The Titanic is in the news again, owing to a grisly incident involving a submersible on its expedition to the gravesite of the Titanic. With that, the ghosts of the Titanic wreck have come back to haunt us again.
On April 14, 1912, the so-called unsinkable ship called the Titanic hit an iceberg. At first, most of the passengers were unaware of what had actually happened.
A couple of hours later, many of them were screaming for their lives and being flung through the air as the ship listed steeply to starboard and then plunged into the ocean.
Some fortunate people had gotten away in lifeboats, but for many, especially the poorer passengers, it was the end. Over 1,500 people lost their lives that day, including entire families.
Some died quickly, others could be heard moaning in the freezing cold water. As one survivor put it, there was a chorus of shrieks, and then just a deathly silence. The question is, did any of the dead rise again?
2023 Titan Submersible Incident
Recently an expedition to see the wreck of the Titanic came to a horrifying end when the submersible consisting of 5 people imploded near the wreckage, killing 5 onboard instantly.
Their deaths were quick as they vapourised in the shallow depths of the ocean. During the rescue mission, the sonobuoys captured weird banging noises from the wreckage site. The noise was frequently heard at 30-minute intervals from the deep of the ocean.
The rescuers thought the trapped people from the submersible were calling for help by banging the hull. But after the discovery of their instant death, the strange mystery regarding that banging noise coming from the wreckage site puts a lot of questions about its actual source.
The Wreckage of Titanic
First of all, we should ask where the Titanic is today? It broke into two main parts, each of which lies about 600 meters away from each other.
They’re about 12,500 feet (3.8 km) down and around 370 miles (600 km) from the coast of Newfoundland. Not surprisingly, a large site of debris formed with parts of the ship and people’s belongings being scattered on the bed of the ocean.
As for the bodies of the dead, well, they were eaten by any number of sea creatures a long time before the first expedition was launched to go and survey the wreck.
If some parts of them are still down there is still not entirely agreed upon. The first discovery of the wreckage didn’t happen until 1985. It wasn’t because of lack of want, though.
Many rich folks who’d lost friends or family on that ship wanted to sponsor an expedition. But there wasn’t enough funding, and the technology in those days wasn’t good enough to get down that far.
Then on September 1, 1985, an expedition led by American and French oceanographers finally found something.
Discovery of Debris
It was the massive boiler of the Titanic. The next day they found more parts, including hundreds of thousands of bits of debris that had been dispersed over a two-mile radius.
What was surprising was that some things they found were in really good condition given the fact they’d been lying down there for over 70 years.
Since that time quite a few things have been brought back from the wreckage site, haunting items that as you’ll see turn up in exhibits from time to time.
Watches were one thing that was found, with them stopping at the time their owners went into the water. They may not be haunted, but looking at them certainly makes your hair stand on end.
Other things such as deckchairs, coins, cutlery, furniture, and dishes have been brought back up from the depths. As for the dead, it’s very unlikely any parts of them would have survived that long deep under the water.
Their flesh would have been eaten, and the bones would have dissolved because of the seawater. Remnants of humans have been found before in old wrecks, although the likelihood of that happening is not high.
The question for some people, though, is what about the souls of the dead?
Ghosts of The Titanic
These days there’s a new kind of expedition, one with the paranormal in mind. Some folks are now searching for the ghosts of the Titanic wreck.
Ok, so if you went down there now with your buddies because that’s the kind of thing you all do, you’d find pairs of shoes; you’d find bits of old clothing, but you’d struggle to find the people who had worn those things.
There are some people, however, who claim if you get close enough to the wreck you can hear the ghostly voices of those that perished.
In 2010, a group of 20 paranormal investigators wanted to capture those sounds and show them to the world. We hate to disappoint you guys, but it seems that the expedition never got off the ground.
Not only that, the expedition, called “The Titanic Endeavour Tour”, was said to have offended relatives of the victims once they found out about it.
Ok, so that didn’t work out, but there’s more. There’s the story of the ghost who was the Captain of the Titanic and who died on that fateful night. His name was Edward Smith.
Captain of the Titanic
It seems his soul is a bit restless these days, if you believe that sort of thing. In 1977, he may have popped up for a chat.
As the story goes, Leonard Bishop, the second officer of the ship called SS Winterhaven, was giving a tour of his ship to a quiet Englishman. The man was very polite but asked a lot of questions about the ship.
Bishop later remarked that he was taken aback by how obsessed this man was about the details of the ship. He also said that at the time he was sure he’d seen the guy before, but wasn’t quite sure where.
A couple of years passed, Bishop saw a photo of the man who’d asked all those questions on the tour. He told his friend he’d met the guy, to which his friend replied, never, he went down with the Titanic.
He was the Captain. Maybe you just can’t hold a good man down, because in 2018 a couple of folks taking a selfie in a pub in Northern Ireland had quite the shock when they looked at the image.
To them, it seemed the ghost of Captain Smith had photobombed them. Apparently, the pub they were in had some connection to the Titanic and that’s why you can find lots of Titanic memorabilia there.
