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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 9, 2020 9:34:05 GMT -5
Blithe Spirits and Other Phantoms of Fort ClinchFor many years, boaters returning to shore after sundown have reported seeing strange lights near the old fort at the northern tip of Amelia Island in northeastern Florida. One such sighting was reported by Jim Frederickson, a sailor assigned to Naval Station Mayport who saw the light when he and two buddies were returning from a fishing trip one evening in late April or early May. “We had been offshore fishing for kingfish, blackfin, mackerel ... and we’d had a good day,” he recalled. “It was, oh, around 9 o’clock or a little after when we were rounding the north end of the island, heading for the docks at Fernandina. What we saw was what looked like somebody walking along the shore with a light. I’d heard people say there was a ghost that walked the shore carrying a lantern. It was supposed to be a guard walking the shore looking for enemy ships.”
Although Frederickson expressed doubt as to the identity of the ghost, he was confident he and his friends witnessed something supernatural. “We all three saw it, whatever it was. At first, it looked just like somebody walking along the beach carrying a light – or lantern. It was coming toward us, but when we got closer, to a point where it should have been directly adjacent to the boat, it suddenly appeared again at what I guess was its starting point. At first, we thought it might be a reflection of some kind, but it wasn’t. It was like a sentry walking from point A to point B, but when he got to point B, he suddenly reappeared at point A. That was what made us realize it wasn’t real.
“Of course, I think the story of the ghost on guard duty looking for enemy ships is bunk,” he added. “I mean, common sense tells you that you don’t go out looking for enemy ships at night carrying a light, so I know it’s not that. But we did see something and I’m not going to say it wasn’t a ghost, because I think there’s a lot in this world that we don’t understand. I mean, there’s the Forrestal. It was home-ported right here at Mayport and I’ve talked to men that served on that carrier who swore it was haunted.” (The aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was said to be haunted by mysterious footsteps, whistles, phantom voices, etc. It was commonly believed the ghost was that of a man who died in a fire aboard the carrier in 1967 in which 134 men were killed.)
Ranger Robert Barringer, who served at Fort Clinch State Park, cannot identify the lantern-toting sentry spotted by boaters, but recalled that back in 1996, a volunteer encountered a woman in white holding a lantern. “One of our women volunteers said she had seen a figure in all white, like a nurse, carrying a lantern.”
Another ranger remembered a duty weekend when a female volunteer reported an encounter with the lantern-carrying lady. “One of our volunteers was on the top floor of the storehouse at one of the garrisons. She was looking for something in her bag and it was dark and she couldn’t see. A woman was walking by carrying a lantern, so the volunteer asked if she would hold the light for her. The woman came in and held the lantern for her until she found whatever she was looking for and then left the room. Later on, when she thanked the other volunteer on duty for holding the light for her, she found out the other woman hadn’t even been at the fort at that time.” The volunteer suddenly realized her tall, stout co-worker in her dark skirt and blouse didn’t even resemble the lady with the lantern – a small woman dressed in white.
There are other specters at the abandoned fort, according to Barringer. “A fellow was asleep in a bunk one night and he was wakened by the clomp-clomp-clomp of boots. The sound stopped at his bedside. He rolled over ... and nobody was there.”
Although the park ranger claims he does not believe in ghosts, he seemed eager to recount the supernatural legends associated with the place as he proceeded to tell the story of the July phantoms: One July night, two volunteers sitting on a porch looking out onto the grounds bathed in the light of a bright full moon, observed the apparitions of four soldiers in dark uniforms with brass buttons run out of a tunnel and over an embankment.
“The next year,” Barringer continued, “the volunteers made sure they were there again during the July full moon. And sure enough, three ghosts came down the northwest bastion tunnel, across the parade ground, and started up the ramp. One of the volunteers called out to the spooks: ‘There were four of you last year. Where’s the fourth man?’
“And one of the figures called back: ‘He’s sick tonight. Couldn’t come!’”
Construction of Fort Clinch, named for Gen. Duncan Lamont Clinch, hero of the Second Seminole War, began in 1847, but was never completed. Invention of the rifled cannon in 1867 and improved gunpowder rendered its brick construction obsolete. Accordingly, during its 150-year existence, the bastion has been used only sporadically. At the outbreak of the War of Northern Aggression, Confederate forces used the fort to protect the area from attack by sea, however, by March 1862, Yankee invaders had gained control.
In 1898, Fort Clinch was declared to be “no longer of military value” and abandoned by the federal government. It was offered for sale in 1926, purchased by the state of Florida in 1935, and opened as a public park in 1938. But three years later, the old fort once again became of military value with the Army, Navy and Coast Guard maintaining joint communications and surveillance systems within its fortified walls during World War II.
The many spirits haunting Fort Clinch may be from any of the various time periods in which it was occupied. Although the three – or four – soldiers seen under a full July moon are presumably from the Union occupation in the 1860s, the origins of the spook light on the beach, the lantern-carrying lady in white and phantom footsteps, are unknown.
While most of the hauntings at the old fortification can be described as blithe spirits, the anguished cries that manifest in the southwest bastion tunnel are anything but. It seems that in the 1920s, a caravan of gypsies set up camp at the abandoned fort and following an outbreak of yellow fever, they moved their belongings from the confines of their wagons into the cool, dark tunnels to escape the oppressive heat. Several of their number died and the corpses were hastily buried in unmarked graves. A toddler was among those who contracted the deadly fever and the babe moaned and whimpered as the mosquito-borne infection took its toll. Those who work at the fort believe the plaintive cries heard in the unused tunnel are the death wails of the gypsy child.Sources: Park Ranger Robert Barringer; Jim Frederickson; Fort Clinch State Park; Nassau County Public Library, Fernandina Beach, Florida; and Amelia Now Magazine.
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Post by catherine on Jul 9, 2020 17:04:06 GMT -5
Good article. It's a pity you don't write and post more stories like this.
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Post by steve on Jul 9, 2020 17:06:41 GMT -5
This would be an interesting place to explore.
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Post by jane on Jul 9, 2020 20:46:53 GMT -5
This would be an interesting place to explore. |
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Post by Sam on Jul 10, 2020 2:15:09 GMT -5
This would be an interesting place to explore. I think so, too. If I'm ever in that part of Florida again, I'm going to make a point of visiting Fort Clinch. I was in Florida a few years ago when we went to St. Augustine. I think this is the first time I've heard of Fort Clinch. |
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Post by kitty on Jul 10, 2020 18:24:57 GMT -5
I think so, too. If I'm ever in that part of Florida again, I'm going to make a point of visiting Fort Clinch. I was in Florida a few years ago when we went to St. Augustine. I think this is the first time I've heard of Fort Clinch. |
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Post by kitty on Jul 11, 2020 10:33:40 GMT -5
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Post by JoannaL on Jul 12, 2020 11:44:46 GMT -5
A happy, or carefree ghost. Blithe Spirit is also the name of a 1941 play by Noel Coward.
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Post by pat on Jan 17, 2022 13:34:35 GMT -5
My son and some friends of his have seen the strange light at Fort Clinch. He said it looked like someone carrying a lantern or flashlight and they thought that's what it was until it suddenly stopped and started again at the other side of the fort. People who have visited Fort Clinch at night say it's really spooky and you feel as if you're being watched. I've been there, but always in the daytime. If this China virus thing ever ends and they start giving night tours again, I'm going because I'd like to see what it's like after dark.
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Fritz
Junior Member
Posts: 56 
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Post by Fritz on Jan 17, 2022 15:09:55 GMT -5
Several years ago on our way to visit friends in Deltona, we stayed overnight in Fernandina Beach and went to Fort Clinch. It's very interesting and educational, especially for anyone with an interest in military history. The day we were there, it was overcast and there was a thunderstorm. A couple of times we had to take cover to stay dry, so we were there for quite some time. It's difficult to get the spooky feel of the place while on a group tour, so I suggest anyone visiting spend some time walking around on your own and sometimes when you enter a place like the old bunk rooms, you'll feel there's someone already there even though it's empty. We also went on a ghost tour of downtown Fernandina Beach, which was also interesting.
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Post by chris on May 4, 2022 23:36:25 GMT -5
I was just reading some old articles and that is a spooky looking place. If I ever make it to Florida, Fort Clinch is on my itinerary.
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Post by pat on Oct 23, 2022 21:55:34 GMT -5
Does anyone know if there are going to be any ghost events at Fort Clinch this year? We have relatives coming from Texas and St. Augustine will be awfully crowded this week, so we were thinking of taking them to Fort Clinch or just driving around to some of the local haunted spots like the King House in Mayport.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Oct 25, 2022 16:38:42 GMT -5
Does anyone know if there are going to be any ghost events at Fort Clinch this year? We have relatives coming from Texas and St. Augustine will be awfully crowded this week, so we were thinking of taking them to Fort Clinch or just driving around to some of the local haunted spots like the King House in Mayport. |
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Post by kitty on May 15, 2023 2:53:10 GMT -5
Over the weekend, I met some people and we got to talking about haunted places in the area. They have 3 boys and said they took them to Fort Clinch several times because the kids loved the old buildings, cannons and things. Then one day, the boys came running out of the building where the bunks are screaming. They swore they saw a man sitting on a bench in the bunk room. They thought he was either an employee or volunteer until he just faded away in front of them. The parents said they tried to explain it away by telling them their eyes were playing tricks on them because they had just come in from outside, but they didn't believe that themselves. Later on, the boys remembered that he had taken off his boots and seemed to be relaxing and stretching his legs. I asked if it was in the month of July -- the month when the soldiers are said to appear -- but they couldn't say for certain, only that it was during the summer a couple of years ago.
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Post by madeline on May 15, 2023 13:03:41 GMT -5
Over the weekend, I met some people and we got to talking about haunted places in the area. They have 3 boys and said they took them to Fort Clinch several times because the kids loved the old buildings, cannons and things. Then one day, the boys came running out of the building where the bunks are screaming. They swore they saw a man sitting on a bench in the bunk room. They thought he was either an employee or volunteer until he just faded away in front of them. The parents said they tried to explain it away by telling them their eyes were playing tricks on them because they had just come in from outside, but they didn't believe that themselves. Later on, the boys remembered that he had taken off his boots and seemed to be relaxing and stretching his legs. I asked if it was in the month of July -- the month when the soldiers are said to appear -- but they couldn't say for certain, only that it was during the summer a couple of years ago. |
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