Lightning Or Legendry?: The Chase Vault Moving Coffin Mystery Revisited
Fortean Times|November 2019
The moving coffins of Barbados have been a staple subject of books on the unexplained for over a century, and yet no one has so far provided a wholly satisfactory solution to the mystery. BENJAMIN RADFORD argues that we might have been looking in the wrong place...
Benjamin Radford
Lightning Or Legendry?: The Chase Vault Moving Coffin Mystery Revisited

The story of the restless coffins in a Barbadian burial vault (see FT133:40-44, 347:26) was one of the two earliest “unexplained mysteries” that caught my attention as a teenager (the other being the 1855 Devil’s Footprints case in England). I forget exactly where I read it – probably a Reader’s Digest book of mysteries or another of its ilk, which I voraciously consumed at the time – but I distinctly recall poring over the story and getting chills imagining what a ghost or curse would do to me if I crossed it. I took comfort in the fact that Barbados was far, far away, separated from me by at least one sea, and whatever evil possessed the coffins was unlikely to pursue me.

As the years passed the story faded, replaced by newer and more exciting reports of alien abductions, chupacabras, crop circles, and other fortean high weirdness. It was a stale, stuffy sort of distant mystery locked in time – the early 1800s – though superficially and inevitably rehashed in later books on the unexplained. Despite a handful of articles on the story, there was nothing new and little if any follow-up. The coffins were long gone, and nothing notable had apparently happened since. I never bothered to look into the mystery, partly because the West Indies remained just as far away, and partly because there seemed little to profitably investigate at this remove.

Nevertheless, I’ve since become much more familiar with folklore and visited the ChaseVault twice over the past few years, rather improbably discovering fresh angles on the stale old tale. I’d always assumed that the musty mystery, calcifying for two centuries in the sweltering Caribbean sun, would always remain unsolved. I no longer believe that to be the case.

THE CHASE VAULT STORY

This story is from the November 2019 edition of Fortean Times.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the November 2019 edition of Fortean Times.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM FORTEAN TIMESView All
Lightning Or Legendry?: The Chase Vault Moving Coffin Mystery Revisited
Fortean Times

Lightning Or Legendry?: The Chase Vault Moving Coffin Mystery Revisited

The moving coffins of Barbados have been a staple subject of books on the unexplained for over a century, and yet no one has so far provided a wholly satisfactory solution to the mystery. BENJAMIN RADFORD argues that we might have been looking in the wrong place...

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2019
The Haunted Generation
Fortean Times

The Haunted Generation

Bob Fischer Rounds Up The Latest News From The Parallel Worlds Of Popular Hauntology...

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2019
The House On The Borderland In Search Of William Hope Hodgson
Fortean Times

The House On The Borderland In Search Of William Hope Hodgson

In his new book, EDWARD PARNELL goes in search of the ‘sequestered places’ of the British Isles and explores how these haunted landscapes shaped a kaleidoscopic spectrum of literature and cinema. Here, he arrives in Cardiganshire to look for the house in which the neglected master of weird fiction William Hope Hodgson wrote one of his greatest works.

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2019
Fortean Traveller: 117. The Mediæval Crime Museum, Rothenburg, Germany Fortean Traveller
Fortean Times

Fortean Traveller: 117. The Mediæval Crime Museum, Rothenburg, Germany Fortean Traveller

STEVE TOASE feels the thumbscrews tighten as he explores a grisly collection exploring the history of mediæval torture and its relationship with the law

time-read
7 mins  |
November 2019
Where Ghosts Gather
Fortean Times

Where Ghosts Gather

In 1977, Usborne published World of the Unknown: Ghosts, the children’s book that inspired a generation of junior forteans. Four decades on, following a concerted fan campaign, the book is back in print... and the perpetually haunted BOB FISCHER tracked down its pleasantly surprised writer, Christopher Maynard, to discuss its genesis and unexpected impact.

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2019
A Bang On The Head
Fortean Times

A Bang On The Head

MARK GREENER explains how traumatic brain injury can change personality, creating serial killers and even vampires.

time-read
7 mins  |
November 2019
Out Of The Shadows
Fortean Times

Out Of The Shadows

In an extract from a new book celebrating the history of Boscastle’s Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Professor Ronald Hutton introduces the photographs of Sara Hannant, which aim to bring a range of enigmatic objects from the museum’s unique collection to life.

time-read
3 mins  |
Christmas 2016
The Face In The Window - Windowpane Ghosts And Lightning Daguerreotypes
Fortean Times

The Face In The Window - Windowpane Ghosts And Lightning Daguerreotypes

One of the most fortean of lightning phenomena is the “lightning daguerreotype,” where a face or figure, often recognised as a particular deceased person, is mysteriously etched upon a windowpane. Chris Woodyard traces some of the fenestral flaps of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Christmas 2016
Bodies On Ice
Fortean Times

Bodies On Ice

Couple who went missing 75 years ago ... found by chance in thawing Swiss glacier

time-read
2 mins  |
October 2017
happy old christmas
fortean times

happy old christmas

you thought it was all over, but due to the orthodox refusal to accept the new fangled gregorian calendar, many people – from margate to memphis – will still be celebrating christmas in january. ted harrison goes in search of some stubborn old traditions...

time-read
8 mins  |
january 2017