The Ship Harbor Trail on Mount Desert Island in Maine has long been rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of victims of a shipwreck that left few survivors during the winter months. We'll take a closer look at why this is most likely an error.
Not only do ghosts roam the southwestern side of Mount Desert Island in Acadia National Park, but there is also a part of the park that is believed to have been cursed after a shipwreck in 1739 that involved more than 200 people and cost the lives of most of the crew.
The Ship Harbor Trail is today seen as a family-friendly hike, forming a figure-8 loop through dense spruce forests and a rocky headland in the Maine park, but it used to be a death sentence, especially during the winter months.
Along the main coast, unruly waters have caused many deaths and destroyed many ships, and although we don't really know why it is called Ship Harbor, as it is a very misleading name in this story, it is possible that it was once a place where tiny ships they may seek refuge in the bay. It may also refer to the shipwreck that this story is about.
The grand design of a wrecked ship
The most common story about the Ship Harbor Trail goes as follows:
In 1739, the ship was wrecked and the surviving sailors sought refuge in the area now called Ship Harbor. It was an English ship called the Grand Design that was carrying Irish immigrants to Pennsylvania. In October everything went wrong.
They reached the continent by swimming through the icy waters, but saw that the area was uninhabited. Their supplies were running low, food was insufficient, and disease was spreading among the crew. Half of the original group died because of this before a ship from the English settlement in Thomaston, Maine finally arrived and rescued the few survivors.
The bodies of those who died were buried in unmarked graves in the area, although where exactly? Who knows, although the tourist trails probably run over them. What happened to those seeking aid remains a mystery, perhaps even a terrible one.
Historical inaccuracies regarding the wreck
But how much truth is there in this story? It happened so long ago in such a remote area and we don't really know much about it beyond hearsay. Despite this, the legend is repeated in many haunted legends from the area.
In 2008, a marine survey even led to theories and debate among historians about whether the Grand Design disaster even happened in the area. This legend is based on the research of historian Cyrus Eaton.
The Grand Project was in fact a relocation program of Scots and Irish pursued by the Church of England in order to lure them away from their land in the hope of a recent place with religious freedom.
One of the reasons there isn't much written record of this is because there was a war between England and France at the time and, to keep a low profile, they sailed off unofficially under the command of the corrupt Captain Rowen. In 1758, a man became governor of North Carolina, even though he was the direct cause of so many deaths.
The true story of a survivor
However, it turns out that this story is mainly related to the ship Martha and Eliza, which was wrecked at Grand Manan in the Bay of Fundy, now part of New Brunswick, Canada. It was a 90-foot-long, misty bark often used to transport passengers and goods from Ireland to the colonies. He set out from Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in July 1741, bound for Newcastle, Pennsylvania.
The ship had about 200 paying passengers, which put it under strain, and after four weeks of travel, the ship was caught in a hurricane and drifted in the North Atlantic for weeks, struggling with starvation, fever, and death. On October 28, they came ashore on one of the islands around Grand Manan, which, according to local lore, is home to over 250 shipwrecks.
The captain and his crew left the passengers there and went for a drink at Fort Frederick in Pemaquid. 35 men tried to cross to the mainland to seek aid but never returned.
The captain and his crew returned a month later to plunder the ship, and when the survivors asked for rescue, they took only 48 of them to Cushing, where, as payment for the rescue, they took everything they owned.
The people of Cushing, many of them Irish, welcomed them, however, and rescued almost the rest of the survivors in behind schedule December, after one group complained to the governor in Boston.
Native American Rescue in the Holy Land
The last few were sent to another place on the island, and in April, Native Americans, the Passamaquoddy, found them and organized a rescue operation for them, risking their own lives by crossing over 100 miles in open boats.
The last survivors included nine women and a mother with a tiny child who ate shellfish and dulce.
The island was sacred to them because they worshiped Dawn, the daughter of the sea and sky deities. She was chased by a pack of wolves and fell into the sea before transforming into an island where the survivors spent a cool winter.
Perhaps this was what led them to rescue them rather than sell them to the French, believing that Dawn had protected the women herself over the winter.
Haunted rumors on the Ship Harbor trail
Today, the site is no longer so remote, and it is said that 300 to 400 people walk the Ship Harbor Trail every day. Historical accuracy or not, ghost legends are still alive and well. Some of them claim to have seen or heard what they believe must be the ghost of survivors.
The ghost left behind by the rest of the crew is said to haunt the park, and people hiking the trail claim to have heard ghostly howls, desperate, still cool and hungry.
But the question remains. If there were no survivors on the island, what do people think haunts the Ship Harbor Trail?
Reference:
A great project, a wreck, betrayal and the rescue of the Indians
'The Grand Design' Lured 18th-Century Immigrants to Tragic End – Working Waterfront Archive
The Acadia Ship Harbor is the perfect location for year-round hiking along the Maine coast
Acadia National Park – Ship Harbor Trail – Maine Trail Finder
Boat Trail (U.S. National Park Service)
The Ship Harbor Nature Trail in Maine is said to be haunted by the spirits of those who died here
Image Source: Pixabay.com
