History Extra Podcast

Episode: “Ghosts, gods & sea monsters: a supernatural history of the Atlantic”

Host: John Bauckham
Guest: Dr. Carl Bell, Associate Professor in Cultural and Social History, University of Portsmouth
Date: December 12, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores the supernatural beliefs and maritime folklore surrounding the Atlantic Ocean from the mid-18th to the mid-20th century. Dr. Carl Bell, author of “The Perilous: A Supernatural History of the Atlantic,” shares how sailors’ tales of ghosts, gods, sea monsters, and omens shaped seafaring culture, persisted through scientific revolutions, and remain culturally significant today. The discussion covers the roots of ocean mythology in ancient Greece, the adaptation of folklore through the Enlightenment and age of steam, iconic sea creatures, the psychological needs that such stories served, and their legacy in pop culture and environmental awareness.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Defining “Supernatural History of the Atlantic”

• Beyond Mundane Maritime History: Bell argues that while the Atlantic is known for exploration, trade, and empire, sailors’ lived experiences were infused with supernatural stories and beliefs, which provided psychological and cultural frameworks for facing the ocean’s dangers.
  • “It’s something that has been pushed to the margins of sort of respectable history… but it’s kind of very important for psychological and cultural insights into how sailors operated in that.” (Carl Bell, 02:52)
• The Ocean as Supernatural: The vast, unknowable expanse of the Atlantic invites mythmaking, making the “natural” ocean seem to exceed human comprehension and become “supernatural” by virtue of its mystery and danger.
  • “The ocean... is so vast and deep... the natural almost takes on these supernatural properties.” (Carl Bell, 03:25)

Why Focus on 18th-20th Centuries?

• Despite the Enlightenment, most sailors remained invested in magical thinking and folklore, seeking practical ways to explain risk and hazard at sea. Rational worldviews coexisted with supernatural beliefs:
  • “People don’t necessarily become more rational [after the Enlightenment]… it’s not about sort of magic or modernity—it’s often a case of magic in modernity.” (Carl Bell, 04:14)

Ancient Roots: Greek Ocean Mythology

• Ancient Greeks personified the sea as gods (e.g., Oceanus, Poseidon) whose moods caused storms or offered bounty; rites and rituals were ways of negotiating with these forces for protection or favor.
  • “There’s this kind of direct connection between the sense of a god and nature. Things don’t just happen because they’re meteorological phenomena.” (Carl Bell, 06:16)

Transition to Christian and Folkloric Worldviews

• By the 18th century, supernatural figures evolved into more Christian forms—God, Providence, the Devil—alongside a persistent “magical worldview.” Sailors questioned whether successes were due to skill or divine intervention.
  • “They’re still collectively known as the sons of Neptune... but there are elements of change. You've updated your gods… but at the same time... sailors are also represented as an irreligious bunch... tied to their folkloric beliefs...” (Carl Bell, 07:58)

Superstitions, Charms, and Rituals

• Charms: Popular charms included cauls (membranes from childbirth) kept for drowning protection—sympathetic magic.
  • “The membrane that protected a baby… would protect a sailor from drowning.” (Carl Bell, 09:09)
• Taboos: Clergymen and corpses were considered bad luck on board, associated with death and potential contagion of misfortune.
  • “Clergyman tended to represent anything to do with death… misfortune and death was somehow contagious or infectious.” (Carl Bell, 10:09)
• The “Jonah” and Sacrificial Logic: Crew might refuse to save a drowning man, believing the sea “owed its due”—intervening could transfer ill luck to another.
  • “The sea was owed its due. If you saved [a drowning person], you or somebody else would eventually be drowned in their place.” (Carl Bell, 11:12)

Scapegoats and Social Tensions at Sea

• Jonah References: Persistent from biblical tales, Jonahs were blamed as magnets for bad luck—sometimes violently ejected from ship.
  • “There is that idea that there is an individual on board who is like a magnet… the best thing to do is to kind of remove them from the ship.” (Carl Bell, 12:11)
• Suspicion towards Finns: Finns (from Finland) were regarded as magical, able to change weather, eliciting both awe and distrust.
  • “They had this reputation… for being a particular group of people who are a step closer to the supernatural than your average sailor.” (Carl Bell, 15:04)

Maritime Creatures: Mermaids, Kraken, and Sea Serpents

• Mermaid Myths: Complex origins (Greek, literary, folkloric); mermaids as symbols of both allure (freedom, escape) and anxiety (concealed danger).
  • “She represents, in some ways, freedom… someone better adapted to the environment they’re travelling through… but also possibly of dangerous concealment.” (Carl Bell, 17:52)
• Kraken: Evolved from monstrous legends to a misunderstood giant squid with 19th-century scientific attempts at demystification.
  • “There are hints… of thinking about [the Kraken] as some kind of octopus or squid… Suddenly the Kraken isn’t this singular titan—it just becomes… misunderstood sightings of giant squid.” (Carl Bell, 19:28-20:27)
• Sea Serpents: Notable 1848 Royal Navy sighting sparked public debate between “rational” scientists and seafaring eyewitnesses.
  • “It becomes this interesting contest… early paleontologists like Richard Owen claiming sea serpents can’t exist… [while] Royal Naval officers say… ‘We know the difference between seaweed and a sea serpent that we saw for 20 minutes.’” (Carl Bell, 21:48)

