Dark Waters: Unearthed Ghost Stories of the High Seas

That and I suppose the title of this episode would give you a hint as to what to make . Today's main story is about here on Spooky Island Radio . We are taking to the high seas in a splash-decular episode and , yes , this episode will be full of boat puns .

I've seen the story , did a bit of research and stuff like that on go ships and stuff like that and it's just fascinating To me . I hate the sea . I think it's so scary . It's not so much the sea , it's like not knowing what's in there .

I remember this really stupid , but years ago I went on to a booze cruise with some friends in Magaluf and having a great time . You go out on the boat , unlimited drinks , and then they basically stop for 40 minutes in the middle of the ocean and you can get in the sea and stuff like that . All my mates were like let's do it .

It's crystal clear waters , it's like the Mediterranean , it's beautiful . Everyone else was in and my mates all jumped in and I was like , okay , I'll do it . I had a few drinks in me as well , so that helped .

I don't know about anyone else , but when I jumped in at the swimming pool , the first thing I'd do was touch the bottom and push myself to the surface and , of course , muscle memory kicks in . I jump in the water and I realise I can't touch the bottom , which sounds stupid .

But like your muscle memory kicks in and you think , oh , I'm in water , I'll push up , but you can't . And that fucking terrified me and I like basically latched myself onto the side of the boat . Yeah , terrifying , I absolutely hated it .

I was probably in the water for maybe 5 minutes before I got out and just started drinking more and I was just like there's something I don't quite like about being in water where I can't touch the bottom . But yeah , that's how I feel about the sea and that's why I think like ghost ships and like a cruise ship . Haunting in this case is even scarier .

But yeah , before we get into deep to talking about cruise ships and the sea , some little introductory messages . Here we go . So yeah , I don't know if anybody's seen it , but I put it on my Instagram . I finally reached 2,500 downloads , which I absolutely am so thankful for .

So if you've ever downloaded an episode , followed me on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube anything . I appreciate it . So thank you very much . 2,500 downloads , which to me doesn't sound like a lot well , it does , but like you put 2,500 people in a room , that's a lot of people you know .

So if you enjoy sitting there listening to me talk shit about ghosts and other things , then thank you for being along with the ride . And yeah , I've got a lot to plan for the future . So , yeah , so my list of stories this week will be me talking about my recent ghost hunt to Calvadan Hutch Bunker .

So stick around to hear what I thought about it and if I think it's haunted or not . And I've got a voice note from my new pal , claire , over at Don't Scared Claire YouTube channel and a spooky experience she had while researching first show .

And yeah , I have a very special podcast promo trailer for you guys to hear from the haunted UK podcast , so that will be inserted somewhere into this episode . So , yeah , I hope you guys go and give them a listen .

But yeah , and last thing , please , if you have time , go rate me on whatever platforms you listen to me on and follow me on Instagram , tiktok , youtube , all of that shit and , yeah , think of it as a little Halloween present to your favourite podcast . Okay , now let's jump straight into the story .

Now , like I said , the main story this week is a spooky encounter from someone who experienced something strange and unexplained and , of course , spooky , while on holiday with their family . But before that , let's jump into some history of ghost ships , shall we ?

So whilst researching , I came across an article on the Greenwich Museums website , which had a ghost ship exhibition back in 2018 . So fucking annoyed that I missed it Like you don't get a lot of spooky things in museums , like exhibition wise , and I would have loved to have gone to it . But yeah , what will be will be case that I saw her .

But yeah , the article documented one ship in particular and that was the cursed ship Squando . Back in 1890 , the Norwegian ship Squando docked itself off the Embarcadero on in San Francisco . It was said , the captain was first mate and his first mate got on well , right up to the point when the captain's wife came on board .

No one knows exactly what happened between these three , but sadly this was the first mills first mate . Last voyage , in a violent hatred , the captain and his wife not only murdered the man but hacked off his head . The murderous couple then tossed the headless corpse into San Francisco Bay and cut the head in a locker under the captain's bunk .

Soon after the headless corpse of the first mate was discovered in the San Francisco Bay and the captain and his wife were captured and executed . The story of the ship doesn't finish there . The owners of the ship found a new captain and crew . However , within a month four crew members mutilated and killed .

