The frothy breakers cover'd.
For in the fisherman's lone shed
A murder'd man was laid,
With ten wide gashes in his head,
And deep was made his sandy bed
Where the green billows play'd.
A shipwreck'd mariner was he,
Doom'd from his home to sever
Who swore to be through wind and sea
Firm and undaunted ever!
And when the wave resistless roll'd,
About his arm he made
A packet rich of Spanish gold,
And, like a British sailor bold,
Plung'd where the billows play'd.
The spectre band, his messmates brave,
The man’s riches present a very good motive for why the mariner was killed by the fisherman. The fisherman could have seen an oppurtunity to gain a great wealth by taking the life and gold of the mariner.
The Haunted Beach