History Main / GhostShip

* Prior to the discovery of the wrecks in modern day, Inuit stories of the Franklin Expedition ships fit with this. In particular, one story tells of a band hacking into the side of one of the ships with an axe, finding it abandoned. Inside one of the cabins, however, they found a mysterious body, so large that it required five men to lift it, and with front teeth “as long as an Inuit’s finger”. [[note]]Modern researchers believe that the abnormally long teeth are a result of the gums receding after death, while the supposed large size of the man is a result of Europeans being on average larger then Inuit.[[/note]] The ship would sink when the ice around it melted causing the ship to flood through the axe hole. Based on its supposed location, the ship is believed to be the ''Erebus''.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''

** In "Time Squad", the ''Liberator'' receives a DistressCall from a tiny spacecraft with a crew in [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]]. They revive and attack the ''Liberator'' crew, having been conditioned to protect its cargo against all intruders.
** In "Killer", an obsolete deep space exploration vessel turns up at a Federation base. When they retrieve the corpse of the pilot, it revives and attacks the doctor doing the autopsy, breaching quarantine and spreading a deadly plague throughout the base.
** In "Sarcophagus" the crew encounter an alien vessel containing the corpse of a dead woman. Turns out she's NotQuiteDead, surviving as an EnergyBeing who takes over Cally and then the ''Liberator''.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' has the ''Zelbinion'' in "PK Tech Girl", a battleship that was abandoned by most of its surviving crew after being badly damaged in a battle, and ''Rovhu'' in "Eat Me", a prison Leviathan that became a house of horrors after the cannibalistic serial killer that it was a TailorMadePrison for escaped.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' has a wrecked ship, complete with flooding, electrical discharges, ghosts, and weird bouncy things.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivor'': The first part of ''Resident Evil: Dead Aim'' takes place on the cruise ship ''The Spencer Rain''. By the time Bruce [=McGivern=] gets there to help, everyone's dead. Then they get back up...

* ''VideoGame/RepublicCommando'': The middle third of the game is set on a ghost ship, the ''RAS Prosecutor''. After a couple of levels of wandering though a mostly-deserted ship you discover the reason why it's filled with dead clones and start shooting the problem.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'':
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations'': The main setting is the SS ''Queen Zenobia'', a seemingly abandoned cruise ship adrift in the Mediterranean Ocean.

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood'' and its remake feature a stage set in and around a ghost ship. Worth noting is the painting that comes to life and flies around the room -- if it touches you, you're dead! There's also one in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Aria of Sorrow]]'', which is mostly scenery.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey III: The Drowned City'': A sidequest has the player's party characters look for a Ghost Ship sailing around Tortuga Island (one of the locations found in the explorable sea), and defeat it in a battle.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1260 SCP-1260 ("HMS Tiresias")]]. The HMS ''Tiresias'' is a former British Royal Navy frigate that sails the oceans without a crew. If anyone comes on board, a fog starts appearing around the ship after twenty minutes and completely surrounds the ship after 35 minutes. At 45 minutes the fog dissipates and the ship has disappeared. It travels to an unknown ocean with a pitch black sky and other ghost ships sailing in it. The people aboard die one by one and when they're all dead, the ship returns to our world again.

Then they run across [[MonsterOfTheWeek exactly what happened]] to the crew when the monster/alien/evil entity leaps out and starts killing them one by one. The rescuers who are [[CuriosityKilledTheCast most curious to explore the dark, creaky cargo hold die first]]. A BigDumbObject from Alpha Centauri may be involved. And sometimes [[BigBoosHaunt there are actual ghosts]].

The main characters receive a DistressCall or randomly come across a (seemingly) deserted vessel and have to figure out what happened and [[EverybodysDeadDave where everybody went]]. The derelict boat, ship, submarine, or, in science fiction, spaceship may have signs of a bloody LastStand. Tension mounts as the would-be rescuers search the ship for survivors and clues. Anchor chains in the hold clank in the waves. Maybe there's claw marks or blood on the floor. Then they run across [[MonsterOfTheWeek exactly what happened]] to the crew when the monster/alien/evil entity leaps out and starts killing them one by one. The rescuers who are [[CuriosityKilledTheCast most curious to explore the dark, creaky cargo hold die first]]. A BigDumbObject from Alpha Centauri may be involved. And sometimes [[BigBoosHaunt there are actual ghosts]].

The Ghost Ship trope heavily recycles HauntedHouse tropes. Like a Haunted House, the boat itself [[GeniusLoci may seem alive, with a mind of its own]], [[GhostButler the "wind"]] closes the steel fire doors behind you- and likely [[EnclosedSpace will not reopen]] until its time for the next set of [[SchmuckBait schmucks to take the bait]]. There are probably {{cobweb|OfDisuse}}s everywhere and creepy mementos. A rescuer finds the records of people who've sailed in or owned the ship before and learns of some [[DarkAndTroubledPast disturbing history]] and at least one {{Dark Secret}} (it was a slave ship, used by Nazis, etc).

The main characters receive a DistressCall or randomly come across a (seemingly) deserted vessel and have to figure out what happened and [[EverybodysDeadDave where everybody went]]. The derelict boat, ship, submarine, or, in science fiction, spaceship may have signs of a bloody LastStand. Tension mounts as the would-be rescuers search the ship for survivors and clues. Then they run across [[MonsterOfTheWeek exactly what happened]] to the crew when the monster/alien/evil entity leaps out and starts killing them one by one.The rescuers who are [[CuriosityKilledTheCast most curious to explore the dark, creaky cargo hold die first]]. A BigDumbObject from Alpha Centauri may be involved. And sometimes [[BigBoosHaunt there are actual ghosts]].

