Tag Archives: ship

article

The Palatine Light and the Ghost Ship Behind it

1 Comment
Advertisements

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. 

Advertisements

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. 

Advertisements

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. 

Advertisements

More like this

Newest Posts

References

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)

Uncategorized

The Chaleur Phantom – The Burning Ghost Ship in Chaleur Bay

Leave a comment
Advertisements

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. 

Advertisements

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. 

Advertisements

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. 

Advertisements

More like this

Newest Posts

References

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

article, Ghost

The Ghost of Leirubakki – An Icelandic Ghost Story

Leave a comment
Advertisements

The Ghost of Leirubakki is an Icelandic ghost story about the ghosts of some shipwrecked sailors from Denmark haunting the coast of Iceland.

Nothing darker than the depth of the sea, nothing more cold than the north. The northern shores, the coldest, the darkest. This coldness is something so many ships, so many sailors must have experienced as the bottom of the ocean is now littered with the remains of the drowned ones. There is always the fear, even today of the depth of the ocean, especially on these treacherous waters.

Read More: Ghost stories from Haunted Ships

The story begins with a sinking ship near the coast of Iceland, but the haunting travelled with the unfortunate people that disturbed their graves. While the legend of the ghosts and the supernatural are treated just like that, a legend, a myth, the events surrounding it all true.

The Shipwreck on the Shore

A Danish ship named Gothenborg, sank in the 1700s. Luckily all the 170 people from the shipwreck survived and was rescued by the local people of Iceland. Remember that at this time, Iceland was a colony of Denmark, and there was often bad blood between the people.

And sadly, the problems of the survivors were far from done. Their ship was sunk and their supplies gone. The survivors had no possible way of getting home anytime soon as a whole cold ocean parted them from their home country. They had to rely on the kindness of the local farmers that lived there to keep them alive until they found a way to get back.

However, there was not enough food for them all as the country is weathered and not always so kind to its people. Some of the shipwrecked sailors ended with dying of starvation, among them the cook of the ship. A suffering that takes time.

The Ghosts Travels to Leirubakki

Here the legend mixes with the factual events. Almost a century later, two men came over the grave to the cook. Something must have happened, because the story goes, they rose him from the dead. The men ran over the cemetery, followed by the ghost. He started to haunt the one man and did so until his death. Even then the man moved to the place called Leirubakki the ghost wouldn’t leave him alone, further in to the country, further from his home, away from the coast. That is why today the ghost is called The Ghost of Leirubakki.

Read More: All our ghost stories from Iceland

It wasn’t as the ghost hurt the man or his family. But it stalked them wherever they went. This wasn’t a friendly ghost either as he acted out with some poltergeist activity as well. Some of the stories tells that the ghost ripped the roof of a barn one time. It is well known that he scared the horses all the time and claims of the ghost roaming the bare hills of Iceland still stands.

One thing is sure, the ghost never saw his home in Denmark ever again.

More like this

Newest Posts

article, folklore, Ghost ship, Mythology, Sea, Superstitions

Sailors Superstitions

1 Comment
Advertisements

Perhaps none are more superstitious than the sailors. Or at least, what the old sailors used to be. Rolling clouds or roaring waves means little to us on land, but in the 18th century New England, it meant bad luck. Some of them are plain ridiculous, like having an umbrella on the ship means bad luck, or even saying the word horse because it can mean death.

However, maybe they are the ones who needed it the most. They were, after all, left alone to the mercy of the unruly seas and the hidden depths most never sees. Perhaps the old ways of the seafarers knew something we don’t?

Red Sunrise

There is a lot affecting the weather according to old superstitions. Clapping could cause thunder, whistling could summon a wind and throwing a stone in the water could bring swells. 

However one of the more likely and poetic sailors weather forecast was this:

“Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. “

This poetic warning told about the day ahead and that it would take a dangerous turn. In fact, it does have some sort of scientific background, although not a hundred percent accurate. A red sky can actually warn about bad weather ahead. 

Bananas on board

This is seemingly one of the weirder ones. But it actually makes sense, even just a bit. It is a superstition from the 1700 and the banana trade. A big amount of the ships went missing carrying a load of bananas, trying to cross the sea. The bananas turned bad pretty quickly, and the ships had to hurry to deliver the goods before it rotted away and no one would profit or get their bananas. So how does it make sense? People make bad decisions, taking a wrong course, pushing the ship too much. It also is said rotten bananas let off lethal gasses and deadly spiders living in the bananas took some out on board. So, do you crave a banana now?

Advertisements

The Dies Infaustus

Not only the weather was something they were afraid of. There were even some days more frightening than others. Like the day Friday, which considered to be an unlucky day in some cultures or the Dies Infaustus as it’s called in fancy Latin. This is perhaps one of the most enduring superstitions, at least in the days since we started calling the day Friday. It was unlucky to begin a voyage or set sail on this day. It is also the root of the well-known urban legend of HMS Friday.  In more Viking and Norse oriented ships, Thursday was the day to avoid since it’s Thor, God of thunders day. 

The Albatross

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God’s name.
‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!
— Why look’st thou so?’—
With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS.

From: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner By: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Birds have a massive influence on superstition. Seeing a swallow means you are close to land, spotting an albatross can bring good fortune. But as the Mariner and the crew in the famous poem experience, killing it will bring bad luck. The crew thought to kill the albatross only brought them more misfortune:

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

In the end, they blamed in all on the Mariner and made him wear the dead albatross around his neck. Birds are also believed to be or carry the souls of dead sailors, making their significance even greater. They are one of the crew.

Advertisements

The Jonah

Jonah will for many be remembered from as the biblical figure from the Book of Jonah. A guy who was trying to flee from the presence of God by sailing away. A huge storm came over the ship and it was no ordinary storm. The crew discovers that Jonah is the one to blame and they throw him overboard. The storm calms by the sacrifice and Jonah is saved by being swallowed by a large fish where he spends three days and three nights, repenting for his sins.

Jonah is now a well-established expression of a sailor or a passenger bringing bad luck to the ship. Often clergymen and women would be considered a Jonah. Also, redheads would be sometimes accused of being a Jonah.  

Advertisements

MORE LIKE THIS

LATEST POSTS