The native people on Chiloe Island, the Huilliches, on the Pacific coast of Chile, in its Patagonian region, believed in a strange legendary ghost ship called "Caleuche".
The name, according to one source, derives from the Huilliche words caletún, which means "change appearance" and che, "people". Meaning that the mystery ship is a shapeshifter. It was a ship that haunted the shores, a coastal Flying Dutchman of Patagonia.
I hadn't mentioned it in my books because it is a ship, not an animal or monster. It is an enchanted watercraft. But it was recorded by different ethnologists over a century ago. Let's see what they have to say about it.
Vicuña Cifuentes in 1915 (Estudios de Folklore chileno. Mitos y supersticiones recogidos de la tradición oral chilena, con referencias comparativas a los de otros países latinos. page 26, wrote:
"Caleuche is a submersible ship that sails in the seas of Chiloe. It is manned by witches, and on dark nights it has been seen afloat, brightly lit up. The Caleuche has a feature, when the circumstances demand, it can become a trunk, a rock or any other object, and its sailors become sea lions or aquatic birds. It is an infernal pirate that brings terror to the homes of the islanders, who know that if they have the bad luck of becoming its prey, even for one instant, they will lose their minds, and with their face turned around, towards their bakcs for the rest of their lives... It is also called the Ship of the Arts.. when a boat disappears mysteriously it is taken as a fact that it was boarded by the Caleuche's crew and its passengers held captive on board the fearsome pirate ship."
F. Cavada, in 1914 wrote about it (Chiloé y los Chilotes). He also said it was submersible; "a mythical submarine ship, that sails both seas and rivers... It is the same story of the phantom vessel, so popular in the Cape of Good Hope, and in other people of the Baltic and Mediterranean seas and the Antilles. Better said, such a vessel is a popular myth in almost all times and countries.
The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman myth is about a ship that is doomed to sail the seas forever. It is the outcome of a pact with the devil, signed by the ship's Dutch captain, to navigate safely and avoid the terrible storms on the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope). It is also seen at night, a phantom vessel. The ship can never dock at any port, and must sail the seas forever.
Alejandro Cañas desiribed it in 1911 (Vol XI de los Trabajos del Cuarto Congreso Científico o Pan Americano celebrado en Santiago de Chile del 25 de Diciembre de 1908 al 5 de Enero de 1909, Estudios de la Lengua Veliche, p. 256). He called it the Ship of Art, manned by witches and wizards, and "that many have said they have seen it and navigate at night, lit up, and with red sails."
The origin of the myth
Death and pestilence at sea was not uncommon in the 1500s and 1600s. Scurvy, tropical diseases, even the plague were rife at that time. The myth probably originated when sailors or people living on the shore sighted a derelict vessel, with its crew dead, pushed by the winds... a phantom ship, with a ghostly crew.
The Caleuche could have arisen after the native Mapuche, Chono, and Huilliche people along the Patagonian coast saw the first Spanish vessels in the mid 1500s. Then came the Dutch: Simon de Cordes (1599), Olivier van Noort (1600), Joris van Spilbergen (1614), Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten (1615), Jacques l'Hermite (1625), Hendrik Brouwer (1643). And also English mariners like Sir Francis Drake (1578), Thomas Cavendish (1587), Richard Hawkins (1593), just to name a few.
The sight of European galleons must have impressed the natives, ships that came from nowhere and vanished into the deep ocean.
Alternatively, the myth could have originated when the Amerindians saw the first Polynesian outriggers reach the coast of Southern Chile, large catamaran canoes with sails and odd-looking crews. Then, much later, the European vessels would have contributed to the ancient myth.
Red Sails; Melanesian? Polynesian?
Robert Henry Codrington (1891) in The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore, (p. 292) mentions that " red 'butterfly' sails were the common and pleasing ornament of an island scene in the New Hebrides and Banks' groups."
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©
No comments:
Post a Comment