The REAL Ghosts...
Ghostly stories of the S.S. City of Milwaukee…
By Bill Jones of GRASPP Beyond
Our small city of Manistee, Michigan, has a very cool history. There are dozens of things to do and enjoy when you visit, but finding time to see everything can be challenging. So, when you’re planning activities for your vacation, I recommend a visit to the SS City of Milwaukee car ferry and the USCGC Acacia buoy tender museum ships.
These historical ships are fun to visit. They offer tours, a gift shop, and even a boatel. This boatel is a rare find. Think about it, how often are you able to spend the night in a floating museum.
These ships are maintained to be historically correct as much as possible. The tours you take on these ships give you lots of hands-on with their histories and a chance to step back in time, even if it’s for just a little while.
However, these ships have a bit of a darker side that not too many people are aware of… they’re haunted! Several employees and guests have reported many interesting experiences. Some seem very innocent while others might be a bit creepier.
My wife and I have been investigating the paranormal for over 19 years. We are founding members of GRASPP Beyond. (GRASPP stands for Gathering Research And Stories of Paranormal Phenomena). GRASPP is an organization that has been researching everything paranormal from ghosts and spirits to UFOs and Bigfoot, as well as other cryptids, for over 19 years.
We’ve been involved with the SS City of Milwaukee (C.O.M.) and the USCGC Acacia for about 5 years now. In that time, we discovered a lot of interesting things aboard both ships.
Our first visit to the C.O.M. was for a paranormal event hosted by some friends of ours. We heard about some of the reports said to be happening on these ships and we started to get very interested. So, we talked with the ship’s crew about coming back, and soon we’re volunteering and investigating as often as we could get onboard.
On that first visit, we were part of the “World’s Largest Ghost Hunt”, which is a yearly event where paranormal teams can register and hold a ghost hunt with other teams around the world at the same time. A fun event to be part of, especially when you’re aboard these ships.
During the event, we experienced unexplained shadows and noises. Some guests even experienced being touched. While this event was a great time, we were not able to collect any solid evidence. There were a lot of people on board for this event and this left a lot of room for contamination of evidence as well as misinterpreted conclusions. The event did show us that there could be somethings paranormally active here and we needed to get a closer look.
On the last day of the event, we were able to talk with some of the ships’ crew to learn what sort of things they had been experiencing onboard. They told us about people hearing their names being called out to them, hearing others on board when they knew that nobody else was there, items they were working with vanishing – only to show up later right where they were working and the sounds of doors closing in areas where no one was at.
So, we set up an investigation for them. We wanted to see if we could discover any answers for the crew. We brought our team in and stayed the weekend. Our first investigation was focused on just the City of Milwaukee car ferry. We set up mobile and stationary cameras, night vision, as well as EMF pumps and detectors. We also used some old-school devices like dowsing rods and tarot cards.
Our team consisted of scientifically minded investigators and skeptical investigators, as well as people who have different psychic and sensitive abilities. While we investigate logically, looking for explanations to explain these events, we also use psychics and other sensitives as “tools” to help us find areas to focus on. We also asked several members of the COM crew to join us.
As we got to know the crew better, we started our journey into the history of this ship. We figured out quickly that this wasn’t going to be something that would only take one investigation to find the answers we were looking for.
That first investigation ended with a lot of “personal experiences” for some of the team and a lot more questions. Some team members saw shadows in the engine room but were not able to collect any evidence of them. Our psychics all felt that someone was trying to make their presence known, yet none of them had the same experiences. It was an interesting couple of nights and a great start to new friendships.
Since that first investigation, we have built a strong relationship with the crew of the COM and have had the opportunity to meet many of the guests who come for a tour or visit and those who stay the night.
It’s been interesting to share some of our stories with some of these guests. However, hearing some of the experiences that some guests shared with us is quite exciting too.
Crew members and visitors have told us about hearing their name call, only to turn around and no one is there. We’ve received reports of a “ghost kitty” on board. Over the last 10 years, people have said that they spot a gray tabby cat walking mostly on the passenger deck. One group saw this cat as it walked toward them, near the safety railing. They were simply chatting about their day, saw the cat, looked away for a second, and looked back to the cat… which was gone! Their first thoughts were that the cat had fallen overboard, and they quickly rushed to the rail to look for it. They looked for the cat, a splash, anything that might give them a clue where the kitty went. They never saw the cat again during their stay.
