HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
The north tip of Block Island, where the immigrant ship Princess Augusta wrecked in 1738; islanders have long reported a burning phantom ship offshore around the year's end, the legend Whittier fixed as 'The Palatine.'
Sandy Point, north end of Block Island, New Shoreham, RI 02807
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Sandy Point and the north-end shoreline are open public land. The phantom-ship sightings are an offshore folklore phenomenon, not a ticketed attraction. Reaching Block Island requires a ferry from the mainland.
Access
Limited Access
Exposed sand spit and beach at the island's northern tip, reached by a long unpaved walk from the nearest road. No facilities at the point itself.
Equipment
Photos OK
Wreck of the Princess Augusta at Sandy Point, December 27, 1738 · Subject of John Greenleaf Whittier's 1867 poem 'The Palatine' · Documented in folklorist Michael Bell's research and modern academic study · One of New England's most enduring maritime ghost-ship legends
The Princess Augusta left Rotterdam in August 1738 under Captain George Long, carrying about 240 emigrants bound for the English colonies. During the crossing the ship's water supply became contaminated, and an outbreak the period sources called fever and flux killed most of the passengers and half the crew, including Captain Long. First mate Andrew Brook took command as storms pushed the leaking ship far off course over a months-long ordeal.
The Augusta finally struck Block Island in a snowstorm at Sandy Point, on the island's northern tip, on December 27, 1738. Surviving depositions describe Brook unfavorably: he and the crew rowed ashore while passengers remained aboard, and Block Islanders helped get the survivors off the ship the following day. Accounts differ on the ship's end; most say it was deemed unsalvageable and pushed back out to sea, possibly set afire to scuttle it, though some evidence suggests it may have been repaired.
The folklore grew almost at once. Within a year two rival versions circulated: islanders held that they had tried to rescue those aboard, while mainlanders accused the islanders of luring the ship in to plunder it. The legend hardened in the nineteenth century, fixed by John Greenleaf Whittier's 1867 poem 'The Palatine,' which renamed the wreck and gave the ghost ship its lasting name. A later marker near Mohegan Bluffs reads 'Palatine Graves - 1738,' though the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission has noted that no physical evidence has been found to confirm graves or the legend itself.
Sources
The Palatine Light is one of the oldest documented ghost-ship traditions in New England. Sporadic local reports describe a burning vessel seen offshore from the north end of Block Island, typically around the days between Christmas and New Year, the same season as the 1738 wreck.
The legend attaches the light to the Princess Augusta, renamed the Palatine in the nineteenth century. Some versions add a passenger, sometimes given as Mary Van Der Line, said to have been driven to despair by the suffering of the crossing and lost when the ship went down. Whittier's 1867 poem leaned into the darker mainland version, in which islanders set the ship afire, an accusation the historical record does not support and which islanders rejected.
Folklorist Michael Bell traced how the two competing accounts of the wreck circulated within a year of the event and how the ghost story grew from that dispute. More recent scholarship, including a university-press study of the wreck, treats the Palatine Light as a case of folklore layered onto a real and well-documented disaster. The Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission has stated that no physical evidence supports either the burial claims or the apparition. The reports persist as a seasonal tradition rather than a verified phenomenon.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk the long sand spit at the northern tip of Block Island toward Sandy Point, the stretch of shoreline where the Princess Augusta wrecked in 1738. It is the traditional vantage for the Palatine Light, the burning phantom ship reported by islanders around the year's end. The walk is exposed and has no facilities; bring water and check the tide.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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