They mainly come out at night, when the century-old ship’s lights are out and all is quiet onboard.
It’s then you’re most likely to hear footsteps on the upper decks, doors slamming and quiet voices conversing.
They are the rumoured ghosts of the S.S. Sicamous.
It is believed by some that those making the noises and moving things around may be the spirits of long-ago Capt. Joseph B. Weeks (1922) and its most recent resident, former Penticton Herald writer/photographer Eddie Aldredge, whose father once worked on the ship.
Tonight (Saturday, July 29, 2023), the Canadian Paranormal Society and the S.S. Sicamous Society are hosting an evening aboard the ship that promises to be a very ethereal experience.
Participants will be involved in a live paranormal investigation seeking out those spirits, learning about ghost-hunting methodology and the history of ghosts in the Okanagan.
Chief archivist Brian Wilson of the Okanagan Archive Trust Society is someone who has personally experienced some strange goings on at the iconic Penticton landmark.
“I worked at the Sicamous for 10 years in the ’90s and it’s definitely haunted,” said Wilson, who actually built a little tribute to Aldredge on board the ship, including his work desk.
“You ask anybody who works there, especially at night, because you’ll hear all kinds of things rattling around on the boat and there was a woman who worked there who could hear really faint voices.
“I built the displays there and occasionally when you locked everything up, when you came back the next day the stuff would be all strewn around.”
After he died at age 91 in 1992, Wilson helped clean out Aldredge’s residence, taking some of the belongings and maybe even his friend’s spirit to his own home.
“It was always a spooky feeling about his house after he passed away. It was like he didn’t want to give it up,” Wilson recalled.
“The funny thing is when I was going through his things, every time I would throw something in the garbage, the darn stuff would flip back out onto the floor. Can you believe it?
“When I set up the tribute at the Sicamous, I kind of under my breath asked him to stay there and leave me alone.
“I’m not sure if you believe that stuff, I’m not sure that I believe it, but definitely Eddie’s spirit was around and now he haunts the Sicamous.”
Meanwhile, while he personally has never seen the ghost of Capt. Weeks, Wilson has no doubt his spirit, when not roaming the decks, is at his station in the wheelhouse.
“Right up until his dying day, the captain really, really wanted to stay on the boat and he hasn’t left,” said the archivist.
“The Sicamous is really the kind of place that needed haunting, if you know what I mean. It was the perfect venue for anything you wanted to either make up or hear rumours about.”
Pete Renn, a real-life ghostbuster and co-founder of the Canadian Paranormal Society, will be out tonight for what will be his third time on board the ship.
“In previous investigations, there were some questionable answers on some of the devices we were using, like the electronic voice phenomena and a couple of spirit responses, but nothing concrete,” said Renn, who has done spirit research in many other parts of the world.
“But that’s one of the things about paranormal investigating: You can check a place for multiple years and still come out with a broken puzzle or you can investigate a place just once and connect the dots.”
The event goes from 5-9:30 p.m. Money raised will go to the S.S. Sicamous Marine Heritage Park for restoration work and park upgrades.
For more information and tickets, visit the S.S. Sicamous website.
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