The bright blue water in the Venetian Lagoon turns gray in the night. In the fog you can hardly see anything. But beware, look out for a small child coffin with four little candles lit on it. It is the hauntings of the young girl who drowned and trying to warn people that she is still there. 

Fog crept over the lagoon in Venice. Just off St. Michele Island on the 29th of November in 1904, nighttime and the fog made it dark to be on the water. 

All of the transportation in Venice happened and still happens to be on the water and a water bus known as a vaporetto and a gondola was passing. Francesco Quintavalle was the captain on the vaporetto, or water bus called ‘Pellestrina’, and knew he couldn’t see much. Still, he had his passengers from the Fondamenta Nove he had to transport to the island of Burano, known for its colorful houses across the lagoon. The colorful houses were all gray tonight. 

When passing the cemetery of St. Michele, the captain gave orders to change course. But a gondola was right behind them and had no chance of stopping in time before crashing with the vaporetto. The gondola was wrecked, but some of the passengers managed to cling onto the gondola. However,  five passengers ended up in the dark water and never came up alive. 

All night they searched for the rest of the passengers that disappeared into the lagoon. They were all women. Thosa Mary Bull was the first to be found, dead of hypothermia and it wasn’t looking good for the rest.. In the morning hours the bodies of Lei, Thoso of Borelli and Amalia Padovan Vistosi were found as well. But two of the girls, Teresa Sandon and Giuseppina Gabriel Carmelo were not found for a while. 

It wasn’t until the sister of Teresa Sandon had a dream of her sister in September 1905 another of the bodies were uncovered. The ghost of the drowned woman asked her to pray for her and free her soul. Ten days later two fishermen found the body of Sandon. 

But Giuseppina Gabriel Carmelo, just a little girl, wasn’t as lucky, and she was never found.

Now to this day, just off St Michele, which is one of the big cemeteries in Venice, you can sometimes see a small floating coffin with four burning candles lit on the lid on foggy nights. This is the spirit of Giuseppina, signaling that she is there and to stop other ferrymen and people on boats to never collide with her again. 

Advertisements

More like this

Newest Posts

References

Venice Legends and Ghosts 

Mysterious Venice | FernFlower Group

1 Comment »

Leave a Reply