GHOST SHIPS
Acrylic and strontium aluminate silkscreen prints on paper, 59.4 x 82cm
‘Ghost Ships’ is an ongoing series inspired by the ghost of Lady Lovibond, a schooner wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in 174. Legend has it she reappears every fifty years.
The ship was bound for Oporto, Portugal, and her captain brought his new bride with him. Whilst the wedding party celebrated below deck, the jealous first mate, in a fit of rage, coshed the helmsman with a belaying pin, seized the wheel and steered the ship onto the Goodwin Sands, drowning everyone.
In 1798 the phantom Lady Lovibond was reported by the Edenbridge, captained by James Westlake, and a fishing smack. Its1848 appearance convinced local seamen to send out lifeboats from Deal in hope of rescuing survivors. Captain Bull Prestwick sighted her in 1948, reporting that she looked real but gave off an eerie green glow. There was no reported 1998 sighting.
Although Lady Lovibond is said to share the area with at least two other phantom vessels: liner SS Montrose and man-of-war Shrewsbury, there are over 2,000 shipwrecks on the Goodwin Sands, all of whom haunt us.