Cruising For Ghosts In The Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean is famous for its relaxing cruises, but several ports of call offer glimpses into ghastly pasts where you can chase ghosts or experience paranormal activity. So many tragedies have happened in ancient buildings only accessible by the ocean where you can experience a brush with the undead. For an otherworldly oceanic experience, there are many cruises that can be booked to take you into the heart of darkness.
Haunted Caribbean Cruises
Many old plantations and mansions only accessible by a cruise ship offer a chance to feel the presence of the otherworld. Many cruises to select locations even allow for a hair-raising, bone-chilling overnight stay. In Bermuda, real-life pirate of the Caribbean, Captain George Dew, spent his youth looting, pillaging, smuggling and carousing. But by 1699, when he built his home in St. George’s Parish, Dew had renounced his wicked ways and took to playing musical instruments. He died tragically and now guests who stay at the residence that has since become a bed-and-breakfast, claim at night to hear the captain’s ghost playing a gentle harpsichord.
A 60-minute haunted history Bermuda tour packs four centuries of true horror stories into a walking tour of the town’s most notorious haunted places. At over 400 years old, St. Peter’s Church, in the center of town, is the oldest surviving Anglican church outside the British Isles. The cemetery behind it is said to have long, lost souls that only come out at night.
Sailing due South, you’ll find a mansion in Montego Bay, Jamaica, called Rose Hall. This sugar plantation was run by Annie Palmer, who arbitrarily and violently punished her slaves. She was known to practice voodoo and had a freakish fondness for human sacrifice. Locally, she was known as “The White Witch”. She was killed by one of her slaves in 1831, but apparently the ritual that should have ensured that her malevolent spirit remained entombed was bungled, and her evil spirit endures. Visitors claim to hear babies crying, whispers in the dungeon or the sound of her footsteps rushing across the ballroom floor.
A Duel Leads To A Haunted Caribbean Plantation
While in port at St. Kitts, take the short ferry ride over to its sister island, Nevis, to visit a haunted former plantation that now lies in ruins. The Eden Brown Estate was once owned by a wealthy businessman who planned to gift the estate to his daughter, Julia Huggins, and her fiancé after their wedding. However, tragedy ensued on the day of the wedding.
A duel occurred between the groom and best man, and both were killed. Julia never married and lived her life as a recluse on the estate, dying depressed and alone. Today, many visitors have noted apparitions of a woman wandering the balcony and have even heard ghostly sobbings from a sad, lost soul.
The sea has yielded endless ghost stories. For the avid ghost hunter in the Caribbean, most of the haunted ports of call offer spooky tours and even hair-raising overnight stays. Whatever you choose, the ocean proves a scary oasis where dead men do, indeed, tell tales.