Borth is a long, straggling seaside village on a shingle bank between Cardigan Bay and the bog of Cors Fochno. The Cambrian News, in a Halloween piece about pirates and wreckers, tells a grim story about its sands.
A Portuguese ship was driven ashore off Borth in a storm. The local fishermen went out to her, not to rescue anyone but to strip her of her cargo. The captain had lashed himself to the mast to ride out the storm, and he was still there, alive, watching them as they looted his ship. To make sure there would be no witness, the fishermen killed him. Since then, the story says, the bay has been haunted by the blood-curdling shriek of the murdered captain.
There is no date, no name for the ship or captain, and no record of the wreck in the source. It has the shape of the wrecker legends told all round the Welsh coast, and is recorded as dubious.
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