Inside, he saw what looked like a gathering at a Tudor court — ladies and gentlemen, all dressed in shimmering silks and glittering jewels, parading through the candlelit chamber. As they made their way in stately procession toward the altarpiece, each one seemed to suddenly dissolve, as if drawn down again beneath the stones of the floor. Among them he recognized, from her portraits, Queen Anne herself. When the last spectral figure had vanished, the light, too, was extinguished.
A short time later, the floor of the chapel was excavated, and the bones of Anne Boleyn and over two hundred other skeletons — the entire ghostly company — were found resting there.
SPECTRES OF THE SEA
If sailors are the most superstitious folk on Earth, there is good reason for it. Any voyage they take may prove to be their last. Far from land, adrift on waters many fathoms deep, at the mercy of the elements, they must rely upon themselves, their fellows, and above all luck, if they hope ever to see their home port again.
Many sailors, of course, never do. Lost at sea, their ships sunk by raging storms, monstrous waves, or murderous broadsides, these unfortunates go, instead, to a place called Davy Jones’s Locker. Ever since the eighteenth century, Davy Jones has been the sailors’ common moniker for the evil spirit of the sea, and his locker — which sailors fervently pray they will never visit — is the ocean floor.
A sailor who dies happily, on the other hand, lying in his bed on dry land, goes to a heavenly spot known as Fiddler’s Green; there, the fiddler always plays, the rum flows freely, and the women are forever willing.
Fire at sea, though a source of dread on most occasions, was in one instance an omen of good luck. Known as St. Elmo’s fire, this was the bright, glowing light, created by electrical discharge, which sheathed the masts and yardarms of a ship after a storm. According to nautical lore, St. Elmo (the patron saint of Mediterranean seamen) died in a storm at sea, but not before promising the crewmen that if they were to survive the tempest themselves he would provide them with an unmistakable sign. The sailors waited anxiously, clinging to the railings, until they saw the ball of fire, and heard it crackling atop the mast. Then they knew that the worst of the storm had passed. (If, however, St. Elmo’s fire descends to the deck itself, it is considered a bad omen; and if it glows around any particular sailor’s head, that sailor should waste no time putting his earthly affairs in order.)
Then there were the so-called fire-ships — ghostly vessels that plied the seas, forever reliving their own destruction, or carrying souls to theirs. In Celtic legend, one such ship is sometimes seen off the Isle of Eigg, sailing past at an impossible speed, blazing with fire. On the deck a lean black creature dances about, laughing and sawing away at a fiddle as if at a country dance, while from below decks can be heard the pitiful cries of the damned being conveyed to Hell.
Another fire-ship, seen only once every seven years, is reputedly captained by the sea god Manannan himself. His galley is called Wave Sweeper, and he voyages from the Isle of Man to the Hebrides, gathering up the souls of all the good men who have died and transporting them into the western sea, where the Celtic paradise was thought to lie.
The spectre known as the “Palatine light” is one of the most tragic, and well documented, of these fiery phenomena. The actual Palatine was an 800-ton, Dutch-owned vessel, which had once been used for trading between France and Spain. But over the years it had become more and more decrepit, and by 1752, when it set out on its last disastrous voyage, sailors watching it being loaded said that they could smell the rot that was eating through its timbers.
What made this all the more horrifying was that its cargo was chiefly human — 304 emigrants, traveling from Amsterdam to the New World, to a city called Philadelphia.
The captain, a drunken lout, had already acquired an unsavory reputation. This 3000-mile voyage, which he had made before, was an arduous one, and due to the lack of facilities aboard and the ever-present threat of disease, there were always a certain number of fatalities. The captain had the privilege of first claim on the personal belongings of anyone who died, and it was rumored, as a consequence, that he had hurried several of these poor souls to their death.
For this particular voyage, the captain had hatched a truly diabolical plot. He had made arrangements to wreck the ship on the shores of Block Island, where a band of scavengers would be waiting to help salvage the cargo, and after stealing the emigrants’ possessions, murder them. The proceeds were to be divvied up between the captain, his crew, and the Block Island scavengers.
But nineteen days out of Amsterdam, the captain’s patience was wearing thin. The ship was making poor progress in heavy seas, and not enough of his passengers had already died of natural causes to keep him satisfied. So he decided to hasten things along by lining the emigrants up and robbing them at gunpoint. Anyone who protested was thrown overboard. The survivors were herded below deck again where they huddled for two more months until the coast of Rhode Island was at last seen.
At this point the records of the story become confused, but it appears that the crew mutinied, perhaps with an eye to keeping the captain’s share, and killed him. Then they collected their loot, jumped into the lifeboats, and left the Palatine adrift.
The ship sailed on, unpiloted, until it crashed on the rocks of Block Island sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The scavengers were there, and they clambered aboard, stealing everything that was left and slaughtering any of the emigrants still alive. When they were done, they set fire to the ship and let the tide take the flaming wreck back out to sea. As they watched from the shore, they saw the figure of a woman, someone who had escaped their attention, racing back and forth across the blazing deck. From across the water, they could hear her shrieking in agony, screaming the name of her child, until the flames rose up around her.
