If any person were to walk along the banks of Platte River in late fall, they would be risking the life of someone they know and love, for the death ship could appear. The death ship of Platte River is a ghostly ship filled with specters, each one appearing alive and well as they perform their sailing duties, except of course for their ethereal forms.



The ship is said to form of the fog which it appears from. The sails are frostbitten and to anything but a ghost ship, would be useless. The crew on deck will stop work and center around an area on the deck looking down to the boards. As the crews begin to break the huddle a new bodily form takes place at their center. This body will be that of a close person to the witness. The same day of the sighting, that person will die



It’s nearly a tried and true tale at this point as the ship has been spotted many times since the year 1862. Every sighting has been told the same and every sighting has resulted in the end of life. The true origin of the ship is unknown. What is known is the first reported sighting of the ship of death.



1862 was the year Leon Webber saw the ship. He was walking the banks of Platte River hunting small critters for pelts when a strange most set upon him. It was heavy and cold and he soon saw that the substance was condensing on the river surface. The most had drawn so close it had become a dense fog covering a small area.



The fog churned and as if from the water droplets itself an old clipper from a time long passed appeared in Leon’s sight. The ship was wooden despite having a vague translucent property. The sails floated with a gentle breeze, pulling the old ship toward him, but the fabric was glistening and should have been from the cold frost.



Ghouls moved across the decks quickly doing their duties. Tying the sails, hoisting nets, scrubbing the old wood free of debris. One ghost looked at Leon on the shore, connecting it’s pale glowing eyes with his own. The single figure had distracted Webber long enough that the other beings could form a circle. The ghost stepped away into the crowded crew and peered to the deck.



As the ship neared, the crowd split away revealing what laid on the deck below to Leon. A body, that of his young and much-loved bride to be. As the breath left his agape mouth, it turned to fog in the cold air and was pulled to the ship. Within an instance, the ship faded, the fog disbanded back to mist. Then all at once, the chill left Leon’s bones altogether.



When he arrived home after having hunted a while longer, he found his fiancee blue-skinned and cold lying in the floor. She was the first victim of many to come, claimed by the Death Ship of Platte River.