Ghost stories outnumber residents on Damariscove Island.

Damariscove is essentially a ghost town. The people, the houses and the barns are all gone, replaced by lonely winding paths and the chirping of small birds.

The island looms like a comma to the mainland – it's a solitary sentinel perched atop the waves, with a ring of rocks around its coast and its secrets protected from the eyes of the mainland.

Damariscove is alone at sea and shrouded from the land.

It is the perfect place for ghost stories to flourish.

Tracey Hall spent seven summers on the island as its caretaker. She knows not only the history, the flora and the fauna of the island, but its legends as well.

The most famous might be the legend of Captain Richard Pattishall, who was killed in 1689 during the Indian Wars.

The Damariscove-native and great-grandfather to Paul Revere met his end in the waters near South Bristol.

“He was in his sloop offshore, halfway between Pemaquid Point and Damariscove,” Hall said. “He was attacked and beheaded and his body was thrown overboard.

“His dog, who was on the boat with him, jumped in after him.”

From that moment, Pattishall and his dog were immortalized.

Somehow the bodies avoided “The Motions,” fang-like rocks protruding from the mouth of the harbor, and came to their final resting place on the island, which is approximately five miles from Boothbay Harbor.

“They supposedly washed ashore on Damariscove and have been roaming the island ever since,” Hall said. “When it was foggy and misty we used to go out looking for him and his dog, but we never saw them. Everyone I've ever met who spent time out there claimed they never saw him.”

Tales still abound of sightings of the pair and phantom dog barking can supposedly be heard on the island.

Normally barking dogs wouldn't arouse suspicions or make note except for one thing:

Dogs are not allowed on the island.

Unlike Capt. Pattishall, who was a real person, Damariscove's other resident ghost is bit more hazy.

She also is the source of more sightings.

The Woman in White was a perennial sighting for the Coast Guard Station when it was in operation.

“People who worked at the Coast Guard station said that they saw a woman in white when they walked from the station to the tower on the other side of the island,” Hall said. “They said they saw her at night and that she would wave or beckon for them. Some say that she was in the pond and she would try to get them to come into the water.

“There was one member who left the island because he was so distraught.”
Hall said that most of the sightings occurred in the 1920s and 30s; and after the Coast Guard left the station in the 1960s the sightings died down, too.

Ben Bulkeley can be reached at 633-4620 or bbulkeley@boothbayregister.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BBRegisterBen.