Hauntings

Nightmare

Sitting proudly at rest in Baltimore Harbor, the USS Constellation
emits an aura of peace of and security. Where once men died under
the hail of grapeshot, children now walk.

During her 175-year history, much blood has flowed over her wooden
beams. So what or who, among the countless who have met death on her
deck, was the ghostly apparition that was photographed in the
forecastle in 1955?

Lt. Cmdr. Allen Ross Brougham, USN, the man who snapped the photo,
believes it is a captain returning to inspect his ship.

Hans Holzer, a professional ghost hunter and author, says it could
be any one of three spirits "haunting the old ship."

To a Catholic priest who came face to face with the ghost, it is an
old salt, unwilling to leave the beloved sea.

Legends of ghosts and other strange occurrences have long been told
about the United States Navy's first ship. But the first indication
that they were more than the reminiscences of old sea dogs came at 8
bells on a cold December night in 1955.

Commander Brougham had his camera set. Waiting patiently, he
allegedly caught the ghost forever on film.

At 11:59:47 P.M., to be exact, the Navy officer "detected a faint
scent in the air-a certain something not unlike gunpowder."

Then before him, he said, appeared a "phosphorescently glowing,
translucent ectoplasmic manifestation of a late Eighteenth Century
or early Nineteenth Century sailor, complete with gold stripe
trouser, cocked hat and sword."


He barely had time to snap the shutter before the eerie figure
vanished, he said.

A few years later, repairmen heard strange moans and cries coming
from below the decks, but every time they went to investigate they
found nothing.

In Hans Holzer's book, Portal to the Past, reference is made to the
experience of a Catholic priest who visited the Constellation in
1964.

When the priest arrived, there was no member of the Maryland Naval
Militia to take him aboard for a tour. So he went below by himself.

While wandering beneath the deck, he said, he was startled by an old
sailor who volunteered much information about history of the ship
and the proper names for the equipment.

After thanking his guide, the priest went above deck where he met
several of the regular tour guides. He congratulated them for having
such a knowledgeable man as the one who led him around.

The real guides were horrified. "We have no one below," they
protested.

In haste, the guides and the priest rushed down the narrow stairway,
but the old guide had vanished into the air.

Sybil Leek, the famous English witch, once paid a visit to the
stately ship. She claimed she picked up vibrations from three
spirits; a captain, a sailor and an apprentice seaman, who had all
died violently.

Which one of these denizens of the spirit world was the one
photographed, if any, is unknown.


From Classic American Ghost Stories edited by Deborah Downer.
Copyright 1990 by Deborah Downer

Nightmare

Ghost ships, in the mythology of the sea, are almost as plentiful as
barnacles on a rock.


One of the most celebrated is the phantom schooner of Harpswell
which was seen by many people, usually in the late afternoon, fully
rigged and under sail; a breathtaking sight, though apt to vanish
without warning in a shimmer of light or a sudden rising of fog.
This vision has been immortalized in the poem The Dead Ship of
Harpswell, by John Greenleaf Whittier, whose opening lines are as
follows: What flecks the outer gray beyond The sundown's golden
trail? The white flash of a sea-bird's wing, Or gleam of slanting
sail?

The period around 1812 was a splendid time for industrious young men
to make a legitimate fortune on the high seas. A couple of boys
barely into their twenties could prosper trading cod and lumber for
the rum, molasses and coffee of the Indies, which was precisely the
career George Leverett and Charles Jose envisioned when they set out
from Portland, Maine. Their destination was the Soule Boatyard in
South Freeport and their mission was to arrange for the building of
their own new vessel.

However, shortly after arriving in South Freeport they met the
lovely Sarah Soule, fell violently in love with her, and out of
sorts with each other. Perhaps because of his Portuguese blood, Jose
pursued her more hotly, though in the end it was George Leverett she
preferred. After a bitter argument, during which Charles tried to
hurl George into the Royal River, the friendship between the two men
ended. Charles disappeared and George proceeded with construction of
the ship. When she was finished, he appropriately named her Sarah
and prepared for his wedding to Sarah Soule.

Ill fortune arose on every side. At first there were strange
obstacles in the wedding preparations. Then Captain Leverett found
it oddly difficult to line up a crew. Still, he was a determined
young man and, at last, with his bride in his house and a crew on
his ship, Leverett sailed into Portland harbor to take on cargo for
the West Indies. At the same time, there arrived a curious black
craft which flew no flag and was outfitted with cannon. The ship was
the Don Pedro Salazar and her captain was none other than Leverett's
former partner and romantic rival, Charles Jose.

Much like a storm cloud on the horizon, the Don Pedro trailed the
Sarah south. As the voyage progressed the Sarah's crew grew more and
more uneasy and petitioned Captain Leverett to head for Nassau to
report the menacing pursuer to the British Admiralty. He never
reached the harbor. As soon as the Don Pedro saw what course
Leverett was taking, she opened fire, killing all but Leverett and
severely damaging, though through some miracle, not sinking the
unarmed Sarah.

Still blinded by jealousy and seeking murderous revenge, Jose could
have tortured the survivor in a variety of traditional methods.
However, Jose, after looting the ship, chose only to tie Leverett to
the foot of the Sarah's mainmast and head him out to sea.

