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Language: English
Crew of the Caleuche
The Caleuche is the phantom ship of the Chiloé archipelago in southern Chile. Its crew is recruited from the drowned, who are revived to serve aboard for ever, in some tellings as contented sailors and in others as maimed and mindless slaves of the island's sorcerers. The twisted, hopping crewmen resemble the imbunche, another creature of Chilote witchcraft. It is South America's clearest folklore of the dead put back to work.1
When did it first appear?
1896Described by Chilean writers from the 1890s, among them Darío Cavada (1896)
What the sources say
The Caleuche is a brilliantly lit ghost ship that appears at night to the sound of music1
In a common version its crew are dead, enslaved sailors1
They are deliberately kept as forgetful idiots so that they cannot betray the ship's secrets1
Their hands are said to be very cold1
The ship is also the vessel of Chiloé's sorcerers, the brujos1
The legend may go back to a Dutch ship lost in the region in the early 1600s1
Could you outrun it?
Speed class from how the sources describe it (hops), not a measurement.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].
Jiangshi
Zombi (Haitian)
Strigoi
Vampir (South Slavic)
Abhartach
Arnold Paole