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Ghosts from the Coast
Acclaimed storyteller Nancy Roberts takes the reader on a haunted tour of coastal North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia in this engaging new collection of thirty-three ghost stories and legends.
In North Carolina, we hear of the restless spirit who troubles visitors to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and the phantom ship that, though lost in a storm at sea, sailed into Beaufort Harbor for a final farewell. South Carolina provides the backdrop for tales such as that of the Union soldier killed at Charleston's Fort Sumter--more than a century later, a tourist is startled to discover the eerie, blue-coated figure of the soldier standing next to him. And in Georgia, we encounter ghostly pirates doomed to sail the creeks and inlets of St. Simons Island forever without rest, as well as rambunctious child spirits who roll pool balls down the hallways of a Savannah bed and breakfast, just as they did when their family lived in the house following the Civil War.
These new tales and classic legends, all collected firsthand by the author, reveal a thrilling undercurrent to some of the southern coast's most popular destinations.
In North Carolina, we hear of the restless spirit who troubles visitors to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and the phantom ship that, though lost in a storm at sea, sailed into Beaufort Harbor for a final farewell. South Carolina provides the backdrop for tales such as that of the Union soldier killed at Charleston's Fort Sumter--more than a century later, a tourist is startled to discover the eerie, blue-coated figure of the soldier standing next to him. And in Georgia, we encounter ghostly pirates doomed to sail the creeks and inlets of St. Simons Island forever without rest, as well as rambunctious child spirits who roll pool balls down the hallways of a Savannah bed and breakfast, just as they did when their family lived in the house following the Civil War.
These new tales and classic legends, all collected firsthand by the author, reveal a thrilling undercurrent to some of the southern coast's most popular destinations.
184 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 12, 2013
I couldn't finish this; I already slalomed through one poorly-written account of real southern hauntings, and I just couldn't take this one. I want to be interested, but the author records the accounts in such an inauthentic voice... nobody speaks the way she claims these witnesses do. just awful. 2 stars for the local lore factor, but that's about its only saving grace.
July 6, 2025
The North Room:
I was disappointed in this story. There wasn’t much to it. The friend of a keeper’s wife died in the room during her visit there. A keeper’s daughter drowned and they put her dead body in her room before her funeral. The story was full of imaginings of what the girl had done while playing in the sand and what she might have said being carried away by the riptide. Barely any real detail. A keeper’s wife died of consumption in the room and her things were put away in a barrel and left to avoid contagion. Kids in the 1900s would play dress up with them until they were burned. People sense spirits in the room. The end.
What Happened to Nell Cropsey?
This can hardly be considered a ghost story. A girl was dating a boy and didn’t want to be with him anymore, so she started being mean, and her cousin went out with him, and the whole thing was confusing and hard to follow. Couldn’t tell who was who or who was speaking most of the time. And then one night he asked the girl to come outside with him and she was never seen alive again, found dead several weeks later in the river. The son in the family living here at this time believes the girl follows him up the stairs and has felt her sad presence. Did he hear footsteps?? Why does he think that??
She started the story out by saying that even as a stranger visiting Elizabeth City, you feel the tragedy that occurred there in 1901 is still alive today. I highly doubt that. If you didn’t know anything about this story, I bet you wouldn’t think a thing about it.
Then the one about the lost colony didn’t even have a ghost. It was just a story about what could have happened to the colony, complete with making up this entire part about why this single girl chose to take the voyage, that she’d fallen in love with this son of the lord, while her family were serfs working the land, and at the end you find out it’s all made up! WTF?!
I was all set to quit, and then I saw that the next story was set in the Black Pelican restaurant I’ve eaten at, and I had to read.
A keeper killed his surfman who he didn’t like and who insulted his wife, and previous owners of old Station Six say his spirit is still there.
It used to be a bed and breakfast, knew it was haunted, as well as a last restaurant owner. They were opening the restaurant and all the lights and everything came on. She didn’t believe it when the only other person there said it was a ghost, until a barstool overturned and a rush of cold air came at her.
Staff would be vacuuming the old part of the restaurant and the vacuums would turn off. One night the table cloths billowed as if lifted by a wind and the hanging plants would swing. This would happen often at closing. Toilets would flush in the morning when the owner would arrive.
