A member of staff dresses in ghost apparel for a stayover event?
There have been numerous reports of alleged paranormal sightings and experiences, since the ship’s return to Bristol in 1970.
These are some of their stories:
On the Weather Deck
In 1992, a volunteer working on board reported seeing a large man, aged over 50, with a greyish white beard and dirty black boots.
The man was disheveled (with his white shirt undone and collar open), and was sitting on wooden struts above the Weather Deck. His arms were folded and he was swinging his legs.
Sonny called out to the man, who did not respond and just stared blankly.
Later, when Sonny talked to staff, they confirmed the area was impossible to reach without specialist equipment and no member of the team had been working there.
On the Promenade Deck
Mr Wade, a security officer, claimed he experienced ‘unusual goings-on’ while doing his nightly check on board.
He said: “I saw a door move backwards and forwards and heard noises onboard, including the sound of locked doors slamming near the Captain’s Cabin.
I actually watched a door handle turn clockwise slowly and when I tried to open the door, it was locked. When I used my key to open the door, there was no one in the room.
Then I heard a bang and heavy footsteps at the other end of the Promenade Deck, and watched a door slam shut. When I checked it, the door was locked.
I heard distant voices and the room went really cold. I am certain I felt a presence there with me.”
Mr Wade said other colleagues said that they ‘felt strange’ on board and one or two security officers actually refused to work on the ss Great Britain.
Ship’s steward Bob Evans reported that he and a colleague had heard music coming from the piano but there was no musician and the lid was closed.
Parapsychologist with Living TV’s ‘Most Haunted’, Ciaran O’Keeffe, requested that spirits should make their presence known.
He suggested that spirits could make his colleague, who was out of earshot, feel tired and to put a hat on his head.
When asked if he experienced anything the colleague said he had felt exhausted and had wanted to lie down, and something had been tickling his head.
Visitors and the ‘Most Haunted’ film crew reported sensing children, and a woman with a child, and a feeling of deep sadness, on the Promenade Deck.
One visitor, Mandy Davies, commented: “I was on a guided tour and started feeling a creeping, insidious unease – a feeling which grew as I learnt about Captain Gray. As soon as the guide finished telling the story, the feeling dissipated.”
Next to the Captain’s iron bath
Members of the ‘Most Haunted’ film crew said they saw a man’s “large grey figure”, and that they heard a loud banging on the side of the captain’s bath.
Steerage
Historian Lesley Smith from the ‘Most Haunted’ film crew reported that objects were thrown at her head within Steerage.
Whilst preparing for an event, during late at night in summer 2008, a member of staff reported seeing the face of a small child. It was just outside Steerage, as she was going down the stairs to the ship’s Hayward Saloon.
The Forward Hold
A professional Conservation Consultant, an experienced and sceptical Scot, was working alone at night in 1999, in the ship’s Forward Hold. He heard the distinct and clear sound of boots climbing down the stairs inside the former Crew’s Quarters in the next compartment.
Convinced that a colleague had boarded ship to find him, the consultant went to take a closer look, but found the space dark and empty. He rushed off the ship to see his colleague who had remained in the nearby office building.
The colleague confirmed that no one else was on site.
The Dry Dock
Some of the ‘Most Haunted’ crew reported feeling very uncomfortable in this area, where hundreds of men built the ss Great Britain.
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