The Sachem is waiting to be saved from a yacht, having been a Navy ship, Thomas Edison’s lab, a fishing party boat, and a Circle Line sightseeing boat.
U.S.S. Sachem is a 121-year-old ghost ship, drifting aimlessly on a river in Kentucky. Thomas Edison rode it a few times, and it was used in a music video for Madonna. (Papa Don’t Preach)
Ten years before to the departure of the Titanic in 1902, the U.S.S. Sachem was commissioned as a luxury ship for a railroad magnate. Afterwards, it was converted into a battleship and powered through both world wars, with Thomas Edison travelling on board occasionally to conduct experiments during the conflict.
The ship was replaced by more technologically sophisticated vessels during World War II, rendering it obsolete.
After being acquired by a rapidly expanding cruise line in New York City in the late 1940s, the Sachem was once more utilized for recreational purposes as a party boat and fishing vessel. Later, it was converted into a sightseeing ship that carried close to three million passengers around the city.
Under the name Sightseer, it began her career as a cruise liner before taking on its final identity as the Circle Line V, with the fading name still visible on her hull to this day.
How did it get to where it ended up?
Robert Miller, a private owner, bought the ship in 1986 and tried to fix it. Repairs however, didn’t work out. The ship took ten days to move from New York, and when Miller and his crew had successfully sailed it down the Mississippi, the ship was anchored on Miller’s property on a little tributary off the Ohio River. The ship got stuck in the mud because the water levels dropped so drastically. The ship remained where it was, never to sail again, because Miller lacked the money to relocate it. Miller’s son currently owns the ship after his father passed away in 2016.
The Sachem, now known as the “Ghost Ship,” is docked on private land and has been for a long time. In addition, the ship is privately owned, and trespassing to board it is forbidden.