Newport Naval War College

The Naval War College was established on Coasters Harbor Island in October of 1884. It was originally located in a recently vacated public asylum but has expanded into 4 interconnected buildings.

The original building now houses the international students attending courses at the collage and to hear watch standers tell the story, one of the creepiest. This is my experience with a full bodied apparition:

June 2005, late night on a Saturday night (0315, I know because I logged this event in the watch log.) I was on the quarterdeck (front desk) as Officer of the Deck (OOD) while my Petty Officer of the Watch (POOW) was out on patrol. He had just entered Luce Hall (the original building of the College).

I was monitoring the entryway cameras and I saw a man, dressed in a full dress officer uniform (early 1900's style). He even wore the hat and had a long beard. As the shock of seeing him wore off I realized that this individual had entered in from a door that is locked overnight and on week-ends without setting off the alarm, that it was 0315 (315am for those non-military time folks) and that he was wearing a winter uniform and we were already wearing our summer whites.

I called the roving patrol, he was on the same floor as this door and he headed right for it. Before long I saw him on the camera, but he had not seen or heard anybody enter the building or walking the hallway. He had felt a cold breeze pass him in the hall, but had seen and heard nothing. I had him complete his patrol and rejoin me on the quarterdeck.

I had pulled up the camera footage of this man entering the building and it was my POOW who noticed something I hadn't noticed before. The door the man had entered from never opened, at least not on camera. We watched this many, many times and sure enough this apparition walks right through the door and up the hallway leaving the cameras view with-in about 4-5 steps.

I wish I could have made a copy of this footage, but of course I couldn't. One of the hazards of being enlisted, the equipment is not yours nor is anything you record on watch.

Respectfully,

Rook