STORIES IN SCIENCE
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  • Novarupta Volcano Erupts and Blows Mt. Katmai's Top
  • Licorice Root to Leeches: Doctoring Progresses in Erie and Warren Counties
  • Licorice Root to Leeches: Doctoring in 19th Century Erie and Warren County Pennsylvania
    • Licorice Root to Leeches: Cholera Stalks Northwestern Pennsylvania
    • Licorice Root to Leeches: Aunt Nancy Range Heals in Pennsylvania
    • Licorice Root to Leeches: George McGuire Catches a Bad Cold
  • Licorice Root to Leeches
  • Science Fiction and Steam-punk Stories
    • Julia Wallingford's Intelligent Powers of Observation
    • The Mad Scientist and the Missing Ingredients
    • Savage Music
  • Speculation and Pure Speculation
    • Ella Thorington Nash Relied on Her "Open Vision"
    • Losing Out in Lovers Lane
    • The Train Chaser
  • Kingsville Digital

The Ticonderoga's Haunted Blue Bell with the Witching Tone

Picture
The spirits always ring the watch bell nine times instead of eight. In the middle of the deep sea nights when the moon rides the sky like a ghostly galleon, the haunted blue watch bell on the Ticonderoga once again chimes nine times.

 The haunted bell blue bell, the one that sailors claimed had the best tone in the Navy, earned the Ticonderoga the reputation for being a “haunted ship” everywhere it sailed. Sailors would not stay aboard the Ticonderoga and some blamed its decommissioning on the high sailor turnover.

When the Navy sent The Ticonderoga to Rotten Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1881, it stored the old bell that had the best tone in the Navy in the old loft of the Equipment Department. Then, Lt. Emory came along.

In 1884, Lieutenant William H. Emory of the Navy ship Thetis, a three masted, wooden hulled steam whaler in the United States Navy, had an important mission. The Navy wanted him to find the Lady Franklin Bay Polar Expedition.

The Lady Franklin Polar Expedition Is MissingIn 1881, the same year that the Navy retired the Ticonderoga and her haunted blue bell, the United States government gave First Lieutenant Adolphus Greely command of the shipProteus and the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition.

The U.S. government commissioned the expedition to establish one of a chain of meteorological-observation stations as part of the First International Polar Year. The Government also directed the Expedition to collect astronomical data and polar magnetic data and search for traces of the lost USS Jeannette which had disappeared north of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic.

Lt. Greely had never been to the Arctic, but the Proteus and his expedition arrived there safely and explored many miles of the coast of northwest Greenland. The Expedition achieved a new record for exploring the most distant reaches of the north and discovered new mountain ranges in 1882.Then the Expedition camped at Fort Conger on Ellesmere Island to wait for two relief ships that never came.

Lt. Emory Prepares to Sail for the ArcticThree Navy ships, the Bear, a former whaler, and the Alert and the Thetis were commissioned to locate and rescue the Lady Franklin Expedition. Secretary of the Navy William Collins Whitney gave Lt. Emory a free hand to make the Thetis as comfortable as possible in case the ship got caught in the frozen seas and the men would have to spend the winter on board, far from human habitations and comforts. One of the comforts that Lt. Enory placed in the Thetis was a big blue watch bell that he found in the old loft of the Equipment Department.

The bell weighed over 400 pounds and its metal was five inches thick. It had a brilliantly polished surface and was the most conspicuous feature on the deck of the Thetis. It had a deep and musical tone and naval officers believed there was no bell in the world of its size that could be heard at a further distance across the ice by a sledge party returning to the ship after a voyage of discovery.

The Blue Ticonderoga Bell Haunts the ThetisIt didn’t take long for the haunted blue Ticonderoga bell that Lt. Emory had ordered installed in the Thetis to cast its spell. Strange feelings and impulses traveled among the crew. The bell evidently objected to sounding the daylight hours. Instead, all through the night it awakened the sailors ringing the old fashioned watches.

In the daytime, when Quartermaster Cooke approached to ring the changes, it’s said that he felt repelled by an unseen force. He reported that the day before when he went to ring the bell it turned a cloudy blue right in front of his eyes. He hurried over the rail to get on dry land several mocking peals rang out and completely unnerved him.

No one on board had slept a wink since the bell came. It rang all night long, sometimes in low tones, sometimes clanging violently, as if the yard were on fire. “None of the men will ship with the bell. We will beg Captain Emory to get a new one,” the Quartermaster said.