Ghost Ships and Hauntings

• Origins and Functions: Stories like the Flying Dutchman serve as metaphors for lost mariners and purgatory, also functioning as cautionary tales and social critique.
  • “The need for ghost stories, I think, has got a long history at sea… the haunting presence, obviously, of all the people that have gone before you and haven’t made it successfully across the Atlantic.” (Carl Bell, 23:06)
• Ghosts and Guilt: Ghost stories extend to the horrors of the slave trade, with tales reflecting collective guilt about atrocities at sea.
  • “There are stories of a captain who throws a load of slaves overboard… they come back that night as ghosts… [such stories] capture guilt even if the reality gets erased.” (Carl Bell, 25:22)

Folklore Transmission Between Sea and Land

• Sailors and coastal communities co-created and spread supernatural tales, often using them to draw boundaries between maritime and landed identities while exchanging and adapting beliefs.
  • “There is often the presentation of sailors as a kind of a tribe apart… [but] they learn a lot of this stuff on land, they take it to sea, they exchange stories in foreign ports… It’s import-export of supernatural tales.” (Carl Bell, 26:49)

Age of Steam & Persistence of Folklore

• Critics claimed that miracles, omens, and ghost stories faded with technological progress (steam over sail), but supernatural narratives adapted, surfacing in stories about haunted steamships (like the Great Eastern) and submarines (UB65).
  • “As is often the case with the supernatural, it finds ways of adapting… you do get quite quickly stories of haunted steamships.” (Carl Bell, 27:53)
  • Example: Great Eastern haunted by a riveter entombed during shipbuilding (28:25), WWI German submarine UB65 haunted after fatal accident (29:05).

Hollywood, Popular Culture, and the Supernatural Ocean

• 20th-century movies reframed oceanic wonders and terrors in scientific and science-fiction terms—mutant monsters, aliens, atomic-age beasts—continuing the pattern of explaining the unknowable through contemporary anxieties.
  • “You want the fantastical, but you can’t necessarily explain it as the supernatural… so you go towards genres like science fiction… you’re just repackaging the wonders and the fears through a different framing.” (Carl Bell, 30:16)

Psychological and Social Functions of Supernatural Belief

• Maritime folklore offers agency, hope, and meaning in risky, unpredictable environments; serves both individual and collective needs for control, memory, social criticism, and endurance.
  • “A lot of the stuff with magic is a search for agency in an environment that seems uncontrollable... a lot of the time, it’s to do with hope… and pragmatism.” (Carl Bell, 31:39)
• These messages persist, especially relevant to collective action in response to climate change and environmental crises.
  • “Where it was us previously fearing the ocean as something being done to us, it’s kind of flipped to what we’re now doing to the ocean… I guess those climate concerns are increasingly going up to the top of the agenda.” (Carl Bell, 33:04)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On the enduring function of supernatural tales:
  • “People don’t necessarily become more rational… It’s often a case of magic in modernity.” (Carl Bell, 04:14)
• On why sailors believed in supernatural agency:
  • “If you observe and you pay homage… perhaps the gods will be favorable towards you. This is the beginning of that search for seafarers having some kind of agency at sea.” (Carl Bell, 07:10)
• On the duality of the mermaid myth:
  • “There is always this sort of element of both allure and anxiety about mermaids... they do represent very much the otherness of the sea.” (Carl Bell, 17:06)
• On how modernity demythologized monsters:
  • “The Kraken isn’t this singular titan… It just becomes… misunderstood sightings of giant squid.” (Carl Bell, 20:27)
• On the psychological value of maritime folklore today:
  • “Essentially it’s the psychological strength to feel that you can do something and that you can move forward rather than just endlessly standing still and being horrified by the situation you’re in.” (Carl Bell, 33:01)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Main Introduction: 00:42
• What makes the Atlantic supernatural?: 02:52
• Rationality vs. Superstition after Enlightenment: 04:14
• Greek gods of the sea and ancient explanations: 05:27
• Evolution to Christian/folkloric beliefs and sailor psychology: 07:58
• Charms, protections, and fear of clergymen: 09:09
• The “Jonah” and sacrifice logic: 11:12
• Finns as scapegoats and magical figures: 15:01
• Origin and meaning of mermaids: 16:17
• Kraken and 19th-century rationalization: 19:17
• Sea serpents and the 1848 Royal Navy debate: 21:48
• Ghost ships and haunting at sea: 23:06
• Ghost stories of the slave trade: 25:12
• Spread of folklore between land and sea: 26:49
• Folklore adapting to the age of steam: 27:53
• Hollywood and changing supernatural narratives: 30:09
• Implications for today (psychology, climate change): 31:28

Takeaways

• Supernatural stories were not mere decoration but provided real frameworks for comfort, control, and explanation among seafarers confronting vast risks.
• Rather than fading, folklore adapted: scientific and technological advances transformed, but did not erase, beliefs in oceanic supernatural forces.
• Today’s environmental anxieties, collective action imperatives, and enduring need to find agency in overwhelming situations echo these old stories’ psychological truths.
• The supernatural Atlantic is less about credulity and more about the ways humans cope—through narrative, ritual, and belief—with the uncontrollable and the unknown.

Recommended Reading:

• Carl Bell’s “The Perilous: A Supernatural History of the Atlantic” (available now)