Recently stories of “ghost kitty” sightings are on the rise as guests have reported being awoken during the night when their pets have climbed into bed with them, then suddenly realizing their pets are at home. Others have heard a cat’s meows with no cat in sight.
A “ghost kitty” experience doesn’t really sound too terrifying, but not all of the activity on these ships is so mild. During another event we hosted on board, a couple of photos were taken by an investigator-in-training. As I was showing him the correct way to take photos during an investigation, he captured a couple of photos that we can’t explain. This photo was taken in the engine room of the City of Milwaukee. It appears to be a translucent, somewhat blurry image of an outreached arm pointing to the USCGC Acacia. This arm has a long-sleeved shirt or dungaree of sort, similar to what the Acacia crew may have worn.
As I was only a few feet from him when he snapped this photo, I know that this was not just another person who got in the photo by mistake or even on purpose. Also, if it were a person, they would have been partially levitating and had a safety rail running through their gut, not to mention the translucency. It’s very hard to just dismiss this photo.
His other photo was taken a few moments later, in the same spot. It shows the two steam engines which are now bathed in a storm of orange and yellow swirls that smear in two directions at the same time. This seemed to us at first as just camera motion causing a blurred image. There were no light changes by him or in the area in general, he didn’t change any camera settings and he did not move the camera while taking this photo. We’ve shown this image to several professional photographers, and some believe that it shouldn’t be possible for the image to “smear” in two directions like this.
Reports from guests, crew, and other witnesses talk of apparitions that roam both ships. A lady in white has been seen near the bow of the COM, and women in period clothing have been spotted wandering the ship as well.
We had heard stories from the Acacia of a sailor who had died on board from a tragic accident, yet he is still seen today. This sailor had fallen over a railing during a night patrol in the 1970’s. His body was discovered the next morning. We have had several former Acacia crew members from different eras who have seen AC (the nickname that crews have given to this spirit because no one knows his name, AC stands for “Altered Consciousness”) over the years, thinking he was a flesh and blood person. The thing is that this spirit tends to turn into dead-end corridors or walk past other crew and then simply vanish.
During one event, we were performing what’s known as an “Estes Session” which is a unique way to try to communicate with spirits. The Estes method is a very interesting tool that can have some surprising results. We think that we may have been having an actual conversation with 2 or more spirits. These two strong spirits were coming through very prominently; one was a more dominant and aggressive spirit. The other seemed to want to communicate more but was not able to, possibly because of the first.
In the beginning, things were quite active and mildly pleasant. We asked questions and it appeared that we were getting a lot of relevant answers, very cool. However, at some point, the more dominant spirit tried to force us to submit to him. He became more aggressive, angrier and demanding. He would not let any other spirit try to communicate with us and started to threaten us.
At this point, one of our guests, who was a strong medium, suggested we close this session, and we did. Everyone then went out to the passenger deck, and we performed a cleansing ritual to help protect ourselves. However this medium stayed behind, she decided to do a prayer session to help close this event. The medium told us later that she prayed to call in angels to remove this aggressive spirit.
About an hour later we gathered in the same area to try again, and things were quite different. Before you could feel the energy in the room. We had received several responses that seemingly answered our questions. Some were really on the spot and had direct answers. However, this time we are not getting any responses that are even close to a question. Some subjects wouldn’t respond at all. It was a completely different experience.
I am not one to believe that psychics and mediums are all that truthful. It is easy to fake this stuff. It takes a lot for me to put faith in what some of them say, but this lady has shown me before that she is legit and when we went back to try again it was strange how different things now were.
Things can happen on these ships a lot if you’re willing to be observant and a little open-minded. We still need to be aware that most things thought to be paranormal are usually just misunderstood and have logical explanations. When you come to visit us on these historic beauties, please listen to the tour guides as they speak about the history of these great ships and pay attention to your surroundings. Oh, remember if you do have a paranormal experience be sure to tell us too!
