[Josh] On this episode of Expedition X
[Jess whoops]
[Josh] Phil and Jess are the first investigation team on television.
So that's where the fort is.
[Josh] To gain access to a costal battleground with deep secrets.
How many people ended up perishing here?
About a 1,000.
[Jess] Do you hear that?
[Phil] I don't think we can dismiss,
what a place like this can do to play tricks on the mind?
[Josh] But the more history they uncover.
[Phil] Anywhere you point here, there was tragedy.
Colonel Stewart's head was blown off.
[Josh] The more mystery they'll have to chase.
What's your name? Did you die here?
- [brick clanks] - What the [bleep]?
[Jess] Did that just fall out of one of the ceilings?
[Josh] It's an expedition, nearly 200 years in the making.
- Holy [bleep] - Oh!
[Phil] What is happening here, Jess?
We caught a ghost on camera.
[Phil whispers] That's insane.
- [thuds] - Oh!
[Josh] Ghost Fort Of The Civil War.
[Josh] My name is Josh Gates.
In my travels, I've experienced,
strange things that defy logic.
And made me question everything.
Oh, my God.
Now, I've put together a team to investigate
the stranger side of the unknown.
Let's go!
[Josh] Phil Torres is a scientist.
Who hunts for rational explanations.
Jessica Chobot's paranormal research,
has made her a true believer.
- Let's go. - [beeping]
[Josh] Together, we're searching for answers.
[Phil] What is that?
to the world's more extra-ordinary mysteries.
This is Expedition X.
All right, Phil.
What do you see here?
[exhales] Is that a person?
[Josh] "Is that a person?" That's the question.
Where's this from?
[Josh] That is from a place that is considered,
one of the haunted hotspots in America.
And it is a Civil War battle site that really helped reshape U.S. History.
That is from Fort Morgan in Alabama.
Oh, I know all about Fort Morgan.
- [Josh] Yeah. - That place's activity is off the charts,
and it's considered the Holy Grail of Paranormal Investigators,
- because they don't allow TV cameras in there. - Don't they?
- "Don't they?" - Oh!
I got us in.
- [both] No way! - Yeah.
And it's good timing too, because Fort Morgan may not be around much longer.
[Josh] 1813. Mobile, Alabama.
The U.S. Military chooses a site on a peninsula in Mobile Bay.
To construct a stronghold to defend the vital port.
1819.
Construction at Fort Morgan officially begins.
The fort is star shaped.
With five bastions connected by thick masonry walls that taper at the top.
It's low to the ground to make it less visible.
And to provide better protection from enemy fire.
Fifteen years and more than 40 million bricks later,
this pentagonal masterpiece is finally finished.
August 5th, 1864.
It is the height of the Civil War.
The Union is determined to take Fort Morgan back from the Confederates.
But the water between the Union warships
and the Fort is a literal minefield.
Riddled with strategically placed submerged explosives.
Then known as torpedoes.
Just 300 yards off shore.
The Union iron-clad USS Tecumseh strikes a mine,
and sinks in less than 30 seconds.
Dragging 93 Union sailors to their watery graves.
In a bold move, Rear Admiral David Farragut.
Sails the remaining fleet directly through the minefield
An endeavor now connected with the famous battle cry.
"Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead."
Farragut's gamble pays off.
And soon, the Confederates inside Fort Morgan are under siege.
Union forces commenced one of the heaviest bombardments
of a fort during the Civil War.
Inside, nearly 600 men shelter.
Terrified that if a single strike
hits the over 60,000 pounds of gunpowder stored there.
The whole place will blow sky-high.
When the smoke clears.
581 soldiers surrender and 17 lie dead.
The Battle of Mobile Bay is the first in a series of major blows to the Confederacy.
And ultimately, helped secure the re-election of Abraham Lincoln.
Today, the fort remains steeped in its tragic history.
Many who have explored this hallowed ground have reported strange sounds,
like groans and screams of pain.
And the vibrating booms of cannon fire.
[cannon firing]
Phantom sounds have also been heard from the waters around the Fort.
In 2020, Hurricane Sally made landfall in Alabama.
Causing major damage to the nearly 200 year old fortress.
The facility is crumbling.
Some parts are already inaccessible.
Experts say that a direct hit from a stronger storm
could reduce Fort Morgan to rubble.
And the clock is ticking.
Jess, what do you think?
All right. So the fort sits on a peninsula surrounded by water.
A lot of people consider water to be a great conductor of paranormal activity.
- So that could explain what's going on here. - Phil?
I can agree with Jess. Water's to blame.
- For environmental reasons. - [sighs]
Think about it. Last year.
