Folklore: city that sank into the sea

Subject: RE: Folklore: city that sank into the sea
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 24 Oct 20 - 12:31 AM

The Buried Chime by Susan K. Phillips
On the Seaboard and Other Poems, 2nd edition (London: Macmillan and Company, 1879)

Under the cliffs at Whitby, when the great tides landward flow,
Under the cliffs at Whitby, when the great winds landward blow,

When the long billows heavily roll o'er the harbour bar,
And the blue waves flash to silver 'mid the seaweeds on the Scar,

When the low thunder of the surf calls down the hollow shore,
And 'mid the caves at Kettleness the baffled breakers roar;

Under the cliffs at Whitby, whoso will stand alone,
Where, in the shadow of the Nab, the eddies swirl and moan,

When, to the pulses of the deep, the flood-tide rising swells,
Will hear, amid its monotone, the clash of hidden bells.

Up from the heart of ocean the mellow music peals,
Where the sunlight makes his golden path, and the sea-mew flits and wheels.

For many a chequered century, untired by flying time,
The bells, no human fingers touch, have rung their hidden chime,

Since the gallant ship that brought them, for the abbey on the height,
Struck and foundered in the offing, with her sacred goal in sight.

And the man who dares on Hallowe'en on the Black Nab to watch,
Till the rose-light on St. Hilda's shrine the midnight moonbeams catch,

And calls his sweetheart by her name, as, o'er the sleeping seas,
The echo of the buried bells comes floating on the breeze,

'Ere another moon on Hallowe'en her eerie rays has shed,
Will hear his wedding peal ring out from the church-tower on the Head.

Subject: RE: Folklore: city that sank into the sea
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 24 Oct 20 - 12:17 AM

Sunken Bells

A collection of English legends.

Subject: RE: Folklore: city that sank into the sea
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 24 Oct 20 - 12:06 AM

When a settlement disappears beneath the water, the bells are what remains of its voice, ringing out across generations to tell the world of what was lost.

The town of Dunwich – a port which once rivalled London – was eaten away by coastal erosion until, by 1912, all that remained was the ruined church tower “teetering on the edge of the cliff. Now nothing remains on dry land.” But legends of its bells still ringing from beneath the waves carry the story of this East Anglian Atlantis back to shore.

Further north, the residents of Cromer tell of a strange noise that is sometimes heard from the sea, over the wind and the waves: the lost village of Shipden, still ringing its church bells for parishioners who come no more.

https://fromtheedges.wordpress.com/

Subject: RE: Folklore: city that sank into the sea
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Oct 20 - 10:58 PM

The one I know about is Port Royal, the Jamaican pirate city that was destroyed in an earthquake and tsumani in 1692. There's a very graphic description of the destruction of the city in James Michener's Caribbean (1989). Wikipedia lists a number of films where Port Royal played a part, including some of the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean novels.
I highly recommend the Michener book.

Any songs about Port Royal?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Folklore: city that sank into the sea
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Oct 20 - 10:44 PM

Not a city, but a proportion of the constituency of Mr Downing, yes, the one that the famous street is named for, is under the North Sea.

Subject: Folklore: city that sank into the sea
From: leeneia
Date: 23 Oct 20 - 10:35 PM

We just watched a Time Team episode (archeology TV show) on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean. The first European capitol of Nevis was Jamestown, and legend has it that Jamestown sank into the sea during an earthquake, and fishermen say that sometimes one can hear the church bells ringing in the depths.

I have heard a similar tale from Wales.

Does anybody know of another, similar legend from another place? How many sunken cities are there, with ghostly church bells or not?