Ghosts of Salem

If you love Halloween — and I think most people do — be sure to look for Phyllis Hoffman’s “Celebrate” magazine.

I’m featured in the Halloween issue… but that’s not the only reason I recommend it.

Costumes, events, travel recommendations, recipes and menus, party ideas, decorations… this magazine is filled with fun ideas to make any Halloween even better.

You’ll enjoy clever recipes such as the Ghost Cookies suggestion on page 66.  You’ll start with store-bought cookies and add some simple, ghostly decorations.  It’s a great kitchen activity for families with children.

I love the clever ways to use Smart Candles, shown on pages 60 & 61.  Using those decorating ideas as a starting point, you can probably think of many other eerie ways to use those fire-safe candles, too.

On page 35, you’ll see my recommendation of Salem — and especially the Salem Inn — as the perfect Halloween destination.

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year, and this magazine offers enough fresh (and easy) ideas to add fun to several years’ celebrations.

Look for Phyllis Hoffman’s Celebrate magazine at your grocery store or any store that carries magazines.

With the arrival of “ghost season” (the weeks around Halloween) , I’m in Salem weekly, continuing to work on my book.

Keep in mind that the Witch Trials involved people in what’s now called Danvers, as well as the city of Salem, Massachusetts.  So, if you’re looking for witch-related ghosts, you may find them throughout Essex County and Boston’s North Shore.

Also remember that many of Salem’s ghosts are far newer than the 17th century.  They include the pale, spectral face of Susannah Ingersoll (the cousin of Nathaniel Hawthorne) at the upstairs window of the House of Seven Gables.

Or, for a direct connection to the spirits, stop at Salem’s famous Hex shop and see their New Orleans-style altar.  Is it haunted? Maybe.  The shop is a real delight, anyway.

I’m skeptical of reports of hooded figures with glowing eyes at Salem’s (in)famous Gallows Hill, but I believe that at least one modern-day ghost represents a child playing happily at the playground on the hill’s upper level.

If you’re spending the night in Salem, my first choice is the Salem Inn.  For another great, happily haunted hotel, visit the Hawthorne Hotel in the middle of Salem.

Of course, the perfect time to visit the Hawthorne Hotel is during the seasonal parties held there.  I’ll be at the Official Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball, but any “Festival of the Dead” event in that hotel may be attended by a few ghosts.  (They’ll look like revelers in costume, until they vanish as you watch.)

Also, I haven’t visited the Stephen Daniels House yet, but it’s a respected, pet-friendly B&B with a history from the witch trial era… and rumors of a ghostly cat.

No matter where you are in the Salem area at Halloween, expect spooky fun and a few “good scares.”  If you’re looking for ghosts, Salem is the best place to be at this time of year!

I love stories like this one.  Of course, they’re undocumented. Today, we’d call them urban legends.

Stories like these are classics, in jeopardy of being as lost as the subject of this tale.

This one was from a December 19o1 newspaper:

The Dead Ship of Salem is well known off the Massachusetts shore. Just 2oo years ago, the ship was ready to sail to England when two mysterious people — whom none in the village had ever seen before — came hurriedly aboard and secured passage.

They were a young man and woman of strange but forbidding beauty.

The ship was detained so long by adverse winds that the townspeople began to suspect witchcraft and prophesied disaster. But the skipper jeered at their fears and, when the wind changed, put out to sea on Friday morning.*

No word or sign of that ship or its living freight was ever seen or heard of again. But, later that same year, incoming vessels reported having met a craft with shining hull and luminous spars and sills spinning along, with every cloth drawing in the teeth of one of the wildest gales.

A crew of skeletons manned the ship while on the quarterdeck stood, arm in arm a handsome pair — a young man and a woman.

*A note reminded readers that it’s bad luck to set sail on a Friday.

I’ve found a brief verse that describes this same ghostly ship.

The spectre ship of Salem,
With the dead men in her shrouds,
Sailing sheer above the water in
The loom of morning clouds.

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If you have additional information about this ship, let me know.  It’s a rich tale worth including in my book, if I can find anything else to support it.