USS Yorktown

This WWII carrier earned 12 battle stars before being decommissioned in 1970 and becoming a museum at Patriots Point. The wartime history runs deep — and some of what happened aboard seems to have stayed.

The USS Yorktown (CV-10) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier that served in some of the most brutal naval engagements of the Pacific Theater during World War II. Commissioned on April 15, 1943 -- named for the original USS Yorktown sunk at Midway -- the Fighting Lady participated in operations across the Pacific from 1943 to 1945, earning eleven battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. She later served in Korea and Vietnam before being decommissioned in 1970. 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 at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant ever since.

The activity aboard the Yorktown has been documented extensively and is considered some of the most credible in the Charleston area, given the number of independent witnesses and the controlled environment of a museum ship. The most common report is phantom footsteps echoing through empty compartments and corridors deep in the vessel. Visitors and staff hear distinct, purposeful footsteps -- 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.

The most dramatic accounts involve full figures identifiable as crew members. Museum staff have seen men in World War II-era Navy uniforms walking the passageways and disappearing around corners or through bulkheads. One of the best-known incidents involves a Boy Scout troop in the 1980s who participated in an overnight camping program aboard the Yorktown. Throughout the night, the scouts reported seeing life-like figures in WWII sailor uniforms patrolling the halls -- figures that walked with purpose, acknowledged no one, and vanished when followed.

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, and investigators have recorded electronic voice phenomena in areas where casualties occurred during combat. The temperature drops suddenly in the steel corridors, and visitors have picked up the smell of diesel fuel, gunpowder, and cigarette smoke in compartments that have been clean and empty for decades.

Today Patriots Point offers ghost tours of the Yorktown almost every night of the year, with exclusive access to parts of the vessel that are off-limits during regular hours. 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 died aboard the Fighting Lady, the ship may still be their duty station -- a vessel they served on in life and, it seems, have never left.