Rusted and half-sunken yet still somehow afloat on the waters of Sydney’s Homebush Bay, the remains of a century-old ship have become fertile ground for a thriving forest. Located on the south bank of the Parramatta River on the inner west side of the city, the bay was a hub for industrial activity in the mid-20th century and became a dumping ground for unwanted materials of all kinds, from busted ships to toxic waste.

The bay was ultimately rehabilitated, but many of the ships remain, lurking among a tangle of mangrove trees. Among them is the SS Ayrfield, which the mangroves clearly found quite hospitable, transforming it into a sort of artificial floating island. In its former life, the Ayrfield was used to transport supplies to American troops stationed in the Pacific during World War II before operating as a collier. It was sent to Homebush for disposal in 1972 after sixty years of service.

Awash in brilliant hues of red and orange, the hull of the 1,140-ton SS Ayrfield pokes up from the surface of the water, the Sydney skyline looming in the distance. Other ghostly ships in the bay include the steam tugboat SS Heroic and the steel boom defense vessel HMAS Karangi, which helped defend Darwin Harbour from Japanese attack in 1942.

Photos: Jason Baker, gerryligon, rodney campbell / Flickr Creative Commons

Built in 1986 in the hopes of enticing diners who were gravitating toward more high-end fare, this now-abandoned floating McDonalds might just be the saddest-looking fast food ruin around. Known as the ‘McBarge,’ it’s been anchored in Burrad Inlet near Vancouver, Canada since its debut and served its last Big Mac in 1991.

The idea was to show off the future of technology and architecture while also attempting to regain some of the market share it lost during an ‘80s trend toward bistros and boutiques.

How, exactly, McDonald’s aimed to do that with a clunky-looking barge serving the same old menu is unclear. The chain dropped $12 million on the floating fast food joint and four other locations built just for Expo ’86 in Vancouver, thinking they could simply move the barge elsewhere if it didn’t catch on.

For whatever reason, it was never reopened, and hasn’t budged from its apparently permanent spot in the inlet. Owner Howard Meaking proposed renovating it into the showpiece of a new waterfront development along the Fraser River in 2009, but the city council still hasn’t approved the idea.

A group called ‘Vancouver’s Worst Ghost Hunters’ took a tour of the abandoned barge, using a legal loophole to get aboard and filming the experience. Check out the (surprisingly vermin-free) interior in the video (Images via Wikimedia Commons, Ashley Fisher/Flickr Creative Commons).

Known for its extravagance and disdain for rational limits, Dubai never shies away from incredibly ambitious architectural projects – but when they fail, as they often do, the result is a whole lot of sandy half-excavated construction sites. But along with the rest of the United Arab Emirates, this hub of vast oil and gas fortunes is in a state of constant flux, with a rapidly changing landscape that can transform from a swath of desert to a strip of glittering skyscrapers in what seems like no time at all.

Lots of Luxury Vehicles

More than 3,000 abandoned luxury vehicles were counted in Dubai in a single year, left behind, as the story goes, when expats fled the nation to escape debts after the economy crashed. One such vehicle was a limited edition Ferrari Enzo, worth more than $1.65 million. Others include $100K Range Rovers, Porches, BMWs and Mercedes. Photographs show them covered in dust and sand, sometimes haphazardly protected with tarps. Under Sharia law, non-payment of debt is a criminal offense, and foreigners have been prevented from leaving the Emirates for missing a single credit card payment or bouncing a check. But according to Business Insider, it’s not just expats fleeing financial repercussions. Locals bought cars they couldn’t afford, and then struggled to make the payments. On the plus side, bargain hunters have gotten some insane deals on the cars when they’re re-sold at rock-bottom prices at police auctions.

Ongoing Wastelands of Stalled Construction Projects

Dubai itself and the surrounding areas often have large tracts of land that look like wastelands of sand and abandoned construction equipment thanks to countless projects that are started and then put on hold for financial reasons. At any given time, there are thousands of such sites in various stages of progress, and while some eventually pick back up and are completed, others stay like this for years or are eventually scrapped. Nakheel Tower, pictured top, was meant to be the centerpiece of Dubai’s famous man-made Palm Islands, and the site had been cleared and leveled before the project was canceled in 2009. Another project, the Burj Al Alam, suffered a similar fate, with trucks finally bringing in loads of sand to refill areas that had been excavated after developers decided not to go forward with the 108-story tower.

