A Canadian resident of Prince
Edward Island told this 1st person account in the 1950s.
My wife and I moved to
Charlottetown in October of 1953. It was my first time on the island but since
we both had relatives on the island it felt like a homecoming.
A few weeks after moving into
our new home I was awakened one night by the tolling of a church bell.
When I heard the sound I sat
bolt upright, I noticed goose bumps forming all over my arms. My wife awoke
and then quizzed me on what was wrong.
I couldn’t put into words
what I was feeling. A strong sense of dread overtook me as the bells continued
to toll slowly… two, three, four more times.
Noticing my confusion she
stated it was probably just a midnight service somewhere.
Still uncomfortable, I lied
back down. A sense that something was wrong overwhelmed me.
I sat back up as the bell
tolled two more times, five, six… my wife impatient announced over the sounds,
“Go back to sleep for heaven’s sake.”
The bell continued to toll,
seven, eight…then all was quiet.
A knot of unease had formed
in my stomach and I had trouble getting back to sleep. I shivered at one point
feeling the proverbial sense something had walked over my grave.
I awoke the next morning
feeling that the tolling of the bell held some kind of unfathomable
significance.
After breakfast, I visited
the local dry goods store. As I paid for my purchases I noticed a cousin of
mine huddled in a group of men at the back of the store. When he spotted me he
waved me over.
The group was having an
animated discussion about the bells heard the night before.
My cousin asked one man
standing to the side to catch me up. The group became silent as this man
started to speak.
When I heard the bells
ringing at St. John’s I went outside in my undershirt. My neighbor was already
outside.
We both agreed it was
probably just teens playing a prank. We headed toward the churchyard.
As we arrived the bell rang
for the fifth time. We spotted 3 women standing framed by the church door. They
all wore white and they appeared to be glowing.
Wondering who they were we
approached but the door slammed shut as we drew closer. My neighbor grabbed the
door handle but it was locked.
We peered in a window and saw
one of the three women walking up the stairs that led to the belfry. The bell
then tolled for the sixth time.
Within moments the minister
arrived and unlocked the door. When we entered there was no sign of the women
on the ground floor.
The bell tolled for the
seventh time as we headed for the belfry stairs. At the top we discovered the
room was empty. The bell rope was tied firmly in place even though the
bell was still vibrating.
As we searched the church
from top to bottom we heard the bell ring once more--for the eighth time. We
found no one in the church.
The bell was now silent. We left the building mystified by what we had heard and seen.
As this man finished
retelling this story several others in the group wondered aloud if the sound of
the church bell could possibly be a harbinger of some kind-- warning of a
disaster.
Later that day I went down to
meet my wife’s cousin at the dock who was arriving for a visit. It was a chilly
day and I waited for hours but the ship never arrived.
Once at home, I got the same
feeling of dread I had felt the night before as the church bell tolled. I told
my wife something was wrong.
She told me I was being silly
and that the steamer had probably just had mechanical problems and was
waylaid for repairs.
The next day the news that
came was grim. The ship had sunk en route to Prince Edward Island. All
eight passengers onboard--including my wife’s cousin-- had died.
Later, I remembered the
church bell had tolled eight times. The last three rings tolled just after the
two men had seen the three glowing women.
Three of the eight people who
died when the steamer sunk were women.
Did all eight victims toll
their deaths?
