Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1891-10-09
SPECTER SHIPS.
curious Record in sonE and story Of
These Mysteries of the Deep.


and notably on the Cornish coast,
there arc many stories OF spccter
ships. Some Of them sailed over land
as well as sea. They were usually
visible in tempestous weather. anti
often manned by bad young men who
did some desperate deed and then
vanished. Sometimes these phantom
barks suddenly carried of some notor-
ious wreckers, who had grown rich bv
Turing ships ashore with false lights.
Only some fifty years ago the captain
of revenue cutter reported that he
had passed at sea, OF The Devonshirc
coast, a spectcr boat rowed by what
appeared TO be the ghost Of notori-
Gus wizard Of the region. The aues-
tion is, how did the revenue skipper
know that the boat was a spe arg
He does not seem to have boarded
her.
The Palatine IS an American spec.
ter-ship, She was once a Dutch
barque, but was wrecked or Block
Island in the year 1852. After sack.
ing her, the wreckers set Gre to her
and sent her adrift out to sea.
although there was woman aboard
who refused to land among such
human tiends. Every year, on the
anniversary of this shocking deed, the
ghost of the Palatine is seeh blazing
away of the point And, as Whittier
says
me wise sound shippers though skies be fine
/ Reef their sails whom they ba airr
+ Of the blazing wreck Of the Palatipe,
Whittier tells of another American
phantOm-ship. A young skipper who
traded TO the Labrador ttsast III the
season fell in love With one of two
beautiful sisters who lived with their
mother in a secluded bay. Both the
/ sisters, however, fell in love AilN
him, and the elder was Jealous that
he preferred the younger. So when
the skipper came, by arrangement. to
carry off the bride of his choice, the
sister shut her up in room and,
closely yelled, went out herself to
meet the sailor. 1t is not until they
/ are far out at sea that the dsap-
pointed lover learns how he had beer
! deceived. He turns batk at once.
but finds his own sweetheart dead.
Neither he nor his ship ever returned
home,
The Gretp5rt legend is familiar to
all readers Of Bret IIarte's works. He
tells how some children went 10 play
on board Of an old hulk, which broke
adrlft, foated out 10 sea and wac lost
with all It's innocent conipdny. When
The logs e6rie down on the coast the
hshermen still hear the voices of the
children on board the phantom hulk
/ that drifts along but never returns.
Nlr. Hartes poem is worthy Of re.
production here:
eREiPoRr LEGEND.
They ran through the streets of the seaport
town;
They peered from the decks OF the ships that
Law,
The cold sea-fog that came whitening down
Was never cold or whitu al they
no. starouck aud Pinckney anu Tentetdonl
Run for your shauops. sathef your men,
Scattes Your boats Oh the lower bay
Good cause for fear III the thick midday
The hulk that lay by the rotten pier
/ Filled with the children IN happy y az
Parted its hioofings anG Sififted clear.
Dfifted clear beyond reach OF call,
Thirteen children they were In all
All drlfted into the lower bayi
Said hard-faced skipper God help us ALI
She will not float till the turning tidei"
Said his wife, my darling will hear my call
Whethe; in sea or Heaven she bide"
And she lifted a shsvbfing voice ana high
Nd aad stiange o. 4 seabiri's cry
/ iiH they shuddered and wondered at hex
SIDE
The fog drove down Oh each laborlng 6reit1
Vailed Snrt ooN Ats q ~
There was not Q sound but the breath she drew
and the lap Of the water and creak of oar
And they felt the breath Of thedowns trosh
Ger leagues of clover and cola grew stoh2
But not nom the lips that Ind Hohe beidre,
That, when fogs thick on the harbor reef
The mackerel fishers shorten sail;
ker the signal they know will bring relief
For the voices OF children. stiIl at play
In phantom hulk that drifts away
Through channels whose waters never fail
! Fl is but foolish shipnans tale.
theme for poets idle page;
But still, when the miste Of doubt prstail
AUD we liz becaltntd ny tbe shores bf Age,
We heaf IRON the misty tfuubed shore
The voice Of the children gone before,
Drawing the soul to its snehorage:
In the Gulf Of st. Lawrence they
tell Of a specter often seen off Cape
d'Esp0ir. 1t is large ship, crowded
with soldiers, and on the bowsprit
stands an officer pointing to the shore
with one arm while he supports wo-
man with the other. Then the lights
suddenly so out, scream is heard
and the ship disappears. This is the
ghost of the flagship of the admiral
sent by Queen Anne to reduce the
French forts. The feet was wrecked
off this cape and all hands were lost.
On the Hudson River there is le-
gend Of a spectral boat manned by
Ramhout van Dam, who, after drink
ing till midnight one Saturday, swore
that he would row home, although il
| took him month of Sundays. He
never reached home, but he is heard
at night desperately plying his oars
on the river, on which he is con-
demned to row till the day of judg-
ment
Weight of i41, lao Flies.
A Southern grocer, being greatly