In Canadian ghostlore, the Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait is a

ghost ship A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a fictional ghostly vessel, such as the ''Flying Dutchman'', or a physical derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the ''Mary Celest ...

said to sail ablaze within the

Northumberland Strait The Northumberland Strait (French: ''détroit de Northumberland'') 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 sho ...

, the body of water that separates

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

from

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

and

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

in eastern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

History

The legend of a ghost ship in Northumberland Strait dates back at least 200 years, and it is typically described as a beautiful

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

that has three or four masts with pure white sails, all of which are said to become completely engulfed in flames as onlookers watch. The Northumberland Strait separates Prince Edward Island from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and according to local folklore, the ghost ship appears before a northeast wind, and is a forewarning of a storm. 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." According to legend, in 1900, a group of sailors boarded a small rowboat in

Charlottetown Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in ...

Harbour and raced toward the phantom ship to rescue the crew only to have the ship vanish. 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."

Natural explanations

In 1905,

scientist

William Francis Ganong William Francis Ganong, M.A., Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S.C., (19 February 1864 - 7 September 1941) was a Canadian biologist botanist, historian and cartographer. His botany career was spent mainly as a professor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachu ...

proposed that the legend may have arisen due to natural electrical phenomena such as St. Elmo's Fire that had been subject to "interpretation as the flaming rigging of a ship." Other explanations suggest that the illusion may have been created by a bank of fog reflecting moonlight.

Music and popular culture

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. 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." It debuted in his 1988 album, ''

Breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...

'', and is called "Tales of the Phantom Ship". In June 2014,

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...

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.Stewart, Dave (June 12, 2014)
"PEI phantom ship gets stamp of approval"
''The Guardian''.

Notes

{{reflist Atmospheric ghost lights Weather lore Canadian folklore Canadian legends Culture of New Brunswick Culture of Nova Scotia Culture of Prince Edward Island Reportedly haunted locations in Nova Scotia Reportedly haunted locations in New Brunswick Reportedly haunted locations in Prince Edward Island Legendary ghost ships