POEM: A ‘moonlit night’ aboard a beloved schooner

July 13, 2026

By Sue Shaw

Ghost Ship

The full moon sits, so round and white…

Riding high in the silent night.

The moonlit trail across the bay

Leads one to thoughts of yesterday.

When schooners plied the coastal trades

Of hauling cargos. Today fades

And the lovely schooner Victory Chimes

Remembers other sailing times.

The tourist crew is tucked in bed,

And seamen ghosts are crew instead!

They haul the lines and raise the sails…

Adjust for how the wind prevails.

They tend their work and sail the coast.

This crew….each one a Maine-type ghost!

All thru the night, while tourists sleep,

The moon lights memories strong and deep…

Of Victory Chimes as she sailed the seas…

‘Neath other full-moon nights like these!

—Penobscot poet Sue Shaw was aboard the schooner Victory Chimes during one of the schooner’s last trips. Shaw says of the experience: “It was a perfect week with beautiful weather and a full moon. One night sitting up on the deckhouse--just me and the ship's cat, Fiji.” The schooner sunk over the Fourth of July weekend in New York City.

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