The USS Hornet in Alameda Is a Destination for Paranormal Enthusiasts — and You Can Spend the Night There

View the full episode transcript.

There are a number of spaces around the Bay Area that attract ghost hunters … people who don’t run away from things that go bump in the night — but rather seek them out. One of those hot spots is floating in Alameda: the USS Hornet, a massive retired aircraft carrier.

During World War II, the Hornet carried thousands of crewmen and more than a hundred aircraft as it battled around the Pacific. And decades later, the Hornet picked up American astronauts after splashdown following two of the moon landings.

But fascinating history aside, the USS Hornet is also said to be haunted and offers overnight tours. Paranormal enthusiasts from near and far come to spend the night in the original sailors’ bunks and set up ghost-detecting instruments in some of the ship’s deepest compartments. To find out more, Bay Curious tagged along on a recent tour with about ten other thrill seekers.

Unsettling Encounters

In the Hornet’s sick bay, rows of WWII-era hospital beds with white sheets and metal frames stretched back into shadowed corners. Faye Navarro, private events manager on the USS Hornet, placed a small, coffin-shaped box on one of the beds: a motion-detecting music box used to sense the presence of spirits.

“When you’re looking down, and this thing is going off, and you don’t see anybody, it gets creepy,” Navarro said.

“There’s something particular about this place,” her fellow tour guide Steve Jackson said. He’s been to other spaces rumored to be haunted, like the Winchester Mystery House, but he believes the USS Hornet is exceptionally full of ghosts.

“They’re not just the spirits that were here when the ship was active,” Jackson said. “They’re spirits from all over the place.”

To communicate with them, Jackson and Navarro used pendulums, dowsing rods, and even Maglite flashlights, which they unscrew just enough so that they were turned off and then lay on the floor.

“The theory is the spirits are able to bridge the gap between the battery and the light to be able to answer questions,” Jackson said. “But sadly, they can only answer yes or no questions.”

“Is there more than one spirit in here?” Jackson called out into the darkness of the sick bay. The flashlight stayed off, indicating a “no” answer.

“Is it just you that’s in here?” he asked.

And the flashlight winked on.

In the nearby surgery room, guest Ashley Juarez Bilow climbed onto the operating table, next to a tray of old surgical instruments … and felt something gripping her foot.

“It didn’t feel like a bad entity,” Juarez Bilow said. “Felt like someone caring for me, like when your mother looks at your knee when you have a boo-boo.”

Deeper inside the ship, in a big metal room with pipes running across the ceiling, guest Zaniah Velazquez felt the presence of her late mother. She said she often feels spirits around her.

“I’ve been like that all my life,” she said. “I’m very sensitive to stuff.

Velazquez said she had an especially creepy experience the first time she spent the night on the USS Hornet.

“I felt something get on top of me. It wouldn’t let me move. And I started praying,” she said. “I felt it get up off of me. When I turned around, that’s when I seen it pass by. I seen a black shadow pass by,” Velazquez said.

As midnight approached, the group walked carefully through the pitch black, even deeper into the heart of the ship. In Radio Central, a small room with walls covered in knobs and switches, the electromagnetic field (EMF) sensors lit up and the flashlights flickered.

“Did you guys see that little orb?” Velazquez said. “I seen something pass by. Like a little ball of light.”Around midnight, the guides left, and the rest of the guests got ready to spend the night in the sailors’ sleeping compartments.

Juarez Bilow brought her Ouija board and tarot cards. She hoped to run into more spirits … but wasn’t afraid.

“Because entities, if you don’t interact with them, they generally leave you alone,” she said.

The USS Hornet holds paranormal overnight adventure tours about once a month. To find out more, go to their website at uss-hornet.org. And if sleeping on a ship brimming with ghosts isn’t your thing, they also have daytime tours and overnights that focus on the ship’s history — and are presumably way less spooky.

Episode Transcript

Olivia Allen-Price: There’s a number of spaces around the Bay Area that attract ghost hunters … people who don’t run away from things that go bump in the night — but rather, seek them out.

And one of those hot spots is floating in Alameda….

(large ship rocks and creaks while the sound of water can be heard)

Olivia Allen-Price: It’s the massive retired aircraft carrier — the USS Hornet.

During WWII, the Hornet carried thousands of crewmen, and more than a hundred aircraft, as it battled around the Pacific. And decades later, the Hornet picked up American astronauts after splashdown following two of the moon landings!

There’s a lot of history to this place, but today, we’re putting that all aside. Because it’s Halloween, after all. So, instead of history, we’re going into the mystery.

