Photo: Getty Images
A fishing crew in North Carolina was temporarily transported back in time when they came across a lone "pirate ship" off the coast of the Outer Banks over the weekend.
The crew was "miles" away from any other ship when they spotted the vessel in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday (September 26), Island Free Press reports. The snapped a photo of the spooky sight and shared on the Carolina Girl Sportfishing Facebook page.
"Well....out in the ocean and no one was within miles of me. ...and I see this," the post reads. "A pirate ship? Dont see ships like that every day."
As it turns out, this isn't the first time the mysterious vessel had been spotted. Other users left comments saying they saw the ship in Chesapeake Bay in recent weeks, while another said the "saw three of them a few years back ... thought it was odd lol yet really cool."
So what was centuries-old pirate ship doing off the coast of North Carolina?
Apparently, it was the tall ship Nao Santa Maria, a full-scale replica of the flagship led by Christopher Columbus in 1942, the news outlet reports. Built in 2017, the ship has been touring seaports across the U.S. over the years and did indeed stop in Maryland and Virginia in August. The replica will soon head out for its next stop in Brunswick, Georgia.