Free Maritime Mysteries by Bill Jessome Page B

Frederick Johnson, himself, who had promised the British he would never again attack one of their ships. The day of reckoning came when young Teazer was being chased by two British warships. Rather than being caught and hanged, Lieutenant Johnson threw a flaming torch into the ship’s powder magazine. In an instant, young Teazer reached skyward in a million pieces. The explosion was heard in the kitchens of Tancook and other islands in Mahone Bay.
    It’s been a long time since anyone has reported seeing this phantom of the sea. But she has been there, seen by fisherman who were so close to her that they said they could see men in her fiery riggings.
    The Sea Ghost of Sable Island
    T his is one of my favorite Edith Mosher mysteries. It’s from her book, Haunted .
    It was in September 1856, when the American brigantine Alma , outward bound from New York and heading to St. John’s, Newfoundland, was stranded about half a mile offshore on the treacherous shoals of Sable Island. A life-saving crew from the island station set off in a boat but ran into seas so heavy that the sturdy boat capsized before it could reach the stranded craft. The bow oarsman was thrown overboard and drowned. His body was never recovered.
    On December 7 of that same year, another vessel, the schooner Eliza Ross from Sydney, got into trouble off Sable Island. The lifeboat crew, using the same lifeboat, again set out to attempt a rescue. As they rowed toward the distressed schooner, the men saw something that looked like the head of a man swimming. It was just about at the place where they had had the accident on their other mission. As they rowed closer they saw it was a man, but with eyes they had never before seen; vacant, staring eyes that seemed fixed on the distant horizon. Whatever it was seized the side of the boat and climbed aboard. Dripping, it sat on the vacant seat, grasped the oars and helped to row to the stranded vessel. This time the crew had better luck and were able to save the sailors on the doomed schooner. They pulled for shore, with the strange wild-eyed figure doing his share of rowing along with the others.
    When they reached the place where he had boarded their boat, he dropped the oars, slid over the side, and vanished beneath the waves. The last thing the startled crew saw were the staring eyes as the waves swirled over the strange creature’s head.
    This ghost supposedly appeared several times to that same lifesaving crew, but never attempted to enter the boat after a new man took the place of the drowned oarsman. Some said they had seen it, others denied that there was anything there to be seen. But all admitted to the feeling of their drowned friend in the boat with them.
    A Fisherman’s Shack
    T his story takes place in a fisherman’s shack in a remote Nova Scotia village, where agonizing screams in the night kept all but the bravest behind locked doors. At one time, the shack in question, like so many others, was a warm and safe place for weary fishermen waiting for the out-going tide. But not any more; not since those terrible screams were indeed heard coming from inside the shack. The fishermen who went to investigate came away trembling and mumbling that the screams were coming from inside, but when they looked through the window, the place was empty!
    Not long after the screams were first heard, a Cape Islander, not far offshore, floundered in a violent storm. Because of the raging seas, the local fishermen could only watch helplessly from the shore the sinking of the vessel. The villagers who stood on the banks could hear above the wind the screams of the fishermen aboard the sinking vessel. When the storm ended, the bodies of the fishermen who were washed up on shore were temporarily placed in a fisherman’s shack—the same shack where the mysterious screams are heard. It was then the people of this remote fishing community understood the mystery surrounding those terrible screams.