By morning, the ship had disappeared completely.
Until one year later when the wraith of the Palatine, burning bright, was seen again just off the coast of Block Island, and the woman’s screams were heard again above the crashing of the waves. Nor was that the last time the Palatine light cast its eerie glow; ever since, captains in their logs have reported sighting it in the waters off Rhode Island, burning from stem to stern, and drifting aimlessly into the night.
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
There was one phantom that sailors feared above all others — a ghostly ship, with patched sails and a skeletal crew, it went by the name of the Flying Dutchman. Merely to catch sight of this ship was an ill omen for the sailors on any passing vessel.
Legend has it that the original captain was a blasphemous Dutchman who was sailing around the Cape of Good Hope when he encountered terrible headwinds that threatened to sink his ship and all aboard. The sailors warned him to turn around, the passengers pleaded, but the captain, either mad or drunk, refused to change course. Instead, he pressed on, singing loud and obscene songs, before going below to his cabin to drink beer and smoke his pipe. Monstrous waves pummeled the sides of the ship, howling winds bent the masts and tore at the sails, but still the captain held his course, challenging God Almighty to make him alter it.
Finally, there was a rebellion on board; the crew and passengers tried to take control of the ship, but the captain, roused from his drunken stupor, killed the leader of the mutiny and threw him over the side. The moment the body hit the water, the clouds parted, and a shadowy figure appeared on the quarterdeck.
“You’re a very stubborn man,” the shadow said, and the captain answered him with an oath.
“I never asked for a peaceful passage,” the captain went on. “I never asked for anything. So clear off before I shoot you, too.”
But the figure didn’t move. Drawing his pistol, the captain tried to fire, but the gun exploded in his hand. Now the figure spoke again, and told the captain he was accursed. His fate was to sail the seas for eternity, never stopping for rest or anchorage, never finding a port, but always flying before the storm.
“Gall,�
�� the shadow said, “shall be your drink, and red hot iron your meat.” Of his crew, only the cabin boy would accompany him, and “horns shall grow out of his forehead, and he shall have the muzzle of a tiger.”
The captain, reckless to the last, cried, “Amen to that!”
And so, for centuries thereafter, the Flying Dutchman was seen piloting his ghostly vessel, its canvas spread, its masts creaking in a fearful wind. Sometimes, it was said, he led other ships astray, onto rocky shoals and hidden reefs. Sometimes he was said to be responsible for turning sailors’ rations sour. His ship, looking innocent enough, would sometimes draw alongside another vessel and send letters aboard. But if the letters were opened and read, the ship would founder.
Those who saw the captain himself claimed that he was bareheaded and repentant, clutching the wheel on the quarterdeck, beseeching the heavens for mercy at last. In the rigging of his ship, some said, they could see a crew of skeletons, grinning merrily as they put on ever more sail.
Hell receiving its new tenants.
GLOSSARY
A guide to terms, titles, and proper names included in the text.
Abbadon — demon, sovereign of the Bottomless Pit
Abduscius — demon who uproots trees
Abigor — demon cavalier, skilled in secrets of war
Acheron — a monster with flaming eyes who lives in Hell
Adramalech — demon, grand chancellor, supervisor of Satan’s wardrobe
Agaliarept — demon who can discover all secrets
Alastor — executor of court decrees in Hell
Amduscias — demon of disturbing music, a grand duke of Hell
Amon — a demon, marquis of Hell
Andras — a grand marquis of Hell
Ankou — a ghostly workman with a cart, who foretold death (Brittany)
Asmodeus — the demon of lust and marital discord
Astaroth — a demon, grand duke of Hell
Astarte — grand duke, and treasurer, of Hell
Athame — the ceremonial knife used by a witch
Azazel — standard bearer of the infernal legions
Baal — demon of guile and cunning, a grand duke of Hell
Baalberith — chief secretary of Hell
banshee — ghost of a washerwoman who foretold death (Ireland)
Barbatos — a demonic duke, able to reveal hidden treasure and knowledge of the past and future
Bathory, Elizabeth — a Carpathian countess executed in 1610 for bathing in young girls’ blood
Beelzebub — Satan’s second-in-command; aka Lord of the Flies
Behemoth — the huge demon who presides over feasting in Hell
Belial — a powerful ally of Satan, and demon of lies
Bellarmine Jug — aka witch bottle, used in casting a deadly spell
Belphegor — demon who seduced men with wealth
bier right — a trial ritual, used to determine a murderer’s guilt
Bifrons — demon who moves bodies from one grave to another
Binsfeld, Peter — (c. 1540–1603) German authority on witchcraft
Black Book — a manual of magic, a grimoire
Black Shuck — a phantom hound that haunts the English countryside
Bodin, Jean — French lawyer and demonologist, author of De La Demonomanie des Sorciers (1580)
bokor — a Voodoo sorcerer
Book of Shadows — a witch’s personal book of incantations, etc.
