10/28/2026
The Fourth Sailor on the Vesta Pearl
Port Wade, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia
Haunted Nova Scotia: Ghost Stories from the Forgotten Past
Atlantic Folklore & Forgotten Stories
Some ghost stories involve terrifying apparitions, strange noises or restless spirits seeking revenge. But aboard the sailing vessel Vesta Pearl, the ghost apparently just wanted to help.
There is an extraordinary account from an old sailor named Horace Johnston of Port Wade, Annapolis County. Johnston had served as mate aboard the Vesta Pearl, while his brother was captain. One night, the crew was working to reef the foresail when the captain noticed something peculiar.
There were supposed to be three men working forward. But he could clearly see four.
The captain quietly called his brother aft and asked him to take the wheel while he went forward to investigate. Later, the brothers compared what they had seen.
Both had counted four sailors where there should have been only three.
The captain had deliberately kept quiet, not wanting to frighten the rest of the crew. But this wasn't the only strange occurrence aboard the vessel. Johnston recalled hearing someone climbing aboard at night. He could distinctly hear footsteps on the ladder, followed by the familiar sound of a man knocking mud from his boots.Yet whenever he investigated, nobody was there.
According to the sailors, the explanation lay in the ship's tragic past. The vessel's former captain had supposedly been swept overboard during her maiden voyage. And for reasons nobody understood, his spirit apparently continued returning to help the crew handle the sails.
Johnston even remarked that whenever the mysterious sailor appeared, the sails seemed unusually easy to reef.
Unlike so many Maritime ghost stories, this spirit apparently meant no harm. He simply continued doing the work he had known in life.
Perhaps some sailors never truly leave their ships, even when the sea has claimed their lives.
Historical folklore source: Helen Creighton Collection, Nova Scotia Archives, Reel 13, No. 1, “The Vesta Pearl,” recorded September 5, 1949.
