Shiver me timbers! A big hole has suddenly and mysteriously appeared on one of Sea of Thieves' uncharted islands. The hole was spotted after the most recent update, Black Powder Stashes, which arrived yesterday—though it appears at the moment to be unrelated to the update's new voyages. It may, however, have something to do next month's update, which is called Dark Relics. Or, perhaps it has something to do with an update even further in the future. At the moment, we just don't know. Mysterious.

The island in question is located on the border of map coordinates I-12 and J-12, unofficially called "Killer Whale Island" due to the wreck of Merrick's ship, The Killer Whale. The island already has some cool features: the shipwreck, an underwater shrine and archway, a cave, and Merrick's amusing journal (located in the crow's nest of the wreck).

And now, there's a mysterious hole! Perhaps it's not as arresting as Fortnite's wandering cube or giant eyeball, but it's still an intriguing little mystery and makes me wonder if some other map changes have been made to hint at future adventures.

I am helpfully pointing to the hole in this image (Image credit: Rare)

The hole was spotted by Reddit member and pirate Jetamo, and I just jumped into the game to check it out for myself. According to the Reddit thread, the circle of stones around the hole may also have been added in an update prior to the hole—though I can't confirm this.

There's also a grave on the island near a dead tree that another poster says is new. You can see my picture of the tree and grave below, but again, I can't say for certain it wasn't there prior to the Black Powder Stashes update.

(Image credit: Rare)

As for the hole itself, I performed some half-assed investigation while I was there: I tried digging in the hole but only unearthed some grubs, and I also threw a few buckets of water into it, but nothing exciting happened. Then a galleon sailed over, fired several cannonballs at my sloop, missed, then scuttled itself. The crew swam over and climbed on my ship and stared at me in silence for a while as I asked them what happened and then offered them a ride. Then they attacked me with swords. That's no mystery, that's just business as usual in Sea of Thieves.