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CHAPTER 1

Ghost Ships of the Inner Harbor

BALTIMORE/INNER HARBOR

USS Torsk is believed by some to be haunted by the ghost of a sailor drowned while trying to get back into the submarine before it submerged.

… these sites are usually inhabited by the spirits of those who died tragically aboard the vessel. Generally, the ghosts aboard follow many of the same rules of their haunted house cousins, although they usually haunt much smaller venues and must restrict their activities considerably. In addition, [they] seem to possess a uniform sadness.

—W. Haden Blackman, The Field Guide to North American Hauntings

INNUMERABLE VESSELS have passed through Baltimore harbor over the more than three centuries that the city has served as one of the most important ports in North America. Some of these have come to stay for good and, like historic buildings, have been restored and can today be visited at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Also like historic buildings, a great many of them—all storied vessels and in several cases veterans of combat in foreign seas or other harrowing action—have ghost stories associated with them. And many of them, even those that are not “officially” occupied by ghosts, participate in “haunted ship” events around Halloween.

I most recently visited the Inner Harbor and its haunted vessels in June 2009, with my friend Brendan Cass and his mother Susan Cass. That was by no means my first time, however, and ever since I first visited Baltimore as a child nearly four decades ago, and as the various ships have come and gone, I have increasingly come to know them and the ghosts that haunt them.

USS CONSTELLATION

Perhaps the most haunted ship in the Inner Harbor—also, probably not coincidentally, the oldest—is USS Constellation. Just how old is not entirely clear, however, and a passionate debate has raged for years over whether the ship actually dates to the late eighteenth century or the mid-nineteenth century. Some explanation is in order.

In 1797, the U.S. Navy launched USS Constellation—its first ship with that name—a 1,265-ton frigate built in Baltimore that was 164 feet long, 41 feet wide, with a draft of 13 feet, 6 inches, a crew of 340, and armament consisting of thirty-eight twenty-four-pound long guns. For more than five decades, this vessel served the United States around the world, participating in missions throughout the waters of Africa, South America, the West Indies, the East Indies, Hawaii, and the Mediterranean. USS Constellation was, in fact, one of the ships that carried U.S. Marines “to the shores of Tripoli” in North Africa in 1805. It was active in several wars, defeating a number of powerful warships in the 1798–1800 Quasi-War with France and participating in the Barbary Wars, the Seminole Wars, and the War of 1812. By 1853, it had reached the end of its useful service, and it was dismantled at the Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia. Its name, however, was never stricken from Navy records.

That year, the Navy began construction of a slightly larger sloop-of-war that apparently incorporated elements of USS Constellation and was underwritten in part with funds allocated to rebuild the earlier vessel. Commissioned as USS Constellation in 1854, this fourteen-hundred-ton ship was 179 feet long, 41 feet wide, had a draft of 21 feet, and carried a crew of 240 and armaments consisting of sixteen eight-inch shell guns and four thirty-two-pound pivot guns. It served in actions off the coasts of Spain, Cuba, the Congo, and Turkey, and fought in the Civil War, against Confederate commerce raiders in the Mediterranean and blockade runners in the West Indies and along the Atlantic coast of the southern United States. Used in various training and ceremonial roles in the decades following the Civil War, USS Constellation was finally decommissioned in 1933—but was briefly and incredibly returned to service as an admiral’s relief flagship during World War II!

USS Constellation is haunted by the spirits of several former members of its crew.

Decommissioned for the final time in 1955, USS Constellation was moved to Baltimore. Over the following decade, it was restored to … the appearance of the original 1797 vessel. This, perhaps more than anything, has contributed to the controversy over the provenance of the ship. Thereafter, it served as an off-and-on historic attraction, but lack of funding meant that it was frequently too decrepit to be on public display or for people to board. Since 1999, the ship has been berthed at the Inner Harbor and is now seaworthy, being periodically sailed to nearby ports like Annapolis, Maryland—where it has served as a floating museum.

In the years following its decommissioning, USS Constellation has increasingly gained a public reputation for being strongly haunted, especially following a famous investigation by ghosthunter Hans Holzer. Ghosts from both incarnations of the vessel have been identified in these endeavors.

But the haunted history of USS Constellation actually begins much earlier, and starts no later than June 20, 1863, during the Civil War, as indicated by an entry in the diary of Moses Safford, the ranking staff petty officer on board at that time.

