Ghost Ship
Upon death, a ghost must make the overland trek to the nearest gateway to the afterlife in order to pass on from this world. Those gateways are rare, and sometimes a ghost must walk hundreds of miles to find the nearest one. Even worse, the nearest one is sometimes across the water. This gives rise to ghost ships.
A ghost ship is a vessel constructed by ghosts within the etheric realm for the purpose of travelling across water to reach the gateway. They take the form of any ship that could be built by living carpenters. In other parts of the world, ghosts travel between islands on ghost canoes, or travel along the coast in a ghost kayak.
The sailors of these ships tend to be sailors who aren't ready yet to move on. They build the ship and then stay with it, ferrying people across the water and then returning empty to pick up the next load. The sheer size of a large ship, and the hundreds of ghosts on board, created a concentration of vesanmer strong enough that the ships are sometimes glimpsed even by people who are not Sighted.
Ghost ships are frequently spotted in the sea between Prettanika and Ireland, as there is no gateway on the larger island and all ghosts must either travel to the one in Ireland or cross the channel to reach the one in France. This gives rise to its name, the Ghost Sea.
Ghost Pirates
Sometimes people don't want to move on yet. Sometimes people carry etheric food, fine clothing, or other valuables on their way to the afterlife. Sometimes, unscrupulous people decide to use their ghost ships to prey on the weary travellers trying to move on.
Ghost pirates are not a threat to the living, as ghosts cannot physically touch or harm a still-living person and have no use for valuables confined to the mortal realm, but they are dangerous to other ghosts.
Davy Jones
Davy Jones was a pirate in life and remains a pirate in death. Sailors say he summons storms or rough seas to cause shipwrecks and create more ghosts. He sailors the ocean searching for those who drowned at sea to pluck them from the water and press-gang them into his crew, never allowing them to reach the shore and make their way to a gateway.
On the second night of my first voyage, I stood on deck just after nightfall. That's when I saw it looming out of the mist. Could it be pirates, creeping through the fog? I ran to an old sailor on deck to raise the alarm, but he shook his head.
"Them as on that ship, they's past the point of being a harm to us."
I looked closer, and I realized the ship was illuminated not only by moonlight, but by a faint inner glow. It flew no flag, and no man was visible on deck. As I stared, it faded back into the mist and was gone.
