Spectral Keepers of the Lights

Win a Week at Nubble Light

According to a story in Seacoast Online, the Sohier Park Committee and the York Parks and Recreation director, are in the early stages of implementing a plan designed to raise funds for repairing the Nubble and Sohier Park. The proposed plan is to run an annual raffle, in which 1,000 tickets would be sold at $100 each, raising $100,000 to beautify the park, improve safety and help fund repairs. One person would be chosen at random and would spend one week living in the caretaker’s house, which is attached to the lighthouse.

Although there are no known ghosts associated with Cape Neddick (Maine) Lighthouse, commonly known as Nubble Light, there is a ghost ship that can be seen from the island. In fact, the wreck of the Isidore in 1842 was the main reason the lightstation was commissioned, although it took almost forty years to finally get it built.

Two nights before it set sail, one of the Isidores’s fifteen crewmen, a Thomas King, dreamed about a wreck and drowning sailors. He begged the captain of the ship, Leander Foss, to be dismissed, then hid when the ship sailed, even though he’d been paid a month in advance, and risked being imprisoned by not sailing. The night before she sailed, another sailor dreamed about seven coffins and saw himself in one of them.

The Isidore ran into snow almost immediately after leaving port when a gale blew in. She made it only 12 miles south, and her wreckage was found washed ashore the following morning. Fisherman reported seeing a ghost ship with a phantom crew for many years afterward, and even now the patrons of the resort hotel there at the crash site talk often of the ghost ship, though few know the details of the story. The morning following the ship’s wreck, fragments of the ship were scattered around Cape Neddick. There were no survivors; seven bodies were recovered; one was the sailor who dreamed of coffins. Foss’ body was never recovered.

Fisherman reported seeing a ghost ship with a phantom crew for many years afterward, and even now the patrons of the resort hotel there at the crash site talk often of the ghost ship, though few know the details of the story.

I found the lyrics to a song written by guitarist Harvey Reid, a local singer/guitarist and songwriter, entitled, The Wreck of the Isidore. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a sound sample of it, but the lyrics tell the story.

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