Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-07-18
GHOST SHIPS Of THE SEA.
Shiverng Tales Told OF Old Oceans
Mysteries.

Shiverng Tales Told OF Old Oceans
Mysteries.
Jandsmcn boast of their haunt cd houses
and the weird spirits that dance in country
gravcyards at midnight. But there's not
house. no matter how black and dismal and
how far back from the public road 1t may
he sitt,ng nor now many murders may
have been committed within its walls years
ago, that can compare In supernatural ter
rors with the haunted ships with their
crews of dead mon that haunt the track
less waves of the ocean. And there : not
ghost on land, no matter how many grave
yards he may prowl around, nor how many
old mansions he may rattle chains In and
groan and disport himself, that can hold
up his head for one minute in the pres
cnce of one of the grisly, grlnning, mat
ted, danh ghosts that ship as a. Il. on
ghost ship.
I There is an air of vaGuencss and unreal
ity anyhow about the ocean that makes 1t
naturally more mt abiding place Tor
ghosts than the prosaic shore. The great
traCklcSs, unfathomcd. mysterious deep,
with its centuries of namclcss horrors sun
locked firmly in its silent bosom, Is the
proper place for ghosts. And so 1t Is no
wonder that they who go down to the sea
in ships and rowing hulks with crows OF
mon dead centuries agonc as they believe
in their own existence.
One of the spectral ships best known to
landsmen generally is the Flying Dutch
man. with which Capt. Marryat made his
readers acquainted. The Flying Dutchman
was trying to round the Horn some time
in the carly part of the seventeenth cen
fury. The ship was repeatedly driven back
by contrary winds and tides until the
ships captain Vanderdccken, swore fear
full oath he would round il If II took TIL
Judgment day. Nandcrdeckcn was taken
at his word. and now for three centuries
hp nd n Ina ~ II
to round the cnpc. Sailors watch with
fear and trembling when their ships IRE
rounding the Horn afraid that every mo-
ment may bring into Wow the spectral
Flying DutChman. II is bclieN ed that cv-
cry appearance OF the FLYING Dutchman
will he followed by death or misfortune to
some of tn" crew of tho ship that sees the
ghost vessel
4 In the private journal Of tho late Duke
Clarence and his brother. the present Duke
of Cornwall and York. during their cruise
on the EaCChante in lS79-lSS2, an account Is
given in their experience with the Flying
Dutchman, which they fell in with near
Sydney The Duke wrote
/ July II, 1851, at 4 a. m, the Flying
Dutchman crossed our bows. strange
rcd light. as of a phantom ship all aelow,
in the midst of which light the masts,
spars and sails of the brig 200 yards dis
tant, stood out in bold relief. As II came
mp the Lookout man on the forecastle re-
ported it as close on the port bow. The
night being clear and the yea calm, thir-
teen persons altogether saw it. but wheth-
cr it was Van \iemen of the Flying Dut' h
man or who else must remain unknown
The Tourmalinc and Cleopatra, which were
sailing on our starboard bow, flashed to
ash whether We bad seen the strange red
lights. At a quarter to II a. m. the ordi-
nary seaman who had this morning report
ed tho Flying Dutchman fell from the fore