The Berkeley
TAPS get a break from the cold and rainy Northeast and find themselves in beautiful San

Diego investigating two old ships which now serve as nothing more than a tourist trap. 

The Berkeley, a ferry built in 1898, roamed the freezing waters of the San Francisco bay

and collected more than a few horrible incidents along the way.  The most horrifying

story was about a man who had most of his head and back blown away by a chemical

explosion on the main deck.  Otherwise footsteps, party noises, and an apparition

wearing a trench coat and fedora round out the experiences.

 

Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson took the lead as usual in the investigation and it wasn’t

long before they audibly began hearing the pounding footsteps experienced by the ferry

caretakers.  Later the two found some high EMF readings coming from the various pipes

containing the electrical wiring.  High EMF readings can make people feel sick or

paranoid and often explain the eerie feelings people are having.  At end of the night

TAPS seemed to have been pretty happy with their debunking tactics and you could almost

hear the ticket office at the museum go quite as their ghostly claims were neutered.

 

Star of India
The Star of India has had a bit rougher past then that of The Berkeley.  A sailor fell

to his death from the lookout nest and another man got caught up in the chain wench that

operates the anchor mechanism.  With objects moving by themselves and numerous noises of

footsteps, it’s not hard to figure out that these sailors may still be hoping to set

sail again and the apparitions seen by the ship caretakers and visitors were not

figments of their imagination.

 

Jason and Grant again were encompassed by continuous loud footsteps on the main deck,

yet no one could be found to be making them.  Not long after this they began tracking a

black shadow, seeing it in two different areas, finally disappearing into a door.  It

was time for Jason and Grant to let Dave Tango and Steve Gonsalves roam the ship and see

if they had any similar experiences. Dave and Steve went right to an EVP session to see

if they could gather any white noise and the rumor is, they caught something. Kris

Williams and Amy Bruni were the next team members to take to the ship and it wasn’t long

before the infamous black shadow began showing itself again.  With no one else on the

ship and other team members watching the exterior of the ship, it became hard to believe

that this shadow figure was caused by bit of sea sickness.

 

The evidence was heavily in favor of the Star of India, where an EVP session revealed a

ghostly being saying “Get Off My Ship.”  This particular EVP was one of the more clear

voices of all the EVP sessions of this season of Ghost Hunters.  Another piece of

evidence showed some type of figure on the heat sensor present itself and then

disappear.  Finally the team was able to catch, on regular video, a gate open slightly

and close.  All members of the team had personal experiences and because they were able

to back up a lot of these occurrences, it wasn’t hard for TAPS to call the ship haunted.

 The Berkeley wasn’t considered haunted by the team but it could have just been that the

ghosts were downsized due to the economy.

 

 

 

Story by: Chad Alan

 

(Photo courtesy of Sci Fi)

 

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