# 'Hauntings' and the 'unexplained'on ships



## Peter Eccleson (Jan 16, 2006)

Any interesting stories about 'hauntings', ghosts etc on board ship? I remember stories about the alleged ghost of a German shipyard worker that was supposed to be seen in the cofferdam of the 'Columbia Star' (1971); the ghost of an apprentice on 'Port Nicholson' etc.
Before the funnies start........ guys with hangovers looking like death, ghosts etc..... any other stories out there?

(A)


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## Pat McCardle (Jun 12, 2005)

I joined Stevie Clarkes FERRING & my 1st night as watchmn I was told by the Bosun, Fred Convey (Portaferry) to listen out for Scouser. As I was doing the alleyways at about 0300 I heard the steering flat door open then footsteps up to the poop, on investigation, I thought Billy ? was up & wanted air, only to find the place void of anyone. At 0700 Fred asked if I had had a quiet night & I mention abouth the footsteps etc & was told "So you heard Scouser". Scouser was, allegedly, one of the earlier crew who was found dead in the steering flat, a place he always feared? Strange? Yes! but everyone who did nigh****chman heard him & always retold the same story. May his soul have now found peace at the breakers????? Thank God I'm an athiest!


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## notnila (Apr 26, 2006)

Strangely enough Pat my only experience of anything like that was in Stevie Clarks"Gosport.A knocking on my cabin door,aft accomodation,bottom of starboard companionway.It only bothered me in port at night when gennies were off.It really scared me when in Smiths "Outside Drydock"in North Shields when I was the only b*gger aboard!Especially when I was too skint to visit the "Wooden Dolly"before turning in.
The old hands told me that some docker had fallen down the companionway and broke his neck a few years before.
This was around 1963.


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## barrinoz (Oct 9, 2006)

This subject has had a couple of runs but they're difficult to find. Here's my contribution.
*Here:*
barrinoz.


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## Alex Salmond (Mar 7, 2011)

The "Auckland Star" was a great ship ,probably one of the best I ever sailed on ,but she had a reputation as a haunted ship, to my knowledge at least 4 guys died on there over the years the last one the trip before I joined when a guy fell down the stairs to the aft accomodation and broke his neck , Big Jack Brown was on lookout on the Bridge wing one dark and stormy night, standing behind the outside bridge window jumping up and down to stay warm when he seen a figure standing behind him reflected in the glass he spun round and there was nothing there !!(EEK)
No one really liked being down the aft accomodation on their own especially the Deck Boys who were convinced they could hear footsteps outside their cabin at night,when the girls were ringbolting around the coast we used to freak them out with these stories ,but it got so bad they would only stay aft when we werent there if we put them all in the one cabin.
And Pat Mc.
I spent some time on Stevie Clarks "Harting"and I reckon your man Scouser there probably expired from hunger and was wandering around haunting the babbling brook looking for his tea,short commons on Stevies as i recall(Night)


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## Pat McCardle (Jun 12, 2005)

I was lucky enough to sail with a few good Cooks & Chief Stewards that wern't 'Belly robbers' when I was with Stevies..............only a few though, the rest were just ghosting!!


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## eldersuk (Oct 24, 2005)

When I was on NNL's Oduduwa every time I walked down the shaft tunnel the hairs would stand up on the back of my head. I don't know what it was and none of the other engineers experienced it but it scared the hell out of me every time. 

Mind you, there were alot of other things in NNL that scared me more!

Derek


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## John Dryden (Sep 26, 2009)

The shaft tunnel must be a place where ghosts dwell.When I was an app. it seemed like a long walk!


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## Alex Salmond (Mar 7, 2011)

John Dryden said:


> The shaft tunnel must be a place where ghosts dwell.When I was an app. it seemed like a long walk!


Couldnt agree more mate, shaft tunnels always seemed like spooky places to me to(EEK)especially when you were working down there on your own,or maybe I was just a woose (LOL)
The Act 7 had port and starboard burma roads that seems to go for miles and used to give us the heebie jeebies,one day the Deck boy came flying out on the after deck screaming he had seen a ghost down the burma road on his way aft ,wild horses couldnt get him to show us where he had seen it ,anyway wiser ??heads prevailed and the Mate reckoned we had stowaways as we had just not long left Panama so a search party of very reluctant ABs and us poor old Motormen who got roped in too searched high and low,nothing, but there were lots of hidey holes on such a big ship,a couple of days later one of the ABs heading for tea saw two faces peering at him down the burma road and came legging it up to the messroom to tell us,"were they ghosts ?"asked the still freaked out deckboy,"Funny f#$%ing ghosts if they were "said our man the AB "they were as black as"hilarity all round until Harry Tate came and rounded us up for another search part down the burma roads and the hatches and by this time it was dark ,nothing again ...except we found some containers with water and some blankets and clothes stashed away but we never saw or heard of our ghosts/stowaways again and figured they might have leaped overboard , but as we were 5 days across the Pacific by then,if they started out as stowaways they were surely ghosts by now.(Sad)


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

I have posted this before in an early thread but here it is again.

