GHOSTS OF THE DEEP

Cohen adds to his corpus of corpses (Ghostly Tales of Love and Revenge, 1992, etc.) with an assortment of European and American nautical apparitions—some widely known (the Flying Dutchman; hammering aboard the Great Eastern, frequently presaging misfortune), others of local interest, including several tales of Cornish ghosts from 19th-century collector William Bottrell. Most of the incidents follow typical patterns: an admiral who goes down with his ship in the Mediterranean appears that evening at a London reception; a drowned woman haunts a Bahamian beach calling for her child; the faces of two sailors buried at sea ``follow'' their ship. The ghosts are mostly friendly or passive, but readers will still find cause for an occasional shudder (in one tale, a hotel guest wakes to find himself sharing a bed with a dead sailor), while Cohen's unsensational reportage adds, as usual, an air of credibility. The author closes with a chapter on the Constellation and the Queen Mary, both haunted ships that can be visited. No source notes. (Nonfiction. 11-13)