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The Ghost Ship of the Everglades of Cursed Pirates

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A pirate ship once got lost in the mangroves and swamps of the Everglades in Florida. They were cursed by the crew they made to walk the plank and are now The Ghost Ship of the Everglades are doomed to sail the murky waters forever. 

Everglades National Park, with its mysterious labyrinth of bald cypress trees, shadowy hammock forests, and winding rivers, takes on an eerie ambiance after the sun dips below the horizon. 

Centuries ago, pirates plagued the seas from the Gulf of Mexico to the Caribbean. They attacked merchant ships to steal the goods and it could be a very lucrative business. The pirates also sometimes ended up on the Florida coastline as well. 

Read More: Check out all of our ghost stories from USA

In 1901 one of these stories were printed in the national newspaper, the New York Daily People and the Chicago Tribune, about a 300 year old curse about a pirate ghost ship cursed to sail the narrow rivers in the Everglades forever. 

The Ghost Ship of the Everglades: It is said that a pirate ship was cursed to sail the narrow Everglades for eternity after they made the crew of an entire ship walk the plank.

The Ghost Pirate Ship

The story goes that a merchant vessel was sailing through the waters near Cape Florida in the 1700s, just beyond the bounds of Miami. Pirate lore in Florida are initially from the Florida Key area after Spanish vessels came and many pirates took hold around St. Augustine. But did they ever sail to the swampy waters of the Everglades?

The Ghost Ship of the Everglades: The story of the cursed pirate ships made the news in 1901. Read the full story here.

Read Also: The Paranormal Activity At The St. Augustine Lighthouse 

According to this story, seizing the opportunity for a lucrative plunder, the pirate ship set forth in pursuit. However, the resourceful crew aboard the merchant ship, well-acquainted with the treacherous waters, hatched a plan to elude their pursuers by navigating through the intricate channels of the Everglades.

The pirate ship finally caught up with the merchant ship in the end though and looted the goods of the merchant ship. The pirate captain was furious about how long it took to chase them, that he made the whole crew walk the plank and made the skipper’s wife watch before she herself had to walk the plank and end up in the boggy water. 

The wife prayed to God to curse the pirates, and he did and pushed them deep into the Everglades, making them haunt the Everglades for all eternity, a place they would never escape from. 

The tidal wave brought the pirates stuck in the swamp, making them die of starvation and fever one by one.

The Ghost Ship of the Everglades of Cursed Pirates

The Ghost Ship of the Everglades has been haunting Florida’s south coast since the days of pirating marauders. The ship’s phantom crew is cursed to sail the seas for all eternity, after giving chase to a merchant ship and getting lost in the twisting channels of the Everglades’ swamp lands. 

Read Also: The Pirate Haunting Burgh Island

According to the story in 1901, the Natives that stayed in the wetland as well as hunters spending much time navigating the same rivers, came back, telling stories about having seen the The Ghost Ship of the Everglades with its rotting masts and hill. The crew are now all skeletons, still trying to find their way out of the Everglades. 

Was it ever a pirate ship sailing the fresh water sea of the Everglades? Although we don’t have much documentation, we have a long tradition of tales instead. And perhaps, the dim lights of the skeleton crew working ever since the golden age of piracy speaks for itself as it glides through the river of mangroves and alligators.

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Creepy Stories in the Everglades 

Ghost-ship of the Everglades Story Chicago Tribune, 1901 – Newspapers.com™

https://www.timotis.com/news-1/the-history-of-pirates-in-florida

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The Palatine Light and the Ghost Ship Behind it

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In the cold night right before the New Years, the light of a ghost ship can be seen outside the shores of Rhode Island known as The Palatine Light. The terrible fate of the wrecked ship still haunts the sea. 

Which, half in sport, in malice half,
She shows at times, with shudder or laugh,
Phantom and shadow in photograph?

For still, on many a moonless night,
From Kingston Head and from Montauk light
The spectre kindles and burns in sight.

Now low and dim, now clear and higher,
Leaps up the terrible Ghost of Fire,
Then, slowly sinking, the flames expire.
– The Palatine, John Greenleaf Whittier

The Palatine Light is something that is reported on outside of Block Island on Rhode Island in the US. It is said that on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year’s Eve you can see the lights from the ship, burning as it sails past you as a ghostly apparition. 

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The tradition of the folklore tells of a British ship with German immigrants that were on their way to Philadelphia in the 1700s. Germany at this time was ravaged by famine, war and religious persecution and many made their way towards a better future in America. Those who made it to America were known as ‘poor Palatines’. There are many variants to exactly which year this was supposed to happen, as there are many variations and different historical explanations. 

