Ghosts along the Texas Coast (15 page)

We discussed various “happenings” that Derek recalled during the months he has worked on the ship. One night stands out above all the others. It was the night of February 13-14,1993, and the “spirits” were really active all night long! In fact, there was no holding them back! Derek gave me a Xerox copy of the ship's log with the hourly reports noted by the “D.C.” personnel as they signed in at all hours of the night while making their rounds. Derek said he had been there in his office, working, most of the evening. Since so much activity was taking place, he just stayed on throughout the entire night.

As various members of the Damage Control staff made their entries in the log, it became apparent this was a most unusual night, and a very wet one as well.

Some of the entries noted included the following:

0010: Water still coming down in Hangar #1, due to problem in C.O.'s room above.

0155: Smoke detector 02-126-1 malfunction. Checked out. All ok, reset system.

0300: Made routine round of all tour areas. Found two areas with water running into sinks in C.C. Admiral's quarters. One sink full of water. Unknown why water running. Still can hear water running in pipes in bridge area.

0345: Found sink in Admiral's quarters with water running, sink full, water on floor, this seems very strange why fresh water left running.

0400: Made rounds of pier area. Unable to go to fo'c'sle area due to fresh wax.

0410: Wayne notified about water running. He advised D.C. to secure all water running in heads (toilets).

0530: Made rounds of bridge and flight deck. Raised flag.

0630: Made rounds of pier, opened gate, water leak in hangar stopped.

And so it went. Derek attached his own personal notes to the D.C. log for the night of February 13-14 as follows:

In addition to those incidents reported in the D.C. Log by Richard Longoria who was scheduled at the time, Wayne, with D.C, was there with Wayne Fellers of Ship's operations at the Admiral's galley at about 9:20 on the night of the 13th. I overheard a radio report of water running in the Admiral's galley which was locked and sealed at the bottom with screws. It has a two-part door.

I ran up to help, in that I might be able to find a key since I have access to the locksmith's shop. I was told to bring either a key or a crowbar. I was gone approximately 7 to 10 minutes. When I returned, the group of Wayne F., and his son, Wayne with D.C, and Art Smith, the ship's electrician, had already pried the door open. I came down to the hangar deck and caught up with Wayne to ask what the cause of the water running was. I was told that a water faucet had been turned on. I know for a fact (for I was there) that I witnessed Pete Valentine (the ship's locksmith) lock the door a number of weeks previously and I had installed the screws on the back side. This was just a day before we opened this tour line. I also know Pete was the only one who had a key. One final note: I was in the next compartment aft (the admiral's stateroom) at 6:00 the same evening working on lashing ropes for the stanchions in the same room and I would have heard it had it been occurring at that time.

And then on February 17, Derek notes:

Addendum. Today I talked to D.C. “Shane” who was on duty during that night (February 13) He reported that two of the sinks were behind locked doors and one instance was the shower being on in the captain's sea-cabin on the 06 level. This was accounting for the water running sounds which he and Richard Longoria traced to the sea cabin. All in all, it was four sinks total, plus the shower and a faucet in the galley. D.N. 2-17-93.

Derek, in discussing this strange night, said that some of the faucets that were running hadn't been turned on in a long while, and he added
they were so stuck and tight that it would have taken a strong man with a wrench to turn them on. Yet there they were, running freely, and in compartments behind firmly locked doors! He said the whole week centered around February 14 was “very active” and he referred to it as “hell week.”

Derek went on to tell how the swivel chair that the bookkeeper uses often would swivel and squeak when she wasn't even there. This chair is in the photocopy office.

A man named Wayne, on the Damage Control staff, has a son whose name is John. This young man told his father that he had a very strange experience on the ship. He suddenly felt terrified for no particular reason. Then, he heard a distinct voice speaking to him, saying, “You'd sure hate to be here when them planes were taking off.” The voice was very clear, and there was no mistaking what it said. John has never forgotten this incident.

Numerous times Derek has experienced the sensation of being followed down various passageways. He hears the sound of heavy military type shoes following along behind him. When they come to the coamings (raised door openings in the passageways) they do not break cadence as they should. He has also been followed by the same heavy treads as he comes out of the “head” (restroom) near the officer's dining room. These footsteps have followed him for some distance.

Another time, as he was disassembling a table in order to move it from the galley where it was located to the passageway outside, Derek could hear footsteps. There were no lights on in the passageway, but he had a flashlight. The steps were going from aft to forward. He asked, “Who is it?” but of course, there was no answer.

Derek took me on a tour over many areas that are off limits to visiting tourists. I felt the presence of “something” in several areas, sort of a feeling of loneliness and emptiness. The place that drew the most shivers in me was the former brig where there were a number of small, dark, barred cells. However, my host said that there had never been any reports of any ghostly happenings around that area.

Derek told me many of the ship's staff members have discussed their own experiences with an “unexplainable presence” on the huge vessel. One of the volunteers, John Dau, told Derek he had served on the carrier in the 1960s, and he knew then there were ghosts on the ship even while it was still on active duty.

One of the janitorial staff working there on contract, Jimmy Caldwell, told Derek he actually saw a medical corpsman in the sick bay about 5 a.m. one morning. He saw the figure just briefly, and then it totally disappeared.

