Showing posts with label Ghosts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ghosts. Show all posts

Paranormal RMS Queen Mary - 23 OCT 2017

Each year, Rob and I try to have a new Halloween related experience. In years past, I haven't been able to photograph any of the haunted houses, but this year I was allowed to bring a camera to a real haunted hotel, the RMS Queen Mary.
Launched in 1934, the QM sailed the North Atlantic from 1936 to 1967, when she was retired and purchased by Long Beach to become its' tourist attraction.
Considered the 6th most haunted place in the United States, there are many documented sightings of apparitions. Not surprising since there have been close to 60 on board deaths.
Our tour guide was Kelly, enthusiastic young woman, self-described as a "Scaredy-Cat" who once locked her boyfriend out of their shared apartment for pulling a spooking prank. She has worked on the Queen Mary for nearly two years and was very knowledgeable about all things QM related, including its ghosts. 
We started our tour on Deck M (level 4) in the Mauretania Room, where the 'Woman-in-White' has been seen many times by different people. This room is rented out for small parties/receptions. Three staff members were setting up the room in 1989, when they noticed a woman in a white evening gown sitting on the other side of the room, with her hands in her lap and her head down. They started cleaning and when they reached the unknown woman, one of them said to her, "Madam, we need you to move so we can mop the dance floor." The women just sat there, didn't look up or acknowledge the workers. One of the staffers went to call security and when she returned, the woman was gone. She asked her co-workers, "Where did she go?" "We don't know. After you left the room, she looked up, looked to her right, looked to her left and then just disappeared." All three workers reported seeing this apparition and said it lasted for about 10 minutes, making it the longest recorded ghost sighting. There have also been several complaints from customers using this room, which claim an uninvited women dressed in white appears in their party pictures.
We walked pass the Third Class Nursery, now a storage room for the gift shops. Over the years, several guests have complained about the sound of a child crying, coming from that room. One guest was so insistent that they had to have a janitor open the room to prove it only contained boxes.
These doors were once the entrance to a Barbershop and a Beauty Parlor and a woman has been seen walking through the locked doors.
The First Class Swimming Pool (dry since it docked here) has the most paranormal activity with a supposed vortex for spirits in the locker room.
Unfortunately it was closed for repairs, so I could only shoot the above image through the window of the door.
To get to the bow we had to walk through part of this years' "Dark Harbor" new Halloween maze inspired by the real QM murder of a chef who was locked in his own walk-in oven by disgruntled sailors. No photos were permitted of the maze.
The forward room storage in the bow is used to store the rope used to tie up the ship when in port. This is the part of the ship that was damaged in 1942 when the QM, acting as a WWII troop carrier, dissected the HMS Curacao, killing 338 men.
Also in this area is a grate that looks down several levels to where WWII prisoners of war were crammed into a very hot, dark storage area with buckets for toilets. Hence this area has had several documented paranormal activities.
Our last stop was the broiler room.
The narrow cat walks and ladders have been replaced with sturdy walk ways and stairs suitable for tourist.
A massive, eerie room with several ghost sightings. 
During a routine drill in 1966, automatic watertight doors were closed and a young engineer was crushed to death by this No 13 door.
Considering its long history, many deaths, it is not surprising the Queen Mary is a hotbed for all types of paranormal activities. Many of which have been captured on several TV and Internet shows.
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Point Vicente Lighthouse, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA – 13 APR 2013

It was named after Friar Vicente of Mission Buenaventura. Located at 31550 Palos Verdes Drive West, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, this lighthouse was built in 1926 at a cost of $80,000.
The lighthouse is closed to the public except on the second Saturday of every month when you can take a tour from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and admission is free.
Situated on eight acres, it became the responsibility of the US Coast Guard in 1939 and is their principal communications center in Southern California.
The 5-foot original 3rd order Clamshell Fresnel lens was built in Paris in 1886 and served in Alaska for 40 years before coming to the Peninsula.
It takes 40 seconds to rotate a complete round but mariners see a flash every 20 seconds because it has two bulls eyes. 
“Lady of the Light” is the name given to its’ resident ghost. There have been several sightings of a tall lady wearing a long flowing grown, walking the grounds. One story is that it is the spirit of a woman who leaped into the sea when her lover was lost in a shipwreck off the point; another belief is she was the wife of the original lighthouse keeper who fell to her death when she stumbled off the cliff on a foggy night. 
According to the Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Los Angeles “The lady of the Point Vicente Lighthouse is still there, seen most often at night in the space between the lighthouse and the cliffs. She is reported to be a wispy, partial apparition, but some ghost hunters have seen her complete, quite solid apparition. There are reports that this ghost has been detected inside the lighthouse as well. Her appearance is often preceded by a cold gust of air and sudden change in the atmosphere.” (© 2007 by Jeff Dwyer)
The last time I toured the lighthouse was in the 1979 with a physic, who said she defiantly felt the presence of a female spirit who was in distress. 
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Fort Monroe, VA – 01 DEC 2010

