The lore of sea witch survives the hunt for HMS De Braak
The sailors aboard the old schooner, Liberty, constructed the effigy of the old hag with long gray hair streaming out from under a tall peaked cap, clothed with a flowing cape and equipped with a broomstick.
According to historian Donald Shomette in “The Hunt for HMS DE Braak, Legend and Legacy,” “The witch was given the position of honor in the cabin, offered drink and food, and then was burned, with many incantations, in the galley stove.”
After HMS De Braak sank a short distance from Cape Henlopen in 1798, stories of the vessel’s fabulous treasure swirled around Lewes. For over a century, fortune hunters tried in vain to locate the sunken hulk and its supposed cargo of riches.
In 1935, Charles N. Colstad, an engineer from Attleboro, Massachusetts, organized an expedition to find the legendary British warship and its supposed treasure.
After a survey of the waters off Cape Henlopen, Colstad was confident that he would soon discover the timbers of the De Braak; and he informed the press: “We have been encouraged in what we have accomplished and believe we are on the right trail.”
Colstad, however, was soon shaken by an appearance of the “Weather Witch.”
To aid in his search for the De Braak, Colstad chartered the Liberty, a former New England pilot schooner, and outfitted the sailing vessel as a salvage ship.
The search for the sunken British warship, however, was interrupted by the arrival of unusually harsh weather during the first week of November. For the superstitious sailors in the expedition’s crew, it was obvious that the wreck of the De Braak was being protected by a “Weather or Sea Witch.”
Over the centuries, sailors developed a number of curious explanations for phenomena that they encountered. After months at sea, weary seamen transformed unfamiliar sea creatures into mermaids. When a sailing-ship survived the fury of an ocean storm, some mariners reported that they had escaped the clutches of a sea monster.
After numerous expeditions to locate the riches of the De Braak returned empty-handed, some believed that the treasure was protected by a Sea Witch, who summoned violent storms to drive away anyone who approached the remains of the De Braak and its treasure.
To exorcise the demon, an image of an old hag was drawn on cardboard. The treasure hunters then used the cardboard image for target practice. Next a three-dimensional effigy was constructed, and after appropriated ceremonies, it was burned in the ship’s stove.
The Sea Witch’s effigy’s ashes were then collected and cast into the sea in the hope of calming the waves. The appeasement of the Sea Witch, however, failed to bring good weather; and the hunt for the De Braak was shut down for the winter.
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The following summer, Colstad returned to the waters off Cape Henlopen and resumed the search for the sunken British ship. After a month of searching, the treasure hunters had not located the De Braak, when the Sea Witch returned in the form of a full-fledged hurricane.
The storm drove one of the salvage vessels onto the beach and destroyed all of the expedition’s range markers. The Sea Witch had forced Colstad to abandon the search for the De Braak; and the Weather Witch had earned a permanent place in coastal Delaware lore.
In 1986, the timbers of the De Braak were recovered from the waters off Cape Henlopen, but no treasure was found. The sea witch, however, has become a permanent part of coastal lore, and it is celebrated with an annual Halloween festival complete with an effigy of the old hag with long gray hair streaming out from under a tall peaked cap.