The Ghost-Ship by Richard Middleton Classic Ghost StoriesRichard Barham Middleton was a British poet, who is remembered mostly for his short stories, in particular The Ghost Ship.After education at Cranbrook School, Kent, he worked in London for the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation bank, as a clerk, from 1901 to 1907. Unhappy in this, he affected a Bohemian life at night; he is mentioned, in disguised terms, in Arthur Ransome's Bohemia in London. Middleton spent the last nine months of his life in Brussels. There, in December 1911, he took his life by poisoning himself with chloroform. His reputation was kept alive by Edgar Jepson and Arthur Machen, and then later by John Gawsworth. His stories have appeared in many anthologies.