I had to take a connecting flight through Chicago, just before landing they announced there were four Marines accompanying the body of a comrade and would we all remain seated to allow them to deplaned. It was the first time I ever saw people remain seated after a plan door had been opened. These were the images I was able to capture.
The next day I was back at Fort Monroe; when I visited in June, I had no idea I would be teaching here in December: MvAdler.com June 20, 2010 This place was so unique; I had to include an aerial view:
See the water surrounding the hexagon land? It is a moat, which surrounded the area where my training room was located. It required driving through a small carriage size brick tunnel.
There are three tunnel entrances but only one with base-relief columns. After taking the shot below, I discovered an antique postcard in the post museum with the same image: The window on the left has been turned into a pedestrian walkway.I read a book about the ghosts of Fort Monroe, it said you could see the hardware used for the pulley draw-bridge but I think it must have been a draw-gate not a bridge since the fort was built in 1834 and the above image is Civil-War era and shows no sign of a draw-bridge.
This is the same gate on a silver Victorian card holder:
There are many reports of ghost sightings and mischievous spirits. It's no wonder, with so many old buildings with great historical events involving people such as Abraham Lincoln, General Grant, Jefferson Davis & his wife, Chief Black Hawk, and Edgar Allen Poe.
Built as peacetime garrison for about 600 Soldiers, its original mission was to provide coastal defense.
It supported around 5,000 Soldiers during the Civil War, and remained part of the Union despite being surrounded by Confederate territory.

Fort Monroe will be closed under the Base Realignment and Closure Act, but many of the buildings on the installation are protected as national historic landmarks, according to the base's official Web site.
Fort Monroe is the largest stone fort ever built in the United States and the only moat-encircled fort remaining in active duty.
The casemates, or vaulted chambers inside the fort's walls, consist of a series of arches above, below and in the walls that connect the chambers to one another, giving the structure formidable strength. Casemates allowed solders to fire cannons from relative safety. Fort Monroe's outside walls are 10 feet thick. The casemates in these walls have been used for defense, living quarters, a prison, an officers' club and a museum.
I loved everything being decorated for Christmas.
Old Point Comfort Lighthouse
When I took this next shot at sunset, I thought there was a Christmas tree at the top:
But when I returned in the morning, I could see the lighthouse still has its' lens and it was just reflecting Christmas lights.
The museum must have a large collection of vintage sheet music if they could display this many with Christmas themes.
Tinky Winky assists with mapping coordinates. There was a wealth of artifacts found in the moat, including all these bottles which show 100 years of changing glass technology. Row 1 & 2: Beer bottles, Row 3: Wine, Row 4 & 5: Soda, Row 6: Whiskey, Row 7: Liquor and Row 8: Flask.
TW wanted to be shot out of cannon...I didn't have the heart to tell her, she was facing the wrong direction:
An important decision was made here in 1861 when General Butler refused to return three escaped slaves to their Masters, declaring them contraband of war. By the end of the war, 10,000 people had applied to gain "contraband" status.
Tinky Winky helps Edgar Allen Poe write The Cast of the Amontillado. I learned that this 32-pounder seacoast gun could inflect maximum damage by shooting red hot iron shots which cause enemy ships to catch fire. This is inside the casemate. Above you can see a second gun in the background, there were several rooms of them. Below shows the original tracks which were used to rotate the weapon.
Behind the Casemate Museum is an "L" shape tunnel that leads to a pedestrian walk-way across the moat. There is a warning sign for bicyclists to dismount (the second tunnel is about six feet high).
I had to lighten these shots to show the details, but there wasn't much light and it really felt very spooky, not a place to visit after dark. This place has lots of paranormal activity.
While I was photographing inside the tunnel, I heard loud, fast, footsteps approaching...I turned to grab a shot but it moved too fast:
I was told there is a pet cemetery on the top of the casemate but it took me several attempts before I found it. Not here:
Found it:
There are over 400 pets buried here, including 3 war dogs and 3 unit mascots.
2023 Update: On 11/1/2011 decommissioned Fort Monroe became a National Monument and is under the supervision of the National Parks Service. This link: Fort Monroe Natl Monument has a great video. In October they host three 'Ghost Walk at Fort Monroe'. 
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