The Legend Of the Palatine
Dozens of reputable witnesses claim to have heard the terrible screams that were coming from the ghost ship Palatine just 5 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. John Greenleaf Whitter committed the legend of poetry, and the story of the ghostly ship has found its way into several formal histories of New England.
The story of the tragic ship Palatine and her final voyage goes back to November 1752. With a full passenger list of immigrants, all bound for Philadelphia, the vessel set sail from a Dutch port. The immigrantscarried all their worldly possessions because none of them planned on ever leaving the New World.The voyage was uneventful until the Palatine recent vicinity of the Gulf Stream, at that point it seemed as if the entire fury of the whole Atlantic Ocean was hurled upon them. Storm after storm smashed against the ill-fated ship, dried it off course and into uncharted seas. To make matters worse the captain had become ill shortly after the Palatine had set out and the sheer volume of waves caused him to be bed stricken after the storm. With their captain in bed unable to perform his normal duties the crew began the slack off. For weeks the ship was a mauled by the vicious sea and the crew did little to make sure the course was maintained. Without the captain at the helm the crew went below deck to seek shelter from the storm and let the waves decide the Palatine's course.
When the captain died a few weeks later, all hope was lost for the ship's passengers. Ambitious young officers then seized control of all provisions and unless passengers were able to pay exorbitant prices for meager rations of food and water and they started to death and were cast overboard. The supplies finally gave out entirely right around Christmas time. The crew took to the lifeboats in the dead of night abandoning the passengers who were still alive aboard the ship. The Palatine drifted for several more days, until it finally ran aground on the sandy shore of Block Island. The majority of the surviving passengers had suffered such severe mental breakdowns due to conditions that some had turned to cannibalism amongst other live passengers.
The Islanders for their own safety did not allow the survivors to enter the towns instead force them to stay along the shore lines. Desperate to rid themselves of these castaways villagers began to work on the Palatine only to have the ship blown adrift by a sudden storm. In his haste to leave the ship, one of the men working on it accidentally tipped over a brazier of coals. Flames began leaping upward from the now dry timber and workers aboard the ship began to scramble to their boats. As they rowed towards the shore, the Islanders looked towards the Palatine which was now fully and often flames. They heard screams of people who were now burning alive. It seems some of the passengers who were not allowed entry to the villages had been living on the ship and now were meeting their doom.
Some of claimed there was a witch aboard the ship who placed a spell allowing the ship to come back one night a year in order for the victims of the tragedy to attempt to make their way to the nearby villages and take out a vengeance among those who did not render aid. To mark the terrible tragedy the Islanders erected a sign that simply says Palatine 1752 at the spot where it ran aground. To this day on overcast nights some Islanders still claim to hear crying at the marker.
The workmen knew the flames were too intense for any type of rescue effort so they did nothing other than praying for the souls of the passengers. They watched horrified as the wind pushed the vessel out to sea and eventually out of sight. In it's flames the Palatine sailed into legend. Historians have documented nearly 10,000 claims of individuals who have said to have seen the Palatine return to the sea near the island every year on the anniversary of her destruction. There have even been reports from various Navy officials who have claimed to be the lights on several occasions. They say there is a blazing fire the size of the ship which appears near the shore, it slowly recedes until there's just a tiny light upon the horizon.
The more I hear about the drama between Robert Bess and Ghost Adventures the more I think there’s more going on behind the scenes than many people know. I originally was on the Ghost Adventures side in regards to this drama but the more I think of it why not just accept it I mean if he is a fake like the GAC claims what does accepting the challenge hurt?