I didn't think about ghosts as I had too much other stuff on my mind

Scariest place on the ship

We were set down to sail from Adelaide at 4 pm and the engine room watch started at noon.
Cargo was still being worked using the ship’s gear so I directed the generators cooling water to circulate through the main engine to warm through ready for sea and then set about all the other tasks to get ready to sail.
My motorman arrived late on watch and rather drunk so I gave him the option of going up stairs to find a replacement willing to take his place otherwise he was on report. He disappeared and I went down the propeller shaft tunnel to make the usual checks, stern gland etc, and on attempting to go back to the engine room found the water tight door shut. It turned out that the wayward motorman had few friends as none of the other watch keepers were prepared to take his place so he returned to the plates and on finding me down the tunnel made the spur of the moment decision to lock me in. He then sat down in a corner and went to sleep.
Now I am claustrophobic mainly in tight places but I widened my horizons in this direction when I realized that the second and fourth engineers were still ashore and although the chief was in his cabin he had no reason to enter the engine room. My first effort to get out via the tunnel escape ladder was thwarted by the door being locked while in port to deter stowaways etc and the keys were in the engine room desk.
OK I decided to use a handy hammer to bang on the door, but no response. Next I tried banging out a deliberate SOS code with the hammer on both tunnel access doors, the ship’s hull, the bulkhead, the deck head above which was the no 4 hold floor and any surface that may transmit a sound but no, nobody heard it. About 3 pm the generators had heated the main engine jacket to the limit temperature and the audible alarms started to sound, not that I could hear them but the now back on board second engineer did and after getting tired of waiting for me to rectify the problem came down, realized the position and release me.
Scary indeed being locked in a big steel box and fearing what the drunk outside might be up to.

Bob


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## barrinoz (Oct 9, 2006)

Wow! Scary stuff, Bob. I trust the motorman and the hammer became close friends.
barrinoz.


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## Alex Salmond (Mar 7, 2011)

spongebob said:


> .
> 
> I My motorman arrived late on watch and rather drunk so I gave him the option of going up stairs to find a replacement willing to take his place
> 
> ...


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## Gareth Jones (Jul 13, 2007)

Alex Salmond said:


> spongebob said:
> 
> 
> > .
> ...


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Don't worry Gareth, he was an Irishman and a one tripper.
Not popular with any of his three other motormen shipmates none of who would stand in for him. The second had him down the road on arrival in Auckland.

Bob

Bob


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

spongebob said:


> Don't worry Gareth, he was an Irishman and a one tripper.
> Not popular with any of his three other motormen shipmates none of who would stand in for him. The second had him down the road on arrival in Auckland.
> 
> Bob
> ...


Bob, 
This must be something to do with the way bathwater spirals down the plughole in the opposite direction in the antipodes. 
Here, we would say 'up the road'

Best Regards, 
Pat(Jester)


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

I dont have much experience with shaft tunnels, being of the fresh air section of the crew, but the Focsle head at 03.00 can be a very scary place when you are up there on lookout, a long way from any other human contact, and in the middle of a black ocean.
Who knows what tentacled thing might reach up through the Panama lead and grab you?
Pat


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## Pat McCardle (Jun 12, 2005)

Pat Kennedy said:


> Bob,
> This must be something to do with the way bathwater spirals down the plughole in the opposite direction in the antipodes.
> Here, we would say 'up the road'
> 
> ...


Nice one Pat(Jester)(Applause)(Thumb)

Pat


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Pat, down here 'Up' is all hard graft and glory, 'Down' is the slippery slope.
I spend half of my life doing the splits!

Bob


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## barrinoz (Oct 9, 2006)

Pat Kennedy said:


> Bob,
> This must be something to do with the way bathwater spirals down the plughole in the opposite direction in the antipodes.
> Here, we would say 'up the road'
> 
> ...


Actually, Pat, I believe that certain truth has been busted as a myth.
And I've just popped into the bathroom to prove it.
barrinoz.


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

barrinoz said:


> Actually, Pat, I believe that certain truth has been busted as a myth.
> And I've just popped into the bathroom to prove it.
> barrinoz.


Barrinoz, 
All that proves is that your Masonic rituals have degraded the coriolus effect in the Barrinoz household.
Still it might be worth dropping 'Mythbusters' a line, they might send that Kari Byron down to check out your spiral.
Regards, 
Pat(Jester)


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## barrinoz (Oct 9, 2006)

It was Mythbusters that busted it, funnily enough. Coriolus, eh? That's a fancy word you got hold of there, Pat. I'm going to have to stick that 'un in t'favourites. But that's no excuse for not having a closer look at yon wee Sheila you sent a photie of. I've got some secrets I'd like to share with her, by Golly! Yum,yum!(*))
barrinoz.


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## alan ward (Jul 20, 2009)

Pat Kennedy said:


> I dont have much experience with shaft tunnels, being of the fresh air section of the crew, but the Focsle head at 03.00 can be a very scary place when you are up there on lookout, a long way from any other human contact, and in the middle of a black ocean.
> Who knows what tentacled thing might reach up through the Panama lead and grab you?
> Pat


Thank heavens I`m not alone.I once got the utter s**ts in the middle of the pacific,about 1am. still awake,I decided to take a turn round the deck.When I got out there I realised I was completely alone.Everyone apart from the watchkeepers was asleep and ANYTHING could happen to me.Complete sense of fear and uncontrollable desire to get back to my cabin.Never happend before and never happend aain.


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## RayJordandpo (Feb 23, 2006)

I spent a few months on a supertanker being towed from Capetown to Japan. Vessel completely burnt out, very limited lighting, no main generators running only a small portable gennie (on every other day). You could hear every wave crashing into an open tank where she had been in collision, could even hear clocks ticking. With only only four of us on board, very spooky indeed especially at night alone doing round engine room rounds with only a torch. Imagination really played tricks on me.


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