Ghosts in the Rigging,Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia

Excerpt from HAUNTED CANADAby Pat Hancock
Ghosts in the RiggingMahone Bay, Nova Scotia
Privateering was a dangerous way to make a living, but it could also be a quick way to make a fortune. When countries were at war, their governments would give permission to some private ship owners to attack enemy merchant ships and claim any loot they found for themselves. Doing this allowed the navy to spend more time fighting sea battles, and it robbed the enemy of needed supplies carried by the merchant ships.
During the War of 1812 several American privateers chased down British ships sailing along the southeastern coast of Nova Scotia. But on June 27, 1813, one of those American ships, the Young Teazer, became the hunted instead of the hunter.
A British navy warship chased the Young Teazer into Mahone Bay west of Halifax. A British deserter aboard the Young Teazer, realizing that his ship was trapped and about to be boarded by British officers, made a desperate move. Knowing that if they found him he'd be hanged, he threw a lit torch into the ship's supply of gunpowder.
The fiery explosion that followed blew apart the Young Teazer and killed many of the crew. Some of the sailors were buried in the nearby town of Chester, and parts of the ship not destroyed by fire were hauled ashore to be used as building materials.
About a year later, a ghost ship made its first of many appearances near Chester in Mahone Bay. Ever since then, hundreds of people have seen a burning ship out on the bay. Some of them were in their own boats when the ship appeared out of nowhere. At times it seemed to be heading right for them, and they were terrified that it was going to run them down. At the last second, it vanished into thin air. Sometimes it passes so close to the shore that people on the beach can see the sailors up in the rigging. In most cases the ship appears to be on fire, which is why so many people believe it is the ghost of the Young Teazer. Over the years, some people have even reported hearing the tortured cries of the men who have been trying to escape the burning ship for more than a century. From Haunted Canada, copyright © 2003 by Pat Hancock. All rights reserved.

The Young Teazer

"The Young Teazer was a specially-built privateer, hailing from New York; schooner-rigged, sharp, and seaworthy; black-hulled, coppered43 to the bends to keep her clean of sea-growths and barnacles and make her slip through the water. She had a carved alligator, with gaping jaws, for a figurehead. She was large, for her class -- 124 tons measurement, and about seventy-five feet in length; but she was so fine lined that her crew could drive her at a rate of five knots in smooth water, when there was no wind, with her sixteen long sweeps. It was this uncanny ability to move about while other vessels stood stock still or drifted astern in the calms which accounted for her success."44 On June 27th, 1813, the Sir John Sherbrooke, a privateer which we dealt with earlier, was pursuing the Young Teazer not far from the mouth of Halifax Harbour. During the chase, the Teazer had the misfortune to fall in with a British naval ship and was chased into Mahone Bay. The British warship was the 74-gun La Hogue. The wind dropped and the Teazer was obliged to get out her sweeps. La Hogue got her small boats over her sides and they pulled her, in shifts, ever closer to the Teazer. There then occurred a violent explosion which blew the Young Teazer out of the water. Of her thirty-six crew, only seven lived.45 It seems that one of the crew thought that instant death was better than being captured by the British. He threw a burning coal into the powder magazine.46
"At length the stern settled on the bottom, in water twenty five feet deep, but the alligator jaws still gaped defiantly above the tide."47 The Teazer, though in pieces throughout, can yet be found in the picturesque village of Chester.
"The remains of the Teazer was [were] towed into Chester Bay the next day and beached on what is now Meisner's Island. The hull was sold and was used for the foundation of what is now the Rope Loft Restaurant. Part of her keelson was used to make the wooden cross that can be found in St. Stephen's Church, Chester."