Man spots a 400 ft ship-like structure through Google Earth in Antarctica, sparks discussion

Google Earth has really proven to be a useful device for curious folks who can scour the entire surface of the planet to find unbelievable hidden gems. One YouTube creator who goes by @MrMBB333 and describes himself as an "Earth Watchman" first stumbled upon a mysterious shape while doing his routine swipes with Google Earth in 2020. He shared a set of images and videos that he believed to be that of a "400ft ice ship," which is lying in the south of New Zealand and about 100 miles from the coast of Antarctica.

The humongous structure seen in his video shows a distinct resemblance to a cruise ship with lines like windows and chimneys. It initially looks like a large chunk of ice with some elevation, but when he switches his Google Earth display to 3D view, the elevation starts looking like the side view of a ship. "You look down on it and it looks like the outline of a ship," he says in his video. "This measures 400ft long, whatever that looks like, it looks like a ship. An ice ship, if you want to call it – a 400ft yacht just sitting there off the coast of Antarctica."

"Looks like a random iceberg, but one part looks like it's built with purpose, looks like an entryway and the symmetrical features look like it has been created," he says, pointing to spots where he says there is an exact 90-degree angle. "It doesn't look random but as if it had a purpose." Several conspiracy theories have poured in the comment section where fellow YouTube users allowed their imagination to run wild. People's claims range from secret Nazi bases to hidden military outposts and even alien ships in the frozen landmass.

Even though legitimate scientists have not researched the so-called ship and its existence, nothing stops the internet from cooking up its thoughtful and funny theories. @stablestoic1491 wrote, "Much more attention needs given to this continent by the public. Wasn't always frozen. Does anybody remember the FitBit scandal down there a few years back? Military personnel wearing them. Intriguing telemetry. The military was upset. Most of the action is going on under the ice. Scientists and penguins are just a PR show now."

@rtod4 remarked, "There are plenty of photo artifacts from the stitching of the individual photos. Many things that look odd look more natural when you look at them in 3D from different angles. Much weirdness as it is, but you have to look from different angles, and if you go WOW from most of the angles, you know you've got one." @gnexus01 commented, "The ice around the Islands melts in the summer, so if it was a boat. It's gone now. Zooming into though, shows it's nothing more than a chunk of ice." @repentoperish1405 quipped, "Going by the fractures and fissures encircling the whole perimeter there of what looks like a large sunken depression and it seems to look like there has been the huge collapse of some very large space or cavern that was below."

In 2010 another mysterious remains of a wooden ship was excavated from beneath the rubble of the Twin Towers while people were working on the site. The ship was identified as a Hudson River sloop, possibly designed by the Dutch to carry cargo and passengers over the Hudson River, which has a rocky bottom. As many wondered how the ship ended up underneath the debris of the World Trade Center, historians believed that the ship had been at the river providing service for about 20 to 30 years. The ship most probably sunk around the lower Manhattan area and the cause of its sinking has not been determined yet. Scientists also suspect purposeful submersion of the ship.