The ashtrays would be upside down on the bar and they would flip right side up and go sliding down the bar. A glass once did a somersault. A bartender felt someone grab his shoulder.
There was a spot on the old carpet that would always reappear after it was cleaned away. She thought someone had spilled red wine but the waitstaff said no one drink red wine at the table. The stain would always reappear when it rained. She learned the table was a part of the old station.
Roanoke Island Inn, Manteo.
It was built in the 1860s and each generation added onto the house, until it grew larger. The great-great-grandson of the original owner turned part of it into an inn.
A ghost of a man has been seen in the inn. Vases have been hurled across the room. A window opened on its own.
After the mailman died he was seen leaving or entering the house in uniform.
Doors would close on staff as they cleaned, and the blinds would pull back up several times after they were pulled down. Footsteps are heard upstairs at night, and a radio has been heard in a room no one’s been in.
Cupola House, Edenton:
After the house has been locked up for hurricanes, they’ll find the front door won’t turn with the key, as if someone is holding the door closed. They also find a butt print in the bed in a roped-off area.
Furniture was heard dragged upstairs but nothing had been moved. Two flashlights went out in succession—one new. The rustle of taffeta was heard as if a long dress went by. Cobwebs were felt walking through the house.
Blackbeard’s House
He was courting a young stupid girl who didn’t want to be with him but was too afraid to leave. A young boy loved her and she loved him, but had been taken by Blackbeard’s gifts and the envy of her friends. He found the boy over and killed him immediately, said to be the cause of the bloodstains on the stairs.
I was disappointed the house is privately owned.
The Phantom Ship in Beaufort:
This guy’s sister married his captain and would always look for his ship to come back to port. She saw it one morning, and saw him wave towards her window. She ran down to port but the ship was gone and her brother was there saying her husband’s ship had gone down.
It’s not like the ship is sighted every year on the anniversary or anything. It was only spotted once…
Fort Macon experiences doors closing when no one else is there, shadows being seen, objects being found in different places.
The Bellamy Mansion, Wilmington:
Apparitions have been seen, like an old couple looking out of the window. Doors slam.
A skeptic and his son stayed the night there with a bunch of reenactors. He woke up hearing laughter on the third floor and thought it was his son but no one was there. Then he woke up to boots stepping on him and saw Union soldiers, and the reenactors all woke up too, but no one was there. Believed to be Wilmington’s most haunted house.
New Hanover County Public Library, Wilmington:
Staff have seen soldiers of the Wilmington Light Infantry, and apparitions disappearing, and hear noises like books being shelved or flipped through. Patrons have seen the ghost of a historian who used to work there.
I LOVED the story where the woman came to the librarian for the ghost story files, because she’d been woken up in the night by a woman’s voice pleading please don’t to a Major and then the sound of a heavy thud and something being dragged down the stairs and out the front door. She couldn’t find the ghost story but suggested the woman try the microfilm in searching the Wilmington newspaper for a hundred years ago yesterday.
She found an article where Major Clark’s body had been found in the street that she lived on, knew that someone else had killed him first.
Old Firehouse, Myrtle Beach
Firemen would hear footsteps and the bay door opening and one didn’t believe in ghosts and the other believed it was the electrician who died there. They disagreed about it, until the other man died and appeared to his friend, saying he believes his story about who died there, then the ghost of his friend said Let’s go and he thought it was for him! But he must have been telling the ghost of the other man.
Oliver’s Lodge was a good story but was not a ghost story at all. This restaurant owner took in a black boy who was abused by his dad and he lived there. No ghost.
Gray Man, Pawleys Island:
A waitress had been driving home so tired she kept swerving, and speeding. She saw a man in gray with arms out like a scarecrow, and she braked hard to avoid him, and then he disappeared. Then she saw the logs that had fallen off a truck right on the road and knew if she hadn’t stopped for him she would have hit them.
There was one about a paramedic who spent a hurricanes inside a school with rising water for a few hours and everyone had come close to drowning. No ghost.
Another had a diver who found a submarine from the Civil War that had sank during an attack. No ghost.
Fort Sumter:
The Union army was stationed there and asking Lincoln to leave or get supplies which inexperienced and new Lincoln didn’t know and so did neither. The Confederates attacked and they had to surrender. 4 years later they reclaimed the fort.
