MV Joyita was an American merchant vessel from which 25 passengers and crew mysteriously disappeared in the South Pacific in October 1955.

[2] During this period, she made numerous trips south to Mexico and to the 1939–1940 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco.

The boat had been scheduled to leave on the noon tide the previous day but her departure was delayed because her port engine clutch failed.

She was carrying sixteen crew members and nine passengers, including a government official, a doctor (Alfred "Andy" Denis Parsons, a World War II surgeon on his way to perform an amputation), a copra buyer, and two children.

A search-and-rescue mission was launched and, from 6 to 12 October, Sunderlands of the Royal New Zealand Air Force covered a probability area of nearly 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) of ocean, but no sign of Joyita or any of her passengers or crew was found.

[10] The ship was partially submerged and listing heavily (her port deck rail was awash) and there was no trace of any of the passengers or crew; four tons of cargo were also missing.

It was found that a pipe in the raw-water circuit of the port auxiliary engine's cooling system had failed due to galvanic corrosion, allowing water into the bilges.

[11] It found that the vessel was in a poor state of repair, but determined that the fate of the passengers and crew was "inexplicable on the evidence submitted at the inquiry."

An especially perplexing point was that the three liferafts Joyita carried were missing, but it would not make sense for the crew and passengers to voluntarily abandon the vessel.

Fitted out for carrying refrigerated cargo, Joyita had 640 cubic feet (18 m3) of cork lining her holds, making her virtually unsinkable.

While flooded to an extent which would sink a conventional vessel, Joyita stayed afloat due to her cork-lined hull and cargo of fuel drums.

[12] They found him reckless for setting out on an ocean-going voyage with only one engine and numerous minor faults, and negligent for failing to provide a working radio or properly equipped lifeboat.

[13] Joyita is sometimes referred to as the "Mary Celeste of the South Pacific"[14] and has been the subject of several books and documentaries offering explanations that range from rational and conventional to supernatural and paranormal.

Given the fact that the hull of Joyita was sound and her design made her almost unsinkable, a main concern of investigators was determining why the passengers and crew did not stay on board if the events were simply triggered by the flooding in the engine room.

Captain Miller should have been well aware of the vessel's ability to stay afloat, leading some to speculate that he had died or become incapacitated for some reason (someone on board was injured—hence the bloodstained bandages).

[15]: 208  He was aware of tension between Miller and his American first mate, Chuck Simpson, and felt that their mutual dislike came to blows and both men fell overboard or were severely injured in a struggle.

"[16][17] The Daily Telegraph in London hypothesized that some still-active Japanese forces from World War II were to blame for the disappearances, operating from an isolated island base.

[15]: 199  There was still strong anti-Japanese sentiment in parts of the Pacific, and in Fiji there was specific resentment of Japan being allowed to operate fishing fleets in local waters.

Also there was a proposition that "the vessel's occupants were kidnapped by a Soviet submarine, with the world at the time in the midst of the growing Cold War.

"[20][10] Early reports that the Joyita had been involved in a collision led to speculation that she had been rammed,[21] and that modern sea pirates attacked the vessel, killed the 25 passengers and crew (and cast their bodies into the ocean), and stole the missing four tons of cargo.

[15]: 187  However, it would have been difficult to see the events surrounding Joyita as insurance fraud, given that no seacocks were found open and the ship would be almost impossible to scuttle.

Simpson was now in control and made the decision to abandon ship, taking the navigational equipment, logbook and supplies, as well as the injured Miller, with them.

[23] It still seems unlikely that Simpson would choose to abandon a flooded but floating ship to take to small open rafts in the Pacific Ocean.