He came to one of the Haunted Ships;
and striking it with his oar, a fair ship, with mast, and canvas, and
mariners, started up: he touched the other Haunted Ship, and produced
the like transformation; and away the three spectre ships bounded,
leaving a track of fire behind them on the billows which was long
unextinguished. Now was nae that a bonnie and a fearful sight to see
beneath the light of the Hallowmass moon? But the tale is far frae
finished; for mariners say that once a year, on a certain night, if
ye stand on the Borranpoint, ye will see the infernal shallops coming
snoring through the Solway; ye will hear the same laugh, and song, and
mirth, and minstrelsy, which our ancestors heard; see them bound over
the sandbanks and sunken rocks like sea-gulls, cast their anchor in
Blawhooly Bay, while the shadowy figure lowers down the boat, and
augments their numbers with the four unhappy mortals, to whose memory
a stone stands in the kirkyard, with a sinking ship and a shoreless
sea cut upon it.
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