In Canadian ghostlore, the Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait is a ghost ship said to sail ablaze within the Northumberland Strait, the body of water that separates Prince Edward Island from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in eastern Canada.
In Canadian ghostlore, the Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait is a ghost ship said to sail ablaze within the Northumberland Strait, the body of water that separates Prince Edward Island from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in eastern Canada.
The legend of a ghost ship in Northumberland Strait dates back at least 200 years, and it is typically described as a beautiful schooner that has three or four masts with pure white sails, all of which are said to become completely engulfed in flames as onlookers watch. [1] The Northumberland Strait separates Prince Edward Island from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, [2] and according to local folklore, the ghost ship appears before a northeast wind, and is a forewarning of a storm. [2]
A number of legends and ghost stories exist that describe sightings of the ghost ship over the years and include descriptions of distinctive outlines of the ship's masts and phantom crew members climbing them before the vessel supposedly either completely burns, sinks or vanishes." [2] [3] According to legend, in 1900, a group of sailors boarded a small rowboat in Charlottetown Harbour and raced toward the phantom ship to rescue the crew only to have the ship vanish. [2] In January 2008, 17-year-old Mathieu Giguere told a local newspaper he believed he saw the legendary phantom ship in the Tatamagouche Bay, describing it as a "bright white and gold ship". Tatamagouche Mountain resident Melvin Langille also claims he saw the ship one night in October, explaining, "I believe in all that stuff and I don't know what else it would be." [4]
In 1905, New Brunswick scientist William Francis Ganong proposed that the legend may have arisen due to a natural electrical phenomena such as St. Elmo's Fire that had been subject to "interpretation as the flaming rigging of a ship." [2] Other explanations suggest that the illusion may have been created by a bank of fog reflecting moonlight. [2]
The ghost ship has become more widely known in recent years in part due to a popular song by Lennie Gallant, a Canadian singer-songwriter from Rustico, Prince Edward Island along with a reference in the podcast Alice Isn't Dead. [5] [6] This song alludes to the folklore of this legendary ship: − "There's a burst of flame and a flash of light/And there on the tide is a frightening sight/As a tall ship all aflame lights up the sky/Tales of the phantom ship, from truck to keel in flames/She sails the wide Northumberland Strait/No one knows her name." [7] It debuted in his 1988 album, Breakwater , and is called "Tales of the Phantom Ship". [7]
In June 2014, Canada Post issued a special stamp depicting the Northumberland Strait ghost ship. The stamp was issued on Friday the 13th as part of a series of Canadian ghost story stamps. [8]
Prince Edward Island (PEI) is a province of Canada and one of the three Maritime provinces. It is the smallest province of Canada in both land area and population, but the most densely populated. Part of the traditional lands of the Mi'kmaq, it became a British colony in the 1700s and was federated into Canada as a province in 1873. Its capital is Charlottetown. According to Statistics Canada, the province of PEI has 158,158 residents.
The Northumberland Strait is a strait in the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in eastern Canada. The strait is formed by Prince Edward Island and the gulf's eastern, southern, and western shores.
The Confederation Bridge is a box girder bridge carrying the Trans-Canada Highway across the Abegweit Passage of the Northumberland Strait, linking the province of Prince Edward Island with the province New Brunswick on the mainland. Opened May 31 1997, the 12.9-kilometre (8 mi) bridge is Canada's longest bridge and also the world's longest bridge over ice-covered water.
A Northumberland Strait iceboat is a rowing boat, typically 5 metres in length, 2 metres in beam, with runners fastened to the hull for dragging over sea ice.
A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a ghostly vessel in folklore or fiction, such as the Flying Dutchman, or a real derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the Mary Celeste. The term is sometimes used for ships that have been decommissioned but not yet scrapped, as well as drifting boats that have been found after breaking loose of their ropes and becoming carried away by the wind or the waves.
Lennie Gallant, CM is a Canadian singer-songwriter and instrumentalist from Prince Edward Island. His music crosses into the folk rock and country music genres, while celebrating the musical heritage of his home province. He has been presented with many awards for his performances and songwriting.
Breakwater is the debut album by Lennie Gallant, released in 1988.
Northumberland Ferries Limited (NFL) is a ferry company operating in eastern Canada and headquartered in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. NFL is also the owner of subsidiaries Bay Ferries Limited and Bay Ferries Great Lakes Limited through its holding company.
The Isthmus of Chignecto is an isthmus bordering the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that connects the Nova Scotia peninsula with North America.
Cape Tormentine is a village in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It is located on the Northumberland Strait at the Abegweit Passage, the shortest crossing between Prince Edward Island and the mainland. It once flourished as a transportation hub between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island but has been in decline since 1997 when the ferry service was closed due to the opening of the Confederation Bridge. At the Canada 2011 Census the population was 108, three quarters what it was at the 2006 census.
Borden-Carleton is a town in Prince County the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. It is situated on the south shore fronting on the Northumberland Strait. The town was originally incorporated as a community on April 12, 1995, through the amalgamation of the town of Borden and the community of Carleton. The town of Borden opted to demote its status to a community in light of a declining tax base with the pending completion of the Confederation Bridge and the closure of the Marine Atlantic ferry service. Borden-Carleton became a town on July 31, 2012.
Route 1 is a 120-kilometre (75 mi) long provincial highway that serves as the Prince Edward Island section of the Trans-Canada Highway. Route 1 traverses the southern shores of Prince Edward Island, from the Confederation Bridge in Borden-Carleton to the Wood Islands ferry dock. It is an uncontrolled access 2-lane highway with a maximum speed limit of 90 km/h (55 mph), except within some towns and the city of Charlottetown.
The MV Vacationland is a Canadian RORO ferry that operated across the Northumberland Strait between the ports of Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick and Port Borden, Prince Edward Island.
The MV Holiday Island is a Canadian RORO ferry that operates across the Northumberland Strait between the ports of Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island and Caribou, Nova Scotia. The vessel is owned by the Government of Canada and is managed and operated by Northumberland Ferries Limited.
White Juan is the unofficial name given to the hurricane-strength nor'easter blizzard of February 2004 that affected most of Atlantic Canada and the Eastern United States between February 17 and 20, 2004—five months after Hurricane Juan devastated Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
MV Abegweit were icebreaking railway, vehicle, and passenger ferries which operated across the Abegweit Passage of Northumberland Strait, connecting Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island to Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick. There were two vessels named Abegweit that serviced this route between 1947 and 1997.
The Barrachois Harbour Yacht Club (BHYC) was founded in 1996 and is a private, registered, not-for-profit yacht club located in Barrachois Harbour, northern Nova Scotia, Canada, 1.58 nautical miles east-northeast of the village of Tatamagouche, with access to the Northumberland Strait across Amet Sound.
Nellie J. Banks was a 35 GRT cod fishing schooner turned "rum runner", built in 1910. She was one of the last rum runners seized off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1938. Nellie J. Banks was renamed Leona G. Maguire in 1941.
Ten Strings and a Goat Skin is a Canadian folk music group from Rustico, Prince Edward Island, who perform traditional Celtic and Acadian folk music, in English and French.