World’s Largest Artificial Islands On Hold and Sinking

Dubai’s artificial islands, including the Palm Islands, the World and the Universe, were intended to be the ultimate in luxury possessions, sold only to millionaires who could afford the hefty price tags and the yachts required to reach them. While a few of them have already been developed, with residents beginning to move in, others have sat in a state of partial completion since construction began in 2001. The 2008 financial crisis led developers to pull back from actively working on the project, and by 2011, some of the islands began sinking into the sea. Despite the developers’ denials, third-party inspectors confirmed that the islands were already eroding, and aerial photographs show that those intended to make up the shapes of the world map are becoming little more than a patchwork of rounded blobs.

Jebel Ali Village And Its Namesake Palm Island

Jebel Ali Village, built outside Dubai i 1977, was a settlement of about 300 villas for expatriates along with schuss, a club, a park, medical clinics and a desalination water plant. It didn’t have its own supermarket, requiring residents to make a long, hot drive without air conditioning all the way to Dubai to purchase supplies back when Abu Dhabi Road was a single-lane unlit carriageway used by camels as well as vehicles. By 2011, the once-treasured community was entirely abandoned. One of the artificial islands built off the coast of Dubai was named in its honor, but that project has been put on hold, leading to even more abandonments with the Jebel Ali name. The monolithic structures pictured above were built as part of a flyover going to Jebel Ali Palm Island, but as construction was halted, they’ve just been left like this, looking like a row of ancient ruins. But as with many other projects in Dubai, they’re in transition – the village is being rebuilt.

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Derelict Dubai 7 Sandy Abandoned Wonders Of The Uae

A lot of things can happen at sea – pirates, mutiny, murder and bad weather not to mention (if you’re so inclined) alien abductions, clashes with sea monsters and the mysterious workings of the Bermuda Triangle.  So perhaps it’s no wonder so many ships have turned up without their crew or passengers – but where’s the evidence of a struggle? From an unmanned ghost ship that’s been repeatedly spotted (and boarded) off the Alaskan coast to an apparent British crew kidnapping by a German submarine during World War I, these 10 abandoned vessels all share one thing: strange and seemingly unexplainable secrets.

Mary Celeste

(image via: wikimedia commons)

When it comes to describing the discovery of the apparently abandoned Mary Celeste in 1872, words like “spooky” and “unsettling” simply don’t cut it. This brigantine merchant ship was found in the Atlantic Ocean with its cargo and valuables completely untouched, packed with six months’ worth of food and water but not hide nor hair of a single passenger or crew member. Though its contents were wet and it was a bit worse for the wear, the ship was still seaworthy after being out for just a month. The fact that all reasonable explanations – from storms to piracy – seem to have been ruled out has spurred more outrageous theories of alien abduction or sea monster attacks. Today, the fate of the Mary Celeste remains one of history’s most famous and puzzling maritime mysteries – but this is far from the only story of its kind.

Carroll A. Deering

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Was it mutiny, piracy, Communists or a bizarre supernatural experience in the Bermuda Triangle that robbed the Carroll A. Deering of her crew? This five-masted commercial schooner was on its way back from delivering a load of coal from Virginia to Rio, and during a supply stop in Barbados, the first mate was arrested for making threats against the supposedly interfering and not-so-sharp-eyed captain but was released on bail and forgiven before the ship moved on toward its destination of Norfolk, Virginia.

The ship was spotted when it hailed the Cape Lookout Lightship in North Carolina and a man with a foreign accent onboard told the lightship’s keeper that the vessel had lost its anchors. But the next time it was seen was when it ran aground in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina – the crew, their belongings, and the lifeboats all missing. The crew was never located, and the U.S. government has never come up with an official explanation, though they did consider foul play by rum runners or Communist pirates set on capturing American ships. Today, conspiracy theorists often use the Deering as an example of the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, despite the fact the ship was far away it by the time the crew disappeared.

Bel Amica

(image via: haunted america tours)

When a “classic style” schooner unlike any seen in Italy before was found off the coast of the island of Sardinia with no crew on board, it seemed like a repeat of the Mary Celeste – but this is no seemingly mythical tale from ages past. Spotted by the Italian Coast Guard in 2006, this ghost ship contained a half-eaten meal of Egyptian food, French maps of North African seas, a pile of clothes, a flag of Luxembourg and a wooden plaque bearing the name ‘Bel Amica’. Italian authorities found that the ship had never been registered in any country. Because the ship was misidentified as an antique in the press, a tsunami of public interest surrounded the case – but it was soon revealed to be a modern yacht belonging to a Luxembourg man who likely didn’t register it for tax evasion purposes.