The Palatine’s Haunted Legend

The ship, known as ‘The Palatine’ came to meet its fate outside of Block Island where it wrecked. The ship had for a long time been way off course and the passengers of the ship had already, before the sinking of the ship, experienced enough hardship on the voyage to drive them mad. The crew had deserted their duties and a horrible mutiny happened onboard that left the passengers to descend into chaos. The passengers that were left were driven mad by desperation, fear and hunger. 

The people of Block Island say that the locals tried to rescue the crew and its passengers, although on mainland New England, they tell a different tale. Namely that the islanders were luring the ship towards them to steal the cargo and kill the people on board. Which is also the narrative that is told in the poem ‘The Palatine’ by John Greenleaf Whittier, which helped solidify the story to a popular legend of The Palatine Light:

Down swooped the wreckers, like birds of prey
Tearing the heart of the ship away,
And the dead had never a word to say.
And then, with ghastly shimmer and shine
Over the rocks and the seething brine,
They burned the wreck of the Palatine.
– The Palatine, John Greenleaf Whittier

Wrecking is a practice of taking the cargo from a wrecked ship, and coastal people that live in the areas where many ships go down are known as wreckers, looters of ships. In some accounts and especially in fiction, the wreckers went as far as lighting false beacons to lure the ships ashore and killing the survivors, so no tales could be told. Many people feared Block Island as they were afraid of the locals living there doing this, although there has never been any hard evidence of it.

Wreckers: Legends of islander and coastal people on purpose lured ship ashore to pillage the cargo and kill the passangers were often told and depicted in fiction. Like in Daphne du Maurier’s  Jamaica Inn, here, screenshot from the BBC adaptation of the wreckers. // photo: BBC

Both variations of the legends tell that after they had gotten the people off the ship, they set fire to the ship and it was driven out to sea. But the ship was not empty. A female passenger refused to leave the ship as it sank, and those who report seeing the Palatine Lights, claim to hear her screams from the ghost ship. 

The Wreckage of Princess Augusta

There are many ships that went down in these parts that could be the source of the legend of The Palatine Light. Many ships got off course and ended its day on the bottom of the sea this far north. One of those ships was The Princess Augusta and perhaps tells the closest story to the legend.

Like in the legend, the ship had problems onboard long before they hit the shores of Rhode Island. The water supply was contaminated and killed 200 of its passengers and half the crew, including the captain, named Captain Long. 

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It was the first mate, Andrew Brook, that took control over the ship, but a horrible storm pushed the ship of course and they ended up outside of Rhode Island. After three months of the extreme weather and no food, the state of the people on the ship was becoming desperate. Already poor, the passengers were forced to pay for the remaining rations by Brook. 

When it reached the shores of Block island it was severely damaged and leaked and finally wrecked in a snowstorm at Sandy Point in 1738. The waters around these parts are treacherous and in those times, there were at least a dozen wrecked ships every year around these parts.

Apparently Brook left all the passengers onboard and rowed to shore with the remaining crew. Although they were condemned in the public eye, they suffered no punishment for their mistreatment. 

According to the Block Islanders, they were not trying to steal the cargo at all, but help the passengers and bury the dead they could not help. It is said that they helped out all but one of the passengers in some accounts just like in the legends and a couple of the passengers actually settled down on the island, as more names of the passenger list have come to light with names. Mary Van Der Line was forgotten in all the chaos. Driven mad by her suffering and horrible voyage over the ocean, she didn’t get off the ship because she refused to leave her possessions and went down with it. 

Lights in the Sea: The islanders of Block Island have told throughout the years about ghostly lights and apparitions in the sea that are supposedly coming from the ghost ship known in the legend as The Palatine.

The fate of the ship itself is up to debate. There are some evidence suggesting that the Augusta  was repaired and sent to Philadelphia. But other accounts tell the story that sounds much closer to the legend of the ghost ship. 

The ship was seen as unsalvageable after the wreckage and pushed back into the sea to vanish. Before pushing it out, in some accounts they do actually set in on fire. There are to this day no wreck or remains of the wreck to have been found. 

The Sightings of The Palatine Light

Whether the islanders lured the ship ashore, or helped the passengers, they have countless reports about seeing the lights. One islander named  Dr. Aaron C. Willey described the light in 1811 after claiming to have seen it several times himself:

“The light looks like a blaze of fire six or seven miles from the northern part of Block Island. Sometimes it’s small, like the light from a distant window. Sometimes it’s as big as a ship and wavers like a torch.”

