The Moncton Transcript, Tuesday October 14, 1969
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Phantom Ship of Bay Chaleur Area Sighted Again
By Ken Saunders
Staff Writer

(suite)

The flaming craft was grounded near the mouth of the Restigouche River with all hands lost, except for two boys, floating to shore in a barrel.

Others say the fire ship is the ghost of a warship set afire by bursting shells during the war of 1812.

But there are also other explanations for those who don't believe, or don't want to admit they believe, in ghosts. Of course none of the theories giving a more conventional explanation of the phenomenon has been proven.

One New Brunswick scholar, Dr. W. G. Ganong, expounded his ideas in Natural History and Physiography of New Brunswick, published in 1907. He outlined his theory in a series of five steps:

-A physical light is frequently seen over the waters of Bay of Chaleur and vicinity.

-It occurs at all seasons, or at least in winter as well as in summer.

-It usually precedes a storm.

-Its usual form is roughly hemispherical with the flat side to the water, and at times it simply grows without much change of form, but at other times it rises into slender moving columns, giving rise to an appearance capable of interpretation as the flaming rigging of a ship, its vibrating and dancing movements increasing the illusion.

-Its origin is probably electrical and it is very likely a phase of the phenomenon known as St. Elmo's Fire.

Other scientist reject the St. Elmo's Fire aspect of Dr. Ganong's theory. They point out that St. Elmo's Fire, electricity slowly discharged from the atmosphere to the earth, usually shows itself as a tip of light on a pointed object, such as a church steeple or a mast. It is also accompanied by a crackling noise.

Dr. Ganong's dissenters say, however, that the Bay of Chaleur apparition is not attracted by pointed objects, appearing only over expanses of water, and it is silent. Others believe the Fire Ship to be inflammable gas which may be released from an underwater seam that litters Miscou Island's white beaches with lumps of bituminous coal.

But if this theory is accepted, what ignites the gas? Why can it not be approached? Why does it move away from chasing boats?

Oh yes, it has been chased. One night, several years ago, it sailed past Lameque on Shippagan Island. A group of fishermen decided to give pursuit, and they did, all the way to the Quebec side of the bay. And they never gained an inch.

Another idea is that the Fire Ship is a form of phosphorescent sea life.

Biologists discount the theory though because the Fire Ship has been seen in winter when the bay waters are frozen.

A Pokemouche woman, Mrs. Marie Allard, who lived to the age of 104, was an amateur photographer in the tin type days. She often tried to photograph the ship but never succeeded. Neither has anyone else.

Mrs. Allard called the apparition the bad weather light and said it did not have the shape of a ship. She said it was a light which rose from the water before a gale. Her son also felt it to be a weather light and added, it is simply a ball of fire "that our scientists will explain some day."

Scientists, nor anyone else, have explained it yet, but people keep on seeing it.

"I saw the Fire Ship twice" says a Bathurst area farmer. "It looked exactly like a three-master, full-rigged vessel with sails ablazing. There were tiny things squirming up through the flames -black things like men climbing the rigging."

In 1937, the phantom dropped southward to pay a visit to the Northumberland Strait.

Said a Tracadie man, who saw it, "I could see the rigging burning and men hurrying around the deck as though fighting the flames. Some were climbing the masts and some were in the shrouds. They were apparently living men, but of course it was an illusion."

Another man, a Shippagan veered off its course and Island fisherman, claims the Phantom Ship nearly lured him to his death.

On that occasion, the phantom was a small fishing vessel and was not burning.

"I was out fishing fall herring," the fisherman later related. "A thick fog blew in and I started for port. There was a boat ahead of me so I decided to follow it ashore. Suddenly I realized I was almost on top of a treacherous reef.

"I also realized that if the boat I was following was a real boat I couldn't possibly see it - not through a peasoup fog. Yet I could see it plainly. It was the Fire Ship, nothing else."

A Perth resident saw it during 1958 at Salmon Beach. She was awakened early one morning. "I thought it was the reflection of a fire at first" she remembers.

"But then l realized it was on the water and the flames were rising from the outline of a ship." She said it faded in the lights of a passing car.

Another woman, who saw it early the same year, described the flames as flaring up and then dying down repeatedly in something like drill precision. It also appeared to her as a ship with its sails ablaze.

Her next door neighbour, who had seen the apparition on earlier occasion, said. "It seemed to be riding the water, but not going anywhere... I do not believe in ghost ships, but don't ask me what it was. I don't know.

Nearly four years ago the Phantom Ship veered a long way off its usual stamping grounds, showing up near New Glasgow, N.S.

A family, driving in the region of Jock's Hill on the Pictou Landing Road, described the apparition as "a ball of fire on the waters of the Northumberland Strait."

"I've neer seen anything like it before," said the father, "I checked the position of the light and found it was about 10 miles out, close to the water and to the right of Pictou lsland.

"It was definiteIy not a lighthouse. The light we saw was in the shape of a half-moon and was a dark red glow."

Ghost ships are not unusual. Folklorist Helen Creighton, in her book Bluenose Ghosts, tells of many, particularly around Nova Scotia. One is quite similar to the Bay Chaleur phantom and appears in the Mahone Bay area.

Miss Creighton writes, "Most phantom ships are presumed to be connected, with buried treasure."

Just possibly then, a treasure may lay hidden in the Bay of Chaleur region, and the Phantom Ship appears periodically to check on it.

But, no matter whether the phantom is natural or supernatural, it is a thorough interesting subject, and as Dr. Ganong has written, "It is plain that in this phenomenon we have a subject which invites accurate investigation."

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