The Ship Isis
Sunderland, Tyne and Wear
“It's said that she buried the bodies of two of her own murdered children in the tunnels lead down to the river Wear from the pub's basement…” Steve Higgins
I will always be intrigued by a haunted pub story, and not just because I like a pint… But when the haunted pub has a local legend linked to a notorious serial killer, it must be investigated further!
The Ship Isis in Sunderland has been called one of the most haunted drinking dwellings in the North East. Built in the late 19th century, the name of this pub supposedly stems from its locality to the nearby docks alongside an urban legend is that it may have been a favourite with smugglers, with rumours of a secret tunnel running from the pub down to the river.
Photo from old pubs of Sunderland
Somehow, over time, a legend attached itself to the Ship Isis involving Mary Ann Cotton… A name that sends shivers down the backs of locals from the late 1800s. Mary became known for taking out life insurance policies for her relatives before their deaths, the causes of which being labelled as ‘gastric fever’.
After investigation, it came to light that Mary had been giving poisoned tea to her loved ones, with the symptoms of gastric fever being rather similar to that of arsenic poisoning. Currently sitting in the Beamish Museum, Mary had a specific teapot that she would brew her poisonous tea concoctions in.
Mary was finally caught when her appeal to drop off one of her stepchildren to a workhouse was denied without Mary accompanying the boy. She told the officer, who denied her stepchild, that he wouldn’t be troubling her for long. The boy then died, as Mary clearly alluded to, and the official informed police of their chat. Arsenic was found in his stomach, just like the other deaths in her family.
Mary Ann Cotton 1870
Back to The Ship Isis, patrons have reported hearing and seeing two ghostly children running around the pub. Somehow, over the years, a legend formed claiming that these two children were Mary’s, and they remained trapped in the pub due to Mary having used the tunnels that supposedly run underneath The Ship Isis to murder them. Some customers have also reported spotting a white lady in Victorian dressing, rumoured again to be Mary herself.
Many have debunked this theory, as Mary was hanged in 1873 for her crimes. Mary worked in Sunderland, so was known to frequent the area… but The Ship Isis didn’t open until 1885. Given her elaborate teapot set up to murder her family, it doesn’t seem likely that she would change her method to murder two children in the tunnels beneath Sunderland.
I wouldn’t for a second be relieved at the debunking of the Mary Ann Cotton theory for the hauntings taking place in The Ship Isis, it only indicates that if two children were murdered post 1885 in the tunnels beneath the pub, another murderer was in our midst…
