In 2016, the news about a strange and frightening find spread around the world. A “mummy” of German navigator Manfred Fritz Bajorat was found on a yacht that drifted 100 kilometers from the Philippine municipality of Barobo.
Immediately there was an assumption that he disappeared back in 2009 (allegedly no one has seen this man since then), and the yacht with the body was at sea all this time. The unusual appearance of the “mummy” contributed to the even greater popularity of the find. And the drama of the situation was added by the unfortunate man’s pose: he seemed to “freeze” near the radio, trying with his last strength to call for help.
In early March 2016, two Filipinos noticed a white drifting yacht while fishing. When they swam closer to her, they saw that the mast was broken and the ship itself was half under water, which indicated that the yacht had been sailing in the open sea for an unknown amount of time.
The half-submerged vessel had a broken mast.
The young fishermen, having boarded, noticed the mess on the deck and inside. And already in the cabin they came across the mummy of the captain and owner of the ship, 59-year-old German yachtsman Manfred Fritz Bayorat. The identity was established by the documents found on board.
The mummified body of the ship’s captain. The fishermen found him near the radiotelephone.
Death overtook the captain when he was trying, apparently, to transmit a signal for help on a radiotelephone. And the salty air, dry winds and intense heat preserved the body in a mummified form. His last letter to his wife Claudia, who died of cancer in 2010, was also found next to the man.
The wife of the ship’s captain, Claudia, who died of cancer. The couple traveled the world together until their divorce 2 years before Claudia’s death. It is to her that Manfred’s last words are addressed.
Manfred Bayorat himself has spent the last 20 years on the water, and his wife accompanied him on this trip around the world until their divorce two years before her death. His letter to his still beloved wife ends with the words:
“For thirty years, you and I have been walking the same path side by side. But the dark forces turned out to be stronger than the will to live. Now you’re gone. May your soul rest in peace. Your Manfred.”
The manager of the consulting company, Manfried Bayorat, was 39 years old when he realized that he was very tired of his gray life in the German Ruhr. And the white collar went to study… to become a yachtsman. At first, he swam as part of amateur teams in the Aegean and The Mediterranean Sea, then I “tried my teeth” the Indian Ocean. The decision to buy his own yacht came after Martinique, where he went with his wife. The traveler even later named Le Fort de France, the largest local town, as his place of birth on Facebook.
The captain and owner of the 12-meter yacht Sayo is the German traveler Manfred Fritz Bayorat.
The couple were happy to buy a 13-meter beauty yacht, which they decided to name Sayo. The former manager invested part of his savings in it, and over the next twenty years, that he and his wife “plowed” the seas and oceans, painting over new places on the world map with a felt-tip pen, he never regretted it. Claudia jokingly called the ship “blonde” — for the snow-white hull and the constant need to spend money on its operation. Like, Sayo will let us go around the world.
This is what the yacht looked like when it was discovered off the coast of the Philippines
The Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic, the Caribbean, Indonesia and Majorca, the Mediterranean and the Baltic. After 11 years of wandering, Meinfred remade the seaman’s certificate under his new nickname “Tiger Shark”. Tiger sharks are solitary, because this way low-frequency sound waves are better captured, which allow you to find prey even in muddy water. But Meinfred just didn’t have a strong sense. For example, he did not feel the moment when Claudia got tired of sea life and went ashore forever.
Photo albums with family photos were found on board the yacht. In this photo, Manfred is with his wife and, presumably, his daughter and friends at a picnic.
When a 12-meter yacht with a broken mast washed up to the shores of the Philippines, it was partially filled with water. It is likely that the ship was caught in a storm after the death of the captain.
The yacht was discovered off the coast of Barobo Island.
The floor of the ship was ankle-deep in water, clothes and books in the cabin were damp and scattered everywhere, but those very kitchen towels and an album with family photos, as if the salt water and dry, tropical wind had not touched them.
Food supplies on the yacht.
There was a terrible mess on deck and in the hold.
Investigators found no signs of other people on board, no weapons or possible murder weapons. So they did not see a criminal trace in this story.
“This is a great ship for a captain, but a damn bad place for a crew.”
After the autopsy, a representative of the police station in the Philippines stated that there was no evidence of a “criminal history in this case.”
“The position in which he is sitting indicates that death was rapid, possibly from a heart attack,” said Dr. Mark Benenke, an expert forensic scientist in the city of Cologne.
Photos from a family album found on board a drifting yacht.
There were rumors that the corpse had been drifting at sea for 7 years. It turned out that this was just a “fairy tale”. The navigator did not die in 2009, just a week before he was discovered: the cause of death was an acute myocardial infarction. The data was obtained after an autopsy conducted by the Philippine police.
Manfred, presumably with his daughter.
Finally, the legend of the “ghost yacht” was debunked by documents that confirmed that in 2013 the Bayorate received the appropriate permission from the maritime police. Also, one of the navigator’s friends said that he communicated with him about a year ago.
Perhaps the wife of the ship’s captain, Claudia, with her daughter in her arms.
But then why did the body look so unusual? Experts explained that heat, dry wind and salty sea air have a similar effect in total. As a rule, complete mummification of the body is achieved in 6-12 months. In some cases, it may occur after 3-5 months. Traces of partial mummification can be detected on the body 1-2 months later.
Natural mummification occurs if the body finds itself in an environment that prevents the decomposition process. Such an environment, for example, may be an area with a stable low temperature. A typical example of natural mummification is Ezi, or the “Ice Man”.
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