Frenchy Godette was stationed on Roanoke Island during the Civil War. Godette loved the Outer Banks and all the people he encountered. After the War ended, he decided to stay and make a new life there. Shortly after making North Carolina his home, Frenchy commissioned the building of a riverboat, The Queen of the Sounds, to meet the needs of the locals.
The riverboat was fully equipped with bars, female entertainment, and a player piano, and it toured the Currituck and Albemarle Sounds for two years. Frenchy became a wealthy man, but he longed for love. Soon, he fell in love with a beautiful young woman who was thought to be a witch.
Not long after, the couple became a pair—Frenchy began openly discussing worshipping the Devil. Even talk of the Devil didn’t stop people from having a good time in those days. When the Queen weighed anchor at the start of her third season in the Sound between Wanchese and Bodie Island, people would row their boats to meet her for a night out.
Legend says that Frenchy had convened a coven of witches that weekend to summon the evil one himself on all days, a Sunday, despite plans to talk Frenchy out of his sinister plan and to call it off.
On the night of the Summoning, locals claimed that chanting could be heard aboard. Not long after, the player piano began to play to occupy the guests. After a few hours, steam blew into the darkness, and the Queen exploded into burning pieces.
Some say that if you stand on the Causeway bridge between Nags Head and Mateo on a warm summer night, you can hear the player piano in the distance and see the reflection of the Queen’s lights on the surface of the sound.
Written By: John G. Clark Jr.