The hag story was not a ghost story but was just super weird and raised questions. Being hag-ridden and then coming the next day to see how you are. You could tell a hag by burning a needle and putting it in their footprint and they couldn’t leave until it was removed but they’d know. They’d burn their fingernail off and then peel their skin off starting with that finger. Very bizarre.
John Cross Tavern, Beaufort, SC:
It’s existed since the early 1700s and pirates frequented it. Objects move, shadows have been seen, and a hand touches people’s shoulders.
When she mentioned how Beaufort was lined with Civil War homes, cemeteries full of people “who defended this land from Indians” I was like what?! How could she say that?! You mean stole the land from Indians?
The Hilton Head Specter, SC:
I liked the story of the carriage, how a couple before the Civil War were engaged and he’d take her out in his carriage. While they were out she touched some items on a slave girl’s grave and contracted yellow fever and died and then he died a few days later. For her funeral he draped black ribbons on his carriage, and dashed away during it. On the night he was buried his apparition and carriage were seen.
A woman staying at Hilton Head in 1996 went out at midnight and saw the carriage race past and the man get out and look at her. Exactly a year later she found the author’s book in a bookstore and bought it, read the story of the carriage and realized what she’d seen.
Olde Harbour Inn, Savannah, GA:
Built in 1892 as a warehouse. Turned into a hotel and the wife woke him up because someone seemed to be trying to get in their room. He opened the door and didn’t see anyone. He went back to bed and again it happened but no one was there. He stayed behind the door and looked through the peephole and the handle started turning. The next morning his wife saw someone sitting on the bed with her that he couldn’t see.
The Marshall House, Savannah, GA:
A couple stayed at the hotel and when the wife went to the downstairs bathroom, she found all the doors locked from the inside. The desk clerk told them to let them know if it happened again,and they were like is this a frequent event??
The husband went out in the hallways during the night and two men came down the stairs carrying a stretcher with a body covered by a sheet. They were having a conversation which he heard. They went past him and down another flight of stairs, then came back and extended the stretcher toward him and gestured for him to get on. He felt a strange force drawing him toward the scene. He said no and then they vanished.
The hotel had been used as a hospital in the Civil War. He questioned their water the next day and he confirmed the body of a tall man’s bones were found in the basement. It was funny how his wife wanted to leave but he wanted to stay another night. He thought of stationing himself in the basement the next night and waiting for the men!
St. Simon’s Island, GA:
An historian has seen a sailing ship at anchor. Some have seen a ship flying the skull and crossbones. It’s believed to be the ship of pirate Bloody Agraham Agramont, the story going that he and his crew were so wicked they can never rest nor are allowed to drop anchor or quench their thirst in any harbor.
Jekyll Island Club Hotel, Jekyll Island, GA:
An engineer was staying there and was a skeptic of the supernatural activity he’d been told about in his room, a room that belonged to an engineer after the Civil War. He’d be working on his designs and come back to find all of his papers out of order and written on. One drawing had been changed and he was so mad he was resolved to leave and write a scathing letter, until he noticed his design had been improved and solved.
I’m so glad I kept going on this book. It was well written and she’s a good storyteller. I liked the way she would word things.
I was disappointed in this story. There wasn’t much to it. The friend of a keeper’s wife died in the room during her visit there. A keeper’s daughter drowned and they put her dead body in her room before her funeral. The story was full of imaginings of what the girl had done while playing in the sand and what she might have said being carried away by the riptide. Barely any real detail. A keeper’s wife died of consumption in the room and her things were put away in a barrel and left to avoid contagion. Kids in the 1900s would play dress up with them until they were burned. People sense spirits in the room. The end.
What Happened to Nell Cropsey?
This can hardly be considered a ghost story. A girl was dating a boy and didn’t want to be with him anymore, so she started being mean, and her cousin went out with him, and the whole thing was confusing and hard to follow. Couldn’t tell who was who or who was speaking most of the time. And then one night he asked the girl to come outside with him and she was never seen alive again, found dead several weeks later in the river. The son in the family living here at this time believes the girl follows him up the stairs and has felt her sad presence. Did he hear footsteps?? Why does he think that??
She started the story out by saying that even as a stranger visiting Elizabeth City, you feel the tragedy that occurred there in 1901 is still alive today. I highly doubt that. If you didn’t know anything about this story, I bet you wouldn’t think a thing about it.
