FtV – The Ghost Ship Dash of Casco Bay
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Offer ends July 15th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details. Welcome, legendary listeners. Thanks for tuning in to From the Vault, a second look at some of our classic episodes. Look for a new episode every week. Now, can you go back and listen on your own at OurNewEnglandLegends.com? You bet.

But you won't get the added bonus of an After the Legends segment featuring new commentary about that episode from your old pals Jeff and Ray. So let's open up the New England Legends vault and revisit another legendary episode. Hey, welcome to the vault, kids. We are back in the vault and so glad you're here with us. Heading out to sea for this one for the Ghost Ship Dash of Casco Bay. First aired November 12th, 2020. Enjoy.

It is cold up here in Freeport. Yeah. This November wind is whipping in from the northeast, Jeff. Northeastern wind is a bad sign here in New England. It means a nor'easter might be brewing up. Yeah, and this is not an ideal day to be standing on the shores of Maine looking out over Casco Bay. Well, then I have good news and bad news for you, Ray. Okay, well, give me the good news first. We won't be standing on these wind-whipped shores very long. Excellent. What's the bad news? Well, the bad news is we're going to get on board a sailboat...

and head out into this potential storm in search of a ghost ship called Dash. I'm Jeff Belanger, and welcome to episode 169 of the New England Legends podcast. If you give us about 10 minutes, we'll give you something strange to talk about today. And I'm Ray Osher. If you've been with us for the last 169 consecutive weeks, then you already know we're on a mission to chronicle every legend in New England. All of them.

Yeah. And we need your help to do that. We love when you share your story leads with us, either through our super secret Facebook group, by calling or texting our legend line at 617-444-9683, or reaching out to us through our free New England Legends app that you can download on your smart device,

right now. The app, developed by Forest City Marketing, features an interactive map with pins and driving directions to every story we've ever covered. And we'd also like to thank our Patreon patrons for being the financial backbone of everything we do. Thank you. These legendary listeners kick in just three bucks per month, though some give a little more, and they get early access to our new episodes, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. So head over to patreon.com slash newenglandlegends

to help us out and become an even bigger part of the movement. Oh man, we're going to climb in a boat in this weather? Well, we can't look for a ghost ship on land, Ray. That's a good point, but this seems dangerous. Life at sea is dangerous, but that's where we might find the ghost ship called Dash. Out at sea. Though others say you can watch her sail into Casco Bay when a loved one from someone lost aboard the ship is getting ready to pass on. But since we can't predict when that'll happen...

Get your sea legs ready, Ray. We're heading out in the ocean. All right, let's head back to 1812 and set this up. It's June 18th, 1812, and this young nation called the United States of America is once again at war.

Life on the Atlantic Ocean just got tougher for American merchant ships, ships like Dash out of Freeport, Maine. Dash is owned by Seward and William Porter. She's a brig, 223 tons, and built for speed. On her maiden voyage down the American coast, it's clear she's well-named. She's fast.

Really fast. She's rigged as a top-sail schooner and armed with a long .32 pivot gun and six broadside guns. The ship sails from Maine down to the Caribbean, usually carrying lumber and returning with cargoes of coffee. Still, these are dangerous waters between the West Indies and New England. British ships are all too happy to pick off a vessel if they can.

But Dash is speedy. Her guns are only a last resort if she can't outrun her attackers. The Dash spends the first two years of her life as a merchant ship, running from Maine to southern cities, often to Port-au-Prince in Haiti.

She has a few encounters with British ships, but she's quick enough to outrun them. But her speed depends on a regular treatment to the bottom of the ship. What kind of regular treatment? Well, British ships have the money to line the bottom of their keels with copper, which helps speed them through the water. Because copper is hard to come by, at each port, Dash needs to be turned on its side, and an application of soap and tallow is applied to the bottom to achieve the same result.

The soap and wax reduces drag and makes the ship even faster. Got it. Well, that's kind of clever. So the ship is always going to be faster at the start of a voyage, right after the treatment, compared to near the end of the voyage because the soap and tallow are going to wear off in the water. Exactly. So Dash is making her journeys from port to port and outrunning the British when she has to. But as the war heats up, it's clear more ships are needed for more aggressive purposes. Exactly.

British ships are attacking just about any American vessel they can in an effort to disrupt supply lines, commerce and the country.

