The phantom ship of Northumberland Strait

Two centuries of multiple-witness sightings, no settled explanation

For two centuries people on both shores of the strait, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, have reported a three-masted sailing ship burning on the water, sometimes with figures moving in the rigging, that vanishes when boats go out to it. Sightings are numerous, some by multiple witnesses at once, and often come before a storm. The usual explanations are marsh gas, St Elmo’s fire, or a mirage of distant lights over cold water, and none of them fully satisfies anybody. One of the most persistently reported apparitions in Atlantic Canada.