Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-11-30
"DEAD SHIPS" ON MAINE COAST.

Old Seamen Who Claim mat ihey
Have Seen the Phantom Vessels.
There are still living in Harpswell,
Me-, aged men who believe in the
dead ship'-a picturesque tradition
familiar to them from childhood and
readily accepted as truth by these old
men Of the sea, who share the super
stitions Of all sailors and whose fan
cies lean to the romantic and pictur-
esque.
Harpswell Is not the only locality
that numbers a phantom ship among
her traditional and misty belongings,
but her phantom has been immortal
lied in the verse of Longfellow and is
thus distinguished from the common
sort of ghost ships that are told of
in ship chandleries all along shore
from Eastport to Kittery. Longfel-
low had the story of the Harpswell
apparition from old sailors Of Harps-
we'll Neck, who were full of supersti-
tious lore and believed in their ro-
mances Of the sea as much as they
did in the stories Of John Paul Jones
or the fight off Monhegan between the
Enterprise and the Boxer.
The Harpswell people declared that
the dead ship came often to their
shores, although she never reached
the harbor. She came always at dusk
and generally in stormy weather, ap-
pearing in the .offing and coming
straight on, with all sail set, only to
fade away like a mist when close in.
Not only the Harpswell folk, but the
fishermen of the islands Of Casco Bay,
believed in the phantom, and in the
ill-omen Of her coming-that her ap-
pearance on shore was sure sign that
within a month Grape would hang up
on the door Of one Of those who had
seen her Longfellow, who had spent
much time in the company of these
sailor-fishermen, heard and was IA
miliar with all their tales, and select
ing the most picturesque of these he
wove them into the poem that Is so
familiar to readers Of his works.
The Harpswell tars told the poet all
the details Of the ghost ships appear
ance how she seemed always to come
in a fog or mist, although the wealth
er at the time might be perfectly
clear. No clew was to be seen upon
her decks, no hand at her helm and
she came on with neither flap of sail
l., nf O
spirit ship. She was much like the
celebrated Flying Dutchman or the
phantom vessel of Coleridge's AN
cient Mariner"
In the days when LongfelloW FORM
ed his friendship at Harpswell there
were still living upon the Neck old
men who knew the name that was
borne by the phantom ship when she
was a reality of oak and iron and
sailed the seas with a sturdy Yankee
crew. The fishermen affirmed that
they had been personally acquainted
with her captain and with members Of
the ship went down on the reefs off
the Neck and thus became a phan-
tom; and the poet tells us that in his
day there sat in the shipyards Of Free
port aged men who had hewed the
heavy oaken timber that made her
frame. From all this the belief of
early Harpswell men in the phantom
ship seems natural enough, and their
belief has been handed down to the
present generation, although no one
claims to have seen the phantom in re-
cent years Her last appearance, 1t is
said, was about the year 1878, at
which time she was seen by four or
five persons, some Of whom are yet
living, and all of whom were positive
as to the apparition looming up off
Harpswell Neck in the November
dusk.-Thomaston Herald.