The ship, a former World War II troop carrier two football fields long, vanished without a trace soon after leaving Girard Point in South Philadelphia on Oct. 24, 1980. The official line is that the vessel, en route to Egypt with 13,500 tons of corn, went down in a storm.

Still, some feel that that conclusion, drawn after congressional hearings and a Coast Guard study, is too simple.

Maybe, they say, the Poet was hijacked by the South Jersey mob, something officials initially investigated.

Perhaps, a few others say, the Poet was on a government mission, delivering arms to Iran as part of a deal to free the 52 U.S. hostages held there for almost a year.

One thing that is known is that the Poet was the victim of a largely forgotten tragedy. The disappearance of hardworking men made big news in small neighborhoods for a short time, and then life moved on.

S.S. Poet left Philly, but where'd it go? | Philadelphia Daily News | 10/07/2010