It was then that Leverett experienced an extraordinary phenomenon.
Helpless as he was and facing certain death and destruction on an
unmanned and shattered vessel, he still was possessed by a strange
notion that the ship was under control. Indeed the dead crew began
to rise up and take their posts one by one. Sails were set and the
ship's course was turned toward home. Captain Leverett, at this
point, understandably lost consciousness.

On a bleak November day people on Potts' Point saw a fully rigged
yet tragic wreck sailing with uncanny accuracy along the unmarked
channel. Suddenly the ship came to a full stop without benefit of an
anchor. A pale and silent crew lowered an apparently unconscious man
into a boat, rowed him ashore and laid him on a rock, his log book
beside him. Without even the squeak of an oar-lock, the ghostly
sailors returned to the ship just as a heavy fog suddenly blanketed
the harbor. When it had lifted the ship was gone. The unconsciousman
was soon recognized as George Leverett and it is said that he
recovered at least enough to relate this tale, though he surely
never went out to sea again.

The last sighting of the Sarah was in the 1880s on a crystaline
summer afternoon. A guest seated on the piazza of Harpswell House
looked seaward toward the horizon in time to see a wondrous vision.

A great schooner, under full sail, her canvas gilded in the sun, was
heading slowly for the harbor. He summoned a friend, but when they
looked again the ship had vanished. Believers say that the
magnificent wreck and her ghostly crew, weary from wandering, had
reached home port for the last time.

From Classic American Ghost Stories edited by Deborah Downer.
Copyright 1990 by Deborah Downer.

Nightmare

On December 31, 1812, the beautiful and vivacious Theodosia Burr,
wife of wealthy Governor Joseph Alston of South Carolina, left her
husband's plantation and sailed north on the Patriot to visit her
beloved father, the famous Aaron Burr, in New York City.

In early January the vessel was accosted off Cape Hatteras by ships
of Great Britain, then at war with the United States, but was
permitted to proceed on its journey. The Patriot was never seen
again nor, with any certainty, was Theodosia.

An angry storm that very night swept the coast of North Carolina.
Some say that during the gale pirates boarded the Patriot, removed
all valuables, forced passengers and crew to walk the plank, then
sank the ship. But legend persists that Theodosia survived, that she
was cast ashore in a small boat onto the Outer Banks, bereft of all
possessions except a portrait of herself, and that, with her sanity
completely gone, she was thereafter cared for by a Banker fisherman
and his wife.

The years went by. In 1869 the strange woman became ill, and a
doctor from Elizabeth City was called in to attend her. He did what
he could, but it was clear that she had not long to live. As he was
leaving the sick room, the poor fisherman's wife told the doctor
that, as she had no money, he would have to choose something from
the house for his pay. When he replied that he would like to have
the handsome portrait hanging on the wall, the afflicted old woman
sprang from her bed. "It is mine! You shall not have it! I am on my
way to visit my father in New York, and I am taking this picture of
his darling Theodosia!" With that, she grabbed the canvas, rushed
through the door, ran down the surf, and walked into the ocean.. The
next day, the portrait washed up on the beach.


It is fact, not legend, that the doctor took the picture from Nags
Head to his home in Elizabeth City, that a descendent sold it an art
dealer who in turn sold it to a member of the Burr family, and that
it exists today.

From Classic American Ghost Stories edited by Deborah Downer.
Copyright 1990 by Deborah Downer.

Nightmare

John and Abigail Adams

President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, were the first occupants
of the White House. During Adams' presidency (1797-1801), the
capital moved from Philadelphia to Washington, a struggling hamlet
built mostly in a swamp.


Pennsylvania Avenue was unpaved, and frequent rains turned it into a
quagmire. Although the White House itself was only half finished,
Mrs. Adams cheerfully tolerated the noise and confusion of workmen
coming and going. She was as fond of pomp and ceremony as Martha
Washington had been, and, in spite of the inconveniences, held
memorable receptions and dinner parties. Indeed, her invitations
were highly coveted.

But one immediate problem presented itself-where to hang the family
wash.


The White House was inadequately heated, and a number of rooms were
cold and damp. Mrs. Adams finally decided that the East Room was the
warmest and driest place in her august home, and that's where the
clothesline was strung.

And that first lady has never forgotten.

The ghost of Abigail Adams is seen hurrying toward the East Room,
with arms out stretched at if carrying a load of laundry. She can be
recognized by the cap and lace shawl she favored in life.

Although Abigail Adams is the "oldest" ghost ever to have been
encountered at the White House, she is by no means the only former
occupant to occasionally wander its halls and great rooms. The home
of the American chief executive has been the site of so much intense
life it seems only appropriate that from within its walls come
stories and legends of presidents and first ladies who
linger...after life.

The Rose Room is believed to be one of the most haunted spots in the
White House.

It contains Andrew Jackson's bed, and is if we are to believe
testimony of those who have felt his presence, "Old Hickory" himself
still dwells in his former bed chamber. And well he might.

