- The 34-year-old prince told yesterday
how he spotted the phantom galleon while filming the second of his Crown
and Country TV series on the Isle of Wight.
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- Edward was telling the story of HMS Eurydice,
a 26-gun frigate which capsized and sank in Sandown Bay during a blizzard
in 1878.
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- He said: "We were talking about
a ghost ship on the Isle of Wight and how we could illustrate this three-masted
schooner that just disappears.
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- "Suddenly someone said 'Look, there's
one now,' and sure enough out to sea there was a three-masted schooner.
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- "It was not arranged by us. It simply
appeared.
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- "Someone said 'We'll wait until
it gets a little closer to the shoreline' and then come the moment, someone
else said 'Where's it gone? ' We looked and it had disappeared."
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- The prince added: "I am quite convinced
as far as ghosts are concerned that there are too many stories, coincidences,
occurrences and strange happenings.
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- "There is something definitely out
there, but what it is I don't really know.
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- "I cannot believe it is just some
people's imagination. There is more in it than that.
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- "I have never met a ghost, but I
have always wanted to meet a ghost. There is only one way to find out whether
they really do exist."
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- Edward's film crew captured the ghost
ship on video after the sighting last May.
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- And in another strange twist, the tape
jammed in the machine when they went to view it. The programme's director,
Robin Bextor, said last night: "Edward was doing a piece to camera
near Chine, on the Isle of Wight, when someone spotted this ship.
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- "We filmed it for a while, then
decided to wait so we would catch it sailing off into the horizon. We assumed
it was a training vessel. Like the rest of us, Edward was pleased at our
stroke of luck at seeing it because it saved us time and money getting
footage of something similar.
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- "We were packing up the cameras
and took our eyes off it for a few minutes, but when we went to film it
again, it had gone."
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- Edward spoke of the sighting during a
briefing in Portsmouth yesterday about the new ITV series. The ghost ship
will be seen in the October 27 programme.
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- The sinking of the Eurydice, with the
loss of more than 300 lives, was seen by the young Winston Churchill, who
was visiting the Isle of Wight with his nurse. They watched from a clifftop
as the ship capsized.
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- There have been several other sightings
of a three-masted vessel off the~Isle of Wight where many ships have gone
down. Retired teacher Robin Ford, 57, from Ventnor, spotted the eerie form
of a galleon during a beach barbecue with friends.
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- He said: "It moved slowly towards
the shore, then it just seemed to up-end and slipped silently out of view."
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- Last night, sailing ship enthusiasts
added to the mystery by saying they knew of no vessel in the area at the
time Edward saw the ghost ship.
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- Hilary Painter, of the Sail Training
Association at Portsmouth, said: "We have two training ships that
sound like that, but on that particular week they were both away."
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- Becky Lacey, of the Jubilee Sailing Trust
at Southampton said: "We have a three-masted square rigger called
the Lord Nelson, but she was in Newcastle that week."
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- Barbara Hoyle, of the Sea Cadet Corps
at Gosport, added: "We have the Royalist, which is a two-masted square
rig brig, but she was not at sea that week."
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