Date: January 24-25, 2009 Time: 9:00pm (Jan. 24) through 2:00am (Jan. 25)
Background: Construction of the USS North Carolina was begun in 1937. In April 1941, she was the first of ten fast battleships
to join the fleet in World War II and was considered to be the world's greatest sea weapon. The North Carolina came through World War II with
fifteen battle stars and a score of heroic actions performed by her crew. However, she did not make it through the War entirely unscathed.
On September 15, 1942, a Japanese torpedo blasted into the hull of the great battleship. The fast reactions of the crew allowed the injured
battleship to keep up with the fleet. By the end of the war, the battleship lost ten men in action and had sixty-seven wounded. The battleship
was decommissioned on June 27, 1947. She arrived in Wilmington, NC, in October of 1961 and formerly became the State's memorial to its World War II
veterans in April of 1962.
Visiting the USS North Carolina for even the normal tour is quite an experience as you have access to many areas and levels, including the machine
room. If you plan to visit, be sure to check out the official USS North Carolina web site for
a more complete look at the history of this ship. You may also want to check out the web site for the battleship's home town, Wilmington, NC. The
web site also has information about the surrounding Cape Fear area.
Investigation Notes: Only one of our TSI members was able to make it to this event; she just could not pass up this opportunity
to investigate the ship in areas where tours are not normally permitted.
This was a TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society)-sponsored event and was attended by TAPS founder Jason Hawes, co-founder Grant Wilson, and team members Steve Gonsalves,
Dave Tango, Kris Williams, and Kristyn Gartland, all of whom can be seen on the tv show,
Ghost Hunters. Also attending and lecturing was demonologist John Zaffis.
There were supposedly 150 people attending this event, but our investigator thinks there may have been quite a few more than that.
Attendees were divided into a total of five groups and each group was allotted an hour to spend in an assigned location. Unfortunately, although
it was stated that each group would be comprised of about 30 people, her group had 48 people in it. (Please note that if you are planning to go to
a TAPS event yourself, this extremely large grouping appears to be unusual. Another group at this event had only 15 to 20 people in it. The groups at
the Fort Mifflin event in June last year were, indeed, comprised of about 30 people each.) Once the group reached a specific location,
they were welcome to break up into their own investigative units, if they so desired.
Although everyone could go their own way within a location for their own investigations, having 48 people in her group often made this a
pointless endeavor. There were often so many other voices (from whispering to speaking loudly) at most times that any EVP work had been rendered
virtually useless because of contamination. That said, during the reveal the following day, there was a guy who played a very impressive - and loud - EVP
of a man's voice shouting "You get out!" Unfortunately, our investigator did not get anything so remarkable.
Personal Experiences: Our investigator did not have any personal paranormal experiences, either. However,
several other people at the event reported being touched and a large table was witnessed by several people to have moved a few inches on its own.
Regardless, our investigator said that her personal experience of being able to interact with the TAPS
team as part of a group and individually one-on-one was priceless. Every member of the TAPS team encouraged everyone to ask questions and
they were extremely knowledgeable and friendly in their replies.
Evidence:
EVPs: We're putting these up for now as possible EVPs. There were quite a few people attending this event, so there were not exactly optimal conditions
where we could be more confident that these are more likely to be EVPs. There were also a lot of general whispering EVPs, but are completely unintelligible, so we are not posting them here.
Click the "Play EVP" button to hear the EVP. You will probably need to turn up the volume on your computer. For best results, we recommend that you listen with headphones.
Try listening to the file first to decide what you think is being said before revealing the EVP Result.
This was in the first section, which was the officers' quarters with Steve around 9:40pm. There were other people in an adjoining room; however, it appears to be answering a question.
This was also in the first section, about a minute later. You can hear the people in the another room, but we think the sound quality of this possible EVP is distinctly different from that of the people in the nearby room.
Not actually an EVP as there is no voice here. It's a sound that came from the corner of the room where no one was and was
heard by everyone in the room. This is from the section with Tango, which was the area of the ship where the torpedo hit. Three of
us were in what appeared to be a storage room where earlier in the evening a woman was touched.
This is from the last section, the sick bay area with Kristyn. Steve, an investigator with Haunted North Carolina - they were
assisting with moving the groups from section to section - asked "What's the name of the ship's captain?" A possible reply is heard.
"Sean"
Further research indicates that there wasn't a captain - or other officer - by the name of Sean in the ship's history. The room was packed with people in this section, so it is very possibly someone in the group. Unfortunately,
it is unknown if there was anyone named Sean in the group.
Location: Sick Bay
This was also in the last room, recorded as the session was at its end.
Long, indistinct - but loud - whisper
Listening to it through headphones, it sounds like whoever is talking is standing right next to our investigator, but she says that no one was that near to her at the time. We
cannot figure out what is being said, though. If you have any ideas, please let us know.
Summary: Based only on our investigator's experiences on the battleship USS North Carolina, she was not able to reach the definite
conclusion that it is haunted. However, there were far from perfect conditions throughout the investigation and, therefore, it would not
be fair to try to reach a conclusion following this investigation. Our investigator found it to be a good experience nonetheless and would love
the opportunity to investigate there again.
