They say she sailed silently through the mists of Casco Bay one November day in 1813, cutting through the water with a quiet force of purpose. She was navigated steadfastly past Clapboard Island, Pumpkin Nob, and Lookout Point, then cruised gracefully into Merriconeag Sound before coming to a deliberate stall just off Pott’s Point. There, her unconscious captain—George Leverett, the sole survivor in a story told for over two centuries now—was disembarked by the hands of his ghostly crew who made it their mission to bring him home to safe shores and familiar surroundings. Once their mission was completed, the phantom crew silently reboarded the Sarah, aimed her toward the open ocean and sailed her into the thickness of the noon-day fog – and into the annals of Maine maritime history.
Sightings of the Sarah have always been associated with bad times, as if she’s a harbinger of doom to the towns of Harpswell and Freeport, and to the unfortunate descendants of those slain on her deck. And while we’ll never really know what happened the day the Don Pedro Salazar attacked the Sarah we can be assured of a small number of very clear certainties; the entire crew was murdered, their unconscious captain was tied to the main mast – incapacitated – yet somehow his ship was sailed safely to shore where he was saved by locals, only to speak the truth of his story one single time before putting it to rest, and never speaking of it again.
The Sarah
The schooner ‘Sarah’ was built in 1813 at the Soule Boatyard in Freeport, Maine, at the request of two enterprising and accomplished young seamen from Portland named George Leverett and Charles Jose. She was built for bulk and speed, and was designed to carry shipping cargo, mostly trade goods like fish, lumber, and sometimes granite, from Maine to the southern waters of the West Indies. On her return trip she would’ve been filled with highly popular and much sought-after products, such as coffee, sugar cane, and molasses.
The main issue regarding business dealings involving the Sarah was that both Leverett and Jose entered into this capitalist venture together, as partners. From the start, they’d devised and financed the building of this cargo ship, and both had high expectations their carefully planned speculation would pay off in a big way. Combining their passion as experienced mariners with their ambitious business sense, they saw themselves as players in the shipping game of Casco Bay. The horizon was softly lit, but it was as endless as the possibilities that lay before them.
Their troubles came when they were introduced to Sarah Soule, the young and beautiful daughter of the owner of Soule Boatyard. It would seem that both young men fell head over heels, and both were equally smitten. The story leans toward Charles Jose making the first move, but Sarah ultimately wound-up choosing George Leverett. This not only broke up the friendship between the two sailors, it drove Charles to the point of attempting to murder George by pushing him and the horse he was riding, off Yarmouth’s Royal River bridge. He failed, of course, because the story goes on, but Charles was so impassioned with hate for George that he disappeared into the night and wasn’t seen or heard from again. George went on to see the ship finished and set to sea on her maiden voyage. He named her ‘Sarah’, after his new bride, and took to the open ocean just days after they exchanged their wedding vows.
On the way out of Casco Bay a crewman alerted Captain Leverett that there were sails spotted at a distance, and the ship wasn’t flying colors that identified where it came from. It followed at a pace that led everyone on board to wonder if it was a pirate ship just waiting to take the Sarah as its next prize. Leverett kept his ship on course toward the islands of the West Indies, refusing suggestions from his mates to report the pursuing ship to authorities at the next closest port. The trailing ship pursued, undaunted by the distance between them, and when it finally caught up Captain Leverett saw his worst fear realized; it was the Don Pedro Salazar, captained by none other than his ex-bff and business partner, Charles Jose.
Crew of the Don Pedro Salazar boarded the Sarah, stole everything in the cargo hold, tied the captain up to the base of the main sail, and killed everyone else on board, without mercy. She was then pointed in the general direction of Casco Bay and left to founder until the inevitable. But alas, something completely unworldly was said to have happened instead.
Several days after being ransacked and looted, the Sarah was seen gliding into Casco Bay under full but tattered sails. Witnesses to the event were locals – people who knew the hazards that had to be navigated in the channel in order to get to any of the many ports and harbors within. They said her crew sailed expertly through the bay, avoiding all obstacles, and as if there was a heavy wind filling her sails, yet the air was as still as it was quiet. They reported she came to an abrupt stop just off Potts Point, without dropping anchor, and that the captain arrived bound to the base of the main mast. His crew cut him down, lowered his unconscious body into a boat, and rowed him to the shore where he was carefully laid, his logbook placed beside him. They then rowed back, climbed aboard, sailed away, and disappeared into a misty fog bank that had rolled in with the arrival of the ship. All of this was done with complete silence, and in the midst of a noticeably calm and sunny day. The site was baffling to those who witnessed it.
Captain Leverett survived the atrocity and told the story publicly but once, and after that he didn’t really speak of it often. Reiterating for clarity; his version involved being overtaken by the (pirate ship) Don Pedro Salazar, and having his entire crew slaughtered in front of him while his ex-bestie, Captain Charles Jose, gave orders to have him tied to the base of the main mast and set adrift to die at sea in this horrifically inhumane manner. After the Don Pedro Salazar sailed off into to the sunset Captain Leverett claims he saw his entire crew reanimate themselves and return to their posts. He swore they sailed him back home to safety as he drifted in and out of consciousness. The entire ordeal wrecked him so hard this young man, who’d gone all-in on financing the Sarah and putting her to work in the shipping and trading industry, never went to sea again. The trauma was too much to reconcile.
Sightings of the Ghost Ship ‘Sarah’
The last “official” sighting of the Ghost Ship ‘Sarah’ was documented back in the 1880s when a guest of the Harpswell House sighted her in the middle of a bright – sunlit day, sails billowing and draped in a deep fog. He got the attention of people around him and they all watched until she disappeared into the mist before their eyes. Since then, her story appears to have gone dark, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing to locals and those descendants of her slain crew members, because sightings of the Sarah are often associated with the death of a local Freeport or Harpswell resident.
Bibliography
- <a href=”https://seeksghosts.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-sarah-soule.html”>The Sarah Soule</a>. Seeks Ghosts Blogspot, February 15, 2014.
- <a href=”https://ournewenglandlegends.com/podcast-331-the-dead-ship-of-harpswell/”>Podcast 331 – The Dead Ship of Harpswell – New England Legends</a>. Our New England Legends, December 31, 2023.
- <a href=”https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy7XBhgP00h/”>Have you heard of the phantom ship of Harpswell?</a>. Instagram, October 30, 2023.
- <a href=”https://www.facebook.com/groups/378598168888352/posts/598789453968221/”>Ghost Ship Casco Bay, Maine #sarahlizabethphotos</a>. Facebook, May 5, 2025.
- <a href=”https://hhltmaine.org/visiting-ghosts-on-birch-island/”>Visiting Ghosts on Birch Island</a>. Harpswell Heritage Land Trust, August 20, 2016.
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- https://www.cascobaylines.com/blog/the-ghost-ship-of-casco-bay/
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- https://bigthink.com/books/ghost-ship-dash/
- https://ournewenglandlegends.com/podcast-331-the-dead-ship-of-harpswell/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a-EE-Cb7wU
- https://www.instagram.com/p/CzEN1e5JuPo/
