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U225X / STRANGE FILES

The Hornet’s Man in White

Alameda, California, United States / Modern visitor testimony aboard the museum aircraft carrier

A worker aboard the USS Hornet thought he saw a colleague enter a side passage. The compartment was empty, and the colleague said he had never left his workroom.

A recorded story, with its history attached

USS Hornet (CV-12) underway on 27 March 1945. This U.S. Navy photograph shows the actual ship now associated with the accounts.
USS Hornet (CV-12) underway on 27 March 1945. This U.S. Navy photograph shows the actual ship now associated with the accounts.U.S. Navy / National Archives, 80-G-K-14466 · Public domain ↗ · Reuse rights ↗

The account

A white-clad figure should not have been unusual to the worker. In an account signed Bob Eiess, he was aboard the museum ship Hornet when he saw someone he took for a colleague turn into a side passage. He called after him, followed and found a chain across the entrance to an empty compartment. Later, the actual colleague said he had remained in the room where they were working. Eiess wrote that a ship employee connected the experience with a reported sailor apparition known as the Dress Whites Ghost. The identification came afterward; the moment itself was an ordinary mistaken greeting that stopped making sense.

Following the trail

The account survives in a public collection of submitted Hornet stories maintained by David Miles on a Caltech-hosted personal page. It is a signed personal report, not a Caltech research finding or independent confirmation. The collection also includes contributors who discuss possible pranks and uncertain impressions.

Why it stays with us

The chain matters more than a dramatic ghost face. It interrupts the route the witness thought he had just watched someone take, turning the ship’s everyday maze of passages into a small spatial puzzle.

Where this telling comes from

David Miles’s personal collection, hosted at CaltechUSS Hornet Ghost Stories ↗
U225X / RECORD STR-GHOST-035
Printable / STR-GHOST-035 / The Hornet’s Man in White