Record-breaking year of hurricanes in the Atlantic.
There's, like, 13 of them.
This year's probably gonna be worse.
What are you, the weatherman now?
What does this have to do with anything?
Every time a hurricane hits Fort Morgan,
it's gonna start to break down a little bit more.
So when people are saying they hear things there,
it could be the sound of the fort falling apart
or wind whipping through that place.
The people are saying apparitions there.
- Are they? - Yes!
Okay.
Your mission is to find out what is really going on at Fort Morgan.
Right? We need to do more than look at this photo.
If this place is really haunted.
- Jess, who's haunting it? - Mm-hmm.
And if the strange sights and sounds that people are reporting,
- are from the environment as the meteorologist suggests. - [Phil chuckles]
Then, can we demonstrate that, right?
But we got to get to the bottom of what's happening at Fort Morgan
before this place disappears forever.
- [Phil] Okay. - [Jess] All right.
Good luck.
[Josh] Phil and Jess travel from New York City to Mobile, Alabama,
and then board a boat, bound for Fort Morgan.
[Jess whoops]
[Phil] Ooh, big wave coming.
- [Phil] Oh, my! - [Jess] Oh!
[both exclaiming]
[Jess] There we go. The lighthouse.
That's what people would have seen when they were coming into the bay
[Josh] They approach the fort from the water.
The way the Union fleet would have during The Battle of Mobile Bay.
Minus the whole "dodging submerged explosives" part of course
So, supposedly, that's where the fort is.
[Jess] I don't see anything.
It's super low, which, nowadays, of course, is backfiring.
That fort is just getting inundated with water
more and more every single year.
All right, I'm heading us in.
[Jess] As we make our own approach to the fort.
I'm blown away.
Thank you.
- [Phil] Wow, look at that. - [Jess] You can't even see it.
- [Phil] It's like-- - [Jess] Perfectly hidden.
[Phil] Perfectly hidden.
[Phil] We'll have our work cut out for us investigating,
this imposing four and a half acre structure.
Sitting on a nearly 500 acre site.
- [Phil] Whoa! - [Jess] That's cool!
[Phil] Look at the size of this. All these different rooms.
[Jess] That's cool!
[Phil] Can't imagine what this would be like in the heat of battle.
-There's just water everywhere -There is water everywhere.
[Jess] I know what water's a good conductor of.
- [Phil] Electricity. - True.
[Jess] And hauntings.
[Jess] Fort Morgan was active until 1944.
And you can see its battle scars everywhere you look.
But it's the hidden, haunted history,
we want to know more about.
We make our way to the fort's parade ground.
To meet historian Dylan Tucker.
[Phil] There he is.
-[Dylan] Hey, guys. How is it going? -[Jess] Hi!
[Jess] Dylan spent years researching the fort,
and actually living on this property.
If anyone knows Fort Morgan, it's him.
This place is huge.
[Phil] It seems like the type of place you can kind of get lost into though.
Oh, easily.
So, I mean...
- Obviously, it's been through a lot of battles. - [Dylan] Yes.
So, how many people ended up perishing here?
We do know from the recorded deaths.
They are pushing about a thousand.
Just on the property.
- Wow. - [Dylan] Soldiers.
And then, of course, you have, just sickness, primarily.
- [Dylan] A lot of suffering [chuckles] - [Jess] Oh, my gosh.
I've lived here for three years
as the site historian on property and it can take a toll on you mentally.
[Jess] Did you ever have any kind of paranormal experience yourself,
or hear of anybody else having one?
Public, a lot.
Me? I'm kinda skeptic.
-Mm-hmm -[Dylan] But...
The thing is I did have one night.
Doing details around the fortification as part of living on property.
[Dylan] It's actually very peaceful that night.
Walking, doing my rounds.
Around the top of the parade ground.
Clear as day, a voice said, "Gunner's implements."
[voice echoing] Gunner's implements!
Now that is a command to load an 1830s cannon.
Looked around, realized I was alone and that's when I panicked.
[Jessica] So you heard, clear as day, a man's voice
- ordering them to, like, get the weapons ready? - Gunners take their implements
So I was just thinking, "Am I losing my mind, have I been doing this too long?"
- My coworkers think I'm crazy. - Yeah.
'Cause I think my coworker's crazy.
- Yeah, but it comes with the territory. - 'Cause she believes
in a lot of this stuff.
[Jessica] So check this out.
- So this is the picture that we received. - Oh, wow.
[Dylan] It kinda looks like our make shift hospital.
Has anybody ever reported having an experience over by the hospital?
Oh, yeah.
There have been reports of people saying they've heard voices, wailing.
People hear things, people see things there?
- That's what they've told me. - People have actually seen stuff?
Some say full apparitions. Some say mists appearing out of nowhere, I mean--
'Cause, I mean, back in the day
it wasn't like they had the best medical attention.
It was tragic and horrific.
Morphine was rare for Confederate forces.
You would just tank them out, tourniquet, start hacking.
And that's all they could do, cauterize the wound with gun powder.
- Or a form of that. - Oh!
- Pass out from pain. - I mean that's a lot of trauma.
Well, we wanna make sure that we're hitting all the right spots.
- So, do you mind showing us around? - No problem, this is it.
[Phil] This has all been off limits for television crews until now.
To help us better understand the gruesome history here,
Dylan gives us an exclusive tour of these vaulted chambers called casemates.
[Dylan] You got of course, the launderess' quarters here.
There was a marital dispute between a officer and his wife.
Takes his own life inside one of these casemates.
This is where a fellow took a shrapnel fragment while going to church service
and he was killed.
Seems like, anywhere you point here, there was tragedy.
There is at least something.
[Jessica] Not surprisingly the paranormal hotspots that Dylan points out
include the hospital, the Ordnance casemates
and bastions where the big guns were.
These were sites of extreme suffering and death during the civil war.
What was this thing over here?
[Dylan] Battery Duportail.
It is one of the five batteries.
This is where a lot of people inside the dark areas and the corridors.
They've been tapped on. They've heard voices. They've heard people walking.
[Phil] Do you have any final words of wisdom?
Watch your step, it does tend to get flooded out here.
With the floods also come venomous creatures on property
such as the water moccasin.
- So slippery, potential flood and poisonous snakes. - Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Okay. Well, Dylan, can't thank you enough.
- Appreciate it, guys. - It was amazing, learned so much.
- [Dylan] Good luck, guys. - [Jessica] Thanks.
[Jessica] All right. Grab the gear.
[Phil] Grab some gear.
[Jessica] We unload our gear and set up base camp near the center of the fort
at Battery Duportail.
[Phil] It'd be great to have these in position before dark.
[Jessica] We set up 30 surveillance cameras
throughout the fort's interior.
An area that's over 180,000 square feet.
[Phil] Jess, I got one in the hospital.
That good?
[Jessica over the radio] That's good.
The cameras connect to a monitor back at our basecamp
that our crew will keep an eye out throughout the night.
This place is massive. So to cover more ground, Phil and I are splitting up.
-That looks good. -Looks creepy as... [exhales]
-All right, Jess. Good luck. -Good luck.
[Phil] I'm heading to the old hospital where the alleged ghost photo was snapped.
I think I can recreate and debunk that image,
and I've recruited our producer Brian
to give me a hand with my experiment.
[whispering] So I think the photo was taken right here.
[Brian] Okay.
[Jess murmuring]
[Jess] Meanwhile, I'm starting in the ordinance casemate.
Where people have reported hearing disembodied voices,
and seeing apparitions.
Test, test, test.
In order to assess whether there is paranormal activity here,
I'm going to try using my digital recorder that will capture any sounds
that spirits make to communicate.
[Jess' footsteps]
Is anyone here?
[recorder beeping]
[Jess whispering] I heard something.
I hear stuff coming through the wall.
I'm hearing stuff coming from that.
- [Danny speaking] - Did you? Yeah.
- [loud thump] - [gasps]
[Jess] If you are here with us, knock again.
That's weird.
If you're here with us, knock again.
Now, it stopped.
And it's just as windy.
So I don't know why whatever was there wouldn't keep knocking.
If it was wind blowing around.
- [loud thump] - [gasps] Oh, [bleep]!
If you're here with us, knock again.
Now it stopped.
And it's just as windy.
So I don't know why whatever was there wouldn't keep knocking.
If it was wind blowing around.
- [loud thump] - Oh, [bleep]!
[Jess gasping] [bleep]
That's weird.
[Danny speaking]
[Jess] I don't know. Let's see.
Oh.
It's the sign. Holy [bleep]
The wind's just blowing it and, like, blowing it in a weird way.
- [loud thump] - Like that.
All right, we're gonna have to dismiss that one
'cause I think it's probably the sign.
Let's go try some of the other rooms.
[whispering] It's perfect.
[Brian] Perfect.
So...
a little step back.
[Phil] I have an idea how to replicate the so called ghost photo
taken here in the Fort's hospital.
- [camera shutter clicking] - Right. One photo down. Okay.
- [Phil] I think this is very close. Right? - [Brian] It's really close.
