I don't know about you, but if I knew a ship had been abandoned in Chicago for more than a decade and was considered a "ghost ship", my first instinct would not be to go in. An explorer did and revealed what he found lurking inside this almost 80 year old vessel.

The backstory he provides about this ship is that it was one of 16 constructed in 1942 under a World War 2 maritime construction program. He says it cost $2.25 million to build which was a fortune back in the 1940's. The inflation calculator shows that would equal over $38 million dollars today.

This ship's name was originally the McIntyre before eventually being called the Purnell after a man who bought it years later. He said in 1966, the vessel was sold to Bethlehem Steel and renamed yet again. This time it was Steelton.

In August of 1974, the Steelton struck a bridge. Several name changes and sales later, the ship was decommissioned in 2009 and has been abandoned in this Illinois port for the past 10 years. This is what's left of her.

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The deck area is only a bare skeleton of what it used to be.

Alexplore via YouTube
Alexplore via YouTube
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If your objective was to clear the stern anchor, this sign is good news.

Alexplore via YouTube
Alexplore via YouTube
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He shares that the ship was supposed to be deconstructed, but that obviously never happened. For now, it just sits in a lonely Illinois port that's never used anymore as a reminder of what used to be an active seafaring tool.

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