Season 4, Episode 2
Title: The Ghostly Fishermen
Time: 9 minutes
Locations: St. John’s
Stories: The Ghostly Fishermen: The Tale of the Charles Haskell
LisTen:
Watch:
About The Episode:
Some stories rise from the sea and never quite settle again.
The Charles Haskell was a proud New England schooner, built to survive the brutal waters of the North Atlantic. But after a terrible storm on George’s Bank in 1869, she gained a reputation no ship would ever want.
Sailors claimed that in the years that followed, the dead returned — climbing from the sea to finish the work they’d started in life.
More than a century later, her story is still told along our coastlines — from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia, and right here in Newfoundland. It’s been told as a legend, a ghost story, and even a folk song. But the line between fact and folklore remains as foggy as the Banks themselves.
So pour a cup of tea, turn down the lights, and listen close as we climb aboard the Charles Haskell — the schooner that couldn’t quite leave her ghosts behind.
The Song
Elisabeth Greenleaf collected a version of the Charles Haskell story from Newfoundland and published it in Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland under the title Spirit Song of George’s Bank, and The Folk Songs of Atlantic Canada from the collections of MacEdward Leach contains four variants (under the title The Ghostly Fisherman) collected from Newfoundland and Labrador, available as audio recordings.
Below you’ll find a recording by Alan MIlls:
Listening Options
You can listen to the episode here or on your favourite platform.
Sources & Further Reading
The Ghostly Fishermen, Product of Newfoundland
Newfoundland has some place names that sound like they belong in a ghost story. This Halloween, I’m exploring some of the island’s creepiest names and the curious stories behind them.
In October 1794 a shortage of sailors aboard a naval ship in St. John’s harbour set off a chain of events leading to the gallows… and a grisly post-mortem punishment.
According to one newspaper, Torbay was gripped by a ghostly disturbance in 1877. Night after night, Moses Power’s home was under attack…
In 1894, a painter from St. John’s was exhibiting her work in Paris. Margaret Campbell Macpherson built an international career — and somehow became a nearly forgotten Newfoundland story.
After years of illness, a Newfoundland nun left the island praying for a miracle. She returned convinced her prayers had been answered.
Something was killing sheep near Little St. Lawrence in 1958. Then a strange, five-foot-long animal was captured. Its skull was sent to St. John’s for identification…