Field file · Spectral · Folklore
Palatine Light
Also known as Palatine ghost ship, Burning ship of Block Island
A phantom burning ship said to glow off Block Island each winter, born from the real 1738 wreck of a fever-stricken immigrant vessel.
The Palatine Light is Rhode Island’s best-known ghost story and one of the oldest in New England. According to tradition, a blazing ship appears off the northern tip of Block Island in the days between Christmas and New Year’s, sailing against the wind before it fades. The legend is tied to a real event: the loss of the immigrant ship Princess Augusta (also recorded as the Countess Augusta) in 1738.
The vessel left Rotterdam in August 1738 carrying roughly 240 German-speaking emigrants from the Palatinate, bound for Philadelphia. Contaminated water and disease reportedly killed most of the passengers and about half the crew, including Captain George Long, and the mate, Andrew Brook, took command. After months of bad weather and dwindling food, the ship ran aground at Sandy Point on Block Island in a snowstorm in late December 1738. Different accounts give December 26 or 27.
Two competing stories grew up within a year. Crew depositions found in the 20th century describe islanders helping to bring surviving passengers ashore and burying about twenty who died. Mainland tradition, however, accused islanders of luring the ship onto the shore with a false light, plundering it and burning it. In that darker telling, a woman who refused to leave the vessel was left aboard, and her screams are heard each winter as the ship burns. The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who heard the murder version from a Newport man, published “The Palatine” in 1867, which fixed the name and the darker story in popular memory. Block Islanders, among them the clergyman Samuel Livermore, objected strongly that it slandered their community.
Reports of the light itself are older than the poem. A Block Island physician, Dr. Aaron Willey, wrote in 1811 that he had seen a fire at sea in 1810 that sometimes looked small and sometimes as large as a ship, appearing to move parallel with the shore. Sporadic sightings have been claimed ever since, usually on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
What witnesses describe
A fire or glowing light on the sea that can appear as a small flame or swell to the size of a burning ship, often described as moving along the shore; sometimes accompanied by a woman’s screams.
Where and when it’s seen
The sea off Sandy Point and the northern end of Block Island, reported in winter, especially between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Notable sightings
- Late December 1738Wreck of the Princess Augusta Sandy Point, Block Island
The immigrant ship, depleted by sickness, ran aground in a snowstorm. Surviving passengers were brought ashore; roughly twenty later died and were buried on the island.
- February and December 1810Dr. Willey sees the light Block Island
Physician Aaron Willey described a fire at sea, of changing size, moving parallel to the shore. His 1811 account is among the earliest written reports of the light.
- 1867Whittier publishes “The Palatine” Atlantic Monthly
The poem told the wrecker version of the story and spread it nationally, to the lasting annoyance of islanders.
- 1947Palatine Graves marker Mohegan Bluffs, Block Island
The Block Island Historical Society placed a marker reading “Palatine Graves – 1738”; no physical evidence of the burials has been confirmed.
What could explain it?
- The wreck was real, but historians find little support for the wrecking-and-murder story, which first circulated on the mainland and may reflect old rivalries and suspicion of coastal “moon-cussers.”
- Crew depositions suggest the survivors were treated humanely, and some evidence even suggests the ship was repaired and sailed on, which would leave no burned wreck at all.
- Folklorists note that mysterious sea lights are a common coastal motif. Candidates for the glow include St. Elmo’s fire, bioluminescence, distant ships and atmospheric reflections of lights on the mainland, though no study has tied them to Block Island.
Legend, culture and tourism
The legend inspired Whittier’s poem, book-length studies and endless retellings in New England ghost lore. Block Island keeps the story as local history, mindful of the islanders’ own version of events.
Places to visit
The island’s historical society keeps records of the Palatine story and maintains the memorial marker.
Where it’s reported
Sources
First published · Updated
