In the churchyard at St Levan is the low altar-tomb of Captain Richard Wetherall, of the Scillonian brig Aurora, which went down in 1811. It is said that the ship sprang a leak and sank, and he was drowned off Gwennap Head near the Rundle or Runnel Stone. ‘This grave is regarded with fear and wonder by many persons,’ wrote William Bottrell in 1873. A ghostly bell was said to strike the hour and half-hour in his grave, exactly as on shipboard, and this had gone on since he was buried. The sound could be heard most clearly at midnight, for it was around midnight that he made his crew take to the boat. As she went down, the crew heard him strike ‘eight bells’, signifying the end of a watch. This was the captain’s last farewell as he went down with his ship, and those who hear it ringing from the grave have due notice that their own watch is over.
SEE ALSO:
SOURCE:
Haunted England : The Penguin Book of Ghosts – Written by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson –
Copyright © Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson 2005, 2008