John Noble

Noble Maritime Collection
Staten Island, NY

Claims Of Activity:

• Shadows
• Sound of footsteps
• Sound of coughing & throat clearing
• Feeling of being watched
• Disembodied voices/noises

The Noble Maritime Collection is one of our largest locations to date. This 30,000 sq. ft. building turned up some of the best evidence that we have ever collected. It is the former site of a dormitory on the grounds of “Snug Harbor”, a complex built in the 1830’s for retired sailors. The building we investigated now houses a museum dedicated to the nautical art of John Noble. John Noble is most notable for his work depicting the demise of old wooden sailing ships during the period after steel vessels became the most common way to sail. He used a barge that he built using pieces of old wooden ships as a studio, and would get local tug boat captains to tow him all around NY Harbor to the places where he would do his work. The actual barge has been restored, and placed in the museum with many of his personal items inside. It’s said that the spirit of John Noble is very much a part of the museum and it’s artifacts. It’s also believed that the spirit of John’s father “Wichita Bill” also roams the halls of the museum. He was also an artist, and his paint pallet is also there along with his actual death mask. It’s also believed that the spirit of the sailors who once populated the building are still there too. This is interesting because the building that houses the museum is the only building in the complex that has been restored to it’s original appearance inside and out with period artifacts that are on display there. The entire second floor is dedicated to the history of the building, and the sailors who lived there.

We have been there twice and turned up some very compelling evidence that we were unable to explain or debunk. Most of our good evidence came from our first investigation.In regards to the clients claims, we were successful in collecting evidence to support those claims. On our first visit, we experimented with the “Familiarization Theory”. This is when you set up a scenario that may be familiar to an entity in hopes of drawing it out. We set aside about 30 mins. or so, for this experiment. During the experiment we had our equipment running and completely left the building. During this time we played a cd of old time “Sea Shanties”. These are traditional songs sung by sailors on sailing ships to keep them all in time with each other while hoisting the sails etc. We put the cd player in the main hall of the building which was a common meeting place during the period that it was a dormitory. When we reviewed the live audio recording we caught whistling that actually went with the song that was playing at the time it was recorded. We also had other live audio evidence in which we caught loud whistling, singing and what sounded like faint music being played at times when we weren’t playing any music. None of which was heard by any of the team members or the client during the investigation. We also caught a loud whistle on a digital voice recorder.

In addition to that we also caught EVP’s in the basement and boat house that seem to be direct responses to EVP questions or conversations going on between team members. On the 3rd floor Greg, Andy and the client used the Tri Field meter as a communication tool and seemed to be getting positive responses. During this time there was also coupling between the Tri-Field, live audio, and the digital still camera as well as a personal experiences on the 3rd floor that was witnessed by all 3 people who were there. Andy, Greg and the client were sitting at one end of the hall with the Tri-Field and at the same time they were getting hits on the Tri Field, they were seeing shadows at the other end of the hall and started snapping pictures. At the same time there was loud whistling caught on the live audio that was discovered upon review.

Oddly enough, one of the photos that was snapped during all of this captured what appears to be apparition. We were unable to debunk or accurately recreate the picture on our second trip to the location. When viewing the picture please keep in mind that the case in the center of the hallway is glass, and completely transparent. We feel that if it was an actual person standing there that part of them would still be visible through the case. Also at the time the photo was taken there was no one at that end of the hallway. We feel that this photo, along with the other evidence we captured is strong enough reason to believe that there is paranormal activity going on at this location. In addition, Christine, and Lauren Q. also had a personal experience which seems to defy explanation. It also resulted in 3 corresponding events, the sound and feeling of footsteps and a cold breeze moving right past them, and the direct failure of equipment. When this happened, the live audio feed that turned to static. Interestingly enough, the recorded audio was unaffected. Unfortunately this happened at home base and was unable to be captured on any equipment so it can’t be submitted as evidence. However this event and the evidence we did capture seem to support each other, as well as the client’s claims.

We returned to the Noble Maritime Collection again, however other than some responsive Tri-Field hits in the same place on the 3rd floor as our first investigation, we didn’t catch anything that we feel qualifies as evidence of paranormal activity happening during our second investigation. Below is the evidence we caught at the Noble Maritime Collection.