SECRETSFROM THE ATTIC
Looking into our next work of art, we come across one of the most complex and gruesome stories our gallery has to offer. This is the Navigator, a proud and majestic ship sailing the high seas. This grand vessel was once owned by a man named Captain Bartholomew Gorlieu, a wealthy and respected sea captain who shipped only the finest in luxury goods. Yet, Captain Gorlieu hid a dark secret from everyone; a secret that only his last wife would unearth. This innocent-looking craft is only a facade for some that is more terrifying; the tale of The Navigator: The Gorlieu Ship.
THE NAVIGATOR:
THE GORLIEU SHIP
The story of the Gorlieu ship, the Navigator, begins with the young woman Priscilla Lucretia Anderson. Miss Anderson was born in 1751 in Tarrytown, New York, a quaint village nestled in the Hudson River Valley. Her parents, John and Martha Anderson, were a very wealthy merchant couple who held great prominence in the small town. Being highly religious people, John and Martha raised young Priscilla to be a good Christian, and taught her all the morals found in the Bible. Over the years, Priscilla grew up into a lovely young lady, who strongly followed the religious ways as her parents had wanted. When she reached the age of 19, John and Martha began searching for a suitor to marry their daughter off to.
One day, while selling their wares in New York City's harbor, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson met the acquaintance of a wealthy middle-aged sea captain named Bartholomew Gorlieu. Captain Gorlieu had made his fortune with his majestic ship the Navigator, sailing the oceans of the world, exporting and importing luxury goods to foreign ports. With some of his fortune, he had built a grand and imposing manor of brick and stone atop a hill overlooking the Hudson River. After discussing with the Captain for a lengthy while, the couple decided that he would be the perfect husband for their Priscilla. They arranged the marriage, and the Captain and Miss Anderson were wed a few months later.
Priscilla was very happy at Gorlieu's mansion. The servants all adored the bright young lady, and she brought a cheerful atmosphere to the otherwise bleak manor. Although, Gorlieu and Priscilla seemed to be a very odd and drastically different couple: Priscilla was always bubbly and like a gift of life; while Gorlieu was stern and grim most of the time. Yet, the couple still managed to love each other; especially Gorlieu who, fond of her middle name, affectionately referred to Priscilla as Lucretia. However, this happy union would not be so joyous for too long.
Due to his profession, the Captain was away for months at a time on the high seas, leaving Priscilla all alone in the mansion with only the servants to keep her company. And when he finally did come home, he would often bury his head in his work and spend little time with her. Priscilla began to feel ignored and trapped by her new husband, and wanted to leave him. But having grown up in such a religious household, she was taught that such a thing would never be allowed and she would face eternal damnation if she did.
One day, while Gorlieu was out on the seas as usual, Priscilla explored the mansion's attic for the first time, curious by the pungent smell that emanated from the room. The smell seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite place what it was. While searching through the dank lofty area, she stumbled over an old sea chest in the dark, accidentally opening the lid. Peering into the trunk, she discovered vast amounts of money, and to her horror, found weapons and a logbook revealing that her husband was a murderous cutthroat pirate under the alias of Captain Gore. All the times he had been out to sea, he actually had been pillaging towns, forts, and sacking and burning rival ships.
However, Priscilla found something even more disturbing about her husband. Apparently, he idolized and revered a notorious, ruthless French pirate known as Bluebeard, who terrorized the high seas in the early-1400s. Priscilla read in the book:
Ever since I can remember, I wanted to follow in Bluebeard's footsteps. His attitude taught me there's more money in piracy than just simply exporting and importing country's goods. I shall try to live every aspect of his way of life. I shall pillage towns and ports; show no mercy; and marry seven women with the same names as his wives, then murder them as he had to receive their riches. I will live his life.
Reading on, Priscilla discovered in horror that she was not his only wife; Gorlieu had married six women before her and done off with them through horrible means. Penelope was thrown into the river by Gorlieu and drowned; Abigail was done in by poison in her tea; Anastasia passed on from a blow to the head with a fire poker; Prudence had been strangled with a piece of taut rope; Phoebe was pushed off the roof; and Eugenia was sliced through the chest with the Captain's sword. Yet the most shocking thing to Priscilla was still to come as she read on:
Bluebeard was done in by his seventh wife, Lucretia, before he had the chance to do away with her. To avenge the memory of him, my seventh wife will be named Lucretia, and I will proceed with the chance that Bluebeard never received himself: I will murder her.
