Patriot’s Point
40 Patriot’s Point Road
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
I never quite felt comfortable aboard the USS Yorktown. I’m not a small guy and my height (6’2”) required that I ducked my head quite a bit as I moved through the passages of the ship and the camera bag hanging around my neck did not facilitate easy movement either. But there was also a feeling of never being alone on this fighting lady as well. There was a constant stream of visitors through the ship, but at moments when I found myself alone, I felt uncomfortable.
This is evidently not an uncommon experience aboard the ship. Last Wednesday evening as I was heading towards Charleston, a new episode of Ghost Hunters was airing revealing their extraordinary investigation of the ship. Having only read about the episode, I’ll refrain from commenting further on it. Before hearing of their investigation, I’d only read a bit about ghosts aboard the ship and had not pursued any other information.
According to a Charleston Post & Courier article about the investigation, this show was really used as a platform for revealing the ship’s hauntings to the paranormal world. There seem to have been many staff and visitors to the ship who have had a variety of experiences. Primarily, these experiences tend to be aural: including voices and footsteps. But there are also reports of shadow figures and full bodied apparitions.
The ship was laid down on December 1, 1941, just days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She was named for the USS Yorktown which was lost in the Battle of Midway in 1942. She entered service in 1943 and served admirably in the Pacific throughout the remainder of World War II. Following the war she patrolled the West Coast and served in the Vietnam War. She was retired in 1973 before being donated to Patriot’s Point.
Sources
- USS Yorktown(CV-10). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 10 May 2012.
- Warren L. “SyFy’s ‘Ghost Hunters’ explore paranormal side of Yorktown.” Charleston Post & Courier. 2 May 2012.