(Five-inch naval rifle on the port side of ex-USS Olympia, facing BB-62 ex-USS New Jersey. Photo Socotra.)

I was standing with Captain Harry Burkhadt in the starboard coal bunker of the Protected Cruiser ex-USS Olympia. I looked at my watch. The train back to Washington was going to leave at four; it was clear I could stay and listen to him spin stories for a month.
 
I could feel the weight of the river on the other side of the bulkhead pressing in. I could feel something else, too, something that made me want to stoop down and get out of the low coal hatch and climb back to the light.
 
“The female ghost Karen touched me in the rear of the engine room at the shaft alley, There is another one, Thomas Hook, who actually follows me around the ship. It is a sort of intelligent haunting. They react to questions and respond.”
 
“That is incredible,” I said.
 
“Wait till you listen to what we recorded. I will send the files along to you. We are having a bunch of volunteers come to spruce up the ship next weekend- we are going to have the Ghost Hunters come and do a segment on our EVP’s. Anything we can do to make people aware of how special this is, and get the word out about how desperate the situation is.”
 
We stooped to get out of the bunker and walked aft through the boiler room to the ladder up to the light.
 
“Are they with us now?” I asked.
 
“Course. They don’t have anything else to do.  We also got a recording in Italian of a voice saying “granda popa,” which means “big trouble in the stern.” I have been trying to keep the oak plugs in the hollow propeller shafts in order. If those fail, Olympia goes to the bottom right here.”
 
“That can’t be allowed to happen,” I said. “This is a national treasure.”
 
“There are more than sixty points of failure in the hull we have identified, and in some places the hull is an eighth of an inch thick. We are in a crisis.”
 
“Yeah. That time the voice told me to “get out” I was laughed at by two distinct voices, and then they called out to Thomas, who must be my personal spook.”
 
I didn’t know how to process it all, as we rose to the gate that normally seals off the main engineering spaces.
 
Damn, I thought. How do we save this ship? We can’t give it up.

Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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