The ship with lights

On the islands of southern Chile, the nights are long and the sea is loud. Fishermen there talk about a ship that appears when the fog is thick. It is full of lights and music, as if there were a party on board. They call it the Caleuche.

The ship sails against the wind and moves under the water when it wants to. Nobody sees it twice from the same place. People say that if you look at it too long, you forget what you saw. That is why the men who see it never explain it well.

The crew are sailors who died at sea. On the Caleuche they dance and eat and never grow old. Some stories say the ship takes people who are drowning. Others say it takes anyone it likes, and their families never see them again.

There is one more part of the story. In the islands, when a poor fisherman suddenly has money, people look at him and say nothing. They think he made a deal with the ship. Whether that is true or not, nobody asks him directly.