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*A Weird Blue Light*
Late one night in October, 1864, a Confederate blockade runner, under the cover of fog, slipped by some Union gunboats at the entrance to Galveston Bay in Texas and made it safely to port with its cargo of food and other necessities.
Louis Billings, the master of the small vessel, was getting ready to weigh anchor when he was startled by a shriek from one of the crew.
"A strange, old-fashioned schooner with a big black flag was rushing down at us," Billings said later. "She was afire with a sort of weird, pale-blue light that lighted up every nook and cranny of her.
"The crew was pulling at the ropes and doing other work, and they paid us no attention, didn't even glance our way. They all had ghastly bleeding wounds, but their faces and eyes were those of dead men.
"The man who had shrieked had fallen to his knees, his teeth chattering as he gasped out a prayer. Over coming my own terror, that was chilling the very marrow of my bones, I rushed forward, shouting to the others as I ran. Suddenly the schooner vanished before my eyes."
Some say that it was the ghost of Jean Lafitte's pirate ship, the Pride, that sank off the Galveston Island in 1821 or 1822. She was seen again in 1892 in the same waters with the same crew.
* The Dash and The Dead Ship Harpswell *
One foggy afternoon in August, 1942, while the U.S. Navy and His Majesty's Navy patrolled the waters from Portland up to Harpswell, a siren sounded in the vicinity of Casco Bay, Maine.
Homer Grimm had rowed out to Punkin Nubb for an afternoon daliance but was interrupted by the wailing that warned of an intruder that had penetrated defence perimeters. Immediately, all the ships in the bay sprang to life. Guns were unsheathed, gongs brought soldiers and sailors scrambling to battle stations.
The HMS Moidore swept out of Cumberland Cove and fired its cannon as it came. One shell landed on Punkin Nubb and knocked off a chunk of rock a few yards from where the couple were enjoying each others company. They peered around the corner of the shattered rock ledge to witness a tall ship sweeping directly past, her sails full of wind as she tore through the waves.
"I could see sailors on deck straining to see through the mist. In the distance but closing in quickly were the HMS Moidore, the US Navy, and the Coast Guard, all with guns rattling and sirens wailing.
"I wasn't sure if I could believe my eyes when I caught the name on the stern. It was the Dash, a pirate ship that had vanished 130 years before! The ship never quite reached port, but always stopped just short and then drifted helplessly back out to sea stern-first."
As it turned out, Homer Grimm and the Allied forces were merely the lastest witnesses to the arrival of Maine's most famous phantom, a vessel known to generations as the "Dead Ship of Harpswell."
What weary doom of baffled guest, thou sad sea-ghost, is thine? What makes thee in the haunts of home, a wonder and a sign? No foot is on thy silent deck, upon the helm no hand. No ripple hath the soundless wind, that smites thee from the land..
sources: Historic Haunted America by Michael and Beth Scott. More scary stories to tell in the dark by Alvin Scwhartz. John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, "The Dead Ship of Harpswell."
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