Halifax Horror – Ghost Story
Halifax Horror.
The two stories I am about to tell you off really happen and are a part of Nova Scotia's folk lore. The only thing is that I have experienced these two remarkable stories first hand.
The first story is about a haunted ship that roams Halifax harbor or more to the north of Halifax harbor in a place called Bedford Basin. In the middle of Bedford basin there are two islands connected by a small pinsula when the tide is out. When the tide is in, one can't walk between the two islands.
My story starts as two of my friends and I are camped out on the big island. At the time we were all in the age range of 12 to 14 years of age and had heard many tales about the haunted ship but you know how these things are, some people believe them and some of us don't. Anyway, to continue my friends and I were camping out on the big island and we had our Beagle dog with us. I must admit we were a bit scared and that is why we took the dog over there with us figuring that if a anyone attempted to come close to our tent the dog would bark.
The first night all was well but the next day as we were walking along the shore line one of my friends stepped in what seemed to be quicksand. He started yelling to me and the other guy as we had been ahead of him. Larry was his name and Larry had a reputation oflying so when he yelled at us that he was sinking in quicksand we really didn't pay him much attention. He wouldn't stop yelling and to be honest he seemed to be a bit shorter than normal so I said to my friend Robert, we better go back and see what is wrong with him, just in case he is telling the truth. Sure enough for one of the first times in his life Larry was telling the truth, he was sinking. We looked for a way to haul him out of the quicksand not wanting to get too close ourselves. We found a large board that had washed up on the shore line and after some hard tugging we finally got him out. He had sunk up to his knee's and we were really suprised as we had explored that island many times and had never found quicksand before. We started to think was it the start of things to come.
That night we built our campfire and sat down to eat some fish that we had caught that day. It was getting dark and with the darkness it seemed to be getting foggy. Now fog in Nova Scotia is nothing to be concerned about as it is foggy there quite a bit in the summer. We sat around the fire talking about Larry and his sinking in the quicksand and we all laughed as in the end of things it had turned out to be funny. We went into the tent and were about to settle down for the night when the dog started to growl. We thought that perhaps a pheasant or some other kind of bird might have rustled in the bushes and that was what the dog heard and that was what made him growl but we weren't lucky as he wouldn't stop. Holding hands we walked outside the tent. It was pitch dark and we could hardly see as not only was it dark but it was very foggy as well. The dog started walking towards the shoreline and growling all the more. We were scared stiff but we had to find out what the dog was growling at. As we neared the shore line off to the North point of the island we too started to hear noise. It sounded like chains and whips. We also heard sounds like large oars hitting the water. Then we saw it. It was a large sailing ship with oars sticking out the side. It wasn't visible for long but long enough for us to catch a glimpse at it.
To this day I remember us nearly dying of shock. Here we were three young boys witnessing what we had heard about, the Ghost Ship, but had never believed in. That night we didn't sleep at all and the very next day, as soon as the sun was up, we rowed our boat home. We never camped on the island again.
The second story is a lot shorter but it too happened in Nova Scotia. There is a house not far from the Camphill Veterns Hospital that has basement windows that won't stay clear. Seems that after the orginal windows were installed years before they would go dark black. Local historians would come out to look as new windows were put into the basement replacing the blackened windows and sure enough within two to three weeks the new windows would turn black. The windows were taken out of the house on many occassions and tested to find out first of all, what the black stuff was and how it got there. To this day it remains a mystery as no one ever found out what the black stuff was and or what causes it to happen.