New Brunswick left off stamp for Northumberland ghost ship

New Brunswick is a mere ghost on a new Canada Post stamp featuring the Northumberland ghost ship.

The Maritime legend is featured on one of five new stamps about Canadian ghost stories issued today.

And although Canada Post states "the tale has been told by residents for at least 200 years of a vision of a burning ship on the waters between New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island," the stamp itself bears only the abbreviations for Nova Scotia and P.E.I.

The Northumberland Strait runs between the three Maritime provinces and sightings of the ghost ship have been reported from all three provinces over the years. Sightings in New Brunswick are typically in the Bouctouche-Richibucto area.

While New Brunswick is not noted on the stamp itself, Canada Post did create a special "cancel" for letters and packages mailed from Bouctouche that denote the town as a "Home of the Phantom Ships."

Anick Losier, a Canada Post spokesperson, said the missing 'NB' from the stamp was simply an oversight, which they would like to apologize for.

She said the New Brunswick abbreviation is featured on the other four stamps in the series but was unfortunately left out of this one by mistake.

As legend has it, people see what appears to be a burning ship on the Northumberland Strait. Canada Post states: "On several occasions, onlookers have tried to rescue the ship but as soon as rescuers come close, the ship disappears into the mist."

Paranormal Studies and Investigations Canada says in an online posting about the Northumberland ghost ship, that several areas of Maritimes stand out as places where sightings have been reported. The prime coastline locations for sightings in Prince Edward Island are western Prince County, off De Sable, Canoe Cove, and Charlottetown.

Reports from the mainland in Nova Scotia have come from Pictou Island, Cape John, Brule Point, Malagash and Gulf Shore, says the PSICAN posting

The prime location for sightings in New Brunswick is the Bouctouche-Richibucto area, according to PSICAN.

"An intriguing aspect of these eyewitness reports (from both sides of the Strait) is their similarity, tending to prove that a curious light does appear, especially as the harbinger of a storm," states the PSICAN report.

The other ghost stories featured in the stamps in the series are:

• Fairmont Le Château Frontenac in Quebec City, where legend has it the Count of Frontenac wanders the hotel.
• Fort George in Ontario, where spirits are said to wander within the stone walls due to the battles of the War of 1812.
• St. Louis ghost train in Saskatchewan, which involves a ghostly glowing light some say come from the long-dead conductor who was beheaded in the 1920s while examining the track with his lantern.
• The ghost bride of the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, who is believed to be a bride who tripped and fell to her death on her wedding day.

Canada Posts says this is the first release in a multi-year series of stamps featuring some of the country's most inexplicable and popular ghost stories.