the ghost ships that sail eternally to haunt the living seas. But once, in the English Channel, a real ghost ship set sail. The story began with a collision in the middle of a thick fog.

The two ships that collided were the French steamer Frigorifique built in 1869. A 715-ton ketch steamer, carrying wine from Bordeaux to Rouen, and the 522-ton British collier Rumney, built in 1879, sailing from Cardiff with 920 tons of coal bound for Rochefort. They collided off the Ile de Seine during a thick foggy morning on March 19, 1884.

The Rumney was steaming SE by S with slow engines and her steam whistle was blown at regular intervals. When the lookout heard a noise off the port bow, the captain immediately turned the engines back to full throttle, where the Frigorifique, moving at considerable speed (later denied by the Frigorifique) on a westerly course, was seen crossing the bow of the Rumney, moving from port to starboard. The wheels of both ships snapped to starboard, but the collision could not be avoided, Rumney’s bow coming into contact with the other ships’ starboard quarter, cutting half of her deck off. In the collision, the rudder of the Frigorifique was forced and jammed hard in a port, the helmsman being thrown completely over the rudder. As the two ships remained close together for some time and the Frigorifique appeared to be taking on water, the French crew of 22 immediately abandoned their ship and jumped aboard the Rumney and then the Frigorifique, whose engines were still leading, slipped away and disappeared in the fog.

With the survivors on board, the Rumney sailed on. Suddenly, the French screamed in fear. Then a large ship rose silently out of the mist, narrowly missing the Rumney. It was the French ship that she was supposed to have sunk.

And twenty minutes later, the ‘ghost ship’ re-emerged out of the mist, once again closing in on the British ship. This time there was no escape. With a deafening crash, the bow of the Frigorifique crashed into the starboard side of the tender. Within seconds, the Rumney was sinking, sending 15 of her men running for the lifeboat and punt as the French crew made their way to the pinnace. The French ship had its revenge. The two crewmen from the boats gave chase and managed to board the runaway ship, and her engines were stopped, but soon after it was discovered that she too was sinking, however some fishermen saved and helped disembark both crewmen.

When the fog cleared and the survivors of both ships clearly saw the French ship across the sea, the sinister mystery was explained. The Cooler had not sunk after that first collision. With the boilers still running and the rudder jammed from the collision, the derelict ship had continued to sail in a full circle, crossing the mine road twice. Only then, after her revenge, her deadly pursuit ended, did she finally sink.