Their captain and the next two captains met at similar fates , one dying from poison , from a cut in his hand , and the other dying during a violent squall at night . By the 1893 the entire crew , fed up with the cursed nature of the ship , deserted it .

In Bathurst , new Brunswick , the ship's reputation as a haunted and cursed vessel made it impossible for the owners to hire a new crew and even unable to keep the night watchman .

It's easy to scoff at ghost stories during the day , when the wind picks up , howling through the deserted creak and ship through the loose rigging , the groans of the deck and the shifting shadows . It is another matter entirely . One night watchman made his quarters in the captain's cabin but upon lighting the lantern he felt something firmly grip his sleeve .

He glanced down and saw a hand covered in blood . In gripping fear , he traced the arm to the body , halting at the dripping neck where the head should have been .

A noise caused the watchman to slowly turn to the locker under the bunk and as it opened and a rough , gory head rolled out to his feet , the watchman snatched up the lantern and rushed out the door , sending the rest of the night on the deck . The story was the same for the next six night watchman , all hired and quitting over the next few weeks .

The ship's owners eventually disbandled the ship , selling off the material . However , the cursed ship squando wouldn't relent . Now , occasionally , on fog shrouded nights , you can still make out the ghostly outline of the ship sailing off the San Francisco coastline and onto the ocean and into the night , spooky right . So , yeah , all those things as cursed ships .

I mean , I have a bit of inside information because my dad works on ships a lot and , really fun fact , I've seen some at the other day , you know , like the oil rigs .

Do you ever wonder , like , how they get there , because I've always thought that my dad said they are basically , they're like on flotation devices , so it's like they just , they just float there , they're not like drilled into the ground . At least that's what I think he was trying to say .

I don't know , but yeah , fun fact possible , true , I don't know , I don't know if I remembered it right , but yeah .

And of course , like he's told me , there's many superstitions regarding ships , even to this day , which I suppose must date back from the days of pirates , where they had superstitions regarding women , for example , on the ships being by the look and the curse of the black spot , which has been seen in Pirates of Caribbean films and Doctor who , where if a pirate

was marked with the black spot , they are marked for death . And if you haven't seen the first film , go Ship , you need to go watch it . It's a classic . And that opening scene , whoo-wee , yeah , it's a great one to go watch it .

So , yeah , let us dive right into the main story this week , knock down the lights and relax , as it's time for the tale of the girl and the ghost of the haunted cruise ship . Haley was your standard teenage girl from the UK . She was 16 years old .

However , what did set her apart from others her age was that there were no rebellious outbursts , no drinking underage in the local park or staying out past when she was supposed to .

She did , however , like to sneak out her back garden after everyone else was asleep on hot summer nights , and sitting the tree house that her dad had built for her and her brother . She , and thought , enjoyed sneaking out on those starry nights and sleeping under the stars and nice warm weather , as it made her feel safe and , above all other things , happy .

Now it was February of 2019 , and her mom and dad had booked themselves and her and her brother , sam , on a 14-day cruise which set off from South Hampton in the UK and took in all the sites of Europe .

And this Mediterranean cruise sailed from South Hampton past France , hugging the coast of Spain , italy and even Greece , and it was a looped cruise , so the ship would travel back the way it came . She was so excited well , more excited than her 30 year old brother was , who's just upset . He was going to be away from his Xbox for two weeks .

However , there was one part of the cruise Haley was worried about , and that was going through the passage known as the Bay of Piscay . This was a spot that kept coming up in her research about the cruise .

Her family were going on , and it's basically an area along the west coast of France that is notorious for being very rough , even during the summer , but she wasn't going to let that ruin her plans going on excursions with a family and all these Mediterranean destinations , maybe even it being able to sleep under the warm night sky whilst at sea and see some more

of the stars in the sky than she could see from her treehouse . July came around and just before she knew it , the whole family were boarding the ship . It looked brand new .

They found their rooms , and her parents had one room to themselves with a joining door that connected to her and her brother's twin room , and both had little balconies , not too big but just enough to sit on or have a cup of tea .

She checked the itinerary on the TV and could see that the first two days of the cruise were what is called sea days , but basically they do not stop at a destination , they are just well at sea , and during this time she would have to endure the Bay of Piscay . On the plus side , the weather forecast was supposed to be good . Now .

