Case file · Ghost light · Road, bridge or woods
The Palatine Light
Also known as Ghost ship Palatine, Princess Augusta wreck, The Burning Ship of Block Island
A burning ship is said to appear off Block Island each winter, recalling the 1738 wreck of an immigrant ship and the dead who were buried ashore.
On 27 December 1738 (folklore says the 26th) the Princess Augusta, a British ship of about 220 tons, ran aground at Sandy Point at the northern tip of Block Island in a snowstorm. She had sailed from Rotterdam with roughly 240 German immigrants bound for Philadelphia, often called Palatines, which is why the wreck later took the name Palatine. Contaminated water and fever killed about 200 people on the crossing, including the captain, George Long. First mate Andrew Brook took command.
What happened next is where history and legend split. Crew depositions found in 1925 and reprinted in 1939 say Brook made passengers pay for remaining food, and that he rowed ashore with the crew, leaving the passengers aboard. The New England Historical Society, reading the same depositions, says islanders then persuaded him to bring the surviving passengers ashore and nursed them; about 20 who died afterwards were buried on the island, and a marker was placed in 1947. The ship may have been burned or scuttled, or it may have been repaired and sailed on.
The darker version came much later. The poet John Greenleaf Whittier heard from Joseph P. Hazard of Newport, in 1865, a tale that islanders lured the ship with false lights, plundered it and set it on fire with a woman still aboard. Whittier’s poem appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1867. Islanders were angry: Samuel Livermore’s 1877 island history called the portrayal of a law-abiding community as pirates intolerable and set out to refute it. Tellers also named the woman who refused to leave as Mary Vanderline.
The light itself has been reported for generations. The earliest account cited by the New England Historical Society is Dr. Aaron Willey’s in 1811, and locals have sporadically said they see a burning ship on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year’s, sometimes with screams. Historian Jill Farinelli, in a book reviewed by the Massachusetts Historical Society, argues that the full legend grew with 19th-century Spiritualism, island tourism and writers who retold the wreck, and that what witnesses saw is unknown.
What people report
A glowing ship that appears to burn off the north end of the island around the days between Christmas and New Year’s; some tellers add screams of a woman.
Where and when
The sea off Sandy Point and the island’s north end, near the marker reading “Palatine Graves – 1738.”
Timeline of the haunting
- 27 December 1738Princess Augusta wrecked at Sandy Point Block Island, Rhode Island
The immigrant ship runs aground in a snowstorm after a voyage on which about 200 passengers had died.
- 1811Dr. Aaron Willey’s account of the light Block Island, Rhode Island
A physician’s description of the burning ship is the earliest observation cited by the New England Historical Society.
- 1867Whittier’s poem Boston, Massachusetts
John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem in the Atlantic Monthly turns the wreck into a story of wreckers and murder.
- 1877Livermore’s island history Block Island, Rhode Island
The island historian rejects Whittier’s account and argues that residents helped the survivors.
- 1925Crew depositions discovered Rhode Island
Sworn statements from the survivors shift the story toward a mundane wreck and rescue.
- 1947Marker placed Block Island, Rhode Island
The island historical society marks the graves of the Palatine dead.
What could explain it?
- The documented wreck is real, but the wreckers and murder story comes secondhand through a poem and is contradicted by the crew depositions.
- Wikipedia notes that no wreck remains have been found and some evidence suggests the Augusta was repaired and sailed on; a Rhode Island preservation official is quoted saying no physical evidence supports the burial claims.
- Farinelli suggests the legend grew with tourism and Spiritualism, and the Massachusetts Historical Society review notes that researchers remain unsure what produced the appearance of a burning ship.
Ghost tours, books and screen
Whittier’s The Palatine, the folklore of New England coastal ghost ships, and Jill Farinelli’s The Palatine Wreck keep the story alive.
Places to visit
A marker on the island reads “Palatine Graves – 1738”; the New England Historical Society describes the site.
Where it’s reported
Sources
First published · Updated