Although Derek, who spends lots of hours on the ship at night in the print shop or doing artwork, is not fearful of the resident spirits, he says that they are at times very “disturbing.” Finally, after one particularly exasperating night, he asked them to “Just lay off . . . just quit bothering me and trying to frighten me. I can't do my job as well with you disturbing me.” He said he believes they are really intelligent entities, and they understood him, because he has had a relatively peaceful time of it since he made that request!

I might add a postscript to this story:

A very recent visit with Derek aboard the
Lexington
revealed the spirits are still active. Two security guards have reported hearing voices when no one is around on several occasions. Derek, who is convinced that these otherworldly seamen will never leave the
Lexington
, is not worried about any more disturbances. He's moving soon to West Africa.

The U.S.S.
Lexington
during World War II in the Pacific. Note the original superstructure and flight deck.

There have been a lot of hitchhiker ghost stories told down through the years. The most frequently told ones usually involve a dark and rainy night, a lost and distraught young woman who is found wandering beside the road, and a kindly motorist who gives her a lift. Then suddenly she vanishes before her destination is reached, leaving a very disturbed motorist to ponder what might have happened to her.

There's a story that was told for years down around Corpus Christi that might be called a variation of the old disappearing hitchhiker stories. I first read the story in an article entitled “Ghosts of the Coastal Bend” by Jane Ammeson of Corpus Christi, which appeared in the October 1983 edition of
Texas Highways Magazine
.

It seems during World War II a bus load of sailors was traveling from Houston to Corpus Christi. At a small town bus stop, a Catholic nun carrying a suitcase got on the bus. Soon after she sat down she started to talk to some of the sailors seated near her. She was very interested in them and told them she thought the war might end soon. After traveling some distance, the tired sailors were dozing and the bus became silent. Just before they reached Corpus, someone realized the little nun was gone. But she couldn't be! The bus had made no stops! A thorough search revealed neither the nun nor her suitcase.

As soon as the bus arrived in Corpus Christi the driver and a couple of the sailors went out to the convent that the nun had mentioned. They asked one of the sisters there if the missing nun had arrived there. The sister told them they weren't expecting anyone to arrive, but she would be glad to show them some photos of the convent's sisters to see if any was recognizable as the missing nun.

The driver and the sailors all selected one photograph, saying “There's no doubt. That's the nun who talked with us and then disappeared.”

The sisters at the convent were stunned. “It can't be. That sister has been dead for several years,” they said.

Along with the story about the missing nun, Jane Ammeson wrote in the October 1983 issue of
Texas Highways Magazine
in her article entitled “Ghosts of the Coastal Bend” about a strange occurrence that took place in Corpus Christi many years ago.

There was a county judge who was highly respected named Judge Walter Timon. Once when he was visiting in the home of his father on Mesquite Street in Corpus Christi, he was startled to suddenly look up and see the apparition of a man, standing by the fireside. What made the figure so strange was that a circle of flames surrounded the figure's waist. As the startled judge watched, flames engulfed the entire apparition. Then, just as suddenly as they had begun, the flames started to recede, and then the figure disappeared as well, leaving the puzzled judge standing alone in the room.

Other people have also seen the same apparition. Mrs. Millie Sullivan Timon saw it on midnight, November 2, 1909. She was alone, as her husband was away selling some cattle from the Bayou Ranch where they lived, on the Nueces River. At first she thought the figure she saw was that of her husband. Then, realizing it was not, she watched in absolute terror as flames started to encircle the man. She was speechless! She finally found the breath to murmur, “Lord, have mercy on his soul,” before the flames and the figure both disappeared.

Ammeson wrote that the apparition appeared once more at the Bayou Ranch house. This time a friend who was taking care of the Timons' children while they were out of town saw the figure.

Later on, the Bayou Ranch burned down. Was it because of the ghostly figure? Who was he, and why did he come? To this day, no one has been able to find out.

Galveston Island was first explored by Europeans, who found it to be frequented by Karankawa Indians. Pirate Jean Lafitte established a settlement there in 1817 which he called Campeche. Galveston Island was so named for Bernardo de Galvez, Viceroy of Mexico, and the city was first called Galvez-town. Lafitte was, in 1819, president of the Galveston Republic. The interesting island city has a lot of “firsts” to its credit: it had the first Catholic convent in Texas, the first telegraph station, the first brewery, and the first medical college! And while the disastrous storm of 1900 completely inundated the island, drowning between 5,000 and 7,000 people and destroying countless homes, today a vast 10-mile-long seawall protects the city, and has proved its worth many times during heavy storms. Galveston is truly a city that would not die! There are spirits in the grand old city that are content to stay there, too!

At 3601 Bernardo de Galvez Street in Galveston, there's a charming old house in the midst of one of the city's most historic neighborhoods. This was the home that Samuel May Williams, an early Texas pioneer, built for his family in 1839, just three years after Texas won her independence from Mexico.

Williams had served as secretary to Stephen F. Austin and had helped to finance the Texas Revolution. As the first banker in Texas, he had often foreclosed on people's property. According to an article by Stephen Long which ran in the October 29, 1993, edition of the
Houston Chronicle
, Williams would never have won any popularity contests. In fact, according to Long, who quoted Shirley Holmer, who works for the Galveston Historical Foundation, Williams was reputed to have been the “most hated man in Texas.”