The Squando – Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA

The legend of the Squando, a Norwegian sailing vessel, says the ship was the scene of a brutal murder while docked at the Embarcadero 1890. The captain’s wife was allegedly having an affair with the first mate.  When her husband discovered  the affair, she agreed to get her lover drunk  then hold his arms while her husband chopped off his head with an ax.  Afterwards, the two murderers are said to have fled when their victim’s headless body was found floating in the bay.  Shortly thereafter, strange things started happening on the ship.  As soon as it left port, the new captain was killed by the crew in a mutiny and the vessel developed the reputation of being haunted.  The next two captains were found murdered in their cabin. 

Finally, in 1893 the whole crew deserted the ship when docked in Bathurst, New Brunswick. Since the reputation of the ship was well known, it was impossible to find a new crew. The Norwegian Consul hired two guards to watch the ship, but they abandoned the vessel on their first night, after they saw a grotesque headless apparition in the passageway leading to the captain’s cabin. The same thing happened repeatedly to all the new night watchmen over the next few weeks, until the ship gained such notoriety at no one would set foot on her. The owners soon demolished the ship for salvage, but before long the ghostly outline of the sailing vessel would be seen again in the dense fog off the Embarcadero. 

The Embarcadero is a waterfront  boulevard that runs from the Oakland Bay Bridge to Fisherman’s Wharf on the northeast edge of San Francisco.

Find out more about the Embarcadero here.