Summer is coming (eventually, we promise), which means many New Englanders will head to Block Island for a beautiful, relaxing vacation. But if you happen to be walking along the shores at night and think you see a strange light flickering in the distance, it’s probably not your imagination. Block Island has its own ghost ship legend, and it’s quite the tale.

Block Island is Rhode Island's top vacation destination. But in the 1700s, it was a more sinister place.
David Wilson / Flickr
Rumor has it that early Block Islanders had some rather pirate-like tendencies.
Due to the rumors that Block Islanders were less than hospitable, not to mention the inconvenient location that left it prone to wrecks, the ships tended to avoid Block Island if they could help it.
Michael Levine-Clark / Flickr
But unfortunately, that wasn't always possible.
Dec. 27, 1738, a ship called the Princess Augusta was transporting immigrants from the territory that would become Germany when it wrecked on the island.
John K Thorne / Flickr
The sailing had not been smooth from the start — passengers were getting sick and dying from contaminated water onboard. Then, the ship ran ashore. There are two versions of what happened next.

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In one version of the story, the locals helped the surviving ship passengers and crew, took them in, and helped them retrieve their belongings. Eventually, they buried the 20 people who had died in the wreck.
JJBers / Flickr
The other version is much darker... some claim the islanders lured the ship to shore with false light, looted the ship, murdered the passengers, and set the ship on fire.
A deposition taken from the ship's crew shortly after the incident seems to back up the happier version of the story. But in 1867, a poet named John Greenleaf Whittier wrote ''The Palatine," a poem detailing the atrocities and murders of the shipwreck.
Capture d’Emotions / Flickr
The poem is disturbing, but it has never been proven. In fact, aside from official records of the ship running ashore and a few recorded statements from the crew, there's not much information on what really happened.
While full-on ship apparitions during the week of Christmas and the sounds of screaming passengers have been reported by locals in the past, they were most popular in the 1800s, after Whittier's poem was written.
Alexander Rabb / Flickr
However, some do claim to still see strange, inexplicable lights in the area at night. And if you talk to someone whose family has lived on the island for generations, you're practically guaranteed to hear a ghost ship sighting story.

Have you ever seen anything strange at Block Island? As much of a stretch as it is to imagine Rhode Island having pirates, we can’t forget that the Ocean State is also famous for its vampires.

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