The Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait: Canada's Phantom Sails

Objective & content

This documentary presents the legend of the Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait, between Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada. The narrator first asks listeners to picture a burning ship at sunset that disappears. The script then gives the first written report (1786), the 1900 sighting by men from Charlottetown, and three explanations: a lost ship, a French ship and a pirate ship. It also gives two natural explanations, St. Elmo's fire and hot and cold air over the water. Learners practise present simple to describe a scene and past simple (was, were) for the history, with the vocabulary of legends and ships (for example "A mast is the tall, strong pole on a ship that holds the sails"). The main skill is listening comprehension, followed by the in-app quiz.

Materials & prerequisites

• Printable sheets in the episode folder: a printable (`printable.md`), a student sheet and a teacher sheet (HTML and PDF).
• Prerequisites: present simple, past simple of "be" (was, were), articles (a, an, the) and basic prepositions of place and time.

Curriculum alignment

Tagged c3-child-and-imagination (cycle 3, 6e). The episode targets CEFR level A1-.