of the soup over the side. Bean Island (Ærthōlmarne) was formed by one day's skimmings, and Oeland and Gotland from part of the cargo of this giant craft.

Equally great is the Irish Roth rambach1 (paddlewheel), a ship which, at the end of the world, will go equally on sea and land, and which will have a thousand beds, each containing a thousand men.

Eugene Sue 2 tells of a great ship, commanded by the "Green Pilot," made of iron, which chases a small golden ship, manned by beautiful women, until a lodestone mountain attracts and fixes the pursuer.

The Coureur Hollandais 3 takes but twelve hours to sail around the world.

It has even been asserted, in another periodical,* that the Flying Dutchman was a real person,-Bernard Fokke, who lived in the seventeenth century. He was a reckless and daring seaman, who cased his masts with iron, to enable him to carry sail. He is said to have sailed to the East Indies in ninety days, and to have made many wonderful voyages, and hence was thought a sorcerer, in league with the devil. In one voyage, he disappeared, having been carried off by Satan, and is condemned to wander the ocean between the southern capes, with no one on board but his boatswain, cook and pilot. He is still seen, and always hails ships, and asks questions, but they should not be answered-and then his ship will disappear. Sometimes a boat is seen to approach his bark, but when it reaches her, all vanish suddenly.

1 O'Curry.-MS. Materials of Irish History, q. in Melusine, October, 1884.

2 Salamandre, q. by E. Rolland, in Melusine, October, 1884.

A. Bouet.-Pirate et Corsaire.

4"Ausland,” 1841, No. 237.

Various localities on the English coast are haunted by these phantom appearances. The Cornish coast is particularly frequented by them.

A tale of such a vessel has been related in a former chapter,1 storms and squalls succeeding the phantom.

A similar occurrence is described by a narrator in Hunt's collection: 2 "Away they pulled, and the boat, which had been first launched, still kept ahead by dint of mechanical power and skill. At length, the helmsman cried, 'Stand by to board her!' . . . The vessel came so close to the boat that they could see the men, and the bow-oarsman made a grasp at the bulwarks. His hand found nothing solid, and he fell. . . . Ship and light then disappeared. The next day, the Neptune, of London, Captain R. Grant, was wrecked at Gall perished."

and

Another Cornish story relates that a phantom ship was seen approaching against wind and tide, sailing over land and sea in a cloudy squall, and in it departed the soul of a wizard wrecker, accompanied by a crash of thunder and lightning. His last moments were terrible, a tempest taking place in his room, where the plashing of water was heard. A similar spectral bark occurs in a story, "The White Witch." "These caverns and cleaves were all shrouded in mist, which seemed to be gathering from all quarters to that place, till it formed a black cloud above and a thick haze below, out of which soon appeared the black masts of a black ship scudding away to sea, with all her sails set, and not a breath of wind stirring." Thunder and lightning followed her,

1 See Chapter VIII.

2 Romances and Drolls of the West of England.

8 Bottrell.-Traditions and Fireside Stories of West Cornwall.

and the ghost of her captain was seen standing at the stern, brandishing a sword.

A story, told at Priest's cove, is much like these. Here the pirate lived, and wrecked ships by "hobbling" a horse with a light tied to his head, thus decoying them on to the rocks. At his death, a cloud came up, with a square-rigged ship in it, and the words, "the hour is come, but not the man," were heard. As the ship passed over the house, the dying man's room was filled with the noise of waves and breakers, and the house shook, as the soul of the wrecker passed away, borne on the cloud.

In Porthcurno harbor, spectral ships are believed to appear sailing over land and sea, and their number sometimes foretells an enemy of equal strength, sometimes prognosticates equally numerous wrecks.1 Another legend connects a spectre-ship with the disappearance of a young man, who had gone to sea, and returned thence with a lawless companion. They were often seen sailing about in uncanny gales, and when the returned pirate died, his companion is said to have carried his body away in his chest. A tempest came up, and caused the bar in the harbor. At certain times, his large boat, in which he had been wont to cruise, would be seen coming in against wind and tide, with him, his companion, and dog. A tempest would ensue on every appearance of the spectre-ship. A tale of St. Leven, in Cornwall, relates, that a mariner, drowned at sea, appeared in a phantom-boat, and carried to sea-caverns his waiting sweetheart.

In another place on the Cornish coast, not only spectral ships, but the noise of falling spars, guns, etc., 1 Hunt.-Romances and Drolls of the West of England,

as in action, are heard during an incoming fog.1 A spectral ship is still seen, at intervals, off the coast, announcing death and disaster.2

A spectral lugger is seen in a pool, on Lizard promontory, with all sails set.3

An English revenue cutter reported, in 1845, that she had seen at sea a spectral boat, rowed by a bearded man, a noted wizard of the west of England.

Near Penrose a spectral boat, laden with smugglers, was believed to appear at times on the moor, in an equally spectral sea and a driving fog.

The spectre of a ship, that had sailed from a Devonshire port, was one day seen coming in in a cloud, disappearing little by little. The real ship soon after came in.

In the "Ancient Mariner," the spectre-ship is seen by the narrator, after killing the albatross, coming "Without a breeze, without a tide,

She steadies with upright keel."

"Those her sails that glance in the sun,

Like restless gossameres?"

On board is Death, playing at dice with a womanLife-in-Death-for the possession of the mariner's crew. She wins, whistles thrice, and

"Off shoots the spectre-bark."

The mariner's own bark is a spectre-ship, moving without wind; for

"The loud wind never reached the ship,

Yet now the ship moved on."

1 Bottrell.-Traditions and Fireside Stories of West Cornwall.

2 Harper's Magazine.

3 Bottrell.-Traditions and Fireside Stories of West Cornwall. * Coleridge's Poems.

and the ghosts of the dead crew work the ropes and steer her, she sinking on arriving in the home port, and only the Ancient Mariner escapes.

Cunningham gives us, in his charming story, the legend of the haunted ships of the Solway. Two Danish pirates, who had permission, for a time, to work deeds of crime on the deep, were at last condemned to perish here by wreck, and were seen coming in, one clear, night, one crowded with people, the other having on its deck a spectral shape, flitting about. Thus they approached the shore, and four young men put off in a boat, that had been sent from one ship, to join her, seeking to participate in the revels. When they reached her, both vessels sank where they were. Other wrecks

If

lay here also, but only these two remain unbroken. boats approach too near, fishermen say they will be drawn down to join the reveling crews. One night, a man was seen to approach the shore, dig out of the sand a brass slipper, and whirl it on the water, when it became a boat in which he went to the wrecks, and, striking them with his oar, they rose to the surface, all equipped and sails set. Lights were seen, and both vessels stood out of the harbor, sailing over Castletown shoals, like true phantom barks. On the anniversary of their wreck, they are believed to come in again, and the whole scene is re-enacted. Work is said to be done on them on dark, stormy nights.

They are generally seen before a gale. Whoever touches these wrecks will be drawn down below to them. Any one approaching them as they rise and sail out, is lost.

Another spectral vessel appears in the Solway, 1 Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, p. 338.