When the deep fog rolls across the waters of Casco Bay, and you’re standing on the shoreline looking out into nothing, that’s when she glides by — silent, no wind in sight, moving as if a gale is driving her stern. The words “Dash” and sometimes even “Dash – Freeport” are seen at the prow at eye level as she sweeps past the observer and disappears before their eyes. The Dash is legendary in these coastal waters and the stories observers have told about her ghostly reappearances have peppered our local history since she sailed straight into a winter Nor’Easter back in late January of 1815.
Story of the Dash
The Dash was a topsail schooner built at the Porter Landing Shipyard in Freeport, Maine back in 1813. The War of 1812 was well underway at the time and international trade-wars with England and France had set off a couple of knee-jerk reactions by Thomas Jefferson that threw our entire economy into the throes of absolute destitution. Jefferson’s Embargo Act of 1807 cut us off from the rest of the world, entirely, and his attempt at righting this wrong with the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 made things only slightly better. France and England had both been neck deep in the Napoleonic Wars, which lasted from 1803 to 1815, and both nations were suffering in all ways related to keeping their military strong and healthy. This meant they both either needed ‘more’ of all the things it takes to keep troops on the battlefront fed, clothed, housed, healthy, and armed, or they needed to make sure ‘the other nation’ had less. So naturally, this meant both France, and England, set out to restrict trade, trade routes, and trading partners/allies of each other; of which the newly formed United States of America was, to both.
The main takeaway is that there was a considerable period of time when the economy of the United States was threatened and directly negatively impacted by the trade-wars during this time period (1803 – 1815), and the way “those that could” managed, was by building ships specifically designed to break through the blockades set-up by the Royal Navy to imprison us within the bounds of our own nation – which, as history will remind us, England didn’t recognize as a fully sovereign nation, yet. And, still.
I’m not sure it’s super important to mention here, but someone might find it an interesting little side-note:
During this time period of the Napoleonic Wars the United States was courted, and even lured, into taking a side against either France, or England. Both nations desperately wanted the United States to firmly bind itself to their own militaries. In response, the United States, very wisely, declined. Our position was neutral. The reasons may have been many, but one of the more obvious is that the United States still had very deep roots in England. It’s where a lot of our ancestors came from, and given the Revolution wasn’t even 40 years ago the ties were still quite strong. But this was challenged, quite righteously, by the fact that France was our very first ally. France was the very first country to recognize the United States as a sovereign nation. France, quite literally, put America on the map. We felt allegiance to her in ways that were very different to how we felt connected to England, and these trade-war strategies put us in a position that exposed this to the world. All of this is a part of the Dash’s story of why she came to be.
The Dash was built for a couple of reasons; both responses to the trade restrictions that had burdened the American shipping industry over the preceding decade. The first was to hunt English ships and take them as prizes. The Dash was not a military ship but it did carry guns, and it operated under Government Orders in the form of a Letter of Marque – which qualified her as a “Privateer”. The Letter of Marque made it legal for private ships to seize and confiscate enemy vessels, but the primary targets were always anything flying a British flag. The Dash was fast – among the fastest vessels ever built in America during its time, and without question the fastest ship that sailed out of Maine during the War of 1812. Her speed was one of the principal reasons she was so successful in her ventures which led to her being known, far and wide, as a “lucky ship”. Her crew was exceptionally skilled, ambitious, and always on the hunt for ‘the next payday’.
The second reason the Dash was built was to break through blockades and make successful trade-route runs down to the West Indies and back without incident from England or France – which was easier said than done. The risks were monumental, but then again, so was the payoff. The most lucrative trade runs involved transporting lumber, salted fish, pork, and onions down to the islands to sell at a 5-fold to 8-fold markup, and bringing back coffee, sugar, and molasses to sell at 1,000% markup. The crew’s livelihood was dependent on this ship, so to them the risk was absolutely worth the reward.
The night the Dash raced off into the ether she was Captained by John Porter, one of the 11 younger siblings of owners Samuel and Seward Jr. She was also manned by 60 hands, a good many local specifically to Freeport, and 2 of his younger brothers who served as officers. The loss of the crew of the Dash devastated the entire Casco Bay community, as members hailed from every major coastal town from Brunswick to Cape Elizabeth, including Bath and Pownal.
The circumstances of her disappearance can never be known to anyone but the crew of the Dash, yet there were eyewitnesses to her final moments whose testimonies have given truth-seekers a reason to believe she may have grounded on the shoals of George’s Bank. The night she went down was bitter cold, with unpredictable gales that carried snow and icy ocean spray. She was racing a fellow privateer that sailed out of Portsmouth, called The Champlain. The Champlain was built around the same time as the Dash, and for the same purposes. So while one might hazard a guess as to think these 2 vessels were enemies, the truth is, they were actually friendly rivals.
The two ships cruised out of Casco Bay and headed East by Southeast toward Georges Bank, the preferred privateer hunting ground for ships like the Dash and the Champlain, because the shipping routes European vessels traversed on the way to the West Indies (aka “the Caribbean”) ran through this region. The tragedy of this expedition came on the second night of the voyage, when a brutal winter Nor’easter rolled directly into their path. Both ships were racing each other, so we can imagine both captains were constantly watching to see where the other was, and whether or not they were in lead. At one very sudden point in the Champlain’s chase a crew member hollered out “shoaling!”, alerting Captain Henry Nichols they were in dangerously shallow waters. Captain Nichols immediately angled the ship to avoid grounding on the submerged bank and decided to turn back altogether given the storm was directly in their path. It was during this point of the night’s chase that the Captain of the Champlain, and multiple crew members, observed the stern light on the Dash disappear from sight.
