It was built in Los Angeles, US, in 1931 as a luxury yacht for movie director Roland West. Naming it Joyita, meaning “little jewel” in Spanish, for his actress wife Jewel Carmenille, the 69-feet long wooden ship changed hands in 1936. It was said to have been acquired by the US Navy in October 1941, taken to Pearl Harbour and outfitted as a patrol boat. The Joyita ran aground in 1943 and was heavily damaged but since ships were needed by the navy, she was fixed. It changed hands in 1948, then again in 1950 and in 1952 when Dr Katharine Luomala, a professor at University of Hawaii bought it. She chartered the ship to her friend, Captain Thomas H “Dusty” Miller, a British-born sailor living in Samoa. Miller used the ship as a trading and fishing charter boat until the mysterious incident surrounding it three years later.
read more Joyita — the ghost ship mystery – Fiji Times Online.