Her and her family went for dinner that evening and have to had been up a long time , so decided to just go back after a dinner walk and head back to their rooms . The sun was just setting and the sky was illuminated a beautiful red and orange color which reflected off the ocean . It must have been 10 30 pm when Hailey fell asleep .

However , it was destined to be a restless night . She was tossing and turning and woke up in a hot flush when she thought she'd heard a noise coming from the corner of her and her brother's pitch black room . She sat upright , looked to the clock and it was 2 30 am . She could almost feel a cold shiver run down her back .

A ship makesa lot of noises at night , and so she just put the noise down to that . She heard down to that , and she tried to fall back asleep , but she couldn't , and so she put slippers and dressing gown on and went for a sit down on the balcony . She thought was herself . There is something so eerie about the sea at night .

It was blitz black , but she couldn't see anything past about 200 meters . It was so vast and so dark , and who knows what could be lurking in the dark water , a thought that now brought another cold shiver down her spine . But this was more .

She even felt a presence behind her , so much that she thought she'd woke up , sam up , and he was coming to see her . She turned around and there was nothing there . She climbed back into bed , thinking nothing more of it , and slowly , as the ship truck backwards and forwards , she fell asleep once again . The next day Haley woke up and she didn't feel great .

Sea sickness had well and truly hit . She turned on the TV in the weather report and I was now showing storms for the next day or so , and of course this was when they were due to be sailing through the Bay of Biscay . After breakfast , haley's mum gave her some sea sickness tablets , but one of the warnings stated that they can make you really drowsy .

But for Haley there was no option , so she popped two pills and got into bed . Even though it was daytime , it was gloomy and dull outside and Haley spent the next few hours drifting in and out of sleep . But she awoke mid-afternoon sometime to a feeling of someone sitting at the end of her bed . She could feel it .

She thought it was her mum coming back , but to check on her . But all of a sudden the smell of rotten flesh and sea water mixed made Haley open her eyes and what she saw was now her mother , but what looked like a steward from the ship . But there was something off about him . He was dripping wet and looked pale .

He put his hand on Haley's leg and smiled . He asked , haley blinked and he was all of a sudden at her side . He laughed maniacally as he said it and Haley terrified or drugged up with sea sickness and sickness tablets passed out again .

She felt a hand on her shoulder sometime later and she began screaming and sat up and this time it was her mother checking on her . She told her what she saw about the man in her room smiling at her , and her mum put it down to the medication and the sea sickness . Her room was locked so no one could have got in .

It was dinnertime so Haley got herself dressed , along with a sick bag . She went for something to eat with her family . She was always looking behind herself walking through the ship like she felt someone or something was following her . She was cold and for some reason she couldn't put a finger on it , but she was constantly on edge .

She ate dinner and her mum decided to go back to her room with her as she was still not feeling great , but her brother and dad were gonna spend a few hours together , go into a show and go into the arcade . Yes , the ship even has an arcade .

Haley and her mum fell asleep in the twin beds watching some TV and once again Haley felt a presence and awoke at 2 30 am , her mum in the bed next to her , slightly snoring still .

She was feeling restless after sleeping most of the day and decided , as the weather and her symptoms had subsided , she would go for a walk and maybe relax on the sunday clown and listen to some music with a brand new AirPods . She put her shoes on and a jacket and unlocked the door and as she went for the handle , the door lock clicked again .

That cold shiver was now almost ever present and run down her spine . She locked the door and opened it quickly this time and as the door closed she could almost feel a breath from inside the room on her neck . She walked hastily down the hallways , which were almost like a maze if you didn't know where you were around .

There were still a few people up and about , not a lot , but every now and then she would see someone out for a late walk or a couple on a romantic evening stroll , and certain members of staff as well , which made her feel much better and not so alone . She found herself in a lounge looking out over the ocean .

Again , it was so dark , but the storm was subsided and the moonlight illuminated the ocean . For a moment , she felt so relaxed she put her ear pods in and laid back on the lounge . It was only a few minutes later , however , that she felt pressure being applied to the back of the lounge .

She could feel it creak , as if someone had their hands on it , and that rotting smell was back , and she felt a cold drip down her back . She fought every muscle in her body , but she looked up and again , looking over her , was the same man from inside her room , with that smile now looking down at her . She was in shock and could not move .