In 1824 Jackson ran for president against John Quincy Adams and two
other candidates, garnering the most popular and electoral votes,
but not a clear majority; the election was decided by the House of
Representatives, which chose Adams. In 1828 Jackson finally won the
presidency, but he never forgot nor forgave his enemies. Bitterly
resentful over his earlier defeat, he removed two thousand former
office-holders, replacing them with his own appointments.

Twenty years after Jackson's death, Mary Todd Lincoln, a devout
believer in the spirit world, told friends that she'd heard him
stomping through the White House corridors and swearing. Still
settling old scores?


Mr. Burns

Through the years White House staff members have reported feeling
uncomfortable in the Rose Room.

Lillian Rogers Parks, a seamstress, had a particularly frightening
experience. In her 1961 book, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the
White House, Mrs. Parks wrote: "I remember that when I was working
at the bed in the Rose Room, getting the spread fixed for Queen
Elizabeth, I had an experience that sent me flying out of there so
fast I almost forgot my crutches. The spread was a little to long,
and I was hemming it as it lay on the bed. I had finished one side,
and was ready to start the other, when suddenly I felt that someone
was looking at me, and my scalp tightened.

"I could feel something coldish behind me, and I didn't have the
courage to look. It's hard to explain. I went out of that room, and
I didn't finish that spread until three years later."

Mrs. Parks also recalled a strange story told to her by Cesar
Carrera, valet to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Carrera said he heard
someone calling his name one day in the Yellow Oval Room. The voice
seemed to come from a distance, saying, "I'm Mr. Burns." At first,
Carrera thought someone was playing a joke on him, but he learned
later that a man named David Burns had given the government the land
on which the White House was built.

A similar story surfaced during the Truman White House years when a
guard heard a soft voice calling, "I'm Mr. Burns." Thinking that
Secretary of State James Byrnes was calling down from upstairs, the
guard went searching for him. He found out later that Secretary
Byrnes hadn't been in the White House that day.


Abraham Lincoln

On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate forces
to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Although the last Rebel troops would not surrender until May, the
Civil War was effectively over. The Union had held. But, a weary
President Abraham Lincoln would not live to see the triumphant march
of the Army of the Potomac through the streets of Washington. Just
five days later, on April 14, 1865, he was shot by a Southern
sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth, in Ford's Theater. He died the next
day.

Psychics believe that President Lincoln has never left the White
House, that his spirit remains to complete the business of his
abbreviated second term and to be available in times of crisis. For
seventy years, presidents, first ladies, guests, and members of the
White House staff have claimed to have either seen Lincoln or felt
his presence.

The melancholy bearing of Lincoln himself, and several instances of
eerie prescience on his part, only add to the legends of the Great
Emancipator's ghost.

The lanky president had paid fanatical attention to even the most
minute details concerning the Civil War and felt personally
responsible for its outcome. His background was Southern, leading
some critics to accuse him of traitorous acts. Mary Todd Lincoln had
brothers who fought for the Southern cause.

By the time of his 1864 reelection, deep lines etched his face and
heavy black circles underlined his eyes. During his five years as
commander in chief, he had slept little and taken no vacations.
There may have been more to his sadness than even he would admit.
Lincoln dreamed of his own death.

Ward Hill Lamon, a close friend of the president's, wrote down what
Lincoln told him on an evening in early 1865: "About ten days ago I
retired very late...," the president told Lamon. "I soon began to
dream. There seemed to be a deathlike stillness about me. Then I
heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought
I left my bed and wandered downstairs.

"There, the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the
mourners were invisible. I went from room to room. No living person
was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I
passed alone...I was puzzled and alarmed.

"Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and
shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room. Before me was
a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments.
Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and
there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the
corpse, whose face covered, others weeping pitifully.

"'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the
soldiers. 'The President,' was his answer. 'He was killed by an
assassin.'"

It was not the first time Lincoln "saw" his own death. Soon after
his election in 1860,he'd seen a double image of his face reflected
in a mirror in his Springfield, Illinois, home. One was his "real"
face, the other a pale imitation. Lincoln's superstitious wife, Mary
Todd Lincoln, did not se the mirror images, but was deeply troubled
by her husband's account of the incident. She prophesied that the
sharper image indicated that he would serve out his first term. The
faint, ghostlike image was a sign, she said, that he would be
renominated for a second term, but would not live to complete it.

President Lincoln's morose acceptance of his own mortality was never
more apparent than on the morning of his tragic visit to Ford's
Theater. He summoned the Cabinet to the Council Chamber. The
president's face was grave.

"Gentleman," he began "before long you will have important news."

The Cabinet members pressed him to reveal what information he had,
but Lincoln demurred.

"I...I have no news, but you will hear tomorrow." He hesitated, his
chin cupped in his bony hands. "I have had a dream, the same dream
that I have had three times before. I am in a boat, alone on an
ocean. I have no oars, no rudder. I am in helpless. Adrift." The
president seemed to be speaking as out of reverie.

He scanned the questioning faces before him, then stood up and
shambled out of the room. It was possibly the strangest Cabinet
meeting ever called by a president of the United States.

