The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1912-11-30
partition was signifcant-the ship was never
heard of again. e-@s-@z

nearQ or again. g.
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 longlasting
storms will follow. The Palatine, Dutch trader,
misled by false lights shown by wreckers ran
ashore upon Block Island in the year 1852 The
wreckers, when they had stripped the vessel,
set her on fire in order to conceal their crime.
AS the tide lifted her and carried her flaming
out to sea, agonizing shrieks came from the
blaze. and the figure of woman who had hid
den herself in the hold in fear of 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 renem.
Der, was in it's pamy days carried on almost en-.
trely by Quakers. One Sunday evening meet
Ing was in progress the simple service seemed
as though it might pass, and the spirit moved
none of the company The elder Friend was Just
about to offer his hand to his neighbor in the
closing of the meeting when a stranger rose
and declared that the Lords wrath was upon
certain whaling ship, and that he had seen her
IN vision descending a huge wave from the
hollow or which she never rose. The meeting
closed hurriedly, but the speaker could not be
found and the ship 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 flat, stretching for miles, and rather
SUBJECT to lsts, one has said pretty we'll all that
IS to be said-the rest must be felt However,
just as there is call of the sea- so there is a
Call OF the marshland You shall go into the
saltern and feel it's moist breath upon vour cheek
and the breath of it's salty winds and the OZONE
OF its calms You shall be lost in it's vastness,
and, threading its 1nnumerabe twisted narrow
waterways which lead to nowhere We shall
tread It's carpet OF scentless flowers. You shall
go to its very edge where the sea comes often.
most and where the flowers decaying leave their
rust-coored remains There you shall meet mud
and the cry of the curlew shall mock az Won
hounder in its filth. The moon shall come nm
re1racted by the mist into unacceptable shape
which shall be blood color. You shall be gray
shape, differing little from the common things
that are there, for you shall be enshrouded bv
fog; nay. it shall sink into your very soul. until
you are not flesh and bones but q particle Of
fog yourself You shall listen to its silences Won,
snail 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 marsh-dWellers remember such tales as
that OF the young skipper, home from a long
voyage, whose haste to embrace his wife and the
DaDe ne had not yet seen, bid him to 20 the nearer
way OF the marshes? The tale has It that in
crossing narrow gutway, Pitsea he sank
III the mud So deeply did he sink that he con1d
not extrlcate himself; the more he struggled the
=, ~ oe'Ah' oAiu with IHe nOrrOr of knowing
lhat the tlde was rising and would come stealing
up the creek, he shouted AS the tide rose biobor
Inc louder were his screams The salterns near
Pltsea are lonely; the cries were heard only nv
nalf-Wltted peat-cutter, who often in his less
sane moments heard such screams and thought
no more of the matter. So the shrieks became
gurgies. and by the time the tide had lifted the
peatcutters punt they had ceased
Inc oder 1olk at this stage of the story as
suine mysterious air, and, with Iarge-eyed
sglanclngs athwart their shoulders. win tell you
tnat the Shippers shrieks are heard on .tar1,t
nights as the tide glides up that creek.
80 mere are my ghost stories and IL I son,a-
unles Deileve In them when I sail all alone -
ne nliunisnt Deep you will not laugh at me.