The Curious Journey of the Ryō-un Maru by Gabriel Lubell

On March 11, 2011, the fifth largest earthquake in modern history struck less than 50 miles off the eastern coast of Japan. A not-so-small fishing boat had recently been retired and was moored in Aomori when the resulting tsunami hit. After the chaos subsided, the boat was found to be missing and all assumed it had sunk. But just over a year later, an airplane from the Royal Canadian Air Force spotted it a few hundred miles off the coast of Alaska. The boat’s location was tracked as it drifted closer and closer to important shipping lanes and US waters. On April 5, 2012, having determined the ship was a navigational hazard and unsalvageable, the crew of the US Coast Guard Cutter Anacapa commenced firing on her with their cannon, set her ablaze, filled her with water, and sank her in waters 6,000 feet deep. By the time she was reunited with humanity and met her demise, the Ryo–Un Maru had worked for about 30 years, survived an earthquake and tsunami, and wandered the Pacific Ocean for nearly thirteen months as a ghost ship.

Playing on this recording: Danielle Osbun, Banri Hoshi, Cornelia Sommer, and Kevin Grainger