That night President Lincoln was shot in the back of the head with a
single bullet fired from a derringer as he watched Our American
Cousin at Ford's Theater. He died at 7:22 the next morning, April
15, 1865.

A train bore Lincoln's body home to Springfield. That solemn
procession has given rise to another president legend surrounding
Lincoln. Each year, on the anniversary of that journey, so the story
goes, two ghost trains slowly travel the rails between Washington
and Illinois. Aboard the first train a military band plays a funeral
dirge. Before the smoke of the locomotive clears, a second steam
engine follows silently behind, pulling a coach bearing a coffin
containing the body of President Lincoln. The ghost trains never
reach Springfield.

The shock felt by the nation upon the death of its sixteenth
president took years to wear off. Children, too young to have
understood the implications of the tumultuous years of the Civil
War, saw their parents' bereavement and wanted to learn more about
the man from Illinois. Newspapers responded to this need by
reprinting numerous stories about Abraham Lincoln's early years.
Most were true. Others contained more fable than fact.

It is true that tragedy had stalked Lincoln long before his first
presidential term. His beloved mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died
when her son was nine. When Lincoln's first love, Ann Rutledge, died
of typhoid fever, he lapsed into a melancholy that may have led to
his emotional breakdown a few years later.

In 1842, at the age of thirty-three, Lincoln married Mary Todd, but
the union was not a particularly happy one. Mary had a mercurial
temperament and a strong belief in the supernatural. It was her
influence that led to her husband's interest in spiritualism, though
he always regarded it with some skepticism.

The Lincolns had three sons, but only Robert Todd lived to
adulthood. Edward died at age four and young Willie succumbed to a
fever during his father's first term as president. Lincoln was
shattered by Willie's death and often visited the crypt where the
child was buried. He would sit for hours, weeping copiously. At Mrs.
Lincoln's urging, seances were held at the White House with the hope
of communicating with their dead sons. The results of these seances
were not entirely satisfying, and it's believed that Lincoln
attended only two of them.

During the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, however, a member of
the household staff claimed to have seen Willie and to have
conversed with his spirit. In the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency (1963-
69), Lynda Johnson Robb occupied the room where Willie had died, and
later, where the autopsy on Abraham Lincoln had been performed. This
was also the room in which President Truman's mother died. Mrs. Robb
wrote to the authors of this book that, although she'd never seen a
ghost in the White House, "I did live in a room where lots of sad
things took place!"

Liz Carpenter, press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson, told author
John Alexander that Mrs. Johnson believed she'd felt Lincoln's
presence one spring evening while watching a television program
about his death. She noticed a plaque she'd never seen before
hanging over the fireplace. It mentioned Lincoln's importance in
that room in some way. Mrs Johnson admitted feeling a strange
coldness and a decided sense of unease.

This disquieting apprehension has been felt by others. Grace
Coolidge, wife of Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth president, was the
first person to report having actually seen the ghost of Abraham
Lincoln. She said he stood at a window of the Oval Office, hands
clasped behind his back, gazing out over the Potomac, perhaps still
seeing the bloody battlefields beyond.

The ghost of Lincoln was seen frequently during the administration
of Franklin D. Roosevelt, when the country went through a
devastating depression then a world war.

When Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was a guest at the White
House during that period she was awakened one night by a knock on
her bedroom door. Thinking it might be an important message, she got
up and opened the door. The top-hatted figure of President Lincoln
stood in the hallway. The queen fainted. When she came to she was
lying on the floor. The apparition had vanished.

Eleanor Roosevelt used Lincoln's bedroom as her study. Although she
denied seeing the former president's ghost, she admitted to feeling
his presence whenever she worked late at night. She thought he was
standing behind her, peering over her shoulder.

On one occasion, Mrs. Roosevelt's secretary, Mary Eben, encountered
Lincoln's ghost sitting on the bed in the northwest bedroom. He was
pulling on his boots, as if in a hurry to go somewhere. The startled
young woman screamed and ran from the second floor. Other staffers
of that era said they'd seen Lincoln lying quietly on his bed of an
afternoon.

Seamstress Lillian Rogers Parks detailed in her autobiography a
mystifying experience that she had one summer day in that same
northwest room. It had just been freshly painted and she was putting
it back in order. The White House was almost empty because the
Roosevelts had gone to Hyde Park, taking most of the maids with
them. As Mrs. Parks worked, she kept hearing someone coming to the
door, but she never saw anyone. In fact, the second floor was
deserted.

After an hour of listening to the tromping, Mrs. Parks went
searching for the source. On the third floor she found a houseman.
She asked him why he kept pacing the second floor. He shrugged his
shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "I
haven't been on that floor. I just came on duty. That was Abe you
heard."

During Harry S. Truman's administration, his daughter, Margaret,
slept in that area of the White House and often heard rappings on
her bedroom door late at night. Whenever she checked, no one was
there. She complained to her father and he said the "noises" must be
due to dangerous settling of the floors. He ordered the White House
completely rebuilt. It was a propitious decision. The chief
architect, Major Gen. E. Edgerton, told President Truman that the
building had been in danger of imminent collapse! Had the ghost of
Lincoln tried to warn the Trumans that the president's home was
ready to fall down?

