Pleasing Terrors

This episode tells the story of the Charleston mermaid.

Episode 30: Resurrection delves into the history of Chicago's most famous ghost: Resurrection Mary!

On November 20th, 1850 night watchman George Pollard Jr. makes his nightly rounds on the foggy Island of Nantucket, MA. An island once inhabited by proud tribes of Native Americans before the addition of the colonists. An island that was the whaling capital of the world for over a century.

The inhabitants and the whalers themselves were haunted with superstition and legends about the dark underworld of the sea and the evil that lied beneath the depths. The dangers were all too real, yet it wasn’t a sea monster or a devil ascended from Davy Jones’ Locker that posed the threat. It was an invisible threat that lurked in the hearts of men like the night watchman.

• George Pollard Jr. Nantucket Nightwatchman
• Davy Jones Locker and the dark underworld of the sea
• The story of Jonah and being cursed by god
• Pliny the Elder, sea monsters, the merman, and the Krakken
• Sightings of mermaids, sirens, and mermen
• WWI German U-boat surrenders to British patrol ship after sea monster attack
• The legend of the black demon of the sea or megalodon
• The story of Moby Dick based on a Nantucket whaling ship voyage
• Mocha Dick the albino sperm whale and the voyage of the Ann Alexander
• Captain George Pollard Jr. and the last voyage the whaling ship Essex
• Owen Coffin and becoming what you fear most
• November 20th, the anniversary of the destruction of the Essex

Resources:

Nantucket

How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World

George Pollard Jr.The True-Life Horror That Inspired Moby-Dick

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Book of Jonah

Pliny the Elder

Megalodon

Mocha Dick

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This a story about the Titanic, Victorian sex trafficking and a mummy's curse.

In this episode, we take a look at Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold Bug," a story about an encrypted map that leads to a buried pirate treasure. We will visit a haunted theater and discuss a play a play about the death of Poe that was first performed there in 1994. The story, the ghosts, and the play are all clues that lead to a hidden treasure that Poe was attempting to find in Charleston in 1828. This is the first installment of a two-part story.

Works Cited:

Buxton, Julian T., The Ghosts of Charleston , Beaufort Books, 2001

Caskey, James, Charleston’s Ghosts: Hauntings in the Holy City, Manta Ray Books LLC., 2014

Dawidziak, Mark, A Mystery of Mysteries, St. Martin's Press, 2023

Downey, Christopher Byrd, Edgar Allan Poe’s Charleston, History Press, 2020

Downey, Christopher Byrd, A History Lover’s Guide To Charleston, The History Press, 2023

Hecker, William F., Private Perry and Mister Poe: The West Point Poems, 1831 Louisiana State University Press, 2005

Jacobi, Jolande, Complex/Archtype/sSymbol in the Psychology of C.G. Jung, Bollingen Foundation Inc., 1959

Main, Roderick Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal, Princeton University Press, 1997

Pitser, Sarah. Haunted Charleston, Morris Book Publishing, LLC., 2013

Poe, Edgar Allan, Complete Tales and Poems, Maplewood Books, 2013

Wiles, Julian, Nevermore, The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1998

Jacobi, Jolande, Complex/Archtype/sSymbol in the Psychology of C.G. Jung, Bollingen Foundation Inc., 1959

Main, Roderick Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal, Princeton University Press, 1997