Ghosts of the Titanic: Edward Smith
They said at the time of the photo they felt something cold rush down their backs. They even sent the picture to a ghost hunting outfit called “Paranormal Investigations UK” and were told that something indeed didn’t look right about it.
Mr. Smith, it seems, won’t properly give up the ghost because it’s said by some that he haunts other places. In 2012, tenants who lived in the home where he spent his childhood said that for years lots of odd things happened in the house.
They said previous tenants of the two-bedroomed property had said the same thing. The usual stuff like things going bump in the night happened on occasion, but it was also said that sometimes a rush of very cold wind would for no reason pass through the place.
Another time the kitchen flooded, but there wasn’t any good reason why it had happened. The water seemed to come out of the faucet by itself. That or the renters were somewhat embarrassed about leaving the water running.
Then there’s the story of the captain appearing in a mirror he once owned. When he didn’t return from his trip that mirror fell into the hands of his servant, Miss Ethelwynne. She said sometimes when she looked in the mirror she saw the Captain looking back at her.
In a letter, her sister-in-law told a friend, “She always spooked me when she said that at times she could still see Captain Smith’s face in it on the anniversary of when the Titanic was sunk.”
Alleged Paranormal Activities
We also found sources of what we might call the dubious kind stating that there’s evidence of ships passing the wreckage site and people on the ships saying they saw little orbs of light flying around.
The same sources state that submarines passing through that area have said their radio signals have been blocked. We attempted to look further into this and can’t find any evidence, therefore we think someone just made it up and it’s been repeated numerous times.
There’s an equally dubious story that surfaced in 2009. A woman claiming to have visited the Titanic Belfast museum said something strange happened to her when the Titanic’s distress signal was played for her.
She said she suddenly felt very anxious and started to experience what sounds like a panic attack, only for her to feel a hand on her shoulder and hear the words, “It’s ok.”
When she looked up, there was no one there. Perhaps the biggest buzz regarding the ghosts of the Titanic comes from The Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
That’s a strange place to mention when talking about the ill-fated ship, but it’s where you can find over 200 artifacts taken from the Titanic.
The Exhibition of the Reminiscence
One of the people that worked on that exhibit once said this, “Let me tell you, when you’re closing this place up at 11 p.m., midnight, you hear stuff.” He said he’s felt people grabbing at him that weren’t there.
He said he’s heard giggles and also his name being called. On one occasion he said he heard an orchestra playing. The question is, does he have a vested interest in saying that?
This is how he once responded to skeptics: “I’ll say this a million times and on my deathbed, and maybe come back and say it after my death: I would not lie to you. What I’m asking you is to keep an open mind.”
Some of the docents and even guests have had some serious experiences here. ”One such person was a photographer. He was getting ready to take some snaps when he saw a woman in an old-fashioned dress with a white collar walk down the Grand Staircase.
This part of the exhibit was roped off to the public so he wondered what she was doing there. He asked her if she’d like to have her photo taken to which she just ignored him. The next thing he knew, she was right next to him.
Again, he asked if she wanted her photo taken, and this time she just seemed to vanish. Then there’s the story of the ghost of Frederick Fleet who it’s said has been seen at the exhibit.
Ghosts of the Titanic: Frederick Fleet
This guy was one of the lookouts on the Titanic, a man that told people about the approaching iceberg when there was no way of getting around it.
He was actually one of the fortunate folks that made it back to dry land, but with guilt on his mind and after a series of bad events he took his own life. Apparently, his ghost has been seen on the deck still keeping a lookout.
Now for a man whose name was tainted after the ship went down. He was managing director of the firm that built the Titanic, and he was on it when it sank.
Except he didn’t stay behind with all the other men; he jumped ship as soon as he could. His name was J. Bruce Ismay. Leaving women and children behind was not a good look for him and he was called a “coward” by the newspapers of the time.
He was the bad guy in the movie “Titanic” or at least one of them. People have since said his bad guy image was perhaps a little unfair. Anyway, it seems some ghosts of the Titanic still don’t like the man.
His portrait hangs in the Vegas exhibit, only one day it was found on the floor when workers arrived. It’s said that staff looked at the video footage and saw the picture shake violently and then dismount the wall.
The Hunt Continues
Not so long ago, ghost hunters went to the Titanic exhibit when it was at the Georgia Aquarium. Their conclusion was that there was some paranormal activity there.
That’s because they said they felt and recorded strange cold areas. They said they saw apparitions wandering around and one guy said he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Maybe that happened, or maybe viewer numbers wouldn’t look so good if those ghost hunters never claimed anything spooky was going on.
Then again, a retired architectural draftsman from Virginia named Wyatt Jason Moore has something else to say about the Titanic’s ghosts.
He built a massive replica of the Titanic. It was an impressive feat in itself since he made it almost perfect after studying many photographs.
He said he soon started to hear noises coming from it and when he took photos of the ship he’d sometimes see what looked like little people in the camera lens. “I leave them alone and they leave me alone,” he once told the media.
Looks like the ghosts of the Titanic wreck will continue to haunt the researchers for years to come.