According to Safford, cook’s mate Ike Simmons had begun telling people that two sailors who had recently died on board the ship had appeared before him and begun dancing and singing. This had a disturbing effect upon many of the other crewmen and the captain had Simmons locked up in the ship’s brig. But other sailors had similar experiences.

“Twice on stormy nights last fall, Campbell, the captain of the forecastle, whom we lost in the Atlantic, was supposed to have been seen standing near the lee cathead,” Safford wrote in his journal. “Whatever may be the explanation of these phenomena, the sentences which Simmons has received will tend to discourage the men from giving undue publicity to their supernatural observations.”

Since this early account—and especially since the vessel was put on public display—many more episodes of paranormal phenomena have been reported on board USS Constellation and a number of specific ghosts identified.

One of these is Commodore Thomas Truxtun, a career naval officer who was the first commander of USS Constellation and who led it to glory in the Quasi-War with France. That was the pinnacle of his more-than-thirty years of service, and soon thereafter he retired under less than desirable circumstances. And so, while conventional accounts suggest his spirit haunts the vessel as the result of his brutal nature, it seems much more likely that he spent his best and happiest years upon USS Constellation and has thus simply been unwilling to leave it.

It may be that the first sighting of Truxtun occurred in 1955, by U.S. Navy personnel assigned to a vessel berthed alongside USS Constellation. One night at 11:59, an officer on board that vessel took a blurry picture of an apparition that looks like it may be Truxtun and the Baltimore Sun ran it soon thereafter. The haunting was now a matter of public record.

Over the years, what appears to be Truxtun’s shade has been seen numerous times by many people, one of the most famous episodes occurring in 1964 and involving a Catholic priest who reported interacting with it.

Another ghost who has been identified on board by paranormal investigators is that of Neil Harvey, a sailor who is believed to have fallen asleep while on watch and been summarily sentenced to death by his captain—Commodore Truxtun. The means of Harvey’s death varies from story to story, but in the most widespread one he was tied across the muzzle of a cannon and blown to bits.

Yet another ghost who has been identified on USS Constellation is that of a young ship’s boy, who some investigators claim was stabbed to death by two sailors for unknown reasons.

A number of other named ghosts have been identified on board USS Constellation over the years. Beyond full and partial apparitions of various sorts, just about every other sort of paranormal phenomena has also been reported on board the historic vessel over the years, including orbs and phantasmal sounds.

With little doubt, USS Constellation is the most haunted vessel at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. It is by no means, however, the only one to have paranormal phenomena associated with it, and several others have gained similar reputations.

USCGC TANEY

Launched in 1936, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Taney is notable as being the last ship afloat that fought at Pearl Harbor during the surprise Japanese attack on Hawaii in 1941. That alone would warrant it having a few ghosts aboard, but its period of active service continued for many more years and the vessel was not decommissioned until 1986. USCGC Taney also served as command ship at the Battle of Okinawa and as a fleet escort in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during World War II, interdicted enemy supplies during the Vietnam War, patrolled in support of drug interdiction and fisheries protection, and joined in the search for lost aviator Amelia Earhart.

In chatting with people who work around the Inner Harbor, we learned that after USS Constellation, USCGC Taney is the local vessel with the greatest reputation for being haunted. Many staff of the vessel and visitors alike—especially those participating in overnight programs—have reported constantly catching movement out of the corners of their eyes when aboard and seeing spectral forms gliding across its decks and past its open hatchways.

USCGC Taney the last ship afloat that fought at Pearl Harbor, is believed to be one of the most haunted vessels at the Inner Harbor.

USS TORSK

This submarine had a phantasmal reputation long before any ghosts were seen onboard and was known during World War II as the “Galloping Ghost of the Japanese Coast,” where it preyed on enemy vessels. Commissioned in 1944, USS Torsk was active during the last year of the war and holds the distinction of destroying with its torpedoes the last Japanese warship sunk in World War II. It served thereafter primarily as a training vessel until 1971 and was brought to Baltimore and turned into a museum ship in 1972. During its career, USS Torsk set an all-time record for dives, a total of 11,884.

That record did not come without a price, however, and one of the tragedies associated with Torsk’s service involved a sailor who was left on deck when the submarine was forced to submerge. He reportedly drowned while trying to get back into the diving vessel and, since then, there have been people who believe his desperate spirit haunts the top deck of USS Torsk, forever trying to get back into it.

PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II

Another ship in the Inner Harbor that has a reputation for being haunted is Pride of Baltimore II, an authentic reproduction of a nineteenth-century clipper topsail schooner that sails around the world as a goodwill ambassador for the city of Baltimore. Its predecessor, the Pride of Baltimore, was sunk in 1986 in a legendary white squall in the waters north of Puerto Rico, claiming the lives of four crew members, including Captain Armin Elsaesser.

Today, a monument at the Inner Harbor memorializes these four, who also include Engineer Vincent Lazarro, Carpenter Barry Duckworth, and Seaman Nina Schack. Some people also claim that the spirits of these four former crew members of the Pride of Baltimore now haunt the decks and cabins of Pride of Baltimore II, possibly with the benign intent of helping those who have followed in their footsteps.

There are numerous other historic vessels operating in the water in and around the Inner Harbor, including lightships, tugboats, and the unique local vessels known as skipjacks, and many of them also have fascinating stories associated with them—and reputations for being haunted by the ghosts of former crewmen.

Spotlight on Ghosts: Fort McHenry

Just across the Inner Harbor is Fort McHenry, the object of the battle immortalized in Francis Scott Key’s The Star-Spangled Banner, America’s national anthem. A symbol of freedom when it prevented British invasion during the War of 1812, the fort came to represent oppression to many pro-Southern Marylanders when the Federal government occupied it and used it to help maintain its grip over the local area during the Civil War.

With such history and passions associated with Fort McHenry, it should not be too surprising that it has also long had a reputation for being one of the most haunted sites in a very haunted city. Over the years, all sorts of paranormal activity have been reported at Fort McHenry, including sightings of spectral figures on its earthen ramparts, disembodied voices, footsteps in empty areas, spots of unnatural cold, and furniture that levitates and otherwise moves around. Some investigators have even postulated that the fort’s shape—that of a five-pointed star—has some occult significance and might play a role in the preponderance of supernatural events that have occurred at the site.

A number of specific ghost stories have also been associated with the site and recounted in numerous articles, television shows, and Internet postings.

One of these involves the ghost of U.S. Army Lieutenant Levi Clagett, who, along with some of his men, was killed when a bomb burst not in the air but in their gun emplacement. Numerous people have seen walking along the top of the star point sometimes known as “Clagett’s Bastion” both a spectral figure and a man dressed in a uniform appropriate to the period at times when no costumed people were present in the fort.

Another named ghost associated with the site is that of Private John Drew, a soldier who was reportedly confined in one of the fort’s cells after he was caught sleeping while on guard duty and who, in shame, killed himself. His specter has been seen both in his cell and on the ramparts where he walked his last post, forever trying to correct the mistake that ended his military career and his life.

Some of the most dramatic paranormal events at the fort involve attacks on people by what has been variously described as a woman, a white figure, and an invisible entity that has reportedly done such things as push some people down stairs and knock others unconscious. Some believe this spirit is that of the wife of a noncommissioned officer assigned to the fort whose children died during an epidemic in the 1820s.

One ghosthunting group that recently visited the site and experienced things there is Maryland Tri-State Paranormal. Founder Ana Bruder told me that while they were there, her friend Laura suddenly said, “I feel like I am being watched.” Ana, who is sensitive to the presence of spirits, turned and saw the ghost of a uniformed soldier staring at her friend, just one of several spirits she detected while at the site.

Numerous other ghost stories and episodes of paranormal activity have also been associated with the site.

Many of the accounts of ghostly activity at Fort McHenry were originally reported by park rangers assigned to the site, and that remained the case up until a couple of decades ago. Today, however, in what they say is an effort to keep the site from being regarded as a “haunted fort” and to instead emphasize the nonsupernatural history of the National Monument and Historic Shrine, the managers of Fort McHenry decline to directly comment on phenomena that are still regularly reported by visitors.

Potential ghosthunters should also expect to have anything they ask to do at the site be curtailed by red tape. A favored tactic at Fort McHenry is to require application of a “special use permit” for anything its managers don’t really want people to do—the major exception to this being, it would seem, historic reenactment, for which the site has become a virtual playground. The important thing to remember is that the site is public property and that very little of what is involved in most investigations should actually require any sort of permission anyway.