Great Australian Ghost Stories Read Online Free PDF

then in December a team from Manila arrived to try their luck, but the boilers on their tug, the Pacific Star , suddenly and unexpectedly showed signs of bursting and the owner of the company collapsed and died.
    The help of a Roman Catholic priest was sought to dispel the jinx and it seemed for a time that his intervention had worked when a heavy swell lifted the crippled vessel and it miraculously floated. The Pacific Star , with its boilers repaired, took the Alkimos in tow but, a couple of kilometres from Eglinton Rocks, another vessel pulled alongside, arrested the tug’s captain for unpaid debts in Manila and impounded his boat. Unable to give further aid to the Alkimos , the crew of the Pacific Star anchored the rusting freighter between the reefs off Eglinton Rocks but, true to form, it snapped its anchor chain in a heavy swell and drifted shorewards. The Alkimos finally came to rest about four kilometres south of Yanchep Beach, where it lies to this day, split apart, covered in barnacles, a home to fish and a very active, sinister ghost.
    Two crew members from the Pacific Star were stationed on the Alkimos to guard the wreck. For the two men it promised tobe a few weeks of light duties and relaxation at their company’s expense while the legal wrangle over the Pacific Star was sorted out, but it turned out to be a living nightmare. After a day or two the men sensed they were not alone on the vessel. Tools left in one place would be found in another, a heavy hose they tried to move suddenly felt lighter as though another pair of hands was sharing the load. Strange smells of food cooking came wafting up from the disused galley and the sounds of pots and pans banging could be heard, but when they went to investigate the smells and sounds were gone. Finally, on a hot evening when the two men were on deck trying to catch the slight breeze that rose at sunset, they saw their fellow ‘passenger’: a giant of a man dressed in an oilskin coat and a sou’wester, who strode across the main deck then straight through a closed steel door.
    The two Filipinos were replaced by other caretakers, all of whom had stories to tell about their encounters with the ghost. One pair claimed that it came charging towards them in a narrow gangway one day and that they felt the power of its baleful stare as it thrust them aside, knocking one unconscious. Another of the Filipino caretakers claimed that the ghost threw a kettle of boiling water at him.
    No one had any idea who the ghost was and so, for want of a real one, he was given the name ‘Henry’. A young American exchange student spent six days on board the Alkimos in July 1963 and recorded in his diary that he was stalked by terrifying footsteps the whole time and the door of the captain’s cabin was slammed shut behind him by unseen hands. Sightseers and fishermen claimed to have seen Henry at night and in broad daylight moving about the decks of the ship in his oilskins and sou’wester. Local tour operators cashed in on the stories by organising ghost tours of the wreck; and a Dutchclairvoyant visited the ship. She spent half a day on board and reported the area beneath the foremast was ‘a very evil place’ where she believed someone had met a violent death.
    A local identity, the late Jack Sue OAM, highly decorated by the US and Australian governments for his work with Z Force behind enemy lines during World War Two, was sceptical about the stories of the ghost and organised a party to spend a night aboard the Alkimos . The party comprised Jack, his wife and some local divers. Jack’s scepticism was shattered when he heard footsteps, sneezing and coughing coming from a deserted section of the ship and one of the divers felt something brush past him. Moments later ‘Henry’ put in an appearance and, as the party watched in disbelief, the ghost strode purposefully across the deck and straight through a solid bulkhead.
    The jinx on