SIBUYAN ISLAND, Romblon, Philippines—For the residents of San Fernando, ground zero of the disaster involving the MV Princess of the Stars, there will be no peace in their town until after the ship has been towed away and the corpses trapped inside given a proper burial.

The townsfolk who live near the shoreline, from where the upturned ship’s bulbous bow can be seen protruding from the Sibuyan Sea, claim to have heard and seen eerie sounds and sights since the vessel sank four months ago.

In sleepy, superstitious San Fernando, the stories are almost always the same—a lone figure of a woman dressed in white walking on the shore, voices singing, sudden and inexplicable sounds of a ruckus.

Philippine Coast Guard personnel stationed at the shore report feeling their skin prickle for no reason.

The strange occurrences apparently mostly happen at night. But according to the townsfolk, the dead also reach out to them in the clear light of day.

Lady in red

On Oct. 26, San Fernando officials and residents offered a Mass for those who perished in the tragedy. Mayor Nanette Tansingco later called for the relatives of the dead and missing to sit with the officials in front.

Tansingco told Arlene Relos, a member of her staff, to find a woman in red, saying that the woman was definitely not a local and that she had smiled shyly at the mayor before the Mass started.

Per Relos’ account, she and the other town hall employees scoured the shoreline. But the woman was nowhere to be found.

Stormy weather

“We looked for her but she was not there. There was talk that she might be one of the dead passengers who visited us to say thank you,” Relos said.

The ship owned by Sulpicio Lines Inc. had 864 people on board when it set sail from Manila to Cebu on June 21. Only 56 survived when it capsized and sank off Sibuyan Island at the height of Typhoon “Frank.”

Around 350 bodies were found in the days following the sinking. The rest of those on board were declared missing.

Since last week, deep-sea divers have been engaged in retrieving the bodies trapped in the sunken ship, and they have also experienced odd occurrences underwater.

According to an employee of the salvor firm Harbor Star, the divers had such trouble removing the 13th corpse that it almost endangered their lives.

After three hours of trying, they gave up on the body.

When the divers managed to remove it the next day, the forensic personnel crossed out the number 13 on the body bag “to get rid of the jinx.”

Dreams, sleepless nights

The divers have removed 113 bodies since the retrieval operation started on Oct. 26. Government authorities as well as Harbor Star officials have said it was unlikely that all those reported missing would be found in the capsized ship.

Levy Samuele and Ernesto Clerin, who had lost loved ones to the tragedy, came to San Fernando late last month to witness the retrieval operations.

Both men said they had felt like they were being pulled to the place.

Clerin, who had lost his wife, said he dreamed of her days before he made his trip.

Samuele, who is still looking for his cousin and 3-year-old niece, said he could not sleep prior to his visit.

He said that upon arriving, “I really felt that my relatives were just around.” He visited the site daily for almost a week.

Samuele recalled that days after the sinking of the Princess of the Stars, he could feel his niece reaching out to him.

Sometimes, he said, he could hear her doll laugh. “It was her favorite doll. She played with it before she boarded the ship,” he said.