High Aim 6

(image via: simplyscenes)

Murder, mutiny and rotting fish – the story of the High Aim 6 is a strange one. This Taiwanese ship was found drifting in Australian waters without its crew in 2003, though plenty of fuel and provisions remained onboard, along with the crew’s personal belongings and a hold full of stinky seafood. A forensic examination could find no sign of a struggle, and a search of 7,300 nautical miles turned up no clues – but 10 days after the ship was discovered, calls were still being made from Indonesia on the cell phone of the ship’s missing engineer. The only crew member ever tracked down claimed that the captain and engineer were murdered and the crew headed back to their homes, but no reason was ever given.

Jian Seng

(image via: bymnews)

A lot of illegal activity goes on in the world’s oceans, from illegal fishing to human trafficking. So, when mysterious ships of unknown origin turn up, they’re automatically suspicious. The Jian Seng is just one such ship, spotted drifting into uncharted waters near Queensland, Australia in 2006, but once Australian Customs officials boarded the ship they couldn’t find evidence of recent human activity at all. In fact, the ship had been stripped, with its name and identifying features painted over, and contained nothing but a large amount of rice. Ultimately, since no owner could be found, the ship was intentionally sunken.

MV Joyita

(image via: fiji times)

The MV Joyita may have been an “unsinkable” ship, but she wasn’t immune to other problems. With 25 passengers and crew onboard, the Joyita disappeared in the South Pacific in 1955.  Five weeks after the ship was reported overdue, it was spotted off-course partially submerged and missing four tons of cargo including medical supplies, timber, food and empty oil drums. The radio was tuned to the international marine distress channel, the lifeboats were gone and blood-stained bandages were found. Some believe that the captain was injured or killed and that the passengers and crew felt they had no choice but to abandon the ship – but that still doesn’t explain the missing cargo.

Kaz II

(image via: wikimedia commons)

On April 15th, 2007, three men set out on a journey along the coast of Australia – and three days later, their ship turned up drifting toward the Great Barrier Reef with everything perfectly in place. Everything, that is, except for the men themselves, who were missing. Food was set out on the table, a laptop was open and still turned on, all of the boat’s emergency systems were fully functional and life jackets hung neatly on their hooks. Since the seas were choppy and none of the men were wearing a life jacket, it has been hypothesized that one of the men fell overboard and the others perished trying to save him.

Zebrina

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Yet another ship found without its crew was the Zebrina, a 3-masted sailing barge that left a port in Southern England in October 1917 with a cargo hold full of coal bound for Saint-Brieuc, France. When the ship was found in France aground and abandoned but in good shape two days later, it seemed that some kind of conflict related to World War I was to blame – like perhaps the threat of gunfire from a German submarine like the one pictured above. Did the U-boat that threatened the Zebrina force the crew onboard, and then retreat when it spotted an Allied ship nearby? Perhaps – some people believe that this hypothetical submarine was later sunken itself, hence the fact that Zebrina’s crew was never seen again.

Schooner Jenny

(image via: history cooperative)

“May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days. I am the only one left alive.” The captain who wrote this message was still sitting in a chair with a pen in his hand when this message was found in his logbook a full 17 years later. His body, and those of the other 6 people onboard the British schooner ‘Jenny‘, had been preserved by the frigid Antarctic weather which had ensnared the ship in ice and led to their deaths.The crew of the whaling ship that discovered Jenny so long after this disaster buried the passengers – including a dog – at sea.

Baychimo

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Used to trade pelts for provisions in Inuit settlements along the north coast of Canada, the SS Baychimo was no stranger to harsh conditions. This 230-foot cargo steamer had just been freed from pack ice a week earlier when it got stuck even worse on October 8th, 1931, leading over half of its crew to abandon it while 15 remained to wait out the winter nearby in a wooden shelter that they built. When a blizzard struck on November 24, the ship was later found to be missing and assumed sunken… but it turned up three days later, 45 miles away. The crew gathered up the cargo and abandoned the ship, believing it wouldn’t survive the winter, but once again it did not sink. Over the next several decades, sightings of the Baychimo were reported all over the coast, and some people even boarded the ship. It was last seen stuck in ice off the Alaskan Coast in 1969. Did it finally sink? Maybe – or maybe it will turn up once again.