The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-01-28
GHOST OF TIE PALATlNE.
Phantom of a Burning Ship Which Is
Seen by Block Islanders.

There is a wierd mystery which always
aovers over the sea, and like the ocean IL
self groweth never commonplace or stalled
hy usage. The more men go TO sea the
more they become impressed with 1t, the
more superstitious they become, and the
more in awe of the power and magnitude
of the great deep. These people, whose
homes are on the shores of the sea, and
| whose menfolk gain a livelihood on the
waters, are filed with legends and super
stitions which, handed down from genera
tion to generation, have finally become a
part of their lives. Thus IN the fishing vii
lages along the New England shore IL is a
| common belief that a person lying Ill can
not die except on the ebb of the tide.
Watchers by sick beds always, in these
hamlets, await the beginning Of the flood,
and say with bated breath, IF he only
lives till the tide turns" Barren beaches
and misty promontoTies have their ghosts
of stranded ships or drowned men all
along the northern coast, firmly believed
in by the country people, and often seen
by them with the eye of faith, If not with
natural vision.
Two of the most celebrated haunted
spots on the northern coast are the north
eastern coast of Block Island and st. Mary's
Bay, rockbound inlet near Cape Race,
Newfoundland The ghost which hauuts
the Block Island shore is "the terrible
ghost of the Palatine," mentioned by
Whittier in his ''Tent on the Beach" and
the actual appearance of which has been
vouched for by hundreds of people, some
of them being men of standing, not born
or living in the neighborhood, but in New
York and Boston. The legend of the Pala-
tine, as told on the coast, is as follows: In
early colonial times the ship Palatine,
laden with colonists from the Palatinate
OF the Rhine, was on her way to Virginia.
In those days Block Island was inhab-
tied by wreckers. Not the modern wreck
ers, who for a consideration will raise
sunken vessels or bring up their cargoes,
but bad men, who for no consideration at
all would lure ships ashore by false lights
and then plunder them. The wreckers of
Block Island lured the Palatine ashore one
wild, stormy night and burned her afte=
taking everything valuable out of her. In
the wreck many lives were lost, and on the
bluff overlooking the beach where the ship
struck are some graves where some of the
bodies washed ashore are buried, which are
known as the "Palatine graves" Some Of
the survivors married with the islanders,
and their descendants live there TO this day.
After the wreck of the Paiatine, when
ever a strong northeast wind was blowing
and the surf piled high on the barren
shore, there appeared a ship in flames,
burning and dying away and blazing up
again in three pyramidal flames. As time
passed, and population and civilization in
creased, the appearance of the ghost of the
Palatine became less and less frequent.
The last authentic appearance of the burn
ing Palatine occurred about seventeen
years ago, when it was seen by many peo-
pie, who made affidavit to it afterward
1t was described as appearing at first like
light seen through the window of house
at night. Then it grew to three pyramidal
flames, shooting up as high as a ships
masts, and then fading away. This was
reported several times.
About this period the ''Palatine light, ;"
as it is called on Block Island and the ad-
jacent New England shore, appeared sew
eral times. The apparition has been ac-
counted for by some by ascribing it to the
effect of phosphorescent waves dashing up
on the shore, and by others to the escape
of luminous gas from some fissure in a
rock beneath the water, but TO the native
born Block Islanders such explanations
seem impious, and they firmly believe that
it is mark of the anger of heaven set for
ever on their shores to remind them of the
crime of their ancestors.-NeW York Trib-
uQe.