Thirty years after the rebuilding of the White House, the Lincoln
Bedroom was till regarded as a spooky place. Susan Ford, daughter of
President Gerald Ford, said publicly that she believes in ghosts and
ruing her stay in the White House she had no intention of ever
sleeping in that room.

Stories of a ghostly President Lincoln wandering the corridors and
rooms of the White House persist, but are not officially
acknowledged. The gangly prairie lawyer with the black stovepipe hat
and the long, sad face was the kind of man around whom legends
naturally collect. If one were to believe in ghosts, one would have
to believe that the benevolent spirit of Abraham Lincoln, our
greatest president, still watches over the nation he fought so
gallantly to preserve.

"The Other Tenants at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" is an excerpt from
Haunted America by Michael Norman and Beth Scott. It appears here
courtesy of Tor Books. "

Noodles

Those are some spooky tales. My wife swears she has been inloved in a haunting episode.

BONG RECREATIONAL PARK - Underground UFO and Government Facilities, haunted wisconsin, ufo wisconsin, wisconsin vortexs,sacred sites of wisconsin, ley lines, and mystery spots, Burlington UFO and Paranormal Center, Burlington, Wisconsin

Sp00k

Sp00ky tales ...Great thread NM. Rep coming up.

Nightmare

I've been to the Queen Mary on several occaisions, and encountered more
than one of the phenomenon aboard.
The most accessible haunted area is near door 13 in the engine room,
where a young man was crushed trying to escape a fire. He was only 17
and had lied about his age in order to get the job. We've heard knocking
from the pipes around the door on more than one occaision, once it
progressed in a circle all the way around our group. Another time, two
of our group saw a bright light with smoke in front of it as with a
fire. The woman also felt heat from the doorway, when she touched it. We
had not informed them of the haunting before.
Another of the accessible haunting areas is the front desk of what is
now the hotel portion of the ship. Sightings include a mysterious woman
in white who will be sighted walking until blocked from view by a pillar
and never coming out from behind. Also, a couple has been seen walking
down the hall to either side of the main entry to the first class rooms,
but are never seen in the hallways themselves.
Some other areas that you have to take the behind the scenes tour to get
to include the engine room number 2. Many stowaways died every time they
would fire up the boilers to leave port, and sometimes a feeling of vast
despair can be felt on the catwalk and sometimes also on the
shuffleboard deck above. Also, I've noticed that when I'm there, the
room feels much larger than it is. I can also occaisionally feel the
ship sway, which it doesn't do now that it's moored.
There are several hauntings related to the pool, including two different
children, one girl who asks after her mother or her doll, and a boy. The
girl is thought to have been a precocious child from third class who
liked sliding down bannisters and was doing so when the ship hit a swell
and pitched so that the bannister went straight down and she hit the
wall, breaking her neck. There have also been complaints about a smell
that would be from when the ship was in use to move troops during WWII,
and many of them were triple bunked in the pool itself, and many of the
soldiers were prone to seasickness. The third is a 'vortex' that is
located in the hallway of the changing rooms. It has been featured on
tv, and it's location was once confirmed by an employee, who correctly
moved the chair back to the position where the psychic from the tv show
had placed it. The position of the vortex is almost directly beneath the
revolving door that was originally used as the entrance to the pool
area. My group encountered something in this area when we went through
it. I and the guide had gone around rather than going in, while my
husband, and our two friends went through the hallway. About a minute
later, (it only takes about ten seconds to get from one end to the
other) I looked in and saw the three of them. My husband was almost all
the way through, one friend was in the middle, where the vortex is, and
the third was just behind her. When I pulled back from looking, our
female friend screamed and the three of them hustled out of the hall. My
husband said that he had looked and seen three people behind him at
about the same time I had looked in from the other side, and he had
assumed that I was with them (I hadn't told them I wasn't going through
with them). The woman with us told us that at the site of the vortex,
she couldn't move and tried to scream but couldn't, then felt a touch on
her shoulder, screamed, and they came out of the hallway. The other man,
her boyfriend at the time, had followed behind them and when she stopped
moving, he was going to nudge her forward, and that's when she screamed,
when he touched her shoulder. He saw when I looked in to see what was
keeping them, and he also saw three others in the hallway, thinking that
our guide was one of them. Both my husband and he described the mystery
person as about 5'6" with medium length, curly hair.
The girl at the pool is also commonly seen around the third class
stairwell, near the door to the old nursery.
We once took the ghost tour, four years ago, Halloween, and they no
longer have that tour, which is a shame.
It included all of the places mentioned above as well as two others. One
is for to the fore of the ship and is characterized by a man screaming
for help and sometimes just by his moaning in pain. This comes from
during WWII. The ship wouldn't publish it's sailing patterns to avoid
possible attack from German submarines. During one of these trips
heading to Europe, the Queen Mary hit another, much smaller ship,
broadsiding it. The other ship was cut nearly in two by the force. The
Queen Mary itself sustained little damage. When the ship reached port,
it was sent to dry dock to repair the hull, the outer section of which
had been badly torn. When the drained the water, the found the body of a
man who had been thrown through a hole torn in the hull above the water
line from the other ship and had died of exposure. Many techs who work
in that area don't like to go alone, or at night.
The other is a cabin. For this one, the guide turned out the lights of
the room and just used her flashlight. She had the entire group enter
(there were eight of us) and closed the door. While she told us the
story of the room, I could feel the ship swaying heavily and actully had
to catch my balance at one point. The story behind the room is that
during one crossing, a man checked in at the desk, and his luggage was
stowed. That night he asked one of the stewards if they could find a
female companion for the night and gave the steward a small wad of
bills. The steward found a willing companion and she and the passenger
retired for the night. The next morning when the man didn't come to the
dining room for breakfast, the steward knocked at his room. After
receiving no answer, he fetched the head steward who opened the room.
The walls and bed were covered in the blood of the woman, who had been
murdered. A check of the registrar revealed that there had been no
passenger assigned to the room, and when they looked for his luggage,
there was none to be found, even though many people remember it being
checked and stowed. I was distinctly uncomfortable during the telling,
and almost panicky by the time she turned the lights back on. by andara@mindless.com

