The Cursed Ship That Still Burns Off Block Island | Princess Augusta

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]In 1738, a shipwreck off Block Island became one of New England's strangest ghost stories. Her real name was Princess Augusta, but history would remember her as the Palatine. She had crossed the Atlantic, crowded with German migrants, and the voyage had already turned deadly. By the time she reached New England, sickness, hunger, and winter seas had broken the ship. Then a storm drove her onto the shores of Block Island. Survivors struggled ashore. The wreck was destroyed. But the story did not end there. For generations, islanders claimed they saw a burning ship moving through the darkness offshore. A flame on the water, a vessel that could never be reached. Historians can trace the real wreck. They can trace the legend. But the light itself remains harder to explain. And on Block Island, some still call it the pelletine.