She blinked and he was gone , but the smell remained . As she knew he was near , she felt an icy , cold touch on her ankle and as she turned , she already knew what she would see . He was pointed to the exit of the Sun Lounge area and he began to grip her ankle harder and looked as though he was getting angry at her .

She felt like he was telling her to get back to her room . As she blinked again , but this time he was right in her face and he whispered in her ear leave . Haley ran back to her room without slowing down and without one to wake her mother . She slowed down again as she got to the room and snuck back in and literally crawled into bed .

It was 3am and she thought she had only to wait a few hours until everybody woke up . She did not sleep a wink and did not tell her mother what she had done or saw , as she was angry . She would be angry . She snuck out and probably just put it down to the medication again anyway . But she knew what she saw .

Now that morning at breakfast there was a strange atmosphere on the ship , a hush of some kind of incident last night , and over the day the story became clear that last night around 3am a young female passenger was out for a walk when she was sexually assaulted by another passenger . And then to Haley it all made sense .

It was this ghost that she had been seeing actually trying to help her a problem reflection .

He came to tell us to take her medicine and when she felt someone was watching her that evening maybe he was just making sure she was not alone and that night on the deck , maybe he knew this predator was about and was just desperately trying to get Haley back to her room to safety .

She felt nothing else on this cruise and she would always be thankful for that ghost and hope that he still , to this day , is on the cruise ship looking out for others as he looked out for her . Now , what I liked about that story was it was just a bit different .

Like there's so many named cruise ships that I could have done the episode on , but not cruise ships , but ships in general , like the , what it's called now , most haunted a bit on . It's like the HMS Elizabeth or I can't remember what it is , but yeah , there's loads of ships I could have done .

But I liked that story because it was a bit more not really known and , yeah , I like the idea of it being a cruise ship , not like a haunted old ship that sailed the seven seas , you know . But yeah , what were your thoughts on it ? I hope you liked it . I hope it didn't skate too much . I think next week it's gonna be a really scary episode .

So I'll have my next episode out probably on Halloween Eve or Hallows Eve , I don't know what they call it but yeah , probably next Monday so you can listen to all . Next Tuesday , so you can listen to my very , very , very scary Halloween episode on Halloween .

So , yeah , so that's with all that done , let's get straight into this week's and listener story before you enter listener story , that's do the podcast trailer . So again , this is from the . Well , I won't explain , I'll let them say so . Here is their podcast trailer , so go give them a listen . Let's go .

A few minutes later we were unlocking the door and inside , only to find out that the phone wasn't even plugged into the wall .

This is the haunted UK podcast and I'm the show's host , steve , and that was an extract from working with the unknown , a terrifying tale about a listener's experience in her nighttime workplace , one of the many true cases we regale and present to you on the show .

So if you enjoy a creepy tale or two stories of real-life ghost encounters , doppelgangers , time slips , lesser-known UK hauntings , then join us every Friday for an episode where we frequently cross the threshold of the unknown bloody hell , I've got chills just listening to the probo , let alone an episode .

And then we started off the tour in this like great , big , grand old courtroom and this room for bozing isn't even the word . Like you walk in and you are instantly made to feel tiny and this is just you walking around a museum , like you can't even imagine what it must be like if you are a defendant .

They go back to find out whether you're gonna get sentenced to death for your crime , like back in the day . So I'd say it's probably the place out the whole site , where I don't really feel thrilled about being there .

So , anyway , we're in this courtroom and we were sitting on the benches and we were about to be told , like all the paranormal happenings when I just started feeling like really weird .

I suffer from migraines with aura quite a lot , which means basically I get this like weird , like a kaleidoscope thing going on with my vision , and I kind of started feeling like that , but it wasn't quite the same , so I was just sat there thinking I'd be able to come down with this huge migraine , all while the tour guide is just like chatting away about

shadows that have been seen on the balconies and like disembodied cries from families that have been heard in the courtroom . But I just kept feeling worse and worse and I looked up at the tour guide at that point and a huge , great big white lightning bolt flashed in the upper right corner of my vision as I looked up .

I don't know what the hell it was , but I have never had a migraine . Do that to me . The reason I was on that tour ? Because I wanted to do extra research for the video that I had coming out .

But the thing was like , if it really was a migraine , there's nothing I can do about it , it's just gonna happen and I kind of just have to make the best of it really . So I was just there , I sat bent , I planted my feet really firmly on the ground , just relaxed completely , and I said this is not happening .

