El Caleuche - the Demon ship
There are well-known and lesser-known ghost ships, and one of the lesser-known, until you hear her story, is El Caleuche, which is said to be off the Chilean coast or the Chiloé Archipelago. And she is something very special because she is a demon ship with bright white sides and blood-red sails. And more than just your average ghost ship, El Caleuche is a sentient being that can glide across the surface of the water at impossible speeds or dive beneath it like a whale. Hence its name, which derives from the indigenous word kalewtun - shapshifter.
The Ghost Ship, by Ishikawa Tomoya (x)
Observers say that you can hear the cackling of its demon crew as it passes and it always sounds like they are celebrating, the crew themselves are said to hop around on one leg and have faces that turn backwards. The ship is also manned by dead and living sailors and under the command of a light-haired blue-eyed man. The crew was either pulled from the depths or stolen from passing ships. However, it only has use for the officers all the others are left ashore mad about what they have seen and experienced.
Others believe that if someone drowns off the Chiloé archipelago, they are taken to El Caleuche by three mythological Chilote figures - the Sirena Chilota sisters (mermaids) and Pincoya, a female water spirit associated with the Chilotan seas. The group is often accompanied by the Brujo de Chiloé ("Warlocks of Chiloé"), who are essentially powerful male witches of Chilote folklore. It is also rumoured that fishermen and sailors are kidnapped as slaves and turned into invunche, hairy monsters with legs bent over their shoulders and a forked tongue, associated with the Brujo de Chiloé.
Those who study the history of this ship believe it to be an adaptation of the Flying Dutchman saga, and if you look at it closely, there are certain parallels that cannot be denied. Especially not if you know the Disney version, which seems to have a very strong origin here. Others think that the legend has a true core, namely the Dutch ship Calanche which sank there around 1600 in a violent storm with great losses and the pirate activity and their temporary residence on the island under the leadership of the Dutch pirate Baltazar de Cordes in 1600, who wanted to keep away nosy sailors and natives with the ghost story around the Calanche, in order to work in peace.
Whether it's another version of the Flying Dutchman or a pirate story, El Galeuche is still up to mischief today and is said to be on the hunt for new crewmembers, especially around new year.