The USS Hornet is said to be haunted. So today on the show, we’re tagging along on an after-hours tour to see what paranormal activity we can find.

I’m Olivia Allen-Price, and this is Bay Curious.

SPONSOR MESSAGE

Olivia Allen-Price: It’s a Friday night, around sunset and KQED reporter Katherine Monahan is climbing aboard the USS Hornet in Alameda with ten other curious guests. Many of these are experienced ghost hunters who have brought their own ghost-detecting instruments for tonight’s activities. Just as the sun dips below the horizon, the intrepid team heads into the dark, steely depths of the ship…

[sounds of people moving around onboard the ship]

Faye Navarro: We’re gonna go ahead and walk this way. Watch your step

Katherine Monahan: Docent and paranormal investigator Faye Navarro leads us by flashlight through echoing metal hallways, past pitch-black rooms filled with old naval equipment.

Faye Navarro: Watch your head, too.

Katherine Monahan: We step into the Hornet’s sick bay, where wounded crewmembers would have been treated … and where likely some of them died. Rows of WWII-era hospital beds with white sheets and metal frames stretch back into shadowed corners.

Navarro places a small, coffin-shaped box on one of the beds. A piece of equipment she’s calibrating so we can use it to sense the presence of spirits.

Faye Navarro: This is our motion detective, uh, music box. We’ll calibrate the space … [a small music box plays a high-pitched tune] … When you’re looking down, and this thing is going off, and you don’t see anybody, it gets creepy.

Katherine Monahan: Navarro’s partner, Steve Jackson, takes out two little mag flashlights — the kind where you twist the top to turn them on and off.

He unscrews them just enough so that they’re off and sets them on the ground.

Steve Jackson: The theory is the spirits are able to bridge the gap between the battery and the light to be able to answer questions.

Katherine Monahan: And they start talking to ghosts.

Steve Jackson: Is there more than one spirit in here?

Katherine Monahan: The flashlight stays off, indicating a no-answer

Steve Jackson: Is it just you that’s in here?

Katherine Monahan: And it comes on

Steve Jackson: Thank you, can you turn the flashlight off please?

Katherine Monahan: … and it goes back off.

Steve Jackson: There’s something particular about this place.

Katherine Monahan: Jackson has been to other spaces that are known as haunted — like the Winchester Mystery House. But he says the USS Hornet is exceptionally full of ghosts.

Steve Jackson: They’re not just the spirits that were here when the ship was active. They’re spirits from all over the place. I mean, the spirit will come with somebody, and it’ll stay, or a spirit will leave with somebody.

Katherine Monahan: Nearby is the surgery room, with an operating table for the patient and a tray of old instruments for the doctor. A single surgical lamp spotlights the bed — the only light in this otherwise dark room. One of the guests, Ashley Juarez Bilow, climbs on, lays down, and reaches out to the past.

Ashley Juarez Bilow: Doctor, could you please check my leg? My right leg? (pause) Oh, it feels like my foot is being held right now.

Katherine Monahan: She says it’s not a frightening feeling.

Ashley Juarez Bilow: I felt like my foot was being gripped, like held on to. It didn’t feel like a bad entity. Felt like someone caring for me and checking something out, like when your mother looks at your knee when you have a boo-boo kind of thing.

Katherine Monahan: She says she’s kind of used to this.

Ashley Juarez Bilow: I’ve been into it since I was about 13. I used to go to my local cemetery with my Ouija board and go talk to the spirits over there. I was a little bit of a weird kid, so I liked the paranormal. I liked the supernatural. I believe in all of it. I believe your spirit can stay on this earth.

Katherine Monahan: Our guides, Navarro and Jackson, lead us on through the dark, up a metal staircase so narrow it’s more of a ladder. We peer through doorways at dusty pieces of the past: sonar buoy casings and old radio equipment. We come to a big, open room with pipes running across the ceiling. And here, we’re introduced to a new means of communication with the spirit world.

Faye Navarro: Has anybody heard of or seen a Human Pendulum?

Guest: Human what?

Faye Navarro: Pendulum.

Guest: Is that the wires that cross?

Faye Navarro: No. This is with people.

Katherine Monahan: They ask for a volunteer to stand in the middle of the room and just allow their body to go loose.

Faye Navarro: So Spirits, we have a new friend here that is willing to be your, um, talking board, so to speak. So if you can touch her lightly and show us what your yes answer will be.

Katherine Monahan: The volunteer leans slightly forward.

Faye Navarro: Forward is a yes. Okay, can you show us what your no answer is going to be, please? (pause) Yep, backwards. Okay, Spirit, that we’re talking to right now, Are you a crew member? (pause) No. Okay. Is this your first time on the ship? (pause) Yes.