Nightmare

On a balmy afternoon in June of 1863, Federal General John Buford peered through his binoculars across a field just west of the town of Gettysburg. He was perplexed as he gazed at a column of Confederate soldiers marching along Chambersburg Pike. He knew this body of men was too large for a raiding party; what he didn’t know was that they were an advance element of Confederate General Heth’s division. What he didn’t know was that he was to be the general to instigate the pivotal battle of the American Civil War. What he didn’t know was that three days later, fifty three thousand men would soak the fields red with the blood of the dead and dying.
It is with little wonder that an abundance of ghost sightings are reported time and again from visitors who frequent the town and battlefield year after year. It is as well with little wonder that Gettysburg has obtained the reputation of being the most haunted place in America. Even the skeptics who refuse to believe even in the possibility of ghosts, won’t refute the possibility of this haunted locale. Could that be due to the magnitude of the historical event? Could it be the reverence of this hallowed ground by students of history and John Q. Public? Could it even be that the ardent skeptic will unknowingly open themselves up to the possibility with the mind numbing knowledge of the macabre event which took place 136 years ago.
On July 1, 1863, what began as a skirmish soon escalated into a heated battle with the arrival of Federal General John Reynolds’ infantry. The Confederates pressed, and soon found the Union troops retreating chaotically towards the little town. The streets were thick with soldiers as the Federals retreated toward a designated rallying point just beyond town at Cemetery Hill and Culps Hill. Confederate sharpshooters took up positions through out as their prey was easy and plentiful. Some took position in the Farnsworth House, a small home situated along Baltimore Pike. Their perch was magnificent due to the locale on the main road through town. They mercilessly fired upon retreating soldiers, often hitting their mark. The streets were strewn with dead.
Today, the Farnsworth house functions as a Bed & Breakfast. Bullet holes can still be seen on the southside wall. It is here that many guests report seeing an apparition at the end of the bed during the night, while other guests have reported doors opening and closing through their own volition. One woman incredulously has reported her infant being lifted by unseen hands and gently placed back down.
A local radio station wished to broadcast via remote one Halloween in particular. They contacted a local author/historian who in turn contacted a renowned psychic. As airtime approached at 6:00 am, the crew needed to tap into the phone lines for the broadcast. The crew needed to run cables to another sight since all phone lines were down at the Farnsworth. No lights, no dial tone, nothing. As the psychic toured the house to gain impressions, she got the distinct feeling that someone was trying to convey concern that traitors were about, and they didn’t want their position given away. It was realized later that the radio crew was wearing all blue. Blue shirts, and blue jeans. They also referred to their contact at the radio station as “ The Captain”. Could those Confederate lost souls have misconstrued the presence of these individuals as Federal soldiers?
The time had come for the crew to depart to a different area of town while continuing their broadcast. As they were leaving, every light on the phone began flashing desperately, and then reducing to one intercom light. As the psychic picked up the receiver, she heard no one and hung up. The light began flashing with desperation again, while the psychic picked up the receiver. This time she spoke aloud to an unseen visitor. She instructed this poor individual to move on, that he didn’t need to be a soldier anymore. As they left, the light continued to blink. Perhaps this soul was unable to let go.
The group continued down the street to the Jennie Wade House. It was here that the only civilian casualty was to meet her fate. As twenty-year old Jennie baked bread for Union troops, a bullet ripped through the door, striking her down in an instant. Given the danger outside, the family and soldiers removed a wall and carried the body to the basement. Jennie was to lie in state for the duration of the battle while her family grieved and took refuge in the cellar. A beautiful young woman who lost her life before she could find out the fate of her beloved fiancé; sergeant Johnston (Jack) Skelly, killed in a battle near Winchester. The unlucky individual who had the unfortunate task to inform her was a childhood friend, Wesley Culp, who had joined a Virginia militia and therefore went to war with the Confederacy. Wesley found Jack wounded and dying as a prisoner of war and swore he would deliver the horrible message. He never had the opportunity. Early on July 3 1863, Wesley himself would meet his demise; struck down upon the hill bearing his family name; Culps Hill.
As the radio crew and psychic approached the house, she immediately sensed uneasiness. Many visitors before have felt the same while some refused to enter the cellar. Still, others would leave hurriedly while video cameras that worked without flaw prior to the basement, will record nothingness. As the psychic relayed the presence of at least three souls, a feeling of torment prevailed. The group began to ascend the stairs and when she halted along with the house manager, the chain separating the visitor area and the spot where Jennie laid began to swing. The movement was odd, for it swung as if it were a solid wire. For a full minute, the chain swung like this as other members of the group quickly descended the stairs. The chain stopped swinging abruptly, deliberately.
The morning of July 2 1863 awoke with the battle lines drawn. The Federal lines extended from Spangler’s Spring and Culps Hill southward to a hill known as Little Round Top, resembling that of a fish hook. The Confederate lines paralleled the Union lines about a mile away. Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered simultaneous attacks on both the left and right flanks. Confederate Texans under General John Bell Hood assaulted with wave after wave through the Triangular Field, across the Devils Den and up the rocky height of the Little Round Top. It was here that Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine Regiment made his lionhearted stance. With fewer than thirty percent of his original regiment, and dry of ammunition, he ordered a bayonet charge against the Confederates, taking them utterly by surprise, thus preserving the Union left flank.
