The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-27


young hands in the ship and everyone
Ieels quite sad at his loss. At the next
port we came 10 the admiral also was
smitten down"
There is also a Spanish specter ship.
me crew of stately treasure galleon null
unled and murdered the captain, Don
SandoVatte. He was dying, with loss of
blood and thirst; but when he feebly
moaned for water they Knocked him by
holdlng 1t Just beyond his reach. So they
were doomed to roam the seas forever;
ana those who have seen the phantom
galIeon say that it is manned by a black
captain and crew of skeletons, who cry
out Tor water necessarily.
The rugged coast of Kerry has it's le-
gend of a huge mastless ship that was
seen on the dawn of a winters morning,
broadside to, against cliff, with every .ap-
pearance of having been deserted by its
crew. A number of the inhabitants soon
boarded the strange craft and were amaz-
ed by the value of the cargo, which was
largely composed of the precious metals.
The precious booty was quickly trans
terred TO the shallops, when the sea,
which had been smooth and calm as
iake, suddenly arose, and a storm of great
violence swept down upon the doomed
Wreckers. The heaVy-laden boats were
capsized, the crews swallowed up in the
laundering pillows, and the mastless
--+fi AAADN MS AiOlll lis GSAiiS place. IOTSeQ
ahead, disappearing in the gathering
gloom, the men on board waving last
farewell to the Mortified spectators lining
the cliff. Neither the ship nor the un-
fortunate wreekers were ever heard of
more. 1t is firmly believed to this day
along the Irish coast that the mysterious
craft, without mast or crew, was a phan-
tom of Tir-na-Noag, the land of youth and
eternal happiness.
The coast of New England has numer-
Gus legends concerning specter ships, and
are hrmly believed in by the rugged fish
ermen, who assert stoutly that on var
ious occasions glimpses of the shadowy
crafts have been seen, followed invaria-
bly, by disaster, and places left forever
vacant around the humble hearthstones
of the sea toilers.
The speeter of the Pala tine is occasion
ally seen on the sound, and is the forerun-
ner of gale of wind. She was a Dutch
trading vessel, and was wrecked on Block
Island in 1852 The wreckers, it is said.
made short work of her, stripping her fore
and aft and setting fire to the hull AS
she drltted blazing off the coast a human
form was visible amid the flames the form
of female passenger, left to perish on
the doomed craft. Since and generally
upon the anniversary of the wreck,
phantom ship with blazing hull, charred
spars and scorched sails and rigging has
been seen cruising off Block Island, when
Behold again with simmer ana shine,
Over the rocks and the seething brine,
The flaming wreck of the Palatine.
Whittier recorded the legend in grace
full verse, as well as the ghostly cruiser
that sailed from a New England port on
her last voyage, which he termed THE
Dead Ship of Salem" In the SEVENTEEN
century ship was about to sail from Sa-
lem for England. Her cargo was on board,
sails bent, and passengers on deck. when
two passengers came hurriedly off and
engagde passage. The couple were a
young man and woman, who, so tradition
records, were remarkable for their bear
ing and beauty. Who they were. or from
whence they came. no one in Salem town
could tell. The ship being detained by
adverse winds, the mysterious couple OK
cited the supcions of the townspeople
who viewed them as uncanny and proph-
esied disaster to the vessel if allowed to
sal in her. But the master, bluff and
stern sailor. refused to listen, and finally
departed on a Friday. The vessel never
reached her destination and was never
spoken. But later in the year incoming
vessels reported sighting a craft with lu-
minous rigging and sails, and shining hull
and spars.
She was sailing with all canvas set
men standing in the shrouds and leaning
over the rail, while upon the quarter deck
stood a young and beautiful couple Oc-
casionaly, on the eve of a storm, loom
ing up through the sea fog. is seen
The specter ship of Salem,
With the dead men in her shrouds,
Sailing sheer above the water in
The loom of morning clouds.
Whittier tells of another phantom ship.
A young skipper, who traded to the Lab
rador coast, fell in love with one of two
beautiful sisters, who lived with their
mother in a secluded bay. Both the sis
ters, however, fell in love with him, and
the elder was jealous that he preferred
the younger. When the sailor lover came
to carry off the bride of his choice, the
sister shut her up, and closely yelled,
went out to meet the bridegroom. 1t was
not until well out to sea that he discover
ed the deception. He returned once, only
to find his sweetheart dead. Neither he
nor his ship ever returned home.
There is a legend of a specter ship near
Orr's Island, coast of Maine, related by
Mrs Stowe, which Whittier has embod-
led in verse. THE Deadship of Harps-
we'll" She has no crew, for
No foot is on thy silent deck
Upon thy helm no hand.
No ripple hath the soundless wind,
That smites thee from the land.
Bret Harte has made familiar in verse
the Greyport legend. He tells how some
children, thirteen in all, went to play on
board of an old hulk that was moored to
a rotting pier. The lines parting the hulk
broke adrift ioated out to sea in thick
fog and was lost, carrying with ii the
prattling crowd of children. When the
fogs come down on the coast the fisher
men still hear the voices of the children
on board the phantom hulk that drifts
in the chill obscurity, but never returns
or is viewed by mortal eye.
1t lie but a foolish shipman's tale;
A theme for a poets idle page;
But still, when the mists Of doubt pre-
vail,
And we lie becalmed by the shores of
age,
We hear from the misty troubled shore
The voice Of the children gone before,
Drawing the soul 10 its anchorage.
Cotton Mather tells how new ship
sailed from New Haven in January 1871.
and was never heard from. In June, OF
the same year, about an hour before
sunset, a ship. the very twin Of the ship
that had sailed in January, was seen to