About the Lexington Ghost

But Deal later found that another out-of-town visitor had reported seeing those same blue eyes two weeks before. That time, Marjorie Bordelon, another museum volunteer, was approached by a woman tourist who had lagged behind a group in the engine room.

"She said that she was reading some of the information we have posted on the bulkhead and she just felt that someone was staring at her; she just felt very uncomfortable," Bordelon said.

The woman turned to see a young sailor. Before he disappeared again, she had seen this much: a neatly dressed 19-year-old with a fair complexion and piercing blue eyes.

She called her teen-age son over from the group, but he hadn't seen the young man. Then she summoned Bordelon, who later asked another guide if he had seen the young sailor. He had not.

"The rest of the time this lady was very upset and kept looking over her shoulder," Bordelon said.

Bordelon and Deal since have compared stories. And both mentioned Saturday's [10/31/1994] anniversary of a Nov. 5, 1944, Japanese kamikaze attack that killed 50 seamen as a possible reason for the blue-eyed boy popping up now.

But members of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (SCICOP) said Halloween may be at the root of the stories. SCICOP is a loosely knit, national, non-profit group of scientists who debunk tales of ghosts, UFOs and ESP.

Now is a popular time for such stories to arise, and retired ships are a prime setting for unexplained events, said SCICOP executive director, Barry Karr. And once a place gets the reputation of being a haunt for the unexplained, people's imaginations tend to run wild.

The close quarters of a ship, especially a rather empty one, and the sounds that echo therein can be frightening, said Robert Baker, a member of SCICOP and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Kentucky at Lexington.

"I've investigated literally hundreds of claims and I've never yet found anything that doesn't have a natural explanation," said Baker.

Belief in ghosts has flourished for ages, Baker said, "because it's a reason to believe that we will not die, we will live forever, and ghosts are proof of life after death."

Baker is co-author of a book with Joe Nickell called "Missing Pieces," about important facts people tend to forget but that often help explain the seemingly unexplainable. Such tales often come second-hand, he said.

Not enough is known about the Lexington visitors who saw the blue-eyed sailor to contact them and confirm their stories. They may or may not have been influenced by the "Blue Ghost's" battle record.

What's known, however, is that the decommissioned aircraft carrier is home to tales of the weird, new and old.

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