Lady Lovibond

The Lady Lovibond (sometimes spelled Luvibond) is the name of a legendary schooner said to have been wrecked on the Goodwin Sands, off the Kent coast of southeastern England, on 13 February 1748. According to the tale, the ship reappears every fifty years as a ghostly vessel. However, no contemporary records of the ship or its alleged sinking have ever been found.

The legend claims that the ship was at sea on that day to celebrate the recent marriage of its captain, Simon Reed. In some versions of the story, his name is given as Simon Peel. The couple were reportedly bound for Porto in Portugal, and despite the old sailors’ superstition that bringing a woman aboard would bring bad luck, Reed had invited his new bride, Annetta, to join him for the voyage.

As the story goes, the ship's first mate, John Rivers, had also been in love with Annetta and was driven mad with jealousy. While the captain, his wife, and their guests were celebrating below deck, Rivers wandered the deck in seething rage. At the height of his envy, he picked up a heavy belaying pin, crept up behind the helmsman, and struck him down with a single blow. He then took control of the wheel and deliberately steered the ship into the deadly Goodwin Sands, resulting in the deaths of all aboard. A later inquiry reportedly ruled the disaster as a misadventure.

The first reported sighting of the ghost ship occurred on 13 February 1798, when it was allegedly seen by two separate vessels: the Edenbridge, captained by James Westlake, and a fishing smack. Another sighting in 1848 so convinced local sailors that a real ship had wrecked that they launched lifeboats from Deal in an effort to rescue survivors. In 1948, Captain Bull Prestwick claimed to have seen the ship, describing it as solid and real in appearance, but glowing with an unnatural white light. No sighting was reported in 1998.

The Goodwin Sands have long been associated with ghost ships and are also the supposed location of the legendary island of Lomea. The Lady Lovibond is said to share these haunted waters with other phantom ships, including a liner named the SS Montrose and a warship called the Shrewsbury.

Researchers George Behe and Michael Goss concluded that no reliable primary sources mention the Lady Lovibond before a 1924 article published in the Daily Chronicle. They suggested the story may have been invented by a journalist or inspired by a ship seen between 1914 and 1924. The tale, with its romantic tragedy and supernatural themes, may have been crafted especially for Valentine’s Day, borrowing elements from other fictional ghost stories.