Then the one about the lost colony didn’t even have a ghost. It was just a story about what could have happened to the colony, complete with making up this entire part about why this single girl chose to take the voyage, that she’d fallen in love with this son of the lord, while her family were serfs working the land, and at the end you find out it’s all made up! WTF?!
I was all set to quit, and then I saw that the next story was set in the Black Pelican restaurant I’ve eaten at, and I had to read.
A keeper killed his surfman who he didn’t like and who insulted his wife, and previous owners of old Station Six say his spirit is still there.
It used to be a bed and breakfast, knew it was haunted, as well as a last restaurant owner. They were opening the restaurant and all the lights and everything came on. She didn’t believe it when the only other person there said it was a ghost, until a barstool overturned and a rush of cold air came at her.
Staff would be vacuuming the old part of the restaurant and the vacuums would turn off. One night the table cloths billowed as if lifted by a wind and the hanging plants would swing. This would happen often at closing. Toilets would flush in the morning when the owner would arrive.
The ashtrays would be upside down on the bar and they would flip right side up and go sliding down the bar. A glass once did a somersault. A bartender felt someone grab his shoulder.
There was a spot on the old carpet that would always reappear after it was cleaned away. She thought someone had spilled red wine but the waitstaff said no one drink red wine at the table. The stain would always reappear when it rained. She learned the table was a part of the old station.
Roanoke Island Inn, Manteo.
It was built in the 1860s and each generation added onto the house, until it grew larger. The great-great-grandson of the original owner turned part of it into an inn.
A ghost of a man has been seen in the inn. Vases have been hurled across the room. A window opened on its own.
After the mailman died he was seen leaving or entering the house in uniform.
Doors would close on staff as they cleaned, and the blinds would pull back up several times after they were pulled down. Footsteps are heard upstairs at night, and a radio has been heard in a room no one’s been in.
Cupola House, Edenton:
After the house has been locked up for hurricanes, they’ll find the front door won’t turn with the key, as if someone is holding the door closed. They also find a butt print in the bed in a roped-off area.
Furniture was heard dragged upstairs but nothing had been moved. Two flashlights went out in succession—one new. The rustle of taffeta was heard as if a long dress went by. Cobwebs were felt walking through the house.
Blackbeard’s House
He was courting a young stupid girl who didn’t want to be with him but was too afraid to leave. A young boy loved her and she loved him, but had been taken by Blackbeard’s gifts and the envy of her friends. He found the boy over and killed him immediately, said to be the cause of the bloodstains on the stairs.
I was disappointed the house is privately owned.
The Phantom Ship in Beaufort:
This guy’s sister married his captain and would always look for his ship to come back to port. She saw it one morning, and saw him wave towards her window. She ran down to port but the ship was gone and her brother was there saying her husband’s ship had gone down.
It’s not like the ship is sighted every year on the anniversary or anything. It was only spotted once…
Fort Macon experiences doors closing when no one else is there, shadows being seen, objects being found in different places.
The Bellamy Mansion, Wilmington:
Apparitions have been seen, like an old couple looking out of the window. Doors slam.
A skeptic and his son stayed the night there with a bunch of reenactors. He woke up hearing laughter on the third floor and thought it was his son but no one was there. Then he woke up to boots stepping on him and saw Union soldiers, and the reenactors all woke up too, but no one was there. Believed to be Wilmington’s most haunted house.
New Hanover County Public Library, Wilmington:
Staff have seen soldiers of the Wilmington Light Infantry, and apparitions disappearing, and hear noises like books being shelved or flipped through. Patrons have seen the ghost of a historian who used to work there.
I LOVED the story where the woman came to the librarian for the ghost story files, because she’d been woken up in the night by a woman’s voice pleading please don’t to a Major and then the sound of a heavy thud and something being dragged down the stairs and out the front door. She couldn’t find the ghost story but suggested the woman try the microfilm in searching the Wilmington newspaper for a hundred years ago yesterday.
She found an article where Major Clark’s body had been found in the street that she lived on, knew that someone else had killed him first.
Old Firehouse, Myrtle Beach
Firemen would hear footsteps and the bay door opening and one didn’t believe in ghosts and the other believed it was the electrician who died there. They disagreed about it, until the other man died and appeared to his friend, saying he believes his story about who died there, then the ghost of his friend said Let’s go and he thought it was for him! But he must have been telling the ghost of the other man.