Captain Emory Finds the Lost ExpeditionCaptain Emory didn’t get a new bell. After about five weeks of preparation, the Thetis departed New York on May 1, 1884. Commander Winfield Scott Schley commanded Thetis and the relief squadron. Thetis did not even reach Upernavik, Greenland, her jumping off point until late May. Accompanied by the Bear, the Thetis and her haunted bell, headed north, searching for the lost expedition.

The haunted blue watch bell seemed to bring the Thetis good luck because on June 22, 1884, the Thetis and the Bear rounded Cape Sabine and while battling a ferocious storm, they found Lt. Greely and six companions, all weak from exposure and malnutrition but alive. The other nineteen expedition members had died of starvation, drowning, hypothermia, and one from gunshot wounds. The rescue ships arrived in New York on August 8, 1884.

The Haunted Bell is Returned to the Equipment DepartmentOn 20 November 1884, Thetis was placed out of commission and was recommissioned and renovated at the Brooklyn Naval Yard to serve as a revenue cutter for the Navy.

On a Pacific voyage, the entire crew deserted because of the haunted blue bell. The Navy returned the bell to the old loft in the Equipment Department at the Brooklyn Naval Yard – the same place where it had been discovered by Lt. Emory.

References

Stephen K. Stein, “The Greely Relief Expedition and the New Navy” (International Journal of Naval History, December 2006).

“Three Years of Arctic Service; an account of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881-84, and the Attainment of the Farthest North VI, Adolphus A. Greely,” Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007.





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  • Home
  • The Reach of Roses
  • Sparkling in Sunshine, Anchored in Wind - The Symbolic, Scientific Spider Web
  • Is Shishmaref, Alaska A Portent of Things to Come?
  • Moonlight Deer Hunting Along the Alpena -Amberley Ridge
  • The Sycamore Tree- Nature and Nurture Combined
  • Are Asian Carp Poised to Invade the Great Lakes? Exploring the Question
  • Dandelions are both Symbolic and Scientific
  • People and Places in Science
  • Dr. Glenn Seaborg-Renaissance Chemist, Renaissance Man
  • Biologist Kerry Kriger is on a Mission to SAVE THE FROGS
  • Madam Sophie Blanchard, "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration
  • Sister Elizabeth Kenny Fought Polio with Physical Therapy
  • Maria Mitchell, America's First Woman Astronomer Demonstrated Women's Scientific Aptitude
  • Father Jerome Sixtus Ricard Becomes Padre of the Rains
  • The 1897 Andree Expedition Tries to Balloon Over The North Pole
  • Thure and Ludwig Kumlien Blazed Trails in the Scientific World
  • Science People
  • The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake: Marquis Pombal Uses Science to Rebuild
  • Increase Allen Lapham, Scientist and Pioneer Weather Forecaster
  • William Stead's Titanic Dreams
  • Poul La Cour, Danish Inventor, Teacher and Windmill Pioneer
  • The Fault Might Not Be New Madrid's After All
  • Storks are the Stuff of Legend and Life
  • Science Songs to Sing, Getting Ready for a Winter Fling!
  • Fiona, the Female Gopher Frog: A New Year's Story
  • The Scientific Lives and Irresistible Irruptions of Snowy Owls
  • 'Tis The Season to be Snowy and Scientific!
  • Choosing Your Artificial or Living Christmas Tree
  • A Christmas Eve Trip with the Scientific Santa Claus
  • Christmas Presents With No Children
  • Searching for the True Shamrock
  • Flowers are Entwined in Human Grief
  • Poetic About Pigeons and Dewy-Eyed About Doves
  • Novarupta Volcano Erupts and Blows Mt. Katmai's Top
  • Licorice Root to Leeches: Doctoring Progresses in Erie and Warren Counties
  • Licorice Root to Leeches: Doctoring in 19th Century Erie and Warren County Pennsylvania
    • Licorice Root to Leeches: Cholera Stalks Northwestern Pennsylvania
    • Licorice Root to Leeches: Aunt Nancy Range Heals in Pennsylvania
    • Licorice Root to Leeches: George McGuire Catches a Bad Cold
  • Licorice Root to Leeches
  • Science Fiction and Steam-punk Stories
    • Julia Wallingford's Intelligent Powers of Observation
    • The Mad Scientist and the Missing Ingredients
    • Savage Music
  • Speculation and Pure Speculation
    • Ella Thorington Nash Relied on Her "Open Vision"
    • Losing Out in Lovers Lane
    • The Train Chaser
  • Kingsville Digital