GHOST'S AND GHOST SHIPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12833, 5 April 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

GHOST'S AND GHOST SHIPS.

Somk years ago Blackwood's Magazine conla in ed the story of .-iii ollieer of a man-of-war who, when at sea, was visited by his sister's ghost. It was afterward: ascertallied that .she died at home just at the time when she appeared to him. -After her death the lady paid another visit to her brother in her disembodied form, and shortly after the officer fell overboard and was drowned.

The British navy cannot boast of it spectre warship, but in Gasp© Bay, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a phantom ship appears at times, supposed to be a troopship, one of a fleet sent out by Queen Anne. She appears to be lit til), and on her bowsprit stands a scarlet-coated officer pointing to the shore and soldiers. Suddenly the lights go out, a, mournful scream is heard, and with a lurch the great ship sinks. There- are at least two stories of ghosts appearing on warships that have almost attained to the dignity of being regauled as naval history. Both are declared to be absolutely true. One, tells of a ghost that took up "its abode in a French prize, the Medee, captured in 1744 by the Dreadnought, which stuck to the ship until she was wrecked' neat St. Ives, on the coast of Cornwall. It made its first appearance among the prisoners in the hold when the Medee was on its way to England in charge of an English prize crew. The Frenchmen were, greatly excited, and declared it was the ghost of then boatswain, who had been hanged for murdering his wife, who had followed him to sea. Before Spithead was reached the spectral boatswain showed himself to the English prize crew. Soon after her arrival at- Spithead the JToder was sold to a privateer captain, no oilier than the famous "Foitunatus" Walkei, hut, even he could not dispel the ill-luck brought by this ghost. While lie wa.,. cruising in the Channel on the lookout for French prizes, the steadiest and soberest man among his crow came to him and said he had' seen a ghost on board, whirl told him that the ship was doomed. The ;aplain made light of the story, but others .-aw the wraith of the wicked boatswain, and the wholf ship in the end became panic-stricken. A great storm arose, and the ship began to leak. In the midst of the l.roubk the ghost appeared, and the men, panic-stricken, attempted to seize, and escape in, the. boats. But Fortunalus Walker frustrated their design.

At last the ship reached St. Ives, but she was doomed, lot a heavy sea drove her bodily on a reef and she broke up. All were saved except three men who had sworn to seeing ami speaking to the ghost, of the murderous French boatswain.

All ghosts, however, do not- bring misfortune to maimers. It was owing to supernatural guidance that Admiral Sir Henry l)igby, the grandfather of the present Lord Digby, was enabled, to find and capture a prize worth many thousands of pounds, which gained for him the soubriquet of the " Silver Captain." The father of the present Lord Digby used to vouch for the absolute truth of the story.—Globe.