Seeking out spirits at the Naval Museum of Halifax

Retired submariner Jim Northrup spoke to members of the Lost Soul group about the history of the Naval Museum and some of his own experiences in the building. Photo by Ryan Melanson, Trident Staff

Ryan Melanson, Trident Newspaper ~

Jim Northrup says he’s heard a lot of strange stories about the Naval Museum of Halifax over the years.

A retired submariner and volunteer at the museum, Northrup recalled a story from a commissionaire who saw a woman in the building after hours, only to have her disappear when he spoke to her. He also remembered contractors replacing the windows of the 200-year-old building, who talked about feeling the presence of people standing behind or beside them while they worked.

“There’s all kinds of stories like that. I’ve felt it too. I had a friend who called this building the creepiest place he ever worked in,” Northrup said.

Those types of stories were what led Lost Soul Spiritual Services, a local group that specializes in spiritual and paranormal house cleansing, to the museum on March 25 for a special visit and to investigate.

While the group normally works with people who are troubled by feelings of spirits or paranormal activity in their homes, CFB Halifax agreed to have the group in for an investigation into the creepy tales that have circulated for years.

Heather Rann, a self-described medium and one of the founders of the group, said she’s done similar work in the past at the Halifax Citadel and Fortress of Louisbourg, but the Naval Museum marked the biggest project with her current teammates and new gear, including a Structured Light Sensor camera system, like the type often used to seek out paranormal activity on TV.

“This is one of our bigger and more exciting investigations,” she said.

Rann and her colleagues got a tour of the building, learned a bit of the history, including the involvement in the Halifax Explosion, and then split up to begin a night of thorough examination.

The bulk of the search took place late in the evening, when the darkness and quiet could aid their efforts, and Rann said she greatly appreciated museum staff staying through the night to allow them all the time they needed. They also had a few curious visitors stop by, including Northrup, who shared a few of his stories with the group, and Base Commander, Capt(N) David Mazur.

Afterward, the group said they encountered a number of “entities” and collected different pieces of evidence. They plan to return to the museum in the coming weeks to present their findings and takeaways from the visit.