In June of 1814, Dash is overhauled for her new, modified purpose. The small guns are removed and two 8-pound cannons are added, as well as some other alterations to turn this ship from a merchant vessel into a true privateer warship. On June 18, 1814, exactly two years after war was declared, Dash receives official notice that she's to begin her new life.

Here, Jeff, you can read the official commission. Okay. It says, quote, the commission authorizes Captain Cammett to detain, seize, and take all vessels and effects to whomsoever belonging, which shall be liable thereto according to the law of nations and the rights of the United States as a power at war, and to bring the same within some port of the United States in order that due processing may be had thereon.

The commission bears the signature of James Madison, President, and that of James Monroe, Secretary of State. Under the command of Captain William Cammett, Dash still makes merchant runs, but she's now authorized to seize any British ship she can and keep the spoils for the trouble. This is a tough time for the shipping business, but especially for the Porter brothers who own Dash. Now when cargo is picked up and sold for a profit, everyone makes money.

But on some voyages, when British ships are chasing the heavily laden Dash, the only way to increase speed is to decrease cargo. And when you throw that cargo overboard to lighten the load, you also throw out the profits with it. The real money is in the capture of another ship. It can mean the difference between bankruptcy and striking it rich. On August 21, 1814, Dash sees her chance off the shores of Bermuda when she spots a sail.

It's a ship called Five Sisters, headed from Jamaica to Bermuda and loaded with rum and cocoa. $6,000 worth of goods. By the time Dash sails back to Maine, the company is profitable again. In the coming months, more ships are captured, and business is good for the Dash and her owners. They're making a name for themselves as one of the most successful privateers during the war.

Some would go so far as to even call her lucky, considering she's never let a chased ship escape and she's never been hit by a hostile shot. It's now January of 1815 when Dash is loading up to sail from Portland, now under the command of Captain John Porter. It's a cold day, but the seas are good when the ship leaves the harbor accompanied by the private schooner Champlain. For two days, the ship sailed together, racing at times for fun. But then dark clouds on the horizon spooked the crews.

Almost out of nowhere, the winds pick up from the northeast. The Champlain decides the best course is to turn and head for shore, but Dash decides to press forward. After all, she's fast. She can outrun anything if she has to. As the schooner Champlain turns south, they watch the sails of Dash disappear into the wind and rain of the coming gale. It seems their luck just ran out, and that is the last anyone sees of Dash and the 60 men aboard.

Well, maybe not quite the last. After weeks turned to months with no word from anyone on board the dash or from any other ships who may have encountered her, it's becoming obvious that something horrible happened. Likely around the dreaded George's Banks, about 60 miles offshore from the coast of Maine, the crew is lost. And their families and friends back home, they're devastated. Funeral services are held, and every sailor in the region is reminded of the dangers of their occupation.

The reason this isn't the end of the story is because for years to come, a ghostly ship makes an occasional appearance in the waters around Portland and Freeport, often on days when a still fog moves in over the water. Fishing vessels will report calm seas and low visibility, and then they hear a large ship bearing down on them. They turn to see a ghostly ship gliding by, and on the back of the ship, there's a sign with the ship's name. It's weathered, but readable.

Dash from Freeport. Soon, locals start to figure out that the ghost ship Dash shows up when a family member of someone on board passes away. Almost as if the ship is coming to shore to ferry the new soul to the other side. Other witnesses see the ghostly ship sailing to the harbor, moving at full speed right towards land. But when it reaches shore, the ship melts into nothing and dissipates. Another loved one from someone lost aboard the Dash must have passed away.

And suddenly, Dash and her crew take on a Greek mythological feel, like Charon who ferries the newly departed across the River Styx. And Casco Bay now has its own version of the Flying Dutchman. And that brings us back to today.

The Flying Dutchman is the world's most famous ghost ship. Sure. It was a vessel that was lost near the Cape of Good Hope, near the southern tip of South Africa. They say if you see the Flying Dutchman at sea, it's a bad omen. And if you're hailed by the Flying Dutchman and asked to take mail from them, your ship is doomed. For many years after the Dash was lost, her ghostly ship made occasional appearances in Casco Bay. The assumption was that someone related to the crew must be dying. But

But a crew of 60 people, that offers a lot of connections. Right, 60 sets of parents and who knows how many spouses, children, nieces, nephews, friends, neighbors, goes on and on. Yeah, we're talking about generational connections from this ship. Dash reminds us that we don't always reach our destination. And not knowing exactly what happened to loved ones can be maddening, can haunt us.