Katherine Monahan: And this is when Zaniah Velazquez, another guest, starts to feel she knows who this is. She reaches out in Spanish.

Zaniah Velazquez: Eres tu Mama?

Faye Navarro: Yes

Zaniah Velazquez: I asked her, ‘Is it you, mom?’ Because my mom passed away, you know.

Faye Navarro: We got a yes. It went forward.

Zaniah Velazquez: Estas aqui ma?

Faye Navarro: Yes.

Zaniah Velazquez: I love you mama.

Katherine Monahan: Velazquez lost her mother three years ago.

Zaniah Velazquez: I’ve lost a lot of friends and family members. But I feel her presence, always. And my friends. They’re always around. But she’s there to protect me. You know?

Katherine Monahan: She says she often feels spirits around her.

Zaniah Velazquez: I’ve been like that all my life. I’m very sensitive to stuff. As soon as I came in the ship, I started feeling like, uh, like I went outside and, you know, started talking. Like, you know, I’m just like, I come in peace. Like, don’t follow me home.

Katherine Monahan: It can be unsettling, she says. Sometimes, she even gets nauseous, overwhelmed. But all in all, she says, it’s fun, and she keeps coming back for more. This is actually her fifth time on the tour.

Zaniah Velazquez: The first, first day we spent the night here. It was creepy to me because I felt something get on top of me.

[eerie music plays]

Zaniah Velazquez: It wouldn’t let me move. And I started praying. Once I started praying, that’s when I felt it. I felt it leave. And then it came back again the second time. And then I was like, oh man, that’s when I really, like, started, like I was praying in Spanish. That’s when I, you know, I felt it get up off of me when I turned around. That’s when I see, I seen it pass by. I seen a black shadow pass by.

[sounds of people walking around]

Katherine Monahan: It’s almost midnight now and getting cold. We walk — carefully, it’s pitch black — even deeper into the heart of the ship.

Steve Jackson: This is Radio Central. This is one of the secretest places on the ship.

Katherine Monahan: The walls of this small room are covered with knobs and switches. Jackson and Navarro set up their equipment — including a temperature sensor that beeps if the air gets abruptly colder. They lay the flashlights on the ground, and immediately they start winking on.

Faye Navarro: Okay, can you turn that flashlight off for us, please? Thank you. Did you follow us from the other space? [device beeps] A temperature change? Mm hmm. It got colder.

Steve Jackson: That wasn’t my stomach either.

Katherin Monahan: I did hear it. Uh-huh.

Katherine Monahan: And then Velazquez sees something

Zaniah Velazquez: Did you guys see that little orb? Mm mm. I seen something pass by. Like a little ball of light.

Faye Navarro: Outside?

Zaniah Velazquez: Yeah, outside the door. I seen it go that way.

BEAT / MUSIC / CREEPY SOUNDS

Katherine Monahan: Around midnight, the guides leave, and the rest of the guests get ready to spend the night in the original sailors’ sleeping compartments. Ashley Juarez Bilow — the one who felt the doctor touch her foot on the operating table — has her ouija board and tarot cards. She’s with her husband, and she’s hoping to communicate with his late mother — whom she sensed earlier in one of the rooms.

Ashley Juarez Bilow: I have a feeling that it might be her. So I want to ask questions to see if she’s here.

Katherine Monahan: Her husband, David Juarez Bilow, is more of a skeptic but happy to be here with his wife.

David Juarez Bilow: I find these cool places that say that they’re haunted, because I know that she likes it, I just bring her along. I mean, happy wife, happy life, right? (laughs)

Katherine Monahan: As he goes to get some snacks from the vending machine, Ashley says that she expects to run into more spirits tonight but … she’s not afraid.

Ashley Juarez Bilow: Because entities, if you don’t interact with them, they generally leave you alone. I learned that in the cemeteries.

Katherine Monahan: Solid advice … if you want to come spend the night on the USS Hornet.

Just crawl into a nice WWII-era metal cot, close your eyes, and see what happens.

MUSIC BOX MUSIC

Olivia Allen-Price: That was KQED reporter Katherine Monahan.

The USS Hornet holds paranormal overnight adventure tours about once a month. To find out more, go to their website at uss-hornet.org. And if sleeping on a ship brimming with ghosts isn’t your thing, they, of course, have daytime tours and also overnights that focus on the ship’s history — and are presumably way less spooky. Presumably.

Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is made by Ana De Almeida Amaral, Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, Olivia Allen-Price. Extra support from Jen, Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.

I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Nighty Night!