Nancy Bradley

Captain Jim and the delta boat

February 24, 2009 |  0 comments
Image Credit: Nancy Bradley I remember Reader’s Digest had a column about the Most Unforgettable Character. Well, if there could be My Most Unforgettable GHOST Character, it would have to be Captain Jim on the Sacramento Delta River in California. Jim was not only eccentric in life, but death has not changed him, thank goodness! It is rumored he still can be seen on and around his boat. Strings of a guitar are heard when no living person is there. The sounds of phantom animals playing are heard in the wind. Certainly strange and for those who did not know Jim, goose-bumpy. For the others, they are just wondering if Captain Jim is back.

For all his feisty ways and sometimes gruff exterior, inside Captain Jim was a softy for animals. Strays of all kinds lived with him on his boat, all animals were welcomed, domestic and wild, and they quite obviously continue to do so in death. Of course it would be improper for this hard livin’, river lovin’ man to insult his furry and feathered guests by insisting that they should be housebroken. That was not happinin’. And so his vessel eventually was amply christened The Poo, and not a bad name was ever addressed about Jim nor his pets. Not then, not now.

It is rumored that many a cat, dog, goat, pigeon, a sparrow hawk with a broken wing, and the occasional pelican graced the entry to Jim’s beloved modified houseboat. He was a man of simple needs, but what was his was theirs. The old boat he owned, lived on and supposedly occupies in death, was built in New Jersey by the Welin Davit & Boat Corporation, registered in 1947. How it got to the Sacramento River is a mystery in itself, but it also hosts many a ghost tale from days prior to Jim’s ownership. The boat was built as a lifeboat for a U.S. Navy destroyer that at one point sank. But the Naval life boat continued on when it was commandeered by the Chinese government, and was used to transport up to 135 Chinese immigrants at a time from the Peoples Republic of China to Russia. Once decommissioned, it was also rumored to be a smuggling boat and sold to many an owner.

We are not sure how Captain Jim got his hands on it. We do know that somewhere in the boats history its 25 foot mast was cut off to get it under the Sacramento Bridge, curtailing the adventures of this boat forevermore to the delta.

But we must get back to the more recent present. Before Jim’s death not two years ago, he was a well known figure up and down the river in his old boat. He had found a little island with a motor home on it as an alternative residence, and he and his brood would on occasion reside there. But more often than not he was on his houseboat, going up and down the river, and then docking near Pinkys Bar and Restaurant. He would sit down and play his guitar, strumming for himself, his friends, and his animal brood. People tell us that he had girlfriends too, and at one time a Playboy Playmate posed on his boat. That must have been a treat for the old Captn’…. An avid woodworker, he supplemented himself when hired to take charge of old boats and change them into pirate looking vessels for the movies. He was a civil minded man too, he helped fight and win the rights for people (and their pets) to live on houseboats on the Sacramento River Delta.

But all lives end, and it was recently that the owners of Pinkys Bar and Restaurant had asked Judy Cooper from the television show INVESTIGATING THE UNKNOWN WITH GOLD RUSH GHOSTS PARANORMAL INVESTIGATORS, to investigate the strange occurrences connected to Jim’s boat. People spoke of strange shadows at the boat when no one was there. People talked of strange lights that came quickly, jumped around, and then were gone. They had been feeling that Jim was still hanging about. Matt and Debbie Lovette, owners of Pinkys on the River recently became 1/3 owners in the boat, and they wanted clarity as to what was going in. As you know there are two types of activity, ghostly imprint, which is more like a videotape of when someone was there in re-run, and Spirit activity, which is someone deceased that still shows up. We were anxious to check it out.

On February 6th, Cooper went to the delta and did her preliminary investigation. At that time she noted “As I walked down into the cabin I could feel heavy energy. Inside the boat I walked over by the old stove and sat down. The spirit wands became very active swaying from side to side. I asked if it was Captain Jim and they immediately crossed over confirming ‘yes’. I pulled out my heat sensor meter and held it in one spot and it fluctuated from 51 to 64, up and down without me moving it. Again I picked up the spirit wands, and they continued to swirl.

When leaving I took several pictures around the boat and caught the same light people talked about in several of my photo’s. It was truly an amazing light, solid and round leaving a small trail of light behind in each photo. And then it was gone! Certainly I felt there was enough strange energy present here at the boat to warrant an investigation, and so I set it up for the next day.”

