Out and About

Go ghost hunting aboard the Battleship North Carolina

The idea of going aboard a possibly haunted battleship and spending most of the night there in the dark might sound like a bad idea to some people.

Posted Updated

By
Kathy Hanrahan
, WRAL lifestyle editor
WILMINGTON, N.C. — The idea of going aboard a possibly haunted battleship and spending most of the night there in the dark might sound like a bad idea to some people.

Normally, I hate scary things. No haunted houses or horror movies for me!

But when local paranormal investigators The Ghost Guild invited me to join them on their public investigation overnight at the USS Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington, I decided to give it a try. I felt comfortable with the team - having interviewed them many times over the years. Plus, I thought it would be fun to take my camera and audio recorder along to document my experience.

The Ghost Guild hosts public investigation nights like these at different locations. For a fee, you get to go along with the team and try to collect some data - everything from temperature readings, night-vision camera recordings and audio recordings. It is all about seeing what happens.

We went in April, on the Saturday night of the Azalea Festival, just after the fireworks went off. Investigators believe the fireworks mimic the sounds of war and might trigger some activity on the ship.

The team stresses that their investigations aren't like one of those ghost hunting TV shows. You aren't guaranteed to have anything happen at all. In fact, a lot of the night for me was spent walking around to different areas of the ship and standing as still as possible as we recorded ourselves asking questions to the spirits on the ship. We recorded the audio and it will be analyzed by the team to see if any sounds or responses are heard.

The Ghost Guild team has experienced some things on this ship in the past, so each time they go back they spend some time trying to find plausible explanations for the experiences. In 2018, one instance involved bed springs loudly banging in the sick bay on the battleship. It happened three times. So, they spent some of the time during the investigation I was on trying to debunk what caused the springs to make that loud noise.

They still aren't sure what caused it! Right now it remains unexplained.

During my time on the ship, I experienced some weird stuff. In the sick bay, I felt like someone touched my back - along my spine - which actually has been a source of severe pain for me due to a herniated disc. No one was behind me, I was near a wall.

At about 1 a.m. in the torpedo room, I experienced what could be described as an "empath" moment. You can't go into this room during the regular tour. It is a little tough to get to and smells pretty bad. It is the spot where a torpedo hit the ship and people died. After asking if the ghosts missed anyone, I started to feel a wave of sadness hit me. Then, I randomly started crying. Tears down my face. The wave of emotion came then went away within minutes.

One lighthearted thing you need to know is that you need to "tag" or say any sound that you make when you are recording. They don't want have a stomach gurgle mistook for a ghost talking to us. My stomach got crazy active, and I felt like I was tagging belly sounds all night!

To hear audio from the ship, including from the torpedo room and actual sounds from the boat, listen to this week's Out and About Podcast.

The Ghost Guild wants to help historical locations with their preservation efforts. By hosting these public events, the group is contributing to the USS North Carolina Battleship’s fundraising in support of their preservation efforts to make the ship available for generations to come.

And if you want to join The Ghost Guild on its next public investigation, go to their website for more information.

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