Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals (1 of 4 free samples)

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COPYRIGHT
Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals by Bland Simpson. Copyright 2002 by Bland Simpson.
All Rights Reserved. Sharing not permitted.

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GHOST SHIP OF DIAMOND SHOALS
The Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering

Bland Simpson

For Ann, master mariner of my life and Susannah, Hunter, and Cary, our jaunty crew of children


1921

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in
great waters;
These are the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.

For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which
lifteth up the waves thereof.

They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths;
their soul is melted because of trouble.

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are
at their wit’s end.

Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth
them out of their distresses.

He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are
still.

Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them
unto their desired haven.

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for
his wonderful works to the children of men!

—Psalms 107:23–31

The sea is salty from the tears of women, say ancients and moderns alike, and who indeed can look upon any ocean from any coast in the world and not wonder at the great and moving being that has been the living end of so many souls? And wonder, too, of those upon some distant marge, some edge of the sea, some other where, who kept vigil for their overdue sailors and wept?

The time and the tides of over eighty years have now passed since to the roll of mystery ships that includes the Flying Dutchman, the Patriot, and the Mary Celeste was added the name of the schooner Carroll A. Deering. In a fog of unknowing, ships begat ships, and, in speaking or hearing of one of them, we spoke and heard of them all. In its day, the mystery of the Carroll A. Deering spurred the captain’s daughter into an inspired investigation, and a nation and the best of her sleuths and maritime forces all followed her lead and worked to near distraction to discover what had happened one January night at Diamond Shoals.

The families of the shipbuilder and the captain and his crew all wonder still. This is the tale of the ghost ship that sails no more and yet lives forever sailing on to her grave, and of her phantom crew who in sailing her there passed into legend and so now can never die.

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