Sloops brought a ghostly shipmate into Faroese folklore

When Faroese fishermen began sailing English and Scottish sloops to Iceland after 1872, they brought home stories of a supernatural figure said to live aboard. KVF reports that the “man aboard”, also known as the “lempari”, became part of Faroese seafaring folklore.

Folklife researcher Jóan Pauli Joensen studied the belief about 50 years ago. Before the sloops arrived, Faroese people mostly sailed in rowing boats, which were associated with other supernatural figures. The stories of the man aboard grew particularly between 1900 and 1939, when crews of 12 to 24 men lived on the ships. Tales passed between crew members during night watches and voyages to Iceland.

A Faroese veteran described the figure as “an invisible man who could sometimes be seen”. Similar beings were known elsewhere in Europe: in Nordic countries he was sometimes called a “skibsnisse”, while in Germany and the Netherlands he was known as a “klabauter man”.

On Faroese sloops, the figure was often said to shovel salt in the hold or work with fish on deck at night. Hearing him was taken as a sign of good fishing the next day. He was also said to prepare sails or climb the mast before storms, and to warn the crew if a lantern went out or another ship approached in fog.

One story tells of a man alone aboard the Falkur in Tvøroyri. He had heard that a supernatural man lived on the ship and took a knife to bed. After hearing someone come down the ladder, he saw a strange-looking man approaching his bunk. He tried to escape, but felt the figure was preventing him from leaving. He ran onto the deck in his underwear, with the figure behind him, then cut the boat’s mooring line and rowed ashore. When he told the captain what had happened, the captain asked: “Has the old one already started playing dog?”

Stories portrayed the man aboard as a protector, but also said he would jump into the sea shortly before a ship sank or ran aground. Joensen’s research included 15 accounts of this. One well-known tale concerned the Suðringur, which ran aground off southern Iceland on March 23, 1912. According to the story, the figure jumped from the ship just before the accident. The entire crew reached shore, and the tale became established in Faroese seafaring tradition.

KVF’s programme “Maður umboð” was scheduled to air on Wednesday, October 7, at 16:05.