Haunted USS Hornet

Posted: 07.26.2024 | Updated: 02.20.2025

If you’re ever in Alameda, California, and want to experience an integral part of American military history, make the USS Hornet a must-see. An Essex-class aircraft carrier built during World War II, it is considered one of the most haunted ships in California.

The Hornet was a significant piece in the Navy’s primary offensive force during the Pacific War. In early 1944, she participated in attacks on Japanese installations in New Guinea, Palau, and Truk, among others.

The USS Hornet then participated in the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, most notably the Battle of the Philippine Sea, where she exacted quite a bit of devastation upon the enemy.

After the war, she participated in returning troops to the U.S. The Hornet was then placed in reserve in 1946. Hornet was reactivated during the Korean War, seeing action from 1950 to 1953.

But her service was not yet finished, and she also participated in the Vietnam War. Before she retired from her duties, the Hornet served as a recovery vessel for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 astronauts when they returned from the Moon.

Read on to learn more about this haunted vessel, and to uncover some of San Francisco’s most haunted locations, book a ghost tour with San Francisco Ghosts!

Is The USS Hornet Haunted?

 The Hornet was finally decommissioned in 1970. She was eventually designated as a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark, opening to the public as the USS Hornet Museum in 1998.

After sailing through all these waves of history, it is little wonder that The Hornet is acknowledged as the most haunted Navy ships in America.

 Hauntings of the USS Hornet

The USS Hornet seems to be a repository of events from times past, a vessel that carries ghostly reminders of historical events. Sounds of gunfire have been recorded, as well as shouting and unseen

footsteps. Tables have been seen moving independently, and lights often turn on and off by themselves.

Besides these spectral noises, eerie shadow people have often been witnessed. Vacuous figures in the shape of men, and residual energies still attached to the haunted Navy ship. Voices have been heard when the ship is empty and spectral orders are whispered by unseen captains as if the one of the most haunted ships in California is still engaged in battle.

But some of her ghosts are intelligent hauntings, appearing as full-bodied apparitions.

An intelligent haunting is the energy of a human soul that still retains a varying level of conscience. Many times, this spirit knows that they are dead and you are alive. Others are oblivious that they are no longer living.

These spirits often interact with people. One intelligent spirit still aboard the one of the most haunted ships in America takes pride in his service, even in death. One evening, a museum worker claims he saw what he thought was one of his coworkers stepping off the main hall.

The witness called out the figure, but it kept walking, stepping into an empty compartment blocked by a chain. Witnesses refer to this ghost as the “Dress Whites Ghost.” He is an apparition of a sailor wearing his white dress uniform!

Still serving on the USS Hornet, this sailor mans his station in the afterlife long after his discharge. He acts as a fitting tribute to the gallantry of the brave men who won victory aboard this vessel.

 Sleep On The Haunted USS Hornet

The USS Hornet allows guests to experience life aboard a World War II ship with overnight excursions. But if you listen to tales told by those who have stayed aboard the USS Hornet, it seems as if you are never really alone.

One witness was on a seemingly idyllic girl scout outing aboard the Hornet, sleeping overnight with her friends. But when the lights faded, the spirits began to show themselves. While resting on a bunk, the scout felt someone pushing from below her bunk. But she was alone!

She eventually felt three uncanny nudges from her unseen bunkmate. Gathering courage, the girl scout sat up and slowly peered into the enveloping darkness within the haunted Navy ship. Out of the blackness appeared a pinpoint of white light that illuminated the shapes of the faces of two ghostly sailors.

One of these phantoms said to the other, “Watch that one,” before fading into the nothingness of the room. Needless to say, one little girl scout did not get a good night’s sleep that evening.

Haunted San Francisco 

Not all hauntings are terrifying encounters; in fact, most aren’t. Of course, seeing a ghost can be a shock, but no entity aboard the USS Hornet is vengeful. These ghosts aboard the ship are bookmarks to the past, embroidered into the very history of the ship itself, as vital as the rivets that hold the old girl together.

In a way, the ship and the ghosts are the same. When someone witnesses a ghost aboard the Hornet, they merely see a usually invisible side of its reality.

Very few ships have had such a storied history as the Hornet, and in these stories are the lives of men who refuse to leave their post. The USS Hornet was involved in some of the most famous events in our Nation’s history. She is a witness to the sorrows and triumphs of what unites us as Americans.

Check out our blog for more haunted tales of California, and to see some of the Golden State’s most haunted locations in person, book a ghost tour with San Francisco Ghosts!

Sources:

• https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/11/05/snapp-shots-alamedas-hornet-to-mark-55-years-since-apollo-12-recovery/
• https://www.its.caltech.edu/~drmiles/ghost_stories.html
• https://www.military.com/off-duty/now-you-can-sleep-aboard-uss-hornet-most-haunted-ship-america.html
• https://uss-hornet.org/apollo-splashdown/?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=15857106228&utm_content=152773935241&utm_term=uss%20hornet&utm_medium=658806390426&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAn9a9BhBtEiwAbKg6fqE_G3ARsRzcfYR47_P48gCRcvsPULF1TelNS8JVOGmFxc0WyC3TdBoCDs8QAvD_BwE