Oliver’s Lodge was a good story but was not a ghost story at all. This restaurant owner took in a black boy who was abused by his dad and he lived there. No ghost.
Gray Man, Pawleys Island:
A waitress had been driving home so tired she kept swerving, and speeding. She saw a man in gray with arms out like a scarecrow, and she braked hard to avoid him, and then he disappeared. Then she saw the logs that had fallen off a truck right on the road and knew if she hadn’t stopped for him she would have hit them.
There was one about a paramedic who spent a hurricanes inside a school with rising water for a few hours and everyone had come close to drowning. No ghost.
Another had a diver who found a submarine from the Civil War that had sank during an attack. No ghost.
Fort Sumter:
The Union army was stationed there and asking Lincoln to leave or get supplies which inexperienced and new Lincoln didn’t know and so did neither. The Confederates attacked and they had to surrender. 4 years later they reclaimed the fort.
The hag story was not a ghost story but was just super weird and raised questions. Being hag-ridden and then coming the next day to see how you are. You could tell a hag by burning a needle and putting it in their footprint and they couldn’t leave until it was removed but they’d know. They’d burn their fingernail off and then peel their skin off starting with that finger. Very bizarre.
John Cross Tavern, Beaufort, SC:
It’s existed since the early 1700s and pirates frequented it. Objects move, shadows have been seen, and a hand touches people’s shoulders.
When she mentioned how Beaufort was lined with Civil War homes, cemeteries full of people “who defended this land from Indians” I was like what?! How could she say that?! You mean stole the land from Indians?
The Hilton Head Specter, SC:
I liked the story of the carriage, how a couple before the Civil War were engaged and he’d take her out in his carriage. While they were out she touched some items on a slave girl’s grave and contracted yellow fever and died and then he died a few days later. For her funeral he draped black ribbons on his carriage, and dashed away during it. On the night he was buried his apparition and carriage were seen.
A woman staying at Hilton Head in 1996 went out at midnight and saw the carriage race past and the man get out and look at her. Exactly a year later she found the author’s book in a bookstore and bought it, read the story of the carriage and realized what she’d seen.
Olde Harbour Inn, Savannah, GA:
Built in 1892 as a warehouse. Turned into a hotel and the wife woke him up because someone seemed to be trying to get in their room. He opened the door and didn’t see anyone. He went back to bed and again it happened but no one was there. He stayed behind the door and looked through the peephole and the handle started turning. The next morning his wife saw someone sitting on the bed with her that he couldn’t see.
The Marshall House, Savannah, GA:
A couple stayed at the hotel and when the wife went to the downstairs bathroom, she found all the doors locked from the inside. The desk clerk told them to let them know if it happened again,and they were like is this a frequent event??
The husband went out in the hallways during the night and two men came down the stairs carrying a stretcher with a body covered by a sheet. They were having a conversation which he heard. They went past him and down another flight of stairs, then came back and extended the stretcher toward him and gestured for him to get on. He felt a strange force drawing him toward the scene. He said no and then they vanished.
The hotel had been used as a hospital in the Civil War. He questioned their water the next day and he confirmed the body of a tall man’s bones were found in the basement. It was funny how his wife wanted to leave but he wanted to stay another night. He thought of stationing himself in the basement the next night and waiting for the men!
St. Simon’s Island, GA:
An historian has seen a sailing ship at anchor. Some have seen a ship flying the skull and crossbones. It’s believed to be the ship of pirate Bloody Agraham Agramont, the story going that he and his crew were so wicked they can never rest nor are allowed to drop anchor or quench their thirst in any harbor.
Jekyll Island Club Hotel, Jekyll Island, GA:
An engineer was staying there and was a skeptic of the supernatural activity he’d been told about in his room, a room that belonged to an engineer after the Civil War. He’d be working on his designs and come back to find all of his papers out of order and written on. One drawing had been changed and he was so mad he was resolved to leave and write a scathing letter, until he noticed his design had been improved and solved.
I’m so glad I kept going on this book. It was well written and she’s a good storyteller. I liked the way she would word things.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2023
DNF'd @ 50%
I wanted to like this, but I couldn't get into the author's style.
I wanted to like this, but I couldn't get into the author's style.
July 26, 2011
Interesting stories, though I've heard most of the ones from Savannah, Georgia before.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews