But ghost hunter William Brower a self-educated expert on the Titanic, believes more than waves mark the grave of the world's best known shipwreck. Eerie voices of its doomed passengers, he contends, still can be heard on the salty wind. And Brower intends to capture them.
He's one of nearly 20 paranormal investigators who want to mount a spring expedition to where the massive liner sank nearly 100 years ago. They plan to deploy special microphones to record the spectral echoes — cries of fear and despair, perhaps — imprinted on the site by the more than 1,500 people who died there.
"I think it will be dramatic," the
35-year-old author and freelance writer said. "We're
probably going to hear people screaming for help."
The Titanic Endeavor Tour, headed by Matthew "Sandman"
Kelley, a paranormal researcher from Markleysburg, Pa.,
will charter a boat to the shipwreck 960 miles east of
New York and try to invoke the spirits of those who died
there. Expedition members will dine from the Titanic's
menu, observe a memorial service and strain to detect,
through psychic sensitivity or special equipment, traces
of souls who haunt the site.
The goal is to record electronic voice phenomenon of
spirits who linger at the site. EVP, in which
microphones record silence from which researchers later
discern voices upon playback, is becoming a popular
paranormal research tool.
"We're going to get a lot of emotion, a lot of people
looking for their loved ones, a lot of people realizing
they're never going to see their loved ones again," said
Kelley, 42, a retired truck driver. "It's going to be
very sad."
Not everyone in the paranormal community supports the
Titanic mission. Terra King, a believer who writes about
the paranormal for an online website, said seeking EVPs
in places such as battlefields or disasters is
"disrespectful and unethical."
"Too many groups who are searching for the voices of
those who have died are downright ghoulish," King said
via e-mail. "This expedition falls within this category.
Trolling the North Atlantic for EVPs is ridiculous."
Brower, who wrote a book on the Titanic and for years
performed a one-man show about the disaster, said people
can react strongly over paranormal research. "It's a
very, very controversial science," he said.
Kelley said his team will operate with respect. "The
Titanic is now part of our history," he said. The
expedition "is going to be a form of closure."
Investigators also will drop over the side a dummy
dressed in period costume with special microphones in
its hands and a camcorder in its head. Named Dobie,
after Dobie Maxwell, host of a Wisconsin paranormal
radio show, it's designed to pick up signals from the
afterlife.
"There are spirits out there and there is a way to
communicate with them," said Kelley, who has been
collecting EVPs for about eight years, since he started
the Society of the D.E.A.D., or Direct Evidence After
Death.
More than 1,500 white roses will be scattered over the
sea in remembrance of the Titanic victims, and a
memorial plaque will be dropped near, not on, the sunken
vessel.
The spirits they seek should be most active on the
anniversary of the April 15, 1912, early morning
sinking. "The ultimate game plan is to try to be there
on the anniversary itself," said Brower, the
expedition's historian. However, "That particular area
of the North Atlantic is dangerous during that time."
If weather precludes an April visit, the team will
attempt to go in summer.
Kelley is negotiating to hire a 90-foot boat to take his
team to the site. The entire tour should last two to
three weeks, and cost $56,000 to $83,000. Members will
shoot a
documentary and trade all rights and royalties to
investors who foot expenses.
"We're talking to several sources that are interested in
funding us," Kelley said. "We're not looking to make any
money, we're in this strictly for the scientific aspects
of it."
A Catholic bishop from Louisville, Ky., as well as a
fiction writer with relatives who perished on the ship,
should lend an air of dignity to the expedition, Kelley
said.
"There is a lot of skepticism, and people that are
insulted by this line of work, but it's not meant to
insult anyone," Kelley said. "It's stunning to think
that it's actually possible to record the voices of the
departed."