Bune — demon who, with Bifrons, moves bodies from their graves
bune wand — Scottish word for a witch’s staff, or broomstick
Burton, Robert — (1577–1640) English clergyman and author
Cabala — originally of Jewish origin, a body of occult doctrine
Cairn — demon who gives understanding of animals and nature
Cerridwen — Druidic moon goddess
changeling — a fairy child secretly switched with a human infant
cherubim — the second highest order of the Heavenly Host
Cocytus — a frozen marsh, the ninth circle of Hell
corpse candle — an eerie light, or ignis fatuus (Wales)
Dagon — demon, baker to Hell
Dantalian — demon who turns men’s thoughts to evil
Dante Alighieri — (1265–1321) Italian poet, author of The Divine Comedy
Davy Jones’s Locker — the bottom of the sea, where drowned sailors go
Del Rio, Martin Antoine — (1551–1608) Jesuit scholar, author of a handbook on witchcraft, Disquisitionum Magicarum
Dis — the poet Dante’s name for Satan
doppelganger — “double goer” in German; a spirit double
dybbuk — in Jewish folklore, a wandering spirit
Elementals — the four elements — earth, air, fire, water — from which the universe was created
Esbat — the monthly meeting of a witches’ coven, at the time of the full moon
fairies — a race of small, supernatural creatures
familiar — evil spirit, provided to do a witch’s bidding
Faust — sixteenth-century magus who sold his soul to the devil
Fiddler’s Green — the heavenly paradise of sailors
fire-ships — spectral vessels that sail the seas forever
Flauros — demon who, with Andras, commits murder
Fleurety — Beelzebub’s lieutenant general, controls Africa
Flying Dutchman — a ghostly captain who pilots a ghostly ship for eternity
Forcas — grand president of Hell
Furfur — demon who controls thunder, lightning, strong winds
ghoul — an evil creature who robs graves and eats the dead
Gifford, George — English preacher, author of Dialogue Concerning Witches (1593)
Glasyalabolas — demon who incites men to murder
gnomes — the Elemental spirits of earth
goblins — mischievous and ugly fairies
golem — in Hebraic folklore, a monstrous man created by magic
Gomory — demon who procures love of women, especially girls
Gowdie, Isobel — Scottish witch in seventeenth century
grimoire — the magician’s handbook of incantations, etc.
Guazzo, Francesco-Maria — Italian friar, author of Compendium Maleficarum (1608)
Haborym — demon of fire and holocaust
Halpas — demon who burned towns
Hand of Glory — a magical tool created from a hanged man’s hand
homunculus — an artificial human created by alchemy
Hopkins, Matthew — (died 1647) self-appointed Witch-Finder General of England
houngan — a Voodoo priest
ignis fatuus — “foolish fire,” a will-o’-the-wisp: eerie light, generally seen over swamps and in graveyards
imps — lowly demons, often kept by witches as their familiars
Josephus, Flavius —Jewish philosopher/naturalist, in first century A.D.
Key of Solomon — the most famous grimoire, attributed to King Solomon of Israel
Klein, Johann — law professor and specialist in sexual relations between witches and the devil, author of Examen (1731)
knockers — tiny spirits who worked in the mines of Cornwall
Kramer, Heinrich — fifteenth-century Dominican, coauthor of the Malleus Maleficarum
Lamia — female demon and vampire, who preys especially on children
Lemegeton — the Lesser Key of Solomon, a handbook of magic
Leonard — demon, master of the sabbats
Lerajie — demon, clad as archer, who incites battles
Lethe — the river of forgetfulness in Hell
Leviathan — the great serpent demon of Hell, ruler of the oceans
liekkio — “flaming one,” the ghost of a child buried in the forest (Finland)
Lilin �
�� the demon children of Lilith
Lilith — queen of the succubi, and Adam’s first wife
limbo — the place where souls of virtuous pagans and unbaptized infants go
loa — in Voodoo religion, the spirits which inhabit the world
loubin — a haunter of cemeteries, or feeder on corpses (France)
loup-garou — a werewolf (France)
Lucifer — angel who rebelled against God, and fell from heaven; Satan
Lucifuge Rofocale — prime minister of Hell
lupin — a werewolf-like creature, which haunts graveyards
lycanthropy — the changing of men into werewolves
main-de-gloire — elf created from mandrake root (France)
Malebolge — the eighth ring of Hell, reserved for Fraudulence and Malice
Malebranche — the “evil clawed” demons in Dante’s Inferno
maleficia — misfortune and injuries caused by witches
Malleus Maleficarum — The Witches’ Hammer by Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, a manual on witchcraft (1486)
Mammon — demon of riches and covetousness
mandrake — a plant thought to possess magical powers
Marbas — demon who can cause, or cure, disease
mare — aka nightmare, a demon that perches on the chest during sleep
Marlowe, Christopher — (1564–1593) English playwright, author of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
Melchom — demon, treasurer for princes in houses of Hell
Mephistopheles — demon who served Faust for twenty-four years
mermaids — half-woman, half-fish creatures who lived in the sea
mermen — the male equivalent of the mermaid