Nelson & His World

Not sure if anyone here believes in the subject but might bring on an interesting debate, but I see that No 19 Bennett Street, Bath is reputed to be haunted by Admiral Arthur Philip, the first Governor of New South Wales.
Also 71 Great Pulteney Street, Bath, the Ghost of Admiral Earl Richard Howe, ( Glorious First of June, 1794) walks the upper floors of this building.
I wonder as a matter of interest if anyone here knows of any other reputed Hauntings related to the time of 'Nelson and his World' anywhere just as a matter of interest ?

Stephen,

It's difficult to know where to start with this subject, since some treat it as a joke, whilst others take the possibility of ghosts, poltergeists etc. rather more seriously.

I am inclined to believe that ghosts exist, for whatever reason. To begin with there are just too many such stories, certainly in England – which is I believe considered one of the most 'ghost-ridden' countries – for them not to be taken without a modicum of seriousness. I admit that some of the 'so-called' sightings might be just wishful thinking, an old building just has to have a ghost, doesn't it ? but others seem not so and might be seen as something more, er, solid.

I may have even had an 'experience' of the supernatural myself some years ago, in two of the museums where I used to work in Poole, Dorset, both of which were reputed to be haunted. One of them, the Georgian Guildhall, was built in 1760 and so is in 'our' period. Rumour had it that one of the Corporation's former employees, I think the town treasurer, was found to be 'cooking the books' and subsequently hung himself in the attic. I know that one of the curators in my time, was convinced that the building was haunted. He often stayed late working and said that he heard footsteps coming up the stairs, towards the office- which was situated in the attic of the building. I had been there alone on several occasions myself and, whilst not experiencing anything particularly frightening, can definitely say that there was a strange atmosphere there on occasion.

I think you can find many examples of hauntings and the supernatural on the net. One I was looking at was of the ghosts of Old Portsmouth, the city being reputed to be the most haunted on the south coast. Naturally many of these have to do with the Dockyard. If you ever visit Portsmouth, how about this to set you off – they even have a 'ghost bus' called Alf!:

http://www.darkencounters.co.uk/ghost-w ... -walk.html

Kester,

I tend to take it as you say as rather more seriously, despite some of those dreadful reality programmes that seem to have encounters on every edition However despite many stories being sceptical, it does bring certain lost stories that one may not know as being interesting within the subject that most of us here on the forum like and that of course being History itself, and lost in time.
Last year on the 1805 Club Forum site ( Although this site needs some Spirit !) I did post a request for any information on any strange goings on HMS Victory and as yet have not had any replies, as you say many may take the subject as a complete joke.
Thanks for the recommendation on the bus tour on my next visit to Portsmouth, but no!

Stephen

With creaking timbers, dark spaces and a violent history, it seems quite remarkable there are not more stories about hauntings on board HMS Victory, even by those who might stand to gain by them.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is running a couple of events timed close to Halloween on board HMS Warrior and in the Mary Rose museum:
'Ghost Stories on board HMS Warrior 1860': http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/events/event601.php
'Tours By Torchlight - A Spooky Evening at the Mary Rose Museum': http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/events/event608.php

But HMS Victory escapes this treatment - perhaps because Halloween follows too close after Trafalgar day - or perhaps because of a lack of material?

But apparently an Isle of Wight psychic, Margo Williams, in her book, Ghostly Encounters as Experienced by Margo Williams, claims to have encountered a ghost on board HMS Victory - and for good measure, ghosts of the Mary Rose and HMS Warrior as well.

I see that the Hotel del Almirante/ Collingwood House in Port Mahon, Menorca is reputed to be haunted by none other than the man himself.

http://www.hoteldelalmirante.com

Tony,

I have been googling 'Is HMS Victory haunted?' etc., and also came up with virtually nothing. I did come across some reminiscences from a former guide on the ship, but disappointingly he didn't go into much detail, only to say that it was haunted! I have heard elsewhere, however, that the area of the ship mostly affected by such pnenomina is the orlop, which is not surprising I suppose.

Stephen,

I would have imagined Valletta to have one or two ghosts at the least, seeing what a past it has had. Are there any stories of any?

Hey there,
I'm quite skeptical of the idea of ghosts but, because I found them quite interesting when I was younger, I recently did some research on reported sightings of Nelson's ghost and, after trawling through thousands of web-pages, I finally found a few.
Unfortunately, I've forgotten some of the places where I got the information from, but this one of the best: http://www.paranormaldatabase.com
On there it also mentions some sightings of Emma Hamilton's ghost too.
Here are some of the places Nelson is allegedly haunting:

Somerset House, London, where I believe the Navy Board was. Apparently he goes for a stroll on spring mornings across the courtyard.

The Gun Pub, Docklands, London. He is said to sit patiently awaiting Lady Hamilton outside the room they used to use.

Brewer Street, London, where he visited an undertaker's before setting off to fight the combined fleet in 1805.

He's been spotted walking along the Dawlish seafront, holding hands with Lady Hamilton.

Chatham Dockyard, but I don't know anything about this one.

And, finally, (this is probably one of the strangest)a lighthouse in Nova Scotia, Canada. Apperently one of Nelson's sailors, who was at Trafalgar, moved there and, for some reason, Nelson's ghost decided to follow . He now is thought to haunt a lighthouse that was near where the sailor's house was, and has been bothering a couple of cats that lived there . The creepy thing is that the psychic medium, who came to investigate, knew nothing about the story of one of the survivers of Trafalgar settling down there until after saying that it was the ghost of Admiral Nelson.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KNBw ... st&f=false
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Mlms ... st&f=false

Raerae,

As I said, I do believe there are ghosts. However, I think many of these so called hauntings are really figments of people's over-imaginative imaginations, and very often the different elements do not add up.

I am also a bit confused over the last 'siting' you mention, at the lighthouse in Nova Scotia. To begin with there was no-one by the name of Kent on the Victory's muster roll at Trafalgar. There was a man named Kentall, but he was an ordinary seaman, from Lambeth, and certainly not Nelson's 'navigator'. The term is actually 'master', and at the time of Trafalgar this was Thomas Atkinson.

Then a) Why on earth would Nelson' ghost then want to follow him to a lighthouse, with which he had no connection?; b) why would he then terrorise two poor cats? This shows that the person who dreamt this up also had no knowledge of Nelson, who was a kind and sympathetic man in life, so why should he suddenly change his temperament when dead? I'm quite sure this characteristic extended to animals.

I think here that, once again, the magic name of Nelson seems to have been working overtime!

haha, good thinking! I never thought to check the muster roll.

Yeah, I agree, I don't think it would be characteristic of Nelson to start bothering people or animals. As with most famous people there are always going to be stories like this floating around.

It would be really cool if there was a ghost of Nelson hanging around somewhere though.