The Ghost Ship Hudson by Absolute Michigan/Andrew McFarlane

Back in the day there was a great site of spooky stories by someone who went by the name of “Amber Rose Bierce”. She doesn’t seem to be online anymore, but one of my favorite of the spooky stories she shared is that of the Lake Superior ghost ship Hudson:

Perhaps the eeriest tale of a ghost ship is the story of the lost steamer Hudson. This took place right on the Keeweenaw Peninsula, which I have visited several times…the last and loneliest outpost of Upper Michigan before land gives way to the rolling waves of Lake Superior. I can picture this story unfolding in the area I have visited…it doesn’t take much imagination to envisage a ghost ship off Keeweenaw.

The tale was first told in the 1940’s and has all the elements of a bone-freezing beauty of a folk tale. But many sailors take it as the gospel truth.

A refitted tugboat now used for fishing was sailing past the tip of the Keeweenaw Peninsula. A thick, clinging fog was impeding visibility but the boat was making good time when the cloying mist became dangerously dense. There was barely five feet of visibility in front of the vessel when the captain saw in shock that his ship was closing in on a much larger vessel. In a panic, the tug just barely avoided hitting the ship.

The crusty old skipper of the tug was furious at the other boat for not signalling its position in some way. He pulled up alongside the vessel and noticed that it was very old and in poor condition. He could hear no motors…the vessel was floating dead in the water without engines. The skipper was determined to board the strange boat and confront its crew.

This ship was a wreck that barely looked like it should be on the water. A steamer, one of its twin smokestacks was broken in half. Boarding the ship, the captain saw most of the vessel was covered in either rust or what looked like slimy mud. An uneasy chill fell upon the skipper. The ship looked almost abandoned…but then he spied a silent figure wearing the long oilskin coat of a lake sailor standing a little ways up the deck.

“What’s the matter with you?” yelled the skipper. “You almost cut my ship in two!”

There was no spoken reply, but the silent figure pointed further up the deck, where the decrepit boathouse was located. The skipper stomped towards the boathouse, ready to curse out the big steamer’s captain. At this point, anger won out over fear, even though the skipper knew something was terribly wrong.

When he opened the door of the boathouse, he froze. Two emaciated figures manned the boathouse, staring straight ahead with dead black eyes, their skin the color of a fish’s belly. They seemed locked in position, with one manning the wheel as if he were the captain.

“Your ship is a wreck, I don’t know what’s keeping her afloat.” stammered the captain. “You almost slammed into my tug! What the hell’s the matter? What can I do?”

“Nothing,” came a cold, hollow voice from the man at the wheel. The tug’s skipper felt his guts go ice cold at that voice. “There is no help for us. We are the wreck of the Hudson and we’ve been at the bottom since the ship sank in 1901. 24 of us have stayed with the ship on bottom but for us, there is no rest. The devil has cursed us to rise each year on the anniversary of our sinking, until the end of time. Leave…leave quickly, we must soon return to the bottom and any who are with us must remain. Pray for us, shipmate! Pray for us!”

With a scream of terror, the skipper…a man who feared no earthly fate…ran from the boathouse and virtually threw himself back into his own ship. His crew saw immediately that he had suffered a horrible fright. Word was that he never again sailed on the Lakes…that he shuddered to even see the vast watery expanse he once spent all his waking hours on.

A good ghost story for a chilly night? Almost certainly. But the Hudson was indeed a real ship, which sank with all hands on September 16, 1901!

Here’s another shot of the Hudson, and if you want to support Michigan in Pictures, please feel welcome sending a couple bucks through Patreon or liking these photos when I post them on the Michigan in Pictures Facebook!