So perhaps, when passing through these parts in the winter time, look out to the sea. Perhaps if you look close enough, you too can see the lights of the ghost ship. 

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The Legend of the Ghost Ship Palatine – New England Historical Society

Shedding light on the Palatine legend | Block Island Times

The Palatine. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). New England: Block Island (Manisees), RI Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. America: Vols. XXV-XXIX

Passengers of the “Princess Augusta,” (1736)

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The Chaleur Phantom – The Burning Ghost Ship in Chaleur Bay

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Ghost light over the Chaleur Bay in Quebec has spurned many ghost stories about a burning ship that still haunts the water. From Portugues enslavers to indigenous curses, the Chaleur Phantom covers it all.

Strange is the tale that the fishermen tell:
They say that a ball of fire fell
Straight from the sky, with a crash and a roar,
Lighting the ship from shore to shore.
That was the end of the pirate crew.
But many a night a black flag flew
From the mast of a specter vessel, sailed
By a specter band that wept and wailed.

– The Phantom Light of the Baie des Chaleurs”, 1891 Arthur W.H Eaton

Right before storms in Chaleur Bay in Canada, a ghostly light can appear that no one can really explain. Those studying The Chaleur Phantom with a telescope say that there are no more details to examine, even up close and a definitive explanation of it all, still remains a mystery. 

But those watching the lights with their naked eye claim that it looks more like a ship on fire and from there, the stories about it took form. The Chaleur Bay or Baie des Chaleurs is French and means Bay of Warmth because of the high temperatures. Perhaps a fitting name as the bay is reportedly haunted by a burning ghost ship that cruises the bay between New Brunswick’s north shore and Quebec’s Gaspé. 

The Many Ghosts of the Bay

The lights are claimed by many stories around these parts. West of Caraquet, the ship is known as the Marquis de Malauze, a French ship that were sunk by the British in 1760. To the east it is known as John Craig, the name of a barque that sank outside of Shippigan Island around 1800. Only a cabin boy survived a drowning fate, but later died of exhaustion. 

Another source of the The Chaleur Phantom is the haunting of Lady Colbourne, a schooner that went down in 1838 with its valuable cargo. On her last voyage, she was loaded with gold, silver, spices and wine that not all were recovered after the wreck. The passengers were also very wealthy people that drowned in their finest clothes. When she went down, 43 people were reported to have drowned. 

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But that is not the earliest explanation for these lights known as The Chaleur Phantom. The most told and perhaps most tragic story is of the Portuguese explorers that ended their days in the bay after enslaving the indigenous people. 

The Portuguese Captain

One summer’s evening in 1878, Mrs. Pettigrew sat on her veranda late at dusk at Heron Island. Suddenly, a man stood in front of her, asking for her help. He was badly burned and she turned away to run inside. He brushed by her and she noticed that he had no legs. But before she could find out more, he disappeared. 

On many occasions before and later this incident, the Pettigrew family noticed strange things out on the bay. They reported about a ghost ship that was most often seen on the north side of the island during the full moon. 

One of the tales that have been spun is about the Portuguese Captain in the 1500s that ravaged and pillaged the area before disappearing without a trace.

The Curse of the Burning Ship: The burning ship people of this area reports of seeing is often attributed to the disappeared ship the Portuguese explorer Gaspar Cort-Real and his brother Miguel that never returned after sailing to this area. // Photo: Destruction of the Turkish Fleet in the Bay of Chesma by Jacob Philipp Hackert.

The captain, believed to be the real Portuguese explorer, Gaspar Cort-Real, arrived at Heron Island in 1501 to kidnap the natives of the place known as Mi’Kmaq to sell them as slaves. It is reported that he captured as many as 57 indigenous people that were taken back to Portugal as slaves.  

But when he came back for his second visit, the Mi’kmaq took him first. Rembering what had happened to their people last time he came, they tortured and killed him before he could do any more damage to their people. 

A year later the Captain’s brother, Miguel came to look for him, and the locals attacked him as well. Their ship was set on fire and they jumped in the waters, promising they would haunt the bay for the next 1000 years as The Chaleur Phantom. 

It is said that the corpses of both the Portuguese as well as the Mi’kmaq washed ashore on the island and that they were buried in a low lying area at the west tip of the island called French Woods. And that their graves were shallow and their souls not yet at rest. 

