FANTOME Where is she?

[alj36110]

I sailed on the FANTOME several tmes. Knew she went down. Does anyone know for sure where?

[CruiserEK]

The Fantome sank during Hurricane Mitch off the coast of Honduras in late October of 1998. All who were on her at the time she sank died.

[Paul Motter]

Yes, unfortunately all passed away, but fortunately there were no passengers, only the brave crew.

There is an excellent book on the incident -

The ship and the storm; Hurricane Mitch and the loss of the Fantome

Jim Carrier

[alj36110]

I took the advice and read the book. Never knew over 8k were killed in the storm. It made me even sadder to see how the Captain struggled to save the ship. Seems to me that better communication between the office people, the locals (for passenger accomodations) and better onboard 'weather' equipment may have saved all. It also looked like the storm was stalking her. A terrible waste of men and ships. :cr y:

[adventure34at]

As I understand it, the Fantome was lost sailing out from Belize city harbor in the open sea after they dropped their passangers off in Belize city just ahead of the hurricane.

Steve

[Eastocean]

Actually, Capt. Guyan had all the weather information available to him that was available to everyone through the weather service. As someone who at one time ran weather stations for a living, I follow hurricanes closely, and get a tremendous amount of information from the National Hurrricane Center, all of which Guyan had. In each the days prior to the storm turning South into Fantome, Mitch was predicted to be turning North through a weakness in the ridge over southern Mexico.

I knew Guyan well, and had sailed with him for a total of 6 weeks over the years. He did everything he could so avoid the hurricane, using the 500 years of experience that has been learned by sailing ship captains. Had not the Bay islands and the coast of Honduras blocked his southern escape, or more importantly, had not Mitch confounded the experts and computers, we might still be sailing that beautiful ship.

[The Rep]

Yes, Captain Mike & others knows exactly where she is, she is in 280 feet of water.

[jprovine]

I also sailed on the Fantome in the early '80s She went down somewhere off the coast of Honduras during hurricane Mitch in 1998

[Pat Hunte-Cusack]

It's now 15 April 2009 and I'm sure you are by now aware that the Fantome went down in Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Jim Carrier wrote about it in "The Ship and the Storm". Well worth reading and very sad.