I am not doing this right now and when I tell you that very instant that I said that I was completely back to normal . There was no weird migraine pain in the back of my head , no vision blurring and absolutely no strange lightning bolts , and so I was completely fine for the rest of the tour as well .

Like it just completely went away as if it had never happened , and actually the rest of the tour was super helpful for putting together the episode that has so many more ghost stories and dark history bits in it .

So could it have been a very fucking migraine thing , possibly , but could it have also been something in that room that was affecting me and that has been reported to have happened to other people , which I found out afterwards again do believe that that is also entirely possible .

So , like , if you are like the slightest bit interested in stories from the National Justice Museum that are a little bit more compelling than Claire's maybe migraine , then I'd highly recommend popping over to my YouTube channel .

Don't get clear , because there are some really creepy stories that have been reported there over the years that I talk about in depth ooh , like a little spooky little migraine there from Claire over at the Justice Museum .

I think she uploads like some ridiculous like every single day on YouTube , like I have no idea how she does it because I struggled with once every two weeks . You know it's like I don't know how she does it . But , yeah , go give her a follow . That's don't scare Claire at on YouTube .

And I know what you've been waiting for is what happened to me at Calvary and hatch nuclear bunker on my my second ghost hunt , and Mark was there along for the ride as well as his first ever ghost hunt and yeah , I mean it's basically Calvin . Hatch bunker is a nuclear bunker in Essex when you know it's a secret .

There's just like a little , a little we building on the surface , but there's this huge labyrinth of tunnels and rooms . It's where , like the Prime Minister would have been evacuated to and stuff like that during the war , cold War , and I was so excited I mean it's a great place to go visit it . But I just didn't feel any energy there it was .

It was a really strange one . It was . It was really atmospheric the evening because it was like pissing down with rain and really strong winds . It was really spooky driving to it down all these country roads .

But the place itself I didn't ever really feel that scared and we did like a there was been maybe 20 of us with a few Hosts and we were like in this big labyrinth , this big , big tunnel , and we're doing like a sort of opening , say on sund Me , like you know it's anybody there and there's like no taps , no , nothing , just energy .

Just didn't feel like it was very , very busy and Then like the light was flashing on to some of our questions . So that was a bit spooky . But again , I didn't really feel scared and to me , the more I go and ghost hunts , the more I'm like Is there actually something there ? Because I just get more and more skeptical . Like it's .

It's really interesting to see like the psychology of like the dark and stuff like that , because one person down one end of the circle was like , oh my god , I can see this really tall man and he's like standing in front of me and then people all around the circle start reporting it . You know , it's just interesting .

I'm not saying these people are lighting , but I'm just like it's just psychology at work .

People are just thinking they're seeing something because someone's just suggested it , and then so that was that part of the book , that was that part of the evening , and then we saw what we do next we there's a couple more vigils and stuff like that and then we sort of got to go off on our own .

So this is where I think the best part of the night was . We had an hour and me and mark there was like a section where they hadn't really really taken us to , but they basically said to us look , you've got an hour to go off by yourself . If the door is open or unlocked , you can go through it . I was at excellent .

So we went down to the basement and it was like this area nobody had been in , like there was no one there and we hadn't been taken there so Earlier . So I was like , oh , this is cool and it's like this old .

There's like a briefing room with like a giant map of London on it , like all the old suits like has Matt suits and stuff hung up on the wall and it was like the nerve center . So I had all the old telephones , all the old fax machines like , and it was really cool and I wouldn't I would say a little bit creepy .

But it was a bit creepy because it's pitch black , just me and mark there . But it was , it was fun , we enjoyed it . I thought I'd seen like a shadow move out the corner of my eye , but again it's difficult to say I didn't really see a full apparition or anything , but I did feel like somebody was almost peering in the room with us .

I looked and I could sort of see something moving Out of the room . So that was pretty keen . And then we sort of kept going through these doors , kept going through more doors , more door . Don't know why that's just made me laugh . He's taking the hobbers to eyes and guard . But yeah , we it did feel really creepy .

So we got basically to the generator room and this was this felt completely different . We were so far away from anybody else and the temperature had really dropped in that room . As soon as you got in there it was like it was pretty freaky . We didn't last very long in that room .

