Paranormal Challenge – USS Hornet – S01E11

For this episode we head off to California to investigate the USS Hornet, a Navy ship that found itself in the middle of dozens of conflicts, caused the death of many enemies while at the same time driving its own crew to the breaking point. The crew faced death and destruction on a daily basis and for some it was too much to bear. Some say members of the crew never left and their energy can be felt in multiple parts of the ship. So how did the teams do in their handling of the ship and collecting evidence? In many ways, this was a very interesting episode with some solid investigation and understanding of the equipment and location. On the other hand, we see some of the classic problems we’ve seen before.

First off, I’m just going to come right out and say that Dante from the Soul Seekers is an asshole. I don’t know why he feels that going on a ship and acting like he’s the biggest, baddest man around is going to get him anywhere. His constant yelling was distasteful and annoying. Perhaps a little respect is in order? Why do all these people feel you have to be combative in every situation? Dante is yelling and saying he needs to see their power while in the very next breath he’s saying “Thank you sir” and “Can you do this for me please, sir?” You can’t go running around acting like a thug one second and then wash it away by saying “sir”. What the hell kind of process is that? It makes you look like a damn fool.

What about the evidence? There is sure to be a lot of talk about the flashlight going on and off by itself. Well, this is a trick we’ve seen for years and it’s no more spectacular now than it was three years ago when Jason and Grant of the Ghost Hunters started doing it. Sure, it looks like the flashlight is responding to commands, but if it’s the old ploy of unscrewing the bulb then it really isn’t that exciting. The results look great, but you can manipulate them by bumping it or stomping around. It is a pretty cool piece of evidence, however I’ve seen this done before and I just don’t put any faith in it. It’s a little too “delicate” for my liking.

The other big piece is the Morse code that blasts out of the Mel Meter. The interesting part is that the Mel Meter isn’t known for making those kinds of sounds let alone in that pattern. It’s very exciting that you can clearly hear what sounds like Morse code coming out. It would be hard to say it’s anything else. Do we really have a coded message from beyond? I don’t know, but I’d love to see them go back down there and keep working on that experiment.

As far as the gals from SRIP, I’m glad they had enough common sense to not show more evidence of dust floating around. We’ve seen all that before, we don’t need anymore. Unfortunately, the teams are still committing the error of capturing themselves on audio as an EVP. They swear up and down it’s not them saying anything, but when you match up the audio with the video footage you can see them talking or more to the point whispering and they get all excited that they captured evidence. This proves something I have believed and said many times, EVPs are interesting, but they are so very subjective that for the most part they should just be discounted.

I really wasn’t all that thrilled with this episode. I think the Soul Seekers team acted like a bunch of juvenile thugs let loose on a ship. Their style of dress, talk and attitude all suggest “gangsta” rather than “investigator”. I think there is a lot more potential in this show and I wish they would live up to it.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Adventures – USS Hornet – S04E08
• Paranormal Challenge – Rolling Hills Asylum – S01E01
• Ghost Asylum – USS Edson – S03E01
• Ghost Adventures – Nevada State Prison – S12E10
• Ghost Encounters: The Queen Mary
• Paranormal Challenge – Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum – S01E07
• The Exorcist Files – Infestation – S01E01
• Paranormal Challenge – Jerome Grand Hotel – S01E12
• Expedition Unknown – Captain Morgan’s Lost Gold – S01E07
• Paranormal Challenge – Eastern State Penitentiary – S01E02