The Pirate Killing

Another origin tale to the lights is told from Restigouche. According to this tale, it was a group of pirates nead Port Daniel that killed a woman there. She was a native in most stories and was kidnapped by the pirates.  With her dying breath she cursed her killers.

“For as long as the world is, may you burn on the bay.”

And according to the phantom lights in the bay, they still burn. 

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The Murder of a Sailor

A third explanation of The Chaleur Phantom that are told is of the murder of one of the sailors that worked on a ship. They encountered bad weather that drove the crew desperate. The superstitious sailor feared that they would die and that they were followed by bad luck. They attributed this bad luck to one of the sailors and ended up murdering him to reverse the bad luck. 

Then the ship caught fire though, and it was told that it was Catholic blood way of seeking revenge.  

Other Scientific Explanations

There have been many tales to try to find the origin of the lights, scientific as well as paranormal. There have been several research papers that have tested and concluded different explanations that don’t involve evil Captains from Europe, cursed pirates and catholic blood. 

There are also very few pictures of the phenomenon of The Chaleur Phantom to test and further examine it with as well as some factual inaccuracies in the stories told to give credit to the ghost stories.  

Other more natural causes that can explain this strange phenomenon could be something as trivial as rotten vegetation and a sort of marsh gas that has drifted over water, or an undersea release of natural gas or St. Elmo’s Fire. 

St. Elmo’s Fire: This weather phenomenon is typically seen during thunderstorms when the ground below the storm is electrically charged, and there is high voltage in the air between the cloud and the ground. // Source

Although many scientists reject that this phenomenon can be St. Elmos Fire, which is electricity slowly discharged from the atmosphere to the earth—ordinarily shows itself as a tip of light on a pointed object, such as a church steeple or a mast. In addition, it is accompanied by a crackling noise. 

No matter the real reason behind its light of The Chaleur Phantom, the existence of them is something that can’t be denied. What also can’t be denied is the victims to the bay and the harrowing stories that can be retold as countless ghost stories. 

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THE FIERY PHANTOM THAT SAILS BAY CHALEUR | Maclean’s | JUNE 15 1951

New Brunswick Sea Stories: Phantom Ships and Pirate’s Gold, Shipwrecks and … by Dorothy Dearborn

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Baron Falkenberg that were Cursed to Sail the Sea for 600 Years

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It the cold North Sea, there is a ghost ship where the crew plays for your soul with dice. That is what happened to Baron Falkenberg. 

In the seas outside the shores of Germany, there is also a Captain of a ghost ship, haunting the dark waters, collecting souls and trapping them there. It goes into the European tradition of ghost ships and a cursed crew, just like The Flying Dutchman. That is the base of the legend of the story of Baron Falkenberg. 

Baron Falkenberg

The Baron was invited to a wedding to his long lost brother who had just come back home as a new man. When the brother returned, he was a very wealthy man, unlike the Baron, who had very little money to his name. 

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The Baron had long had his eyes set on a girl he wanted to marry from the village, but hadn’t dared to declare his love for. But to his horror, he found that the wedding of this girl and his brother he was going to attend. Not only was his brother now a much richer man than the Baron himself, he was going to marry the love of his life. 

Still, the Baron thought they should live in peace. It was after all her choice, and he had no real money to offer her, so he shouldn’t hold a grudge. 

The Wedding Violence

The wedding went as smoothly as one could expect and there were lots of champagne, songs and festivities that night. It all was well until his brother touched the Baron the wrong place or way as it says in the legend. The Baron went mad after this and grabbed a champagne bottle and smashed it into his brother’s head. 

The brother fell dead to the ground and the bride fled screaming away as she had seen it all. The Baron chased her to explain himself. He declared his love and tried to persuade her to escape with him, but she told him that she would rather die than be with him. The Baron took her word for it and stabbed her with a knife, also killing the girl he loved. 

The sound of the fighting didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the guests and they came to investigate and soon found the tragedy that had unfolded to the newlyweds. The Baron fled the scene and went for a walk, trying to clear his head and figure out what to do next. He found himself at the beach nearby and found a man was sitting there, almost like he was waiting for the Baron. 

“The Captain expects you, Baron,” the boatman said to the Baron and extended his hand to help him into the boat right next to them. The Baron had nowhere to go, no one to go to and accepted and got into the boat rowed further out to sea where a ship was waiting. 

