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resident of Pictou Island, remembers the first and only time he saw the burning vessel. He was sitting in his favourite chair, looking out of the kitchen window. Ernie smiled when telling me what he saw on the Strait. “I was just a little boy and I remember it was at night and all the family were outside in front of the house looking southeast—watching the burning ship. I remember it was a mass of flames.”
    Another witness of the phantom ship is Margaret McMaster of Caribou, Nova Scotia. Margaret sighted the ship in 1939 while on her honeymoon. “You could see fire shooting up from the mast,” Margaret exclaimed, “but we didn’t see any bodies on it like some have reported. It was moving in a southeasterly direction and sailing on the tide. It was eerie, alright.” Margaret also remembers hearing the story of rumrunners who were racing across the Strait with a full load of liquor. The rum boat was sailing in the wake of the phantom ship and the captain and crew decided once and for all to unravel the mystery. So they staid the course and sailed right into what Margaret described as a rosy phosphorus-like glow. The crew then realized they had sailed right through the ghostly vessel.
    Margaret McMaster is not the only member of her family who has seen the phantom ship. Her son Ed witnessed it as a young boy. He and his companion were bicycling one evening when they were astounded by the illumination over the waters of the Strait. When I sat down with Ed, he told me that what he had seen was hard to explain: “ It was different from anything I had ever seen. There was fire, but no smoke. You could see the flames leaping up the rigging. We got the hell out of there quick as we could. It was an eerie experience, I tell you.”
    Is there an explanation for this phantom ship phenomenon? Could it be likened to St Elmo’s fire—a flame-like electrical phenomenon seen in the rigging of ships and along the wings of airplanes? There have been several theories put forth, but none that can satisfy or change the minds of those who have seen the phantom ship.
    Some believe the ship is the Fairie Queen that sunk in a violent storm in 1853.
    Who really knows for sure. What we do know is that the phantom ship of the Northumberland Strait will remain, until proven otherwise, one of the Maritime Mysteries of all time.
    The Woman in White
    M any Maritimers are familiar with the story of the phantom ship that burns while sailing over the waters of the Northumberland Strait, but what about the woman in white who is seen standing on wind-swept cliffs of Nova Scotia’s Pictou Island? Is there a connection?
    Those who have seen the burning ship have also reported seeing the woman in white at the same time. They say that her arms are outstretched as if reaching for some lost soul aboard the doomed ship. Some believe that she is the lost soul.
    Pictou Island is about five miles long and two miles wide. There is only one road on it and it runs the length of the island. The island itself is some ten miles from the mainland of Nova Scotia. At one time, there were about thirty families living on Pictou Island, who made their living by way of the sea and land. Most of the young people are gone; they left for mainland opportunities. Today, there are but a handful of people left and they are mostly elderly.
    While visiting the island a few years back, I sat in Ernie Rankin’s kitchen and listened to his stories of long ago; stories of his youth and of the only time he saw the burning ship of Northumberland Strait. His eyes sparkled and a slow smile spread across his broad and friendly face when I asked if he had ever seen the woman in white. “No,” he said, “but I know of a young man who did. I won’t tell you his name because of what happened to him—it would embarrass the lad. It was dark when this young man was walking home one night along that lonely road. Suddenly, out of