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Show ' Phantom Ships Still flaunt the Seas r i ' rHE i oast of New K'nglai.ii has mai.y I legends com ernln s cclre shiris fli m-ly m-ly believed by hc rugged fisherfcen, who assert stoutly that on various occasions 'f glimpses of tli,. skatlO'Vy craft have h-en seen, "followed Invati'aLly by disaster. The spectre ul the PaK-ntlne Is occaslon-I occaslon-I L ally seen on the .Sound, und Is the forerun- P tier of n gale. She Mas a Dutch trading ves- Bel and was wrecked off Block Island in 1731:. I he wrecker It in Mid. made ifcort work of hci. stripping her fore and alt and setting tli e 'o the hull Vs she drifted blazing off the coast -a human form was visible amid the flames, the form ot a woman passenger, left to perish on the doomed craft. Since, and generally HI lipon the annu'ersary of the wrecl:. a phan- Hjl torn Khlp witti tilnzlng hull charred spars and scorched sail Dud rigging has been cruising off Block island. v:,i'.tiei recorded the legend In graceful verse, as well as that of a ghostly cruiser flrmt sailed from a New England port on her 1 last voyage, which he termed "Tho Dead Ship of Salem " 1 In the seventeenth century a ship was nbOUt to sail from Sulem Mass., to England Her cargo was on board, sails bent and pas-sengers pas-sengers on deck when two strangojrs came hurriedly on board and engaged passage. The couple were a young man ami a young woman, who. tradition records, were remark-i remark-i hie for their bearing and beauty. Who they were or whence they came no i ne in Salem Town could tell. The ship be-mg be-mg detained by adverse winds, the mys-t mys-t tertous couple excited the suspicions of l ho townspeople, who viewed them as uncanny and prophesied disaster to tho vessel if they wire allowed m sail jn her But the master, a grjfT and stern sailor, refused to IKten and finally departed op a Friday The vosel never reached her destination ahc waa never spoken, but later in the e.ir, Incoming vessels reported sighting craft vith luminous rigging and sails and shining hull', and spars. She w is sailing with til canvas set against the wind, with a crew of Spad nun standing in the sh,rouds and lean k over the rail! while on -he quarter dec.-, euod a youna; and beautiful ooupN it Is -aid that the Prem ii fishermen fro.i: trt Magdalen Islands and the matter of fac Yankee skippers of Bangor, Me., alike shun ifir shores of Bay Chaleur after dark an 1 refuse tolgut In at Dead Man s Cove unde r, ciieumstances, preferring to run Ihj risk of foundering in a hurricane !n the v ; an sea to sharing tlm shelter of the cove vith the phantom ship. Tnls famous spectre of the sea Is' said to a; pear only in ihe c-alrn preceding srea" v orm. with every stitch of canvas Rrawfns and her decks swarm.ng with men a:i rug nin; to and fro as if in a panic Ahead f ' the water is like glass, behind her the gale comes- tearing along beating the sea into froth and driving her straight on lilt OUgb every thing In her way. She is in SACl nt model, full rigged and gray t, over hull, upper works, sails' and "pars as if formed of fog. Gray, too. Is her ghastly (.:. w J re inhabitants of St. Pierre tell of , smack on a herring trip that found herself r'fht in the track of the phantom ship. Captain Cap-tain and crew had heard of the ghostly ves-st-L but scoffed at it. and when they saw he-I" he-I" om up in tiie twilight s'ralght ahead they thought a collision Imminent and the atar-Uc- steennpan put the helnxover, The sea -tath swop' down upon them, and in the Mnic n ti' breath had passed right throug.i tbm and was racing ,iadly astem in tha Ii-ectlon of Head Mh'n's Cove, A fishin.: sch-.orier from Magdalen Island, warneJ by the thickening sky of an approaching ap-proaching storm; put In at ibe cove to ride ojut the gale. Before she had reached anchorage a ship was seen coming rap'dly beliiud also he.idlug for the rni As it drew tn-ar the captain got out his crass to see If he knew the stranger. Suddenly he dropped to bis knees and commenced to pray "Bojs," he said. "It's a ghost. I saw a sh.i cull fly right throiTgh her ma-nsallV Kv-ry man 'lirtw himself on bis fai c. afraid to look The first to ruse hi) head, and look over the rail was the cabin ooy. ii gel up; gel up, iih of you." he sboulen "Ihe'S gone." The crevy lost no time In making sail out of the covp In the leet i of a black squall. Another tlor is that of a smack from St. Pierre which saw the phantom anchored Just inside the cove- at sunset A smal! boat filled with men was making trips between the gra sliip and tne beach, at each trip unloading boxes and barrels, which other men waiting ashore burled In the sand The capt.V i did not wait to see whether they were interring dead men or chests of treasure, treas-ure, but got away from Ibe place as tas as he co Jld Old sa:lors along the Maine cons-, firmly believe that the phantom ship is an old merchantman that went down with all on board living to reach (lie cove in a great storm In 175-1 but at St. Pierre the fishermen fisher-men will tell you that It Is a pirate haunting the spot where the buccaneer crew hid the troasure for widen they lost theii souls. |