After reading this last line, Priscilla felt extremely weak. She finally realized why he always called her by her middle name. She wanted to scream in fear, yet the shock of all these revelations was too much for her, and no sound escaped her mouth. She turned to run and leave the room to alert someone, yet there to her horror stood Captain Gorlieu in front of the attic door. The young woman turned to run, only to trip and fall over the attic junk. She fell backwards through a loose wall panel, and into a small crawlspace where the foul smell was coming from. Priscilla discovered in fright that the cause of the smell was coming from rotting corpses stashed in this small area; the corpses of Gorlieu's previous wives.
The girl let out a bloodcurdling scream, and the Captain dashed to her and grabbed her by the arm. Priscilla pleaded and shouted for help from the servants in the house, yet no one came to her aide. Mistress Gorlieu tried to struggle from his grasp, but the Captain only chuckled wickedly and sneered, "Now that you know it all, it's time to finish the story that he never got a chance to."
The Captain dragged Priscilla downstairs into the mansion's cellar, where the evil man proceeded to tie and bound the poor woman. For his murderous deed, Gorlieu planned a slow death for her; walled up for days and slowly waste away or suffocate. Gore tied the lady to a pole in the corner, and proceeded to build a wall around her, brick by brick. Before the last brick was in place, she tried to shout through the gag that she would have her revenge against him. Shoving the last brick into place, the Captain was overjoyed. He had finally completed the task that his mentor was never able to finish. Gore was delighted, unaware that Priscilla would not rest in peace.
A few days after performing the murderous act, the first otherworldly occurrences began. While in the cellar, the Captain heard a low beating echoing throughout the room. It continued to grow louder and louder until it sounded like a bass drum. He traced the sound to the corner where he had bricked up his wife. Feeling disturbed by the sound, Gorlieu dashed back upstairs. But it would not stop there.
The next day, the beating continued louder than even before. It became so deafening that the Captain could even hear the sound in his study on the first floor. The beating soon became less unsettling and more annoying and maddening. He headed back down to the basement to put an end to the awful sound. Yet, when Gore stepped into the cellar, the pounding ceased.
Satisfied, the wicked man began to ascend the stairs, until he was stopped in his tracks by a low wailing noise emanating from the corner. The female moaning grew louder until it sounded like a banshee. Then, from behind the wall appeared a terrifying sight to the Captain's eyes: the apparition of Priscilla. It hovered by the wall, until it screamed and flew swiftly towards Gore. Screaming, the man ran up the stairs as fast as he possibly could and locked the door. Distraught by the ethereal sight, he made sure it wouldn't happen again and boarded up the cellar door. The Captain felt relieved, and thought that all his problems were now over. Yet, the fierceness of Priscilla's spirit was something that he underestimated.
That night in his chambers, the ghost caused a great disturbance to the seafaring gentleman. She flew open the doors and windows, threw and overturned objects, smashed mirrors and walls, and pounded loudly. This haunting continued for days, with Captain Gorlieu's sanity slipping away further and further, until he was a completely deranged man.
Knowing he could never find peace in his house again, the Captain fled the mansion and ran to the harbor to jump upon his ship the Navigator. Gore wanted to be as far away from the spirit as he could, and sailed his ship out into the Atlantic Ocean. Yet, unknowingly, Gorlieu sailed directly into a fierce storm. His ship was rocked and tossed like a toy boat, with waves continuously crashing upon the decks and pounding into the sides; so powerful that the wooden hull was almost being stripped away. The sails flailed wildly in the mercy of the fierce wind, and began to tear. Yet the insane Captain would not give up his ship; he was determined to make it through and escape Priscilla forever. However, great tidal waves continuously pushed the Navigator closer to the New York shore, until it hit a coastal pile of rocks with such force that the ship almost broke into thousands of splinters. True to the code of the sea, Captain Bartholomew Gorlieu went down to the depths with his ship.
The next day after the wreck, Captain Gorlieu's body was found among the rocks of the shore. It was after his death, that the Captain's true murderous nature was revealed to the public by the Gorlieu Manor servants. The servants had known of the Captain's murderous deeds when they too came across the trunk and bodies as Priscilla had. However, they were sworn to secrecy by Gorlieu, for if they breathed a word to anyone else he would kill them and their families. And what of the Gorlieu mansion you may ask? Well, it was abandoned for many years; rumored to be haunted by the spirits of Priscilla and the Captain's other wives. There have been numerous sightings of eerie glows gleaming from within the manor, and apparitions of several different women appearing around the grounds. And on chilly autumn nights when passing the mansion, villagers say you can hear singing echoing in the wind:
Seven winsome wives
Two fat, five thin
Six of them were faithful
But the seventh's ghost did him in
This story is based on the tale ofBluebeard and Ken Anderson's original idea for the Haunted Mansion storyline.
Btw, I just also want to give a huge thanks to Aquarian Wolf for her input and editing of my stories. :)
Next chapter: the story of Alexandria - The Egyptian Princess