Carolina Ghost Tales: <i>The Ship Of Fire

NC Legends, Historical Publications Section, Division of Archives and History, State of NC ^ | 1980 | Richard Walser

[RegulatorCountry]

The Ship of Fire

On a certain evening every year, at the mouth of the wide Neuse River, a large bright object speeds into view.  It looks like a sailing ship being destroyed by fire, its deck and masts in blazing outline.  The apparition disappears, then reappears, then again disappears for another year.  It burns furiously but is not consumed.

It is the ship of the Palatines.  The Palatines were a group of German Protestants who left England in 1710 to settle New Bern.  As the vessel crossed the Atlantic, the prosperous Palatines, pretending to be poor, hid their gold coins and silver dishes from the eyes of the ship's sinister captain and crew.  When the Palatines caught sight of the shore which they believed to be their future home, so excited were they that up from the hold and out from hiding places came all their belongings in preparation for landing.  Unwisely displayed on the deck was their precious wealth, all of it in full view of the corrupt captain and his first mate.

Quickly the captain formed a plan.  He announced to the passengers than no landing could be made until the morrow.  The disappointed Palatines once more hid their valuables and lay down to a sound sleep in anticipation of soon landing at their destination.  When all was quiet, the captain gathered his crew together and revealed to them his plan.  They would murder every Palatine aboard--the young and the old, the women and children as well as the men--then gather together the gold and silver, set afire the ship filled with its dead, and escape in the lifeboats.

The strike was sudden.  Many Palatines were knifed before they awoke and in a very few moments every one of them was dead.  As planned, the ship was set afire, and the murderers pushed off in the small boats.  From a distance they looked back at the ship.  It burned brighter and brighter, the brilliant blaze of the fire shooting into the air, but the vessel did not sink into the water.  And then the thing began to move.

"It continued to burn all night," according to an old account, "--speeding on with the wind,--now passing out from sight, and anon, visible, flaming forever, back again, on the very spot where the crime had been committed.  With the dawn of day, it had ceased to burn,--but there it stood, erect as ever, with the spars, sails, masts, unconsumed,--everything in place, but everything blackened, charred."   At sundown the flames leaped up again--"a ship on fire that would not burn!"

The frightened murderers could bear no more.  They abandoned their boats on the bank of the river and fled into the forest.  There they and their descendants lived on their "ill-gotten spoils."  To this day the crime has not been avenged, and so every year on a certain evening the burning ship appears off New Bern, and so it will continue to appear till the blood of the Palatines has been paid for in kind.

[RegulatorCountry]

On this Halloween, I thought an historical ghost tale involving colonial times, immigration and religious persecution would provide many avenues for discussion on Free Republic.

It even has a north-south competing claim, with a later tale of a burning, Palatine ghost ship off the coast of Narragansett, Rhode Island.

[redstateconfidential]

Dang it, Democrats get away with Murder every time!

[Young Werther]

The Jersey Devil!!!

"It was said that Mother Leeds had 12 children and, after giving birth to her 12th child, stated that if she had another, it would be the Devil. In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night. Gathered around her were her friends. Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the Devil himself. The child was born normal, but then changed form. It changed from a normal baby to a creature with hooves, a horse's head, bat wings and a forked tail. It growled and screamed, then killed the midwife before flying up the chimney. It circled the villages and headed toward the pines. In 1740 a clergy exorcised the demon for 100 years and it wasn't seen again until 1890."

Joseph Bonaparte (eldest brother of Emperor Napoleon) is said to have witnessed the Jersey Devil while hunting on his Bordentown, New Jersey estate around 1820

October 31, 2008 Bruce Springsteen releases a music video and free audio download single titled, "A Night with the Jersey Devil" on his website, www.brucespringsteen.net with the note, "Dear Friends and Fans, If you grew up in central or south Jersey, you grew up with the "Jersey Devil." Here's a little musical Halloween treat. Have fun! Bruce Springsteen"

BOO!

[RegulatorCountry]

The sort of Democrats who voted Obama into office came here from New York and New Jersey, at least the ones who provided the disappointing margin of victory.

McCain having such disrepute with evangelicals, going back to his intemperate and bigoted remarks in 2000, down in our sister state of SC, did not help (R) at all, either.

The sort of Democrats who voted for Bush and Reagan are homegrown. But, there’s a large contingent of unreconstructed Dixiecrats down east, as well as a very large African American bloc that never votes anything but (D). They’ve been sorely taken advantage of due to this bloc voting, but try telling them that.

It’s complicated.

[RegulatorCountry]

He must vacation in NC along with the rest of NJ, lol:

The Devil’s Tramping Ground: http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/kidspg/devil.htm

[Safetgiver]

It was during these hours that Satan planned his evil schemes to undo mankind..... Obammbii walks at night?