We sort of made our way back , um , but yeah , overall it was a good experience being there with Mark . It was a good night out . We were bloody knackered after it driving home from Essex at three o'clock in the morning . It was a lot . But is it super haunted ? I don't think so . Not in my opinion .

If you've had experiences there , then fair enough , but it was just flat as pancake the day we were there , but I enjoyed it anyhow . So , yeah , I mean , if you get a chance to go on the ghost hunt there , definitely do it . It's a lot of fun , but don't be expecting ghosts to be coming through the walls at you .

Yeah , so that's the story-ish podcast promo trailer-ish my experiences in Calvadan Hatchbunker partly episode done and it's time . So , yeah , welcome to Film Club . So , like I said in the last episode , this week I will be reviewing what's it called the Exorcist . It's cool and cool about the Exorcist believer or something like that .

It's basically the new Exorcist film in the I don't want to say theatres . Then I was like I'm not American in the cinemas and , yeah , it was okay , I would . I'll just say right off the bat it was nothing special . I mean nothing's ever . I mean I don't even like the first Exorcist , like I know that's controversial .

I just think at the time a lot of people were passing out in the cinema . A lot of people didn't like it because of the religious connotations of it , and I think we've moved on a bit as a society from that . So I think if the Exorcist came out in this day and age like nobody would have gotten eyelid at it . So that's sort of my opinion on it .

So I went into this one , not hyped because of the first film , but just as a good , like you know , sunday afternoon cinema visit . And yeah it was . It was scary-ish .

There was parts where I was like , okay , this is a little bit creepy and I'm here on my own with just a few other people on the screen , and the basic premise is man and woman on holiday in what's it called Haiti .

She's pregnant and then , as she , as they're there , the earthquake hits and the doctors basically say to say to the husband look , you can only choose to save the baby or to save your wife . You can't have both because one of them's gonna die . So that's the basic premise . Obviously , you think at this point he's chosen the door .

So , because it cuts to like 16 years later , so yeah , and they're sort of living in , living in America , and she's got her high school friends and basically she wants to speak to her mum . Opposition never met her and they sort of come up with this ritual that they've heard works .

So they go to the woods and then basically they disappear for three days , the two girls and they come back and all hell ensues . The girls are possessed and , yeah , the woman , the mum from the first exorcist , is in it , a sort of bit of an extended cameo .

She sort of tells the people what they need to do to get rid of the demon or the devil , whatever it is . Um , it's not in a whole heap , but it's . It's good , like it's not terrifying and it's not one of these ones that you , it's just , it's just a bit of fun for an hour and a half , like it's fine , it's fine .

That's what if I , if I was making the film posters for this , I say the exorcist believer . Quotation marks it's fine . Three stars , like that's about it . Um , but yeah , have you seen it ?

What did you think of it have to let me know on my social , so that's Instagram and tiktok , um , and yeah , and , as you know , the next episode will be out on halloween . So let's have a drum roll please to find out what film or films wink , wink , I'll be watching for this next coming film club . So drum roll please , okay , doke .

So the film I'm going to be watching is my childhood spooky film , which isn't really spooky , it's just a childhood film which is cast birth . Like . I've spoke about it so many times on this podcast . I can't believe it's actually um taking me this long to review it .

Um , just because it's spooky season and I love the film and it's got ghosts in it , obviously , um , so we're watching that , and then the actual scary film I'll be reviewing will be other shining um again , I've probably spoken about this all the time on the show , um , but I absolutely love this film .

It's one that me and mark watch every single year , at least around halloween . I probably watch it a bit more um through the year , but yeah , I think he was like we need to watch that this weekend . So I was like , okay , so that's what I'll be reviewing .

So if you want to know what I think about Casper and the shining , and you want to hear some spooky ghost stories ? Um , then tune in next week for a halloween special of spooky island radio .

Now I am going to go and absolutely binge play in spider man 2 on my PlayStation 5 , because it's my day off and I just want to play it , um , but , yeah , I hope you enjoyed this episode . Like I said at the start , please follow me on instagram , tiktok and youtube , um , and yeah , please leave me a review on any platform .

Um , it's like a little halloween gift , it's like one click for you , um , or , like you know , click on five stars , um , but it it means a whole lot to me . So , yeah , okay , until next time , a spooky island radio over and out .