Lighthouses are full of history and sometimes the history is full of despair. The structures were meant to save lives at sea and to give direction to captains who were passing by. Sometimes the lighthouse wasn't enough to save the crews and captains of unfortunate ships who were caught up in bad storms. It is no surprise that lighthouses have many claims of paranormal activity and ghost stories. Since Halloween is coming fast, here are a few stories about certain lighthouses and their ghosts.
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| The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse |
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| The Ghost ship of the diamond shoals |
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| Cape Hatteras Lighthouse living quarters |
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, NC/The Ghost Ship Of The Diamond Shoals-We've all heard of ghost ship stories where a ship is sailing full mast and there is no one on board. On a midwinter morning in 1921 the coastguard stationed in Cape Hatteras woke up to a strange sight, there was a schooner with all sails flying that had run aground on the Diamond Shoals. When the coastguard boarded the ship , no one was found. The beds were made and food and coffee was found on the stove but the lifeboats were missing as well as papers and nautical instruments were not found. The only living thing on the ship was a few half starved cats. It was so strange because there were no signs of distress the night before and no storm that could have caused the ship to run off course. Eventually 6 government agencies were assigned to investigate the ghost ship and what happened to the crew and no answers have been found to this day. The ship was discovered to be from Maine, it was the Carroll A. Deering. She had just sailed her maiden voyage 2 years prior. It has been speculated that there was a mutiny or maybe that the crew jumped ship but nothing has been proved and none of the crew members or captain were ever found.
Another story from Cape Hatteras is the story of the gray man. He shows up before serious storms like hurricanes and walks the beach near the lighthouse. Locals believe it is the spirit of a man who drowned during a hurricane and he is there to warn the locals of a terrible storm.
The last story from Cape Hattteras is the story of a lady who also walks the beach near the lighthouse. Her name is Theodosus Burr and she passed away in a shipwreck in 1812 off of Cape Hatteras. People claim that they hear her screaming as she walks down the beach.
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| St. Augustine Lighthouse |
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| Interior view of St. Augustine Lighthouse |
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| Ghost of St. Augustine Lighthouse |
Voices, apparitions and shadowy figures are just some of the claims from St. Augustine. A shadow figure of a man appears in the basement and people believe that it is the ghost of a former lighthouse keeper that hung himself in the basement. People also claim that the voice of the 12 year old daughter of the builder of the lighthouse can be heard. She had drowned in the water close to the lighthouse. Ghost hunters visited St. Augustine once and came back with amazing evidence. There was video evidence of a shadow figure that was almost playing with them inside of the lighthouse. You could see the shadow blocking out the light and the most amazing piece of evidence was when they caught what looked like a face peering over the railings at the top of the lighthouse. The reason this evidence was so compelling is because there are motion detectors at the top of the lighthouse that would turn on lights if any sort of movement occurred and not a single light even flickered. Also you could clearly hear a woman's voice saying "help me" over and over again. there is no explanation of how any of this could have happened.
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| Plymouth Lighthouse |
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| Plymouth Lighthouse caretakers house |
The Plymouth lighthouse was built on land owned by John and Hannah Thomas and the agreement was that if the lighthouse was built on their land that they would be named the keepers, this was in 1769. John and Hannah were very dedicated lighthouse keepers and made sure that there was oil burning in the 2 towers when it was needed. John left to fight in the Revolutionary war and while he was gone, Hannah continued to be the lighthouse keeper. John never returned from the war and was assumed to be dead. Hannah was declared the first female lighthouse keeper. She continued to take car of the lighthouse throughout the years. Now the lighthouse does not need a keeper because of technology but it is said that Hannah still takes care of her duties as the lighthouse keeper. A few photographers decided to stay the night in the old keepers quarters and woke up one night and saw the face of a woman. She seemed to be very sad. Just as quickly as she appeared she was gone. They believe it was Hannah showing up in the hopes that John had come back home to her.
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| Ocracoke Island Lighthouse |
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| Ocracoke Island interior |
Ocracoke Island is famous for one pirate, Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard. Ocracoke was a hideaway that Blackbeard would go to between his pirating adventures. This was also the location where he met his final demise. He was killed by Lt. Robert Maynard of the British Royal Navy by decapitation. Along the shore of Ocracoke Island there is a place people call the "Point" and people who have traveled there at night have reported seeing the ghost of Blackbeard walking along the shore searching for his head.
Maybe there is a lot of emotion attached to lighthouses because of the deaths at sea, the jobs that the keepers were so dedicated to and the loss of keepers loved one on the site of the lighthouses. Haunted or not, lighthouses tell an interesting story of American history and are beautiful sights with spectacular surroundings.
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