In the winter of 1815, at the end of the “Second War of Independence” against Great Britain, the legend of “one of the most successful Yankee Privateers in the War of 1812” was cemented in Maine’s maritime lore.

And despite her mysterious disappearance in January 1815, this great “Ghost Ship” has been known to haunt the waters off the coast of Harpswell.

Owned by William and Seward Porter of Freeport, “The Dash was a 280 ton … Burgess Class … schooner” built in 1813 at Porter’s Landing in Freeport.

Three weeks before British Troops sacked Washington, D.C., and burned the White House, President James Monroe Commissioned the Dash as a “privateer … authorized to seize enemy ships” and their cargo. The Dash was “the first privateer commissioned by the United States in the War of 1812.”

After her maiden voyage to “Santo Domingo … to trade for coffee” in 1813, mast and sail damage to the Dash caused her to be re-fitted into a “hermaphrodite Brig,” as her foremast was removed and “a stater spar and square sails” were added.

The Dash “could out sail any craft afloat” as she was “a vessel with a brazen abundance of canvass and a conveniently greater aptitude for speed.”

The Dash possessed “three carriage guns” and was a ship “manned by 60 Maine boys” whose surnames included Stanwood, Soule, Bennett, Pote, Oxnard, Leighton and Porter.

While the British blockade of New England sought to starve out the Pine Tree State, the Dash dared to resupply the Midcoast.

From the Dominican Republic to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and Bermuda, The Dash “played tag with the English fleet, evaded blockades, and captured British ships.” In the Dash’s “seven voyages, under four captains, she took all fifteen prizes she chased.”

From Wilmington North Carolina, where the Dash was brought out of the water for “repairs and bottom cleaning,” the ship’s captain purchased “1,500 barrels of flour, 24 hogsheads of tobacco, 140 barrels of tar, 50 tierces of rice, and 4,000 Carolina Reeds. Rum puncheons littered her decks, while barrels of beef” and other necessities “ladened her holds.”

The Dash crew confiscated “rum and sugar,” munitions and other valuable necessities, seized British prisoners and confiscated English ships for resale or use in the American fleet.

In just two short years, the Dash had become a maritime legend who captured prizes including the “‘Emily of Charleston’, and the ‘Five Sisters’ off of Bermuda … ‘The Polly’ of Halifax, … ‘The Armistice’ out of New York … and the brig ‘Mary Ann’ out of St. John,” as well as 10 other enemy ships.

By the Jan. 4, 1815, the Dash had returned to Portland Harbor and was being quickly “put in order for another cruise” against the enemy. Yet, word had been slow to reach Portland since, one week earlier, the “Treaty of Ghent” was signed and the War of 1812 was over.

When the Dash sailed out into Casco Bay, she sailed alongside the “privateer schooner Champlain.” The two ships made way into the Atlantic and headed toward Georges Bank.

The Dash and the Champlain raced against each other, and the Dash “soon outpaced the Champlain” as “a violent, snowy winter gale” fueled the sails of the Dash. Soon, “the Dash slipped out of sight … into the teeth of the gale … and was never seen again.”

It is believed that the Dash was “driven onto George’s Bank and went to pieces, with all hands perished, gone to the fathomless sea.”

But the Dash hasn’t fully vanished from sight. For over 200 years, “fisherman and boaters” off the coast of Harpswell “frequently describe seeing the ship appear out of the mist, during foggy weather, with her name clearly appearing on the bow.”

One mariner stated that the apparition of the Dash “just came in and was there, never landed, never made a ripple on the water, and then it was gone.”

In August 1942, while World War II saw the American and British navies patrol along the rocky coast of Maine with the United States Coast Guard, sailing the very waters the Dash is said to have sailed, a “blip appeared on radar.”

“The HMS Moidore sped out of Cumberland Cove [with] U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels” all in “pursuit” of the radar contact. Picnickers on “Punkin Nob” Island “looked around the corner of Shattered Rock Ledge to see the Dash sailing past them.”

“Why this ship from another century should only sail off Harpswell is one of the unanswerable mysteries” in Maine’s maritime lore. And this legend of America’s privateer, the Dash, stands to this day as one of the greatest apparitions ever written in the true chapters of our Stories from Maine.

Lori-Suzanne Dell is a Brunswick author and historian. She has published four books and runs the “Stories from Maine” Facebook page.