The Triangular Field , situated one hundred yards southwest of the Devils Den is notorious for supernatural activity. It is common for recording equipment to either malfunction or cease to work at all. Visitors have reported the sounds of gunshots and drum rolls emanating from the wooded area of the field. Others have reported the apparitions of sharpshooters among the tree line, taking careful aim at an enemy absent for over a century. The local author/historian mentioned earlier, escorted a television camera crew out to the field for a special on Gettysburg ghosts. A prior equipment check showed everything was in working order. At the moment they entered the field, all equipment malfunctioned. As they exited the field, the cameras began working again. They entered and exited the field numerous times, only to have this bizarre pattern continue. As they filmed the field just outside of it’s perimeter, they were disappointed to learn that no film recorded of the field itself came out.
The Devils Den is a large patch of rocks where many Confederate sharpshooters took refuge in order to exact their death toll upon Union officers atop the hills of Little and Big Round Tops. In 1970, a tourist approached a park ranger and inquired about stories of Gettysburg being haunted. The Park Service cannot answer such questions but the ranger asked ‘why?’ The woman stated as she was taking photographs of the Devils Den, a man suddenly appeared beside her and said, “What you’re looking for is over there.” Pointing northeast toward the Plum Run, she turned to look and the man vanished. The ranger asked for a description, and she felt he looked ragged and like that of a hippie. Barefooted with torn butternut shirt and trousers, wearing a big floppy hat. This was often the attire of Confederate Texans. A few weeks later, the same ranger was approached by yet another visitor with the same question. The man said he was taking pictures and a man mentioned to look elsewhere and disappeared. His description was identical to the woman’s.
The Little Round Top is an unimpressive hill overlooking the Devils Den and the wheatfield. As the extreme left flank of the Federal lines, it has had its share of carnage. During the filming of the movie Gettysburg, many re-enactors would find themselves with some down time. Although the movie was not filmed on the battlefield, it was not uncommon for these extras to walk upon the battlefield in their period uniforms. One small group of men found themselves atop the Round Top, admiring the view as the sun began to set. A rustling of the leaves behind them alerted them to the presence of a stranger. From the brush emerged a rather haggard looking old man, dressed as a Union private. The man was filthy and smelled of sulfur, a key ingredient of the black powder used in 1863. He walked up to the men and as he handed them a few musket rounds, he said “Rough one today, eh boys?” He turned and walked away. As the re-enactors looked upon the musket rounds, they looked up to see the man had vanished. When they brought the rounds into town, they were authenticated as original rounds 130 years old! Many visitors have reported the smell of gunpowder, and have heard gunshots and screams from the Little Round Top over the years.
Friday, July 3 1863 was a new day already polluted with the stench of death and war. For two days, 175,000 men have engaged in the bloodiest battle before or since on the American continent. The morning was somewhat uneventful, with the exception of some fighting at Culps Hill; which had ended by late morning. At 1:00 p.m., 140 Confederate cannon opened fire on the Union center. For two hours, the largest cannonade ever witnessed pounded the Federal lines. So fierce was the shelling, that one could not see across the mile of open field to ascertain whether or not their targets have been hit. So loud was the shelling that the attack was heard in Washington DC; some 80 miles away. This was the preamble for one of the most infamous military events. This was the preamble for what was to become known as Pickett’s Charge. After the second hour of the cannonade was up, some 12,000 Confederate infantrymen emerged from the woods. Formed in battle line, they began the deadly march across the mile of open field. How the Union soldiers must have gazed wide eyed as 12,000 fixed bayonets glistened in the summer sun, all preparing to converge on a single stretch of stone wall known as The Angle. Long range cannon fire sent explosive shells into the rebel ranks. As they neared, the artillerymen changed to canister shot; a typed of buckshot fired from a cannon. Closer still the rebels marched; closing holes in the line left by soldiers killed en masse. A deafening musketry opened from the Yankee lines behind cover of the stone wall. Still, the Confederates came. As the survivors reached the stone wall, brutal hand to hand combat ensued, but alas, the rebels, tired and outnumbered quickly lost momentum.
The entire charge lasted less than an hour. In that time, 10,000 Confederates lay dead and dying. With the failure of the charge, the battle ended. Robert E. Lee retreated back into Virginia. Thus ended Lee’s second invasion of the north. Thus ended the Confederacy’s hope for independence. Although the war would continue for two more years, the Army of Northern Virginia would never fully recover from this loss.
The Angle is a beautifully maintained area of landscape. One can still look out across the field from where Pickett’s Charge originated. A park ranger while on routine patrol one night noticed a man on horseback. As the rider neared, the ranger wondered who would be on the battlefield so late; on horseback. Upon closer inspection, the ranger noticed the attire of the rider. It was that of a Civil War officer although the allegiance could not be ascertained. The unknown horseman approached to within 10 feet of the car and promptly disappeared. Other visitors have reported the sound of galloping horses in the immediate area of The Angle, although none were present. Sounds of the cannonade have permeated through time as people report hearing the thunderous roar of battle. One visitor even reported seeing Robert E. Lee himself, sitting atop his horse, Traveller, on the opposite side of the field. A resident of Gettysburg, and amateur ghosthunter mentions that during a stroll across the field on a warm summer night, cold spots were common. Going from balmy humidity to sudden cold, so cold he could see his breath, the fellow continued the path of Pickett’s infantrymen.
Although there are literally hundreds of ghostly tales concerning Gettysburg, one must wonder how many more stories are out there. Surely, not everyone who has experienced such phenomenon has reported it. Even to walk the field, especially at night or early morning, when the crowds have gone; one can feel the energy, the aura of this most hallowed ground. A truly humbling experience as one contemplates the enormity of this event. Do the dead look at us with equaled wonderment? Are they forever trapped in a pocket of time, a nightmare from which they cannot awake? The ghosts are there, you can feel them. You can feel the event if you allow yourself, as this ground has been consecrated by the blood of tens of thousands.
by Phil_Keller@mail.sel.sony.com (Phil Keller)
Special thanks to Mark Nesbitt, whose books Ghosts of Gettysburg Volumes I-IV served as an invaluable resource

