The legend of the “Blue Lady” — a specter who haunts a lighthouse in South Carolina’s Hilton Head — has inspired local breweries to name a beer after the ghost, who has supposedly been spotted in her infamous blue dress.
According to the lore, lighthouse keeper Adam Fripp was working tirelessly to keep the lanterns lit amid a harrowing hurricane in 1983 that made landfall on Hilton Head Island when he fell down the stairs and died as a result.
But, before he passed, he had one dying wish for his daughter, Caroline.
“Rumor has it that on his kind of his last breath, he told her to make sure she stays at the lighthouse and keeps it functioning,” Charles Pejeau, the food and beverage director and executive chef at the Palmetto Dunes Resort in South Carolina, told local outlet WJCL.
Throughout the night, Caroline, dressed in blue, worked endlessly to keep the lanterns lit for incoming ships. But the around-the-clock shifts pushed her past her limit, dying a week later from exhaustion.
Despite her passing, Caroline remains committed to fulfilling her father’s request by reportedly haunting the lighthouse on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island.
The young woman has become known as the infamous ghost dubbed the “Blue Lady,” spotted near the top of the lighthouse or pacing outside.
“When it’ll get stormy out, I think it probably drums up those bad memories for her,” Pejeau said. “And that’s when she kind of pops out when it’s dark and stormy out.”
Pejeau revealed that the staff at Palmetto Dunes Resort had noticed eerie occurrences inside the kitchen, explaining, “Maybe early, early in the morning or late at night. Kind of; some lights will flip on and off, or the sink will turn on randomly.”
Caroline’s haunted antics also involve shaking liquor bottles and making mysterious phone calls to local restaurants, according to The Hilton Head Island Packet.
Even with the uncanny spirits lingering, the lighthouse remains a staple in the community, being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.