And when the Baron first entered the ship, he didn’t get off for the next 600 years. The ship can sometimes be seen on wild winter nights in the North Sea going north. The ship is painted gray and sailed under a yellow flag. You can see the Baron sitting there with the devil, playing dice for his soul and cursed to sail the ship forever.  

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https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC18901121.2.138&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–1

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The Ghost Ship SS Valencia

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Rowing in the lifeboats of the wrecked ship SS Valencia, the skeleton remains of the passengers that died are doomed to row the sea for eternity. 

The Valencia was headed out from San Francisco towards Seattle with clear weather with both seasoned crewmembers as well as passengers not necessarily used to the sea. The iron hulled passenger steamer was not a well liked ship to sail with along the Pacific Coast as it was too small and also, too open to the elements that made her difficult to handle in the winter. 

This was in January and the weather was cold. And soon it was going to become another tragedy in the area that is known as ‘The Graveyard of the Pacific’ where almost 70 ships have wrecked in these parts. 

The Wreckage of SS Valencia

When they reached Cape Mendocino outside of San Francisco on the 22. January in 1906, they encountered dense fog and had to slow the speed and sound the whistle as they battled against the fog with the danger of a wind that had turned on them. The ship got off course because of the wind, the current and the fog. Then they ran into rocks right before midnight on the 22 January and the disaster unfolded. 

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The passengers of the ship panicked and rushed to the lifeboats that were so ill handled in all the chaos that few made it to the water and even fewer made it safely. Some of the lifeboats were smashed to the side of the ship, some were lowered too soon, or too late. Several of the lifeboats were never seen again.

They were so close to land, only around 50 meters from the shore, but they couldn’t reach it at all. Stranded at the railing on deck were hundred people with the captain and the remaining crew. 

“Screams of women and children mingled in an awful chorus with the shrieking of the wind, the dash of rain, and the roar of the breakers. As the passengers rushed on deck they were carried away in bunches by the huge waves that seemed as high as the ship’s mastheads. The ship began to break up almost at once and the women and children were lashed to the rigging above the reach of the sea. It was a pitiful sight to see frail women, wearing only night dresses, with bare feet on the freezing ratlines, trying to shield children in their arms from the icy wind and rain.”

– Survivor Chief Freight Clerk Frank Lehn
The Tragedy: Wreck of the en:SS Valencia, seen from one of the rescuing ships on January 23, 1906. So close were they to salvation, both to shore and to the rescue ships, but they never made it home again. // Source: BC Archives

No Hope for Rescue

The remaining people hoped to get rescued, but when the rescue fleet finally arrived, they realized that it was too dangerous to get close to the impaled ship on the rocks with water flooding in the strong current and wind. 

The rest of the night, the ships Salvador, Queen and Topeka could only watch as the ship went down together with the rest of the people onboard. They all either drowned, were killed by getting hit by something on the ship or dying of hypothermia when they landed in the water. 

The Lifeboats: Not many were picked up from the waters that day. Since then, lifeboat manned by skeletons have been reported on from this area. Here are a pictures of the survivors from the SS Valencia being picked up by the SS City of Topeka on January 24, 1906.//Source: University of Washington Digital Collections

Of all the passengers and crew on board, only 37 men survived this tragedy with every woman and child onboard dying. The complete death toll varies, but at least 117 up to 181 people died and it is known to be one of the more tragic wreckage in maritim history. 

The Rowing Skeletons

The remains of the ship was never recovered, but left to its own devices. Some of the remains drifted to shore, finally, and the remains have been left mostly untouched. Outside of the Pachena Beach you can still see it, clinging to the coastline. Not long after the tragedy of the ship, the rumors, the tales and stories started to come from the wreckage. 

The Ghost Ship: Not only the lifeboats, but also the entire ship has been reported on being spotted, years after it sunk to the bottom of the sea. Here are SS Valencia, circa 1905. // Source: BC Archives

When they were transporting the few survivors they found from the wreckage to Seattle, the crew of the ship City of Topeka spotted something unexplained. They stopped to pass the news of Valencia to a passing vessel that came towards them. When it passed them by, they saw that it was in fact the Valencia, the ship that had just sunk to the bottom of the sea. 

The people that observed this, told that the crew were all skeletons and were heading towards the rocks as the Valencia had already hit and sunk on. When passing the City of Topeka, the Valencia signaled to it like it would have if they really met. After this, the Topeka continued back to Seattle without further incidents, but it was not the last one that were reported on. 