The Ghost Ship trope heavily recycles HauntedHouse tropes. Like a Haunted House, the boat itself [[GeniusLoci may seem alive, with a mind of its own]], [[GhostButler the "wind"]] closes the doors behind you- and likely [[EnclosedSpace will not reopen]] until its time for the next set of [[SchmuckBait schmucks to take the bait]]. There are probably {{cobweb|OfDisuse}}s everywhere,
Oh, and if you dig into records of people who've sailed in or owned the ship before, or research the house itself you're likely to find some [[DarkAndTroubledPast pretty spooky history]] and at least one {{Dark Secret}} (slavery, used by Nazis, etc).

The main characters receive a DistressCall or randomly come across a (seemingly) deserted vessel and have to figure out what happened and [[EverybodysDeadDave where everybody went]]. The derelict boat, ship, submarine, or, in science fiction, spaceship may have signs of a bloody LastStand. Tension mounts as the would-be rescuers search the ship for survivors and clues. Then they run across [[MonsterOfTheWeek exactly what happened]] to the crew when the monster/alien/evil entity leaps out and starts killing them one by one.The rescuers who are [[CuriosityKilledTheCast most curious to explore dark, creaky cargo hold die first]]. A BigDumbObject from Alpha Centauri may be involved. And sometimes [[BigBoosHaunt there are actual ghosts]].

The main characters receive a DistressCall or randomly come across a (seemingly) deserted vessel and have to figure out what happened and [[EverybodysDeadDave where everybody went]]. The derelict boat, ship, submarine, or, in science fiction, spaceship may have signs of a bloody LastStand. Tension mounts as the would-be rescuers search the ship for survivors and clues. Then they run across [[MonsterOfTheWeek exactly what happened]] to the crew when the monster/alien/evil entity leaps out and starts killing them one by one.[[CuriosityKilledTheCast The rescuers who are most curious to explore dark, creaky cargo hold die firts]]. A BigDumbObject from Alpha Centauri may be involved. And sometimes [[BigBoosHaunt there are actual ghosts]].

The main characters receive a DistressCall or randomly come across a (seemingly) deserted vessel and have to figure out what happened and [[EverybodysDeadDave where everybody went]]. The derelict boat, ship, submarine, or, in science fiction, spaceship may have signs of a bloody LastStand. Tension mounts as the would-be rescuers search the ship for survivors and clues. Then they run across [[MonsterOfTheWeek exactly what happened]] to the crew when the monster/alien/evil entity leaps out and starts killing them one by one.[[CuriosityKilledTheCast The rescuers who are most curious to explore dark, creaky caro holds die firts]]. A BigDumbObject from Alpha Centauri may be involved. And sometimes [[BigBoosHaunt there are actual ghosts]].

The main characters receive a DistressCall or randomly come across a (seemingly) deserted vessel and have to figure out what happened and [[EverybodysDeadDave where everybody went]]. The derelict boat, ship, submarine, or, in science fiction, spaceship may have signs of a bloody LastStand. Tension mounts as the would-be rescuers search the ship for survivors and clues. Then they run across [[MonsterOfTheWeek exactly what happened]] to the crew when the monster/alien/evil entity leaps out and starts killing them one by one. A BigDumbObject may be involved. And sometimes [[BigBoosHaunt there are actual ghosts]].

The main characters receive a DistressCall or randomly come across a (seemingly) deserted vessel and have to figure out what happened and [[EverybodysDeadDave where everybody went]]. The derelict boat, ship, submarine, or, in science fiction, spaceship may have signs of a bloody LastStand. Tension mounts as the would-be rescuers search the ship for survivors and clues. Then they run across [[MonsterOfTheWeek exactly what happened]] to the crew when the monster/alien/evil entity tries to kill them. A BigDumbObject may be involved. And sometimes [[BigBoosHaunt there are actual ghosts]].

The main characters receive a DistressCall or randomly come across a (seemingly) deserted vehicle and have to figure out what happened and [[EverybodysDeadDave where everybody went]]. Usually they run across [[MonsterOfTheWeek exactly what happened]] when it tries to eat them. A BigDumbObject may be involved. And sometimes [[BigBoosHaunt there are actual ghosts]].

Fantasy settings that include undead are likely to feature one of these at least occasionally. In these cases it's not always a mystery how the ship has gone so long without foundering or running aground... just because there's no ''living'' crew doesn't mean there's no crew at all, and the "ghost" descriptor may prove very literal.

* ''{{Film/Virus}}'': A Russian satellite tracking ship, the ''
Akademik Vladislav Volkov'', picks up a signal from space station Mir, thich turns out to be TheVirus. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Yeah]].

** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion: The Biologic Space Labs station is the backdrop for the whole game.

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': These seem quite frequent in the series:

** There are the the Frigate ''Orpheon'' ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' and Biologic Lab's Station in ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' where the Ghost Ship is the backdrop for the whole game.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'': Samus is sent to the wreckage of a Federation starship (''Valhalla'') lost in battle. In retrospect, it was probably [[PrimalFear a better idea]] [[ApocalypticLog not to]], but it's the only way to clear the game as it provides the Pirate Code that grants access to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.

* ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'': These seem quite frequent in the series:

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': "[[Recap/FireflyE03Bushwhacked Bushwhacked]]" has a crippled ship attacked by Reavers, occupied by a sole survivor [[spoiler:who got turned into one]].