The Springfield herald., 1912-11-29
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partition was signiacant-the ship was neve,
heard Of again.
The rocky coasts of New England are haunted
by many ghost ships. The Palatine is the best
known specter. The coasters and fishermen OF
Long Island Sound will tell you that when a sight
of her is gotten disastrous and longlastng
storms will follow. The Palatine, Dutch trader,
misled by false lights shown by wreckers. ran
ashore upon Block Island in the year 1882. The
wreckers, when they had stripped the vessel,
set her fire in order to conceal their crime
AS the tide lifted her and carried her flaming
out to sea. agonzing shreks came from the
blaze, and the figure OF woman who had hid
den herself in the hold in fear CT the wreckers
stood out black amid the roaring blaze. Then
the deck fell in and ship and woman vanished.
The whaling In Nantucket, as you will remem
ber, was in its palmy days carried almost
tirely by Quakers. One Sunday evening meet
ing was in progress: the simple service seemed
though it might pass, and the spirit moved
none Of the company. The elder Friend Just
about to offer his hand to his neighbor In the
closing OF the meeting. when stranger rose
and declared that the Lords wrath was upon a
certain whaling ship and that he had seen her
in vision descending huge from the
hollow of which she never rose. The meeting
closed hurriedy, but the speaker could not be
found. and the ship was never heard of.
Some OF the best ghost stories are those which
the writer has heard from the simple folk Of the
salt marshes. 1t is hardly possible to describe
these dreary districts. for when one has said
they are fiat. stretching for miles. and rather
subject to mists. has said pretty well all that
is to be said-the rest must be felt However
just as there is a call Of the sea. there Is a
call OF the marshland. You shall go into the
saltern and feel Its moist breath upon your cheek
and the breath Of Its salty winds and the ozone
OF Its Gains. You shall be lost in its vastness
and. threading its innumerable twisted narrow
waterways. which lead to nowhere. We shall
tread Its carpet of scentess flowers. You shall
go to Its very edge where the sea comes often
most, and where the flowers 1eay efr
rustcolored remains. There you shall meet mud
and the cry of the curlew shall mock as YOU
hounder In its hlth. The moon shall come up
refracted by the mist into unrecognizable shane
which shall be blood color You shall be a gray
shape. differing little from the common things
that are there. for you shall be enshrouded by
1og nay, 1t shall sink into your very soul until
you are not flesh and bones. but a particle OF
fog yourself You shall listen to its silences. Won
shall be told things by them. and strong man
that you are, you shall be afraid
is 1t to be wondered at. then that these simple
Essex marshdwellers remember such tales as
that Of the young skipper home from n long
voyage. whose haste to embrace his WIFE and the
babe he had not yet seen bid him to go the nearer
way or the marshes? The tale has 1t that in
crossing narrow gutway, near Pitsea he sank
In the mud, So deeply did he sink that he could
not extricate himself; the he struggled the
deeper he sank and with the horror of knowing
that the tide was rising and would come stealing
up the creek he shouted As the tide rose hipber
the louder his screams The salterns near
fitsea are lonely; the cries heard only by
a half-witted peat-cutter. who often in his less
sane moments heard such screams and thought
no more of the matter. So the shreks became
gurgles and by the time the tide had lifted the
peat-cutters punt they had ceased
The older folk at this stage of the story as.
sumo mysterious air. and. with large-eved
slahcinSs athwart their shoulders will tell Won
that the shippers shreks are heard on star,
nights as the tide gdes up that creek
so mere are my ghost stories and If I some
umes believe In them when | sail all alone on
the midnight deep. you will not laugh at me