Given the time of night, the brutal weather conditions, the rabid seas, and the very real concerns of being broken into bits and swallowed up by the Georges Banks, like countless ships before them, it would be perfectly reasonable to figure there might be a sliver of a chance she simply cruised into the darkness and her stern light was blocked from sight by the waves as she sailed away. But a more pragmatic ‘take’ would remind us all that there’s a reason Georges Bank was known, far and wide, as being the Atlantic’s most dangerous ship graveyards, and she probably grounded on the shoal just slightly out of sight of the Champlain.
The Ghost Ship – Dash
The story might have ended in 1815, but the Dash’s stern light never truly dimmed. Generations of fishermen, islanders, and distant descendants swear her phantom still drifts across Casco Bay, a forewarning of storms and loss, a collector of wandering souls. When the fog thickens and you can hear your own heartbeat over the wind, that’s when the Dash is most likely to slip into view—her sails blindingly white, scudding over glass-still waters destined for a port she’ll never reach.
The earliest reports came just months after her disappearance: dawn fishermen off Harpswell and Freeport recalled seeing a swift schooner ghosting through the mist, moving north toward familiar waters. Her name—“Dash”, and sometimes, “Dash Freeport”—was seen at the prow, sails billowed full. But as the observers drew nearer for a closer look, she’d vanish silently into the gray, leaving no wake, no sound, no trace. Always, silence. Always, the sense of unfinished business and a lost crew looking for port.
No matter the era, she appears in dense fog, in the lull after Nor’easters, and especially, locals say, at the passing of anyone believed to be a descendant of her crew. Sometimes the Dash is seen preceding a death in the family, sometimes immediately after, as if ferrying the departed to whatever lies beyond. So persistent is this lore that the Dash is not only called a ghost ship, but a “soul ferry”—an omen and unwilling reaper for Casco Bay’s kin.
Some tales are preserved in poetry; John Greenleaf Whittier was inspired by these legends for his poem “The Dead Ship of Harpswell.” In local oral tradition, they say if you wait at Flying Point in Freeport after a Nor’easter blows through, a ship with unreal speed and otherworldly whiteness may sweep past—headed upriver, always north, always toward Harpswell.
The Dash’s ghostly returns have been reported throughout Casco Bay: off Crab Island in the 1800s, Pumpkin Nob (called Punkin Nubb by old-timers) in the mid-20th century, Flying Point, and the mussel shoals near Wolfe’s Neck. Sightings cluster near dawn and dusk—a pattern recounted in local memory for over a century.
The Dash has become Maine’s own Flying Dutchman, making herself visible when death or disaster looms over coastal families. One legend claims that in the summer of 1942, naval gunners stationed on the Maine coast opened fire on what they believed was an enemy ship in Casco Bay. The vessel—identified later as the Dash—vanished into the fog, unaffected, leaving only the ringing of cannon echoing shoreward. In another account from 1872, worshippers in a Freeport chapel looked up from their prayers and saw, through the windows, a fully-rigged schooner gliding north with unmoving figures aboard before dissolving into the mist.
Clusters of verified and anecdotal sightings mark every era: between 1850 and 1890, oral history in Harpswell tells of groups of fishermen glimpsing the Dash just hours before terrible storms rolled in. Sightings continue in present times: in May 2024 near Harpswell, a full-rigged ship drifted through thick fog—soundless, swift, haunting. At a 2022 Maine Historical Society open house in Portland, attendees recounted family stories and even sighting accounts from 2005 to 2025, proof the Dash’s legend shows no sign of fading into a forgotten past.
Then there are those deeply personal anecdotes: churchgoers, campers on Orr’s Island in the 1990s, children awakening on a foggy morning seeing sails hoisted by invisible hands. Always the same description—bright sails without wind, vanishing as any boat draws near, sometimes accompanied by an overwhelming sense of chill and grief. Some say the Dash never makes it to shore, mercifully lost on permanent patrol between this world and the next.
At the heart of it all is a feeling—a persistent belief that as long as the tides turn in Casco Bay, the Dash will keep searching for home. Each new fog bank, each passing nor’easter, and each solemn moment of mourning in a coastal family offers her crew another chance at homecoming, or her shadowy sails another pass before the storm.
Bibliography
- https://www.cascobaylines.com/blog/the-ghost-ship-of-casco-bay/
- https://www.mainegreenco.com/the-legend-of-the-dash
- https://bigthink.com/books/ghost-ship-dash/
- https://www.pressherald.com/2025/06/11/a-legendary-freeport-made-ship-haunts-harpswell-waters/
- https://beyondhaunted.com/maine/ghost-ship-casco-bay
- https://wcyy.com/ghost-ship-dash-haunt-casco-bay-portland-maine/
- https://www.angelfire.com/ne/USSDashNCC74266/DatabaseHistoric.html
- https://www.usdeadlyevents.com/1815-jan-23-portland-maine-privateer-dash-lost-in-squall-georges-bank-area-54-66/
- https://marlenepardopellicer.substack.com/p/the-dead-ship-of-harpswell
