Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
This apparition was often seen after this, and always as described
with her finger pointing towards Heaven.
One Sunday afternoon while lying in the Haverfordwest river opposite
to Lawrenny, the crew being all on shore, and I being at church,
my steward (the only man on board) whilst descending the companion
ladder was spoken to by an unseen voice. He immediately fell down with
fright, and I found his appearance so altered that I really scarcely
knew him! He begged to be allowed his discharge and to be landed as
soon as possible, to which I felt obliged to consent as he could not
be persuaded to remain on board for the night. The story of the ship
being haunted becoming known on shore, the clergyman of Lawrenny called
on me one day and begged me to allow him to question the crew, which
he accordingly did. He seemed very much impressed by what he heard; he
seemed to view the matter in a serious light and said that his opinion
was that "some troubled spirit must be lingering about the vessel."
During the years that I commanded the "Asp" I lost many of my men who
ran away on being refused their discharge, and a great many others I
felt forced to let go, so great was their fear, one and all telling
me the same tale, namely, that at night they saw the transparent
figure of a lady pointing with her finger up to Heaven. For many
years I endeavoured to ridicule the affair as I was often put to
considerable inconvenience by the loss of hands, but to no purpose. I
believe that when the officers went out of the vessel after dark none
of the crew would have ventured into the cabin on any account. One
night I was awoke from my sleep by a hand, to all sensations, being
placed on my leg outside the bedclothes. I lay still for a moment to
satisfy myself of the truth of what I felt, and then grabbed at it,
but caught nothing. I rang my bell for the quartermaster to come with
his lantern, but found nothing. This occurred to me several times,
but on one occasion as I lay wide awake a hand was placed on my
forehead. If ever a man's hair stood on end mine did then. I sprang
clean out of bed: there was not a sound. Until then I had never felt
the least fear of the ghost or whatever you like to call it. In fact
I had taken a kind of pleasure in listening to the various noises as
I lay in bed, and sometimes when the noises were very loud I would
suddenly pull my bell for the look-out man and then listen attentively
if I could hear the sound of a footstep or attempt to escape, but
there never was any, and I would hear the look-out man walk from his
post to my cabin when I would merely ask him some questions as to the
wind and weather. At length in 1857, the vessel requiring repairs,
was ordered alongside the dockyard wall at Pembroke. The first night
the sentry stationed near the ship saw (as he afterwards declared)
a lady mount the paddle box holding up her hand towards Heaven. She
then stepped on shore and came along the path towards him when he
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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