Extrait de The History of Caraquet and Pokemouche by William Francis Ganong
Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S.C.
Historical Studies No.6
The New Brunswick Museum, Saint John
1948

While speaking of the natural phenomena of Caraquet, we must not omit mention of another that has recently aroused somewhat wide interest: the fire-ship. Everybody in Caraquet has heard of it, and many claim to have seen it. Stripped of all fancies, the stories seem to hold a kernel of truth, tending to show that a curious light does appear on the bay at times, especially before a storm, and has a form which may be imagined into the shape of a burning boat. Science, of course, will hear of no mysterious explanation, but would hold that it is a natural phenomenon, probably electric, somewhat like the Saint Elmo's fire seen at sea about the masts of ships. It is all fully discussed from the scientific view-point in the "Bulletin of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick," Volume V, page 419.

...The information I have myself been able to collect from those who have seen the light is as follows. Of course I have sifted all testimony to the best of my ability, eliminating all exaggerations and embellishments, whether these be due to the habit of all humanity to make a story as big and good as possible, or to the common tendency to gull an impressionable stranger, or to mere ignorance, superstition or mendacity.

Four years ago Captain Turner of Riverside, Albert County, a clear-headed sea captain, told me, in answer to my mention of the fire-ship as a freak of the imagination, that he had himself seen it and hence knew it to exist. Later on my first visit to Caraquet, I was told by a lady in whose word I have absolute confidence, that her attention was attracted one night by a light off Caraquet, which looked so much like a vessel afire that she supposed it to be one of her husband's schooners, and called in alarm, only to find out that it was the fire-ship. A prominent resident of Miscou, Mr. James Harper, told me he has seen it but once, in the winter on the ice off Clifton. It was seemingly some miles away and kept rising and falling, dying down to a very small scarcely visible flame, then rising slowly into a column "looking thirty feet high." It was not in the form of a ship, but a column, but people told him it was the fire-ship. He was told it preceded a storm, but he took notice that no storm followed. Mr. Robert Wilson of Miscou, who sails much on Bay Chaleur, tells me he has seen the fire-ship, (or as he calls it, the "burning ship") several times. The time he was nearest it was about eleven years ago off Caraquet on a very dark night. The light appeared ahead, and finally he came near and passed within one hundred yards to windward of it, so that he saw it with perfect clearness. It was somewhat the shape of a half-moon resting on the water, flat side down, or like a vessel on the water with a bowsprit but no masts, etc., and "all glowing like a hot coal." He dared not run nearer and passed it, keeping his eyes upon it until far beyond.

On other occasions he has seen it, at various distances, and has come to pay little attention to it. Sometimes it looked somewhat like a ship, sometimes not, and sometimes it vanished while he was watching it. Usually it is dancing or vibrating. Again he has seen it as one tail light which would settle down and rise again as three, which would again settle, and so on. Recently I have been told by Dr. J. Orne Green of Boston, whose connection with Miscou is mentioned below, that Mr. Wilson reports seeing the light this (1905) autumn; it appeared ahead of his boat as he sailed up the bay, vanished as he neared it, and in a few minutes re-appeared astern. Mr. Andrew Wilson, another leading resident of Miscou has also seen it, when it resembled a whaleboat, not a ship, in form. Mr. McConnell, keeper of the light at Miscou Gulley, tells me that he has seen the fire-ship, about two miles away, but it did not look to him like a ship, but more like a big bonfire. Several others have told me that they have seen it, (the great majority of the residents in the region averring that they have seen it at one time or another), most of them agreeing that at times it looks like a ship on fire, but that at other times more like a round light. All agree that it usually precedes a storm, and is seen over the ice in winter as well as over the water in summer. On the other hand, other trustworthy residents of Miscou, notably Mr. James Bruno and Mr. Ed. Vibert, both of whom sail much on the bay, tell me they have never seen it, and do not believe in its existence.

So much for local testimony. But it receives confirmation from another source. For many years past Dr. J. Orne Green of Boston, a Professor in the Harvard Medical School, has spent several weeks on Miscou and has taken a great interest in all that relates to the region. He tells me that he has himself seen a light which he was told was the fire-ship. Many years ago when running at night towards Caraquet, he saw a fire off in the bay, and called the attention of his companions to it, but finally thought it must be a woods fire on the north side of the bay. Reaching Caraquet, however, he found the people excited, because they said the fire-ship was out in the bay. He told them of his belief that it was a woods fire, but they declared this could not be, because it had moved. The wind at the time was gentle, from the south-west, but it was followed the next day by a great northwester. His interest being thus aroused Dr. Green, in later years, attempted to investigate the phenomenon. He found that was reported not only in Bay Chaleur but also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far south as Northumberland Straits. He came to the conclusion that while the stories were mostly exaggerated and distorted there was nevertheless some basis for them in fact, and that there does occur in this region some natural light of the general nature of "St. Elmo's Fire," This was exactly the conclusion to which I had come independently, as stated in this note when originally read before this Society.

Grouping together all the evidence it seems plain, -- first, that a physical light is frequently seen over the waters of Bay Chaleur and vicinity; second, that it occurs at all seasons, or at least in winter as well as in summer; third, that it usually precedes a storm; fourth, that its usual form is roughly hemispherical with the flat side to the water, and that at times it simply glows without much change of form, but that 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; fifth, its origin is probably electrical, and it is very likely a phase of the phenomenon known to sailors as St. Elmo's Fire...

W.F. Ganong.
Bulletin of Natural History Society of New Brunswick.
Vol V. page 419.

Université de Moncton, Centre d'études acadiennes, Fonds Catherine-Jolicoeur, 63.022