The ghost ship of New Haven is a legend in which the settlers of the New Haven Colony saw a vision of a ghost ship in the aftermath of a storm.
The ghost ship of New Haven is a legend in which the settlers of the New Haven Colony saw a vision of a ghost ship in the aftermath of a storm.
As the New Haven Colony was settled from Massachusetts and not from England, the colony had no ship and thus no way to trade except through Massachusetts. Theophilus Eaton and other merchants accordingly commissioned the construction of a 150 ton ship in Rhode Island. The ship's maiden voyage did not start out well, as the winter of 1647 was unusually cold, the water had frozen over and ice had to be broken to let the ship into the Long Island Sound. Even after the ship was freed from the ice it had to be towed into the sound. Upon seeing the ship's sorry state, the Reverend John Davenport is said to have said "Lord, if it be thy pleasure to bury these our Friends in the bottom of the Sea, they are thine; save them!" [1] The ship sailed for England with a cargo that included wheat, peas, pelts, and writings from Davenport and Thomas Hooker. [2] [2]
After the following spring arrived with no news of the ship, many of the settlers began to view it as lost and prayed for God to show them what had become of the ship. In June a great thunderstorm came from the Northwest and an hour before sunset the colonists saw a vision of a ship in the sky. The ship sailed against the wind with full sails for half an hour. The spectators had a detailed view of the ship and watched on as it gradually vanish from mast to hull, leaving a cloud of smoke which soon dissipated. The settlers concluded that their prayers had been answered and God had given them a vision of their ship's fate. The story, as recounted by Reverend James Pierpont was included in Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana [3]
It is possible the vision may have been the reflection of a Dutch ship traveling to New Netherland which disappeared as the sun set. [4] Some UFOlogists claim the vision was a UFO sighting, while skeptics claim it is proof that supposed supernatural events are often bounded by the culture around them. [5]
The story of the ship was told in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1858 poem "The Phantom Ship" [6]
Cotton Mather was a Puritan clergyman and author in colonial New England, who wrote extensively on theological, historical, and scientific subjects. After being educated at Harvard College, he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting House in Boston, Massachusetts, where he preached for the rest of his life. He has been referred to as the "first American Evangelical".
Thomas Hooker was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding speaker and an advocate of universal Christian suffrage.
New Haven Colony was an English colony from 1638 to 1664 that included settlements on the north shore of Long Island Sound, with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The colony joined Connecticut Colony in 1664.
The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place in 1636 and ended in 1638 in New England, between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes. The war concluded with the decisive defeat of the Pequot. At the end, about 700 Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity. Hundreds of prisoners were sold into slavery to colonists in Bermuda or the West Indies; other survivors were dispersed as captives to the victorious tribes.
John Hathorne was a merchant and magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Salem, Massachusetts. He is best known for his early and vocal role as one of the leading judges in the Salem witch trials.
John Davenport was an English Puritan clergyman and co-founder of the American colony of New Haven.
Nathaniel Eaton was an Anglican clergyman who was the first Headmaster of Harvard, President designate, and builder of Harvard's first College, Yard, and Library, in 1636.
Simon Bradstreet was a New England merchant, politician and colonial administrator who served as the last governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Arriving in Massachusetts on the Winthrop Fleet in 1630, Bradstreet was almost constantly involved in the politics of the colony but became its governor only in 1679.
Magnalia Christi Americana is a book published in 1702 by the puritan minister Cotton Mather (1663–1728). Its title is in Latin, but its subtitle is in English: The Ecclesiastical History of New England from Its First Planting in 1620, until the Year of Our Lord 1698. It was generally written in English and printed in London "for Thomas Parkhurst, at the Bible and Three Crowns, Cheapside."
Samuel Newman was a clergyman in colonial Massachusetts whose concordance of the Bible, published first in London in 1643, far surpassed any previous work of its kind.
Samuel Stone was an English Puritan minister and co-founder of Hartford, Connecticut.
Mary Webster was a resident of colonial New England who was accused of witchcraft and was the target of an attempted lynching by friends of the accuser.
Goody Ann Glover was an Irish former indentured servant and the last person to be hanged in Boston as a witch, although the Salem witch trials in nearby Salem, Massachusetts, occurred mainly in 1692.
The Old Ship Church is a Puritan church built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is the only surviving 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in the United States. Its congregation, gathered in 1635 and officially known as First Parish in Hingham, occupies the oldest church building in continuous ecclesiastical use in the country. On October 9, 1960, it was designated a National Historic Landmark, and on November 15, 1966, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Samuel Danforth (1626–1674) was a Puritan minister, preacher, poet, and astronomer, the second pastor of The First Church in Roxbury and an associate of the Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury, Massachusetts, known as the “Apostle to the Indians.”
Rev. Nicholas Noyes II was a colonial minister during the time of the Salem witch trials. He was the second minister, called the "Teacher", to Rev. John Higginson. During the Salem witch trials, Rev. Noyes served as the official minister of the trials.
Rev. James Noyes was an English clergyman who emigrated to Massachusetts. He was a founder of Newbury, Massachusetts.
The Raid on Haverhill was a military engagement that took place on March 15, 1697 during King William's War. Ordered by Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor General of New France, French, Algonquin, and Abenaki warriors descended on Haverhill, then a small frontier community in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. In the surprise attack, the Abenaki killed 27 colonists and took 13 captive. The natives burned six homes. The raid became famous in the nineteenth century because of Hannah Dustin's captivity narrative as a result of the raid.
Elijah Corlet was schoolmaster of the Cambridge Grammar School in Cambridge, Massachusetts for most of the late 17th century. Many of his pupils were early students of Harvard College, including the minister Cotton Mather. From 1672 to 1700, the Cambridge Grammar School sent more students to Harvard than any other school.
Lady Arbella Johnson was one of the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.