With its blissful white beaches and placid waters, the Pacific does not likely come to mind as a place that’s likely to be ‘haunted’ or ‘plagued’. Yet there is a small, uninhabited island in a seldom-visited corner of the world that has, over the years, experienced a number of disturbing, paranormal occurrences that has led many to believe that it is in fact, cursed. The first recorded sighting of Palmyra was in 1798. American sailor Edmund Fanning was on route to Asia, aboard the Betsy ship, of which he was captain. Legend has it, that Captain Fanning one night struggled to sleep and thus ordered his crew to find someplace the ship could moor in order that he might rest. The next morning, having steered a little off-course, the Betsy sailed onto the shores of Palmyra. The captain failed to officially record his discovery though and thus, when a few years later in 1802, Captain Swale’s ship, the Palmyra (from which the island takes its name), failed to sight the atoll’s rocky reef, it was wrecked upon its coral.
