The Ship of DreamsOn April 10, 1912, the "unsinkable" RMS Titanic began her maiden voyage from Southampton in Hampshire, England, to New York City. Five nights later, she collided with an iceberg and sank into the Atlantic, taking more than 1,500 passengers with her.
The RMS Titanic set out on its maiden voyage with more than 2,200 people aboard in April 1912. Tragically, only 706 of those passengers would survive. The ship was moving too fast one freezing night and struck an iceberg and went down. Those who perished in the event suffered a terrifying and agonizing demise. Any paranormal enthusiast will tell you that strong emotions paired with an untimely end are key ingredients in most hauntings.
For eight decades, the RMS Titanic and all its contents sat at the bottom of the Atlantic until underwater excavation teams brought artifacts back up to the surface. Now, these pieces of history are offering a rare glimpse at what it was like to be on the massive ship and hints at the ghostly spirits that still linger around the doomed vessel. The pieces displayed apparently still have a connection to the former passengers who possessed them. Read on to discover some of their spooky tales.
The Titanic Artifact Exhibition at The Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas apparently has a ghost wandering its grand staircase. Employees and guests alike have seen this mysterious woman, who wears a black period dress with a white collar and her hair in a bun.
As a photographer prepped for the opening of the exhibition, he spotted the woman casually walking down the Grand Staircase. He was startled, as he hadn’t seen anyone enter and the staircase was roped off. He assumed she was part of the exhibit and asked if she’d like him to photograph her. She ignored him. He went back to setting up, but suddenly she was directly behind him. Again, he offered a photograph and this time she didn’t just ignore him - she vanished.
The exhibit at The Luxor includes a portrait of J. Bruce Ismay , one of the Titanic ’s builders. He apparently fled the sinking ship, leaving women and children behind. Witnesses on the lifeboats claim he kept his back to the ship as it descended, and allegedly, he was the one insisting the ship speed up after receiving ice warnings. Perhaps it's not surprising that the ghosts of the Titanic seem to dislike him.
One early morning as the crew came in to open the exhibit, they found the portrait of Ismay on the floor. The manager watched the surveillance video from the night before and was stunned to see the picture begin shaking before coming off of the wall, apparently of its own accord.
A Ghostly Tour Took Place On The SS Winterhaven
What if you saw a ghost without even realizing it? In the case of Second Officer Leonard Bishop of the SS Winterhaven, that was exactly what happened. In 1977, he gave a tour of the ship to a man who he assumed was a passenger. The British man was very soft spoken and extremely interested in every detail of the vessel, almost unusually so. Bishop found the man to be a bit strange - not unpleasant, just odd.
It wasn’t until a few years later, after seeing a photo of Titanic Captain Edward John Smith that Bishop realized why the situation felt so off. Bishop exclaimed to a friend, "I know him, I gave him a tour of my boat!" The friend laughed and informed Bishop that the man had been long deceased: "That man was the captain of the Titanic!"
The Ghost Of The Titanic’s Lookout Watches The Promenade Deck
Frederick Fleet, a British sailor, served as the lookout aboard the RMS Titanic. He spotted the deadly iceberg and warned the bridge. Tragically, his warning came too late; the ship was going too fast to avoid a collision. Fleet survived the sinking of the Titanic, but not his own depression. After his wife’s passing just after Christmas in 1964, he was evicted by his brother-in-law and hung himself in the garden.
His grave went unmarked until the Titanic Historical Society erected a headstone for him in 1993. It appears his spirit is not quite at rest, however. Witnesses have claimed to see him keeping watch over the Las Vegas exhibition’s Promenade Deck, perhaps driven by his guilt to keep watch, even in the afterlife.
Museum Staffers Are Poked And Prodded By Unseen Hands
According to staff and visitors, the Titanic artifact exhibition at The Luxor is extremely haunted. Eerie sounds, uneasy feelings, and actual sightings of ghostly specters have all been reported. Artifacts expert Joe Zimmer seems to attract quite a bit of attention from these supposed spirits. He says he's had his name called and his hair and clothing tugged on, all followed by the sounds of laughter.
And late at night, Zimmer reports hearing a phantom orchestra play.
The Georgia Aquarium also houses potentially haunted artifacts from the Titanic. The employees have claimed to see shadows, hear voices, and even be touched by the spirits. The paranormal activity is so intense that Syfy Channel’s Ghost Hunters came in to investigate.
They reportedly captured a recording of a voice saying, "No, please wait" in the iceberg room. The team also said they got readings of several anomalous cold spots and witnessed a shadowy figure. After reviewing their findings, they concluded that the Titanic exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium is, in fact, haunted.
