----====* Martha's Ghost *====----

He looked for years in every cove.

He searched in every bay.

To find the wreck they called the Ghost,

And where it came to lay.

-=*=-

The sailors spoke in muttered awe,

But none of them could tell.

Until he met a drunken sot,

Who told him when she fell.

-=*=-

On Hatteras Reef, you'll find the Ghost,

Each night there is a gale.

Her crew is dead, the seaman said,

But wind still fills her sail.

-=*=-

And so he went, one stormy night,

To seek the ghostly ship.

And braved a ride, against the tide,

Into the mists he slipped.

-=*=-

A banshee scream, a siren call,

The wind tore through his sail.

The rudder broke, the mast came down,

The sky began to hail.

-=*=-

But just before he sank away,

There loomed through blackened crests.

A silent graveyard filled with ships,

'Twas here the Ghost took rest.

-=*=-

In insubstantial shadows all,

The roles were filled that night.

The Mary Deare, the Pilottown,

The Cyclops to the right.

-=*=-

He saw the Flying Dutchman,

On a ragged starboard tack,

With Vandervecken at the wheel,

Doomed never to come back.

-=*=-

And in the farthest corner,

With her sails all still aloft.

Lay Martha's Ghost, the evening's host,

Her jib and anchor doffed.

-=*=-

My friend no longer seeks the Ghost,

He's done what he could do.

He found, that night,

In moonlight bright,

His Martha, ship and crew.

----====*====----