Six months after the sinking of the ship, a local Nuu-chah-nulth fisherman named Clanewah Tom spotted a lifeboat together with his wife in a nearby sea cane in Pachena Bay  at the southern end of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. But there was something deeply wrong with the lifeboat. In it sat not eight people, but eight skeletons. Although having survived the initial wreckage, it looked like they had starved to death. There was no way of recovering the lifeboat however and it was a mystery of even how it got into the cave. 

Since then local fishermen reported of lifeboats with skeletons rowing in the area. In 1910, the Seattle Times reported that sailors claimed to have seen the ship that looked eerily like the Valencia, near Pachena Point. What looked like human figures held onto the ship like it was about life or death as the waves washed over the ship. 

In 1933 they found one of the lifeboats drifting in Barkley Sound. The boat was in excellent condition and the paint looked almost fresh. No skeletons onboard this time, and perhaps never again?

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The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, August 23, 1906, Page 5, Image 5 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

https://web.archive.org/web/20051205210100/http://collections.ic.gc.ca/folklore/ocean/img_oc/valenlif.jpg

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The Caleuche – The Chilean Ghost Ship

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Outside the shores of Chile, there a tales of a ghost ship that will take you away if it gets you to make you one of their crew. Could you join to sail the sea forever with The Caleuche?

Outside of the Chiloé Archipelago, the group of islands outside of mainland Chile, rich folklore and mystical myths of the sea that surrounds the islands thrives. Here they believe in the great battle of the two serpents of earth and sea that created the area. 

Fishing and sailing were the main thing the locals did for a living, and the mythology of the place reflects it. And when the fog comes creeping up to the shores of the canals, bright lights and the sound of jolly music can be heard from the sea. Just a fishing boat passing playing loud music? Or can it be The Caleuche, a ghost ship that collects the drowned and enslaves people to work on the ship forever?

Background of the Mythology

The Caleuche is a ghost ship from Chiloé mythology in southern Chile that has a pretty distinct mythology different from the rest of Chile as a mixture of the indigenous people and the Spanish settlers. It in particular reflects just how important the sea is in the life of Chilotes. 

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The word Caleuche comes from the Mapuche word Kalewtun, meaning to transform or to change and che, meaning people. It is also called The Enchanted Ship, Barcoiche or The Warlock Ship and has many different variations to the legend. 

It has many similarities to the Flying Dutchman in the sense of being a ghost ship you can sail with for an eternity. 

According to Chiloé mythology, it is Millalobo that is both the creator and owner of the ship, the second most important being of the sea after Caicai, God of water. 

Ghost Ship of Never Ending Partying

The Caleuche is a ghost ship of music and light that sails along Chiloé canals. It has an extraordinary speed. You can not always see the ship, but in certain weather, like on a foggy day, you can both sense as well as see the ship. 

People have always had a fear of being captured by The Caleuche and there are particular trees that you can hide behind that will give protection of being spotted, such as the Chilean wineberry and the olivillo. The reason being that in some versions of the legend, you can be enslaved and cursed to work on the ship forever. 

The Caleuche: From the fog light can be seen and the sound of music can be hears. According to Chiloé mythology and folklore it is the ghost ship The Caleuche, filled with enslaved sailors, drowned bodies or evil sorcerers depending on what version you hear.

One of the things the ship is known for is the music and sound of partying. In some legends, it is to lure the people to them so that they can be forced to work as a crewmember for eternity. 

It is not always for a sinister reason that the party music is so loud from the ship however. In many of the versions it is a ship that recovers the dead bodies from those who drowned at sea, and offers them a place as a crewmate on the ship. They will then be able to spend the rest of eternity partying and celebrating. 

Making Pacts with Sorcerers

Another version of the tale is that it is in fact a ship that transports the sorcerers. It is said that they make a voyage every 3 months to gain more power. It is from this legend the idea of merchants trading with these sources to gain wealth quickly, and explaining when a person in Chiloé becomes rich quickly, they have made a pact with the crew on The Caleuche. 

It is not a very old myth that never gets told anymore. In the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, or the Great Chilean earthquake, there were many fires, landslides, tsunamis and floods in the area after the initial shock of the quake. Many houses were left untouched by the natural disasters and rumors and talks about a pact having been made with The Caleuche were told. 

In the same decade stories about the sound of an anchor being dropped outside of the houses of many prosperous and rich merchants in the area. According to the legends they would lend out their houses to The Caleuche for a party location and other dark purposes. Although many could probably put the blame and the reason for getting rich on normal and mortal smugglers.  

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