Battleship Texas: History, Ghost Stories and Restoration Update

USS Texas (BB-35) is a 1914 New York-class battleship, a veteran of World War I convoys, the D-Day landings, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In 1948 she became the first battleship in the United States to be preserved as a permanent museum, moored on the Houston Ship Channel at the San Jacinto Battleground in La Porte. In 1976 she was the first battleship named a National Historic Landmark.

For decades visitors and volunteers swapped stories about the ship: voices with a wartime urgency, drifting white vapors, noises in the engine room and a young red-haired sailor who smiled and vanished near the ladders. In 2022 she was towed to a shipyard in Galveston for a long restoration, and she will not return to San Jacinto. This guide covers her history, her ghost stories, and where and how you can see her now.

History of USS Texas

The Texas was launched at Newport News, Virginia, on May 18, 1912, and commissioned on March 12, 1914. With ten 14-inch guns she was among the most powerful warships afloat. In April 1917, her gun crew fired what are counted as the first American shots of World War I, at a surfaced U-boat threatening the merchant ship Mongolia. She then served with the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea, mostly on convoy and standby duty.

On March 10, 1919, a Sopwith Camel flew off a platform on one of her turrets at Guantanamo Bay, making the Texas the first US battleship to launch an airplane. She served as flagship of the United States Fleet from 1927 to 1931 and was modernized between the wars.

In World War II she escorted Atlantic convoys and supported the North Africa landings in November 1942, with a young war correspondent named Walter Cronkite on board. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, she fired 255 rounds from her 14-inch guns at Pointe du Hoc in 34 minutes, then supported the troops on Omaha Beach. On June 25, 1944, off Cherbourg, a German shell struck her bridge area and killed helmsman Christen Christensen, her only combat death of the war. A wounded Army Ranger brought aboard after D-Day also died on her operating table.

She moved to the Pacific for the bombardments of Iwo Jima in February 1945 and Okinawa, where she stayed at general quarters for more than 50 days under the threat of kamikaze attacks. After the war she carried troops home. She was decommissioned on April 21, 1948, and towed to the San Jacinto Battleground, where the State of Texas made her the country’s first battleship museum.

Seventy years in salt water took a heavy toll on her hull. She closed to visitors in 2019, and since August 1, 2020, the Battleship Texas Foundation has run her for Texas Parks and Wildlife. On August 31, 2022, she was towed to Gulf Copper’s dry dock in Galveston, where about 700 tons of hull plating were repaired or replaced. She left dry dock on March 5, 2024, and work continues on her superstructure, decks and exhibits. The Legislature has said she cannot return to San Jacinto; Galveston’s Pier 15 is to be her permanent home, with a grand reopening targeted for 2027.

The ghost stories of Battleship Texas

The red-haired sailor

The ship’s best-known ghost is a young sailor with red hair, in an old-style uniform, said to appear near the ladders and on the second deck. People describe him as relaxed and smiling, almost friendly, before he is suddenly gone. ABC13 has repeated the claim that he died on board. No crew record links a red-haired sailor to a death on the ship, and with so few deaths aboard, nobody has been able to say who he might be.

Voices and white vapors

The most common reports are of voices that sound urgent, like orders being passed in battle, and of white vapors drifting through compartments. They have been described all over the ship rather than in one place. Whether they are echoes of the past or the sounds and steam of an old steel ship moving on the water is up to you.

The engine room

Visitors have reported strange noises coming from the engine room, deep in the hull, when no one was working there. Engine rooms are full of metal that ticks and groans with heat and tide, which makes it a perfect place for a ghost story and a hard place to prove one.

A ship with few deaths

For a ship that fought in two world wars, the Texas lost remarkably few men. Christen Christensen at Cherbourg was her only combat fatality, a Ranger died aboard after D-Day, and older accounts say two sailors were lost overboard in World War I. That makes her ghosts a puzzle, and some believers suggest they are former crew who simply came back to a ship they loved.

Ghost hunts before the restoration

Paranormal investigations aboard were always rare. In 2019, before she closed, ABC13 reported that overnight public ghost hunts were being run on the ship, describing it as rumored to be one of the most haunted locations in Texas. There are no investigations while she is under restoration.

Where to look

• The ladders between decks: where the red-haired sailor is most often described.
• The second deck: the deck ABC13 names as the sailor’s haunt.
• The engine room: the source of unexplained noises.
• Pier 21, Galveston: the best public spot to see the ship in the shipyard today.

Seeing Battleship Texas today

Battleship Texas is closed to regular tours while her restoration continues at the Gulf Copper shipyard in Galveston harbor. The Battleship Texas Foundation says the best place to see her is from Galveston’s Pier 21, which overlooks the shipyard. Some harbor boat tours may pass close enough for a good view, depending on the route, so ask the operator before you book.

The foundation says specialty tours, such as gunnery, engineering and Normandy tours, will resume on a limited basis and be announced as they happen. Her permanent home will be Pier 15 in Galveston, and the foundation is targeting 2027 for the grand reopening. Check battleshiptexas.org for the latest before you plan a trip.

Her old berth at the San Jacinto Battleground in La Porte is empty, though the San Jacinto Monument is still well worth visiting. Haunted Rooms has no events aboard at present; see our nearest ghost hunts below.

• Visiting Closed for restoration: see it from Pier 21 or a harbor boat tour
• Tours Regular tours closed; occasional specialty tours are announced by the foundation
• Hours and season Reopening at Pier 15 targeted for 2027
• Ghost hunting Not while it is under restoration. Overnight ghost hunts ran on board in 2019, before it closed

Tips for your visit

• Bring a zoom lens to Pier 21: the shipyard is some distance across the water.
• Sign up for the foundation’s news to hear about specialty tours and the reopening date.
• Pair the trip with the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, another Texas warship with ghost stories that you can board today.
• Stay at one of Galveston’s haunted hotels and see the ship at sunset.

More haunted places nearby

• USS Lexington, Corpus Christi: a haunted aircraft carrier museum you can visit now
• Haunted places in Galveston: the island’s ghost stories, a short walk from Pier 21
• Hotel Galvez: Galveston’s famous haunted hotel
• Jefferson Davis Hospital, Houston: Houston’s hospital built on a cemetery
• Haunted places in Texas
• Haunted places in Houston

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Battleship Texas Foundation: FAQ and restoration status
• Wikipedia: USS Texas (BB-35)
• Visit Galveston: Best ways to see the Battleship Texas
• ABC13: Tickets for rare USS Battleship Texas ghost hunt on sale (2019)
• ABC13: Haunted Houston, inside the city's top 5 creepiest places