USS Yorktown

A WWII aircraft carrier that earned eleven battle stars, recovered Apollo 8, and lost 141 men during her years of service. Now a museum ship in Mount Pleasant, where visitors and staff encounter uniformed figures still walking their rounds below deck.

In 1987, a group of Boy Scouts participating in an overnight camping program aboard the USS Yorktown saw life-like figures in World War II sailor uniforms patrolling the halls around them. The figures walked with purpose, acknowledged no one, and vanished when followed. The scouts were not the first to see them, and they weren't the last.

The USS Yorktown (CV-10) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier commissioned on April 15, 1943, named for the original Yorktown sunk at Midway the year before. The Fighting Lady participated in operations across the Pacific from 1943 to 1945, earned eleven battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation, and later served in Korea and Vietnam. She recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts after their return from the moon. In total, 141 men died aboard the Yorktown during her years of service. The Navy donated her to the Patriots Point Development Authority in 1974, and she's been a museum ship in Mount Pleasant ever since.

The most common report is phantom footsteps echoing through empty compartments and corridors deep in the vessel. Museum guides and overnight campers hear distinct, purposeful steps, the cadence of sailors walking their rounds, from areas confirmed to be empty. The footsteps often come from above or below, as if the crew is still moving between decks on duties that ended decades ago.

Voices are frequently heard throughout the carrier's labyrinth of corridors, engine rooms, and crew quarters. Staff have heard conversations, commands, and even laughter from compartments sealed off from the public. Some witnesses describe clear, audible speech that fades before the words can be made out.

Museum staff have seen men in WWII-era Navy uniforms walking the passageways and disappearing around corners or through bulkheads. The ship's lower decks, particularly the engine room, sick bay, and the areas near the brig, are considered the most active. Dark shapes have been seen moving through the machinery spaces. Visitors have picked up the smell of diesel fuel, gunpowder, and cigarette smoke in compartments that have been clean and empty for decades.

In February 2012, an eight-person T.A.P.S. team from the SyFi Channel's Ghost Hunters investigated the Yorktown with the museum closed and all ship power turned off. The team split into pairs and documented full-body figures, recorded conversations and laughter in empty compartments, and reported physical contact. The episode aired May 2, 2012. Mac Burdette, the museum's executive director, told reporters: "We hold the men who served and died aboard the USS Yorktown in the highest esteem and we would never, ever do anything to disrespect their service."

Photographer William Butterfield captured an image in the radar room in August 2008 showing what appears to be a figure in a heavy long-sleeved shirt. Butterfield said he was alone and wearing nothing like the clothing in the photo. Women aboard the ship have described cold, unseen hands touching their shoulders or nudging them forward.

Patriots Point offers ghost tours of the Yorktown almost every night of the year. Bruce and Kayla Orr documented decades of encounters in their book Ghosts of the USS Yorktown: The Phantoms of Patriots Point. For the 141 men who gave their lives aboard the Fighting Lady, the ship may still be their duty station.