On Sunday February 7, 2009, ITU headed out to the delta. Attending were seasoned investigators for the show, Cat Noble, Bob King, Robert Reppert, Millieanne Jackson, Liz Harrison, Laura Martucci, and myself. The investigation was under the lead of Judy Cooper who had originally brought it to our attention, and is a personal friend of Matt and Debbie from Pinkys. It was a rainy day, drizzling, cold, very overcast and extremely windy on the delta. A chill went through us all as we bundled up in our coats. Martucci noted “What was really exciting to me was that the weather was stormy. I had the feeling when I got on that boat of being out to sea, the howling wind, the boat rocking and the creaking noise of the structure.” She was right this would be a perfect day for finding activity if it was going to be there. Equipment we took with us this day was tri-field meters (EMF), sonar and electrical equipment, spirit wands, the FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared), EVP (electronic Voice) meters, infra-red equipment, lights and cameras. Noble was the first on the boat, and she made the initial scientific evaluations. “I was holding a tri-field EMF meter as I carefully descended the steps of the boat, mindful that there was a missing step. The belly of the boat was in disarray. Trash, including an empty champagne bottle, lay where it was discarded.” (Clearly there were squatters here now, this trash was new, and we made a note to bring this to Matt’s attention, it was unsafe). Noble continued to tell us about the trash, “besides the bottle, there were two gas cans, devoid of their caps, and they were releasing fumes in to the cramped space. It was difficult to imagine the boat’s cabin holding 135 people at one time, but according to its history, it had. Scanning the space with the meter as I walked from stern to bow I found no anomalies. However, next to the little, rusted woodstove near the bow, I lifted the meter, which was set at the 0-3 mhz range, and the needle jumped from zero to beyond three- - well into the ‘high’ range. I examined the area for a logical explanation for the reading. There was a TV on a wooden shelf about three feet away and a power strip with three extension cords plugged into it at about the same distance. But when I put the EMF meter close to the TV and the power strip, the meter reading dropped. I turned the meter 360 degrees as I stood underneath the Plexiglas hatch above my head, and found no change in the ‘high’ reading of the meter.

‘Captain Jim, is that you?’ I asked. ‘Can you make a noise for me?’ I heard a thump above my head, but logically it could have been another investigator on the deck. I was feeling nauseous, possible from the gasoline fumes, so I climbed the steps into the night air.”

Harrison’s body physically began to shake as she had impressions of “many people crammed into the boat at one time, legs up to their chests and sleeping by having their heads leaning against another. They were really smashed up against each other” she envisioned. We had hopes of picking up such ghost activity on our cameras, and Reppert and King continued to shoot everything of interest. Martucci stated she was uncomfortable and said she, “walked into heavy energy” when under the hatch area, and to prove her case, the electric meter showed heavy readings. Jackson smelled a skunk on board, clearly ghost activity from Captain Jim’s days. She felt a white dog as well. In tune with Indian energy, Jackson is close to the earth and often picks up spirit animals. Around the hatch would be explored for the major animal phenomena that night.

Jackson continued to tell us of her experience. “I couldn’t understand why, but there was something about going down into the bottom quarters of the boat that made me very uncomfortable. I could not understand my apprehensions.” Jackson has been on many investigations with GOLD RUSH GHOSTS PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS and an original member of the TV team of INVESTIGATING THE UNKNOWN. It was not like her to feel anxiety. “I felt as if something terrible would happen if I went down there and I would be doomed. This was clearly not from the same time as all the animals lived there together in peace.”

Jackson continued to tell us of her experience. “I conquered my fears and went below. As I was under the hatch in the front of the boat I felt very dizzy and queasy. When I looked up at the covered hatch, I was overwhelmed with panic and felt like it couldn’t breathe. Every time I blinked I was seeing waves of water coming through the open hatch. I could see people reaching up and desperately trying to climb up higher.” Jackson was willing to tell us the rest of her feelings. “Next thing I was aware of was effortlessly scaling the ladder up out of the bottom of the boat. It was a whole lot easier than I thought it was going to be when I was on the way down, especially with the missing step in the ladder!” Whew! I had to sit down on the hull and get my legs back before descending the boat. This boat has many stories to tell. I can’t get over the fact that the capacity says 135 –I can not even imagine 35.”

Obviously this vessel has many layers of activity, some ghost and from a difficult time, some spirit from the Captain Jim days of happiness.

At about 5:00 pm the little visibility we had in the rain and wind dissipated as night set in. Not one for cold, I made my vantage point out of the weather, sitting in Pinkys Bar high above the water looking out the large glass windows right down onto the boat. I could see the investigators mulling about, Reppert and King following with cameras. What I observed from a spirit perspective was the sight of two men, both ectoplasmic and see-through, following the crew. >From his pictures in the bar, one looked distinctly like Captain Jim, the other apparently a male companion. I also saw strange lights of no known origin jutting about, taking residence on the top of the boat and then shooting up into the air. Others were moving around the boat and going out. Cat came up to Pinkys to announce her EMF reading as exceptional high at the hatch now, 0-3 and 0 to 100, which is the highest you can get. I asked the crew to continue to take photos of that area.

When we got back to look at the evidence we experienced, Cooper was to tell us that Captain Jim had a companion who also recently died. I told her about the light that I had seen, moving about as they did. Upon seeing the photos of the light Cooper had captured from the pre investigation, it appeared to be the same. From other investigations with same activity, it was deemed UFO activity off the delta and we will go again to record more of this. On the pre-investigation, done by Cooper the day prior to our complete crew going to the site, she was able to secure strange ectoplasmic happenings above one of the houseboats near Captain Jims. The second photo clearly shows the activity taking off from the roof. This night the light followed us, and it can clearly be seen in the photos, one photo with nothing and the second taken second later with it there.

But that will be another story, another investigation. Yes, it is an interesting place that delta and we will go back for more adventures and proof of existence. For now look for this story on the television show INVESTIGATING THE UNKNOWN with GOLD RUSH GHOSTS PARANORMAL INVESTIGATORS March 25th, 2009 at 8:00 pm, Channel 17. For more information about the show go to WWW.GOLDRUSHGHOSTS.COM Comments (0)

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