Nightmare

The Alkimos was a merchant shipping vessel which was wrecked on the coast north of Perth, Western Australia, in 1963. The wreck still exists and is the subject of many mysterious rumours and stories. It is listed as a diving venue, but is also the subject of cautionary advice by diving experts. Many who have worked or otherwise ventured on board the wreck in the past now report that they would be reluctant to visit it again. It is thus increasingly becoming of interest to investigators of paranormal phenomena as much as scientific study or historical scholarship .
The ship was built as part of the United States' Liberty ship program during World War II. She was launched in Baltimore in 1943; originally intended to be named the George M Shriver, she was launched as the Viggo Hansteen. She served as a Liberty ship for about 18 months, until being sold after the war to a Greek shipping company and renamed the Alkimos.
As the Alkimos, the ship plied the world's oceans for some two decades. In March 1963, the vessel was on a voyage from Jakarta to Bunbury when it struck a reef off the Western Australian coast. It was salvaged and towed to Fremantle, the port city for Perth, where it underwent repairs for two months. After settlement of a dispute concerning payment for the repairs, the Alkimos left Fremantle under tow by an ocean-going tug from Hong Kong.
Only a few hours out of port, the tow line gave way and the Alkimos was driven onto the shore. Although the ship remained intact, it could not be floated off at that time, and so it was filled with water to secure it in place and left in the charge of an on-board caretaker. Another tug returned in January 1964 and the ship was refloated, but the planned journey to Manila had hardly begun when the tug was seized at sea by authorities and the Alkimos was left anchored. In May 1964, the vessel broke anchor and was driven onto the Eglinton Rocks near present-day Yanchep. On this occasion it was more severely damaged, and all thought of salvaging it intact was abandoned. It was sold by the owners for the purposes of scrapping. However, even that outcome was thwarted when, in 1969, salvage workers were driven off the wreck by a fire which broke out, and since that time the partly dismantled remains of the ship have been left, standing in several metres of water, very visible to visitors to the location.
As of April 2007 the structure was almost fully disintegrated above the water line to the point where it is no longer visible from the beach.
Paranormal issues
A variety of events and allegations throughout the vessel's history have given rise to it being regarded as being 'jinxed', cursed or haunted, both during its working life and since it was wrecked. This aspect is the main focus of present-day interest in the ship.
At the time of construction it was rumoured that two workmen had died within the hull and that their bodies had been left there, either because of the difficulty of retrieving them or because of the urgency of completing the construction for use during wartime. During the ships' service as a Liberty ship, it is believed that a murder-suicide took place on board. A variety of ghosts were then reported on board, on several occasions while the ship sailed as the Alkimos.
The next suggestions of unusual happenings in connection with the ship took place during the time when the caretaker was living aboard during the later part of 1963.
Regular references are made in radio and television shows regarding the curse. The Perth ABC local radio morning program 17 November 2006 had a number of callers recounting the issues.