Mahone Bay

Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia, Canada is haunted by a ghostly burning pirate ship named The Young Teazer. Today it is said that on balmy summer nights when the moon lights up the mist on the outer reaches of Mahone Bay, a flaming ghost of the ship Young Teazer can be seen moving across the Bay.

In 1813 the pirate ship The Young Teazer, was trapped by a British warship in Mahone Bay. The pirate ship’s captain Frederick Johnson knew that the game was up. He and his crew faced either imprisonment or death by hanging.

Rather than allowing their ship to be captured, the pirates threw a torch into the ship’s powder magazine, causing a huge explosion. The pirate ship was blown out of the water in a fiery blaze, killing the pirate captain and the entire ship’s crew.

A year after the explosion, locals in Mahone Bay began to report sightings of a ship resembling the Young Teazer, burning on the horizon. Whenever rescue boats were sent out to investigate, the burning ship simply vanished into thin air.

Ever since then, hundreds of people have seen a burning ship out on the bay. Some fishermen were in their boats when the blazing ship suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It seemed to be heading right for them, and they were terrified that it was going to run them down.

Those who saw the Young Teazer up close, claimed there were men moving about on her decks, engulfed in flames and running back and forth in a panic. Over the years, some people have even reported hearing the tortured cries of the dead pirates who have been trying to escape their burning ship for more than a century.

Perhaps they are doomed to relive this tragic moment in history over and over, paying the ultimate penalty for their ruthless piracy.

To this day, the residents of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia pay tribute to this legend by reenacting the burning of the Young Teaser at their annual Wooden Boat Festival.