Norfolk Naval Shipyard

The oldest and largest industrial facility belonging to the U.S. Navy, established in 1767. It has built, repaired, and modernized countless warships over its 250+ year history.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard, known historically as Gosport Shipyard, holds the distinction of being America's oldest continuously operating naval shipyard, established on November 1, 1767, by Scottish merchant Andrew Sprowle. Located on the western shore of the Elizabeth River in Portsmouth, Virginia, this massive industrial complex has witnessed over 250 years of maritime history under four different flags: British, Commonwealth of Virginia, Confederate States of America, and United States. The shipyard's rich and often tragic history has spawned numerous ghost stories that persist to this day.

The most prominent spirit is known as the "John Paul Ghost," named after the legendary naval hero John Paul Jones—despite the fact that Jones never actually set foot in Hampton Roads during his lifetime. According to naval folklore documented by scholar Alan Flanders and author Eric Mills in his book "The Spectral Tide: True Ghost Stories of the U.S. Navy," this apparition appears vividly dressed in 18th-century naval attire. The ghost reportedly descends the stairway at Building 33, the commander's quarters, one of the shipyard's historic Greek Revival officer residences built around 1837. In 1918, a sailor witnessed this specter so vividly that in his frantic attempt to escape, he fell and broke one of his legs.

Mills' research revealed that many of the shipyard's spirits may be connected to the timbers from old sailing ships that were incorporated into the dry dock buildings. He speculates that these souls remain tethered to the wood that once carried them across the seas, unable to fully depart from the vessels that shaped their lives and deaths.

Another documented entity is the "OCD Ghost"—a playful spirit with an apparent compulsion to rearrange keys on the pegboard near doors throughout the shipyard. This meticulous phantom has been reported by multiple workers over the years, who arrive to find their carefully organized keys inexplicably reordered.

Perhaps the most intriguing haunting involves three British soldiers believed to date from either the Revolutionary War or the War of 1812. Their spectral appearances began in 1971 when construction work inadvertently disturbed their forgotten graves. Since then, these redcoat apparitions have been sighted at Dry Docks 1 and 2—the historic granite dry docks that have been in continuous operation since the 1830s.

Dry Dock Number One itself carries particular historical weight. Completed in 1833, it was the first functional dry dock in the Western Hemisphere and witnessed one of the Civil War's most dramatic transformations. In April 1861, Union forces abandoned the shipyard, burning the steam frigate USS Merrimack. The Confederates raised the hulk and, in this very dry dock, converted her into the revolutionary ironclad CSS Virginia—the ship that would change naval warfare forever in the Battle of Hampton Roads against the USS Monitor.

Workers throughout the shipyard's history have reported unexplained phenomena: the sounds of hammering and welding echoing from empty work areas late at night, phantom footsteps on metal decks, and the unmistakable sensation of being watched. Some believe these are the spirits of the countless shipyard workers who lost their lives in accidents over two and a half centuries of naval construction and repair.

The shipyard complex, spanning hundreds of acres with numerous historic buildings, remains an active military installation and is not open to public paranormal investigations. However, those who work within its gates continue to share stories of encounters with the spirits of sailors, soldiers, and shipwrights who never left their posts—eternal sentinels of America's oldest naval shipyard.