This, alas, never happened. On 8 August 1935, Baughman passed away quietly. Meanwhile, down in San Diego, on that very same evening, for reasons still unexplained, Humboldt slipped her mooring and began what would be her final, and certainly most unusual, voyage. Around midnight, a Coast Guard cutter spotted the darkened liner slicing her way through the harbor, headed toward open sea. After pulling alongside Humboldt, a crew boarded the derelict vessel to investigate the mystery. No sign of human activity could be found.
Was it the ghost of Capt. Baughman at the helm of Humboldt that night, determined to command a vessel for the very last time? Skeptics will scoff at the suggestion, yet strange and unexplainable events often happen at sea. This article’s author, a sober-minded veteran science and technology writer, had his own supernatural experience onboard Queen Mary 2 that he can’t explain to this day.
Humboldt was broken up shortly after her last adventure. Yet her story continues to mystify readers to this day.
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