THE STORY
Reported Haunting
On Bald Head Island, North Carolina, the ghost of Theodosia Burr Alston is famously tied to local lore of a brutal pirate raid.According to regional folklore, her ship, the Patriot, ran aground on the treacherous Frying Pan Shoals off the coast of the island.
Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr and wife of South Carolina Governor Joseph Alston, disappeared when the schooner Patriot vanished off the Atlantic coast in January 1813. Since then, numerous legends have claimed that her spirit appears along the beaches near Pawleys Island and Georgetown. Witnesses describe a woman in a gray or white dress walking the shoreline before fading into the mist, while others report hearing cries carried by the wind. Her disappearance remains one of South Carolina's greatest maritime mysteries and has inspired generations of ghost stories.