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Battleship North Carolina
August 15th, 2007
Time: 06:45PM
Official USS North Carolina Website: http://www.battleshipnc.com/index.html
Upon exploring the historic downtown of Wilmington, NC, I decided to take the long way back to my hotel and drove around and over the city's drawbridge to get a bird’s eye view of the Cape Fear River and I soon spotted the Battleship USS North Carolina so I decided to make an unscheduled visit to this floating fortress.
After purchasing the entrance pass-wristband, I walked in the gift shop and signaled
over to Danny Bradshaw (the ship’s night watchman) and I introduced myself, gave
him my business card and asked him if I could interview him of which Danny agreed,
at closing time.
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Photo by Norman Gagnon © 2007
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I began the self-guided tour by walking the main deck and shooting many photos, taking advantage of the sunset’s warm tangerine glow. About 45 minutes later, amidst my delving into the ship’s nine refurbished decks (and beyond the usual tour path, shhhh...) I noticed that some of the visitors' footsteps above me where echoing throughout the bowel of this iron vessel, eerily resonating off the ceiling and narrow corridors. I’ve also heard faint sound effects being played through the ship’s intercom system, vintage recordings of whistles, Morse code, and ship crew commands. I believe these recordings are turned off at closing time. In my view, conducting investigations during normal daylight tour hours should not be implemented because as one would expect, there are too many man-made dissonance. FYI: Where the North Carolina is docked, this area of the Cape Fear River is also home to several alligators!
The Interview - 08:00PM:
Sitting at a table within the Visitors Center's viewing area, I asked Danny if he could share any recent paranormal activities that he might have witnessed on the North Carolina. He stated that the ship have been very quiet lately but he experienced a lot of strange things such as tapping on the walls, foot steps, and heard disembodied voices throughout the last 25 years. His friend John also experienced ghostly events (John was the gentleman he replaced as watchman back in 1976). One of the most memorable sighting Danny saw on the ship was a full-body apparition of a man with glowing blondish-white hair, resembling white flames emanating from the top of the his head. He also talked about the time that TAPS investigated the North Carolina on a "Ghost Hunters" shoot in 2004, of which Jason and Grant saw a shadowy figure stalking the dark halls of the ship. Here's a clip from YouTube:
Danny is also the author of a book titled "Ghosts on the Battleship North Carolina" Copyright 2002- 7th printing 8/07. Published by Bradshaw Publishing Co., P.O.Box 4564, Wilmington, NC 28406 - dbrad14@hotmail.com, edited by Blonnie Bunn Wyche.
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Photo by Norman Gagnon © 2007
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Photo by Norman Gagnon © 2007
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Danny and myself © 2007
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Photo by Norman Gagnon © 2007
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Photo by Norman Gagnon © 2007
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Illustration/graphic Norman Gagnon © 2007
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Photo by Norman Gagnon © 2007
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