In Gaspésie, as we well know, the sea is captivating. It tells us stories that are transmitted from generation to generation, and which tell and explain the landscape. Certain places, very evocative, seem particularly favorable to the manifestation of supernatural events.
This is the case with Cap-d’Espoir, which has become Cape Despair (Cap Despair) under the English regime, before reverting to its original name a hundred years ago.
Located in the town of Percé, the place is famous for its shipwrecks as well as for its raging waters which crash on the cliffs. It is also known for its winds. They blow so hard it sounds like they’re moaning.
For ages, it has been said that a ghost ship has come to haunt Cap-d’Espoir. Every year it returns to where it sank with its crew. Usually it appears at dusk on a summer night. Not a breeze ripples the surface of the sea until, without warning, furious waves rise and rush to storm the shore and the cliffs. In their disorderly race, they lead a vessel, all sails deployed, maneuvered by a motley crew. At his helm, his captain’s ghost smashes him once more onto the rocks as lightning rips through the night with a deafening crash. It seems that you can even hear the cries and lamentations of the sailors. A few minutes later, calm returns as the image of the ship turns into a confused memory.
Privateer Léon Roussy
Some claim it’s the boat Leonne of the corsair and fisherman Léon Roussy (1726-1811) who returns to haunt the population. Others believe that this ship would have transported pirates who committed a crime centuries ago. That day, the thugs would have landed on the cape and would have massacred a poor old woman from the place. She would have cursed them by casting an incantation on them: as long as the world is world, they will burn on the sea. wind.
The legend of Cap-d’Espoir joins that, international, of the Flying Dutchman, the most famous of the ghost ships. This one feeds the beliefs of people in many regions which adjoin the sea. England, Brittany, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries maintain its myth. This is available in different versions. But all depict a captain who has chosen to ignore the dangers, even if it means sailing for eternity. Even Richard Wagner made a romantic opera out of it. Even quite recently, this myth was modernized with the film Pirates of the Caribbean.
Finally, closer to home, the Le Naufrageur microbrewery in Carleton-sur-Mer has made a beer out of it, the Léonne, which should obviously be drunk at dusk, facing the sea, when the wind has died down, just before…
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