Ghosts of the Seaport

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Nautical Ghosts, Vengeful Spirits, Pirates, and Other Waterfront Phantoms

New York wouldn’t be the city it is without its harbor. Its waters bore witness to its growth over the centuries as one of the leading ports of the world, but also to the darkness that came from its ambition. From the vengeful spirits of legendary pirate captains who were used as pawns in global warfare, to death and starvation aboard the cost-cutting Victorian merchant vessels that lined every pier, growth always has its price to be paid.

On this 90-minute walking tour, you’ll stand beside the iron hull of a 19th century ship that braved the worst weather in the world, see a monument to the lost souls of the Titanic, hear the tales of spiritualists who called them back from their watery graves, and walk down the crooked cobbled streets where bars, dance halls, and rat pits managed by the bloody gangsters of New York’s underworld sprung up to serve the seaport’s transient clientele.

The Seaport has always been a place of constant reinvention. But on this tour, among the slanting shadows of 19th century counting houses and bridges, in the slosh of the water and the brackish smell of its tides, this neighborhood’s ghosts will always be a part of it.

Tour designed by Silas Costello, lead guide with Boroughs of the Dead, sailor of historic ships, and author of the award-winning gothic fantasy novel Lacrimore and the webcomic Going to Weather, a nautical ghost story set on an 1840s whaleship.