All right, before we sail back to Freeport's harbor, we're going to end this one with a section of a poem written by a local poet named Elisa Denison King. She penned this work after the ghost ship Dash had sailed its way into Maine legend and lore. It was in the year of 1812 they launched the Dash from a Freeport yard. She sailed to the bay as the dead ship now. You have heard her doom from a Quaker bard.

She was manned by a crew of gallant lads as ever a vessel's deck had trod, a score in a hundred of them all, and their fate is known to none but God. But when any of those who loved the lads are ready to slip their moorings here and sail away to the unknown port, you will see the dead ship gliding near. ♪

Thank you for sailing with us on another adventure, you legendary people. If you like tales of phantom ships, you might want to take a deep dive into our archives. I get it. In episode 43, we explored the ghost ship of New Haven, Connecticut. In episode 88, we told you the story of Mary Celeste from Marion, Massachusetts. And in episode 29, we sailed into Block Island in search of the Palatine Light. We've seen a ghost ship or two on our journeys, haven't we? Yes.

Be sure to check out our website where you can find an archive of not just ghost ships, but all of our past episodes, plus pictures, clips from the New England Legend television series on Amazon Prime. And of course, each episode has a transcript for the deaf. We'd like to thank Lorna Naguera for lending her voice acting talents this week. And our theme music is...

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I love a good ghost pirate ship story. Can't get enough of them. Yeah, there's plenty of pirate history and ghostly history, of course, all along the coast of New England. There's a follow-up to this, something we didn't cover the first time. So there's a story. We didn't really cover it. It's pretty hearsay, but at the same time, who knows?

During World War II, of course, naval powers were at war all over the Atlantic, and we know German U-boats were making sightings off of the coast of New England, all up and down the coast, down to New York, all around, right? So that was happening for sure. So people were on high alert. They knew it was possible ships could arrive on our coast for sure. Right.

There's a story in Casco Bay where suddenly the radar of a British naval vessel picked up a blip, something on radar. And they went, well, that shouldn't be there. And they loaded the guns. They took aim. They said, nope, this is something definitely that shouldn't be there. They fired. And they said it went right through the ship. Wow. And as they got closer, some of the British sailors had noticed that this was actually an old-time sailing ship that

And they said, oh my God, it's the dash. Wow. And then it just vanished in this heavy fog. And so it's a wartime story. And they allegedly had really fired the gun. And they blamed it on the, quote, fog of war, which happens, right? People see things and they fire weapons and nothing's there or whatever.

God forbid, they hit friendly fire, right? Right, right. They hit someone who they didn't think should be there. So anyway, there's a World War II story. That's pretty cool. Yeah, related to the dash. So still making sightings. But I love how this became...

you know, basically the Flying Dutchman of Maine, but also like the Greek mythology that they were always coming back until the descendants had passed on. Yeah. And then it begs the question, like, how far down the line do they go? Right. Because, you know, great, great, great, great, great, great grandkids could still be around. Yeah. So anyway, yeah. I don't know. It's the summer. You going to the ocean yet?

We did. We went to the Cape the other day. I did not go in the ocean because Cape— There's fish. Yeah, there's fish, for one thing. Sharks. Jellyfish and all that. Sharks, yeah. I'm watching people swim and just thinking of Jaws. Did you not see the movie? Right. What's wrong with you? Right. But it was windy. It was cool. But it's nice to be by the sea. And you look out and you see things.

Sometimes you just see things and you don't know what it is. Is it rocks? Is it a ship? It's not moving. Is it a sandbar? Yep. So your eyes can play tricks on you from the beach. Yeah, of course. But you can't, and it's so vast, right? Like that's part of the experience of going to the beach is looking out and going, oh my goodness. Like if you follow that all the way, you'll hit Europe. Yeah. Right. And you can't even, you can't see it. It's beyond the curve of the earth, you know, and there's this incredible amount of water.

And so much in there we don't know. Right. And then you will see ships out on the horizon, you know, freighters, you know, cruise ships, sailboats, everything in between. Ghost ships, perhaps. You don't know. You're not that close. You can't tell. You can't tell. And so you just go, wow, what is out there? On the water, in the water?

I think I read that there's a high percentage of unknown in the ocean. Oh, huge. Like a really high, like you'd be surprised. Sure. Like 90% of the ocean has been unexplored or something. Yeah, the depths, we just can't get down there. Yeah. Well, we can get down there. Well, we can't get back up. You don't get back up and you're flashed out of existence when you get down that far. Jeez. Yeah, so yeah, no, you don't know what's down there and what's not.

We wonder, and that just adds so much to the mystery of the sea. And when we do some of these older stories, you have to remind people, no radar, no Doppler weather, no radio. Right, the stars. We had the stars. You had the stars. Maybe you had a map where you could be like, all right, I can sort of see the coast. We're probably about here. The maps weren't perfect, but it was a guide. And if things got rough out there...

you're just at the mercy of the ocean. Yeah. Like, that's it. You don't even know how close you are to shore if it's a foggy day. Right, yeah. So, you know, if you're getting tossed and thrown in rough seas, you just pray. Yeah. Because that's all we can do. There's nothing more we can do. If I get thrown overboard, if this ship breaks up in this storm... Mm-hmm.

We're dead. I might swim for a few minutes. There's no tracking devices on you. Nobody's looking for you. No helicopters. Nobody cares. No helicopters going to come in and pull you out. You are just literally at the mercy of the sea. When you get in a plane, when you get in a car to go somewhere...

you don't think about the idea that I could just simply vanish. Oh, sure. Yeah. They'll find me if I break down. They'll find me. I have AAA. Right? Right. Yeah. If the car just quits on the highway, I pull over, I call AAA with my cell phone. You know what I mean? And someone will be right along and tow me to safety and I'll get the car fixed. Not then. No. You're just like, oh boy, I'm leaving and it's a long way to get there. And who knows? Yeah. Hopefully I see you again.

Well, yeah, that's the thing too. I mean, you can't send a letter, right? No. So you leave your loved one behind. Yeah. You're off for a few months. Well, you can send a letter. They don't know what's going on. You can send letters, but it's going to take however long the boat to get there. Oh, well, yes, exactly. And boats to bring it back who may or may not make it. Right. Imagine you're like, hey, got here safe. It was actually an easy trip, total breeze. And you put it on the ship that goes back and sinks.

You know what I mean? And they don't hear from you for months and they're panicked and you're like, oh, I'm fine. You assume that they got the letter. You go back a year later, she's remarried, has three kids. Remember the letter? I'm fine. Everything's good. See you soon. I didn't get that letter. Didn't get that letter. I assumed you were dead. Yeah. Or left me. I moved on. Oh. Meet Larry. Are we better off today than we were then? I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. A little more mystery back then, I guess. Yeah.

But yeah, no, that's the thing. And when I'm by the ocean, yeah, I can't help it. I stare at everything. Oh, sure. Yeah. You're looking for dorsal fins because we've seen jaws. That's right. You're looking for, you know. Battleships. I don't know. Whales. Whales, yeah. And dolphins. And you're looking for, right, yeah, battleships and cruise ships and whatever else might be there. It's weird when you see one, too, and you say, oh, my God, look, that's a cruise ship. Yeah, it's the ocean. Yeah, that's where they go. Yeah.

Yeah. Town pool? Shouldn't see the cruise ship. Right? That's where you bring that up. Now, that's weird. This thing is huge, and I can't swim in the town pool. Why are we so surprised when we see it on the ocean? There's a boat out there. Look at that. There's a boat. Crazy. Yeah. But anyway, that's where they go. That's the cruise ships. And yeah, you've taken a cruise, right? Oh, yeah. A few, yeah. You've taken a few, yeah. I took one last year. So...

It's pretty neat when you get out there where you can't see land. It's scary. A little, yeah. Because it could go down, but somebody's going to find you right away. Right. That's like we mentioned. Yeah. But you still stare out at that endless horizon. And there's really something pretty romantic about that.

Oh, yeah. You're out in the middle of nowhere. Any direction. Go any way you want. Yep. Any degree, any direction, you can just go that way. The world could end and you wouldn't know, except for the tidal wave coming at you. Right, right. And the sky's on fire because the asteroid hit. Yeah, that's a sign, too. Like, oh, we've got moments. I hope the Lido deck is still open. Yeah, it's a little bit more peaceful. You can play shuffleboard as you're... Might as well. Yeah, yeah. Let's see if I can... Go out with shuffleboard. Win one more game before I go. Yeah.

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