[Phil] My plan is to simulate fog using dry ice.
Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide
and as it warms up, gas is released.
The gas will react with the humidity in the gulf air,
creating small water droplets which form clouds.
And if I can get the conditions right,
I should be able to take my own ghost photo.
Here we go.
[camera shutter clicking]
What's your name?
[creaking]
Are you there? Hello?
Call and response sessions take a lot of patience.
As the spirits need to build up enough energy to communicate.
We can't hear their responses in the room,
but they are being recorded.
Were you a soldier here?
Did you die here?
[camera shutter clicking]
[Phil] Heck yeah. Look at that!
- It even almost looks like there's a face in there. - Exactly.
Boom.
[Phil] Our ghost photo experiment in the old hospital
yielded a strikingly similar result.
- If I went out and showed Jess this photo. - Yeah.
She would say, "That looks like we got a photo of a spirit."
[Phil] I'm not saying this is an absolute debunk of the photo in question,
but it's clear that if a mist builds naturally from the right mix
of water, air pressure, humidity and temperature,
it can appear quite ghostly.
-All right. Let's get out of here. -All right.
[Phil] Brian heads back to base camp to keep an eye on our surveillance cameras,
while I conduct a deeper sweep of the interior.
Looking and listening
for anything that could be mistaken for paranormal activity.
Like dripping water or wind.
It's rock solid.
It's dripping from up top, making those structures.
Check these out.
Now, look at these things growing up here.
We've got full on stalactites coming down.
And it's all coming from this.
This is known as efflorescence.
Which happens when water inside brick eventually evaporates.
And it leaves behind the mineral residue.
This is literally centuries of buildup.
Which is really leaving some really, really crazy patterns behind.
I'm telling you, it can play tricks on the mind.
Our brains are hardwired to look for patterns.
That's why random images can sometimes register
as things we're more comfortable looking at.
Like a human face.
It's a phenomenon called face pareidolia.
And it's why people see Jesus in toast
or a human expression in rocks on Mars.
With all the warped, discolored brick throughout the fort,
it's possible that face pareidolia could be what's behind
many of the alleged ghost sightings.
[machine beeping]
[Jess whispering] I say we go down here.
Is there anyone in this room with us right now?
Is there anything you wanna say?
[thump]
Old fireplace, so this was used for something.
[Danny speaking]
[Jessica] Your camera just died?
[Danny speaking]
[Jessica] Are you the one that's making Danny's camera break?
- It might be. - [Danny speaking]
Ghosts are known to do that.
[indistinct sounds]
Wow.
What is this place?
I want to try to figure out where this is going.
[indistinct chatter on radio]
Uh...
- What'd you see? - What? What'd you see?
Let's go, let's go.
- [Phil] What'd you see? - [Jessica] What'd you get?
I don't even know what...
It [bleep] looked like half a body.
- Can you play it back? - It's, like, right here, yeah,
that's what I'm gonna do right now.
Just got to stop the system.
I wonder if that happened right when your camera had problems.
So, Danny had to stop down for a bit
'cause his camera started going crazy.
Okay, so it's camera five.
[Jessica] Okay, and there's my backpack.
- [man] Yep, there's your backpack. - [Jessica] Mm-hmm.
[man] Like, you're over here, I see your lights.
-Watch here, watch here. Come here, look. -Okay.
[Phil] I'm seeing a lot of shadows right now.
[man] That's not, I swear to God, that's not what I saw.
This better be worth it, my friend.
It'll just be a second.
Holy [bleep]!
- [Jessica] My God. - [Phil] Go back.
- Go back again. - That was insane.
One more time.
-Can you slow it down. Can we watch? -I'll try.
[Phil] Come on, what is that?
- [Jessica] Oh, my God. - [Phil] Oh.
- What? - And then it disappeared.
What was that?
- Then it disappeared. - What?
What was that?
- [man] That's crazy. - [Phil] Is it going into the wall?
Yeah, what is on the other side there?
There's a hallway, and then there's the wall
with all of the windows.
So, from when I called you.
[Jessica] Mmm.
To, what, what?
[Jessica] You got something?
I think I just heard something.
- Yeah, coming. - Got it?
Okay, at 36 seconds. Listen.
- [faint screaming on recording] - Did you hear that?
- Yep. - There's something there.
Whoa.
-Let me get this. Let me get this. -Whoa.
[faint screaming on recording]
- You hear it, right? - Oh, yeah.
- It's like a, it sounds like a scream. - [grunts]
[imitates sound] It just sounds like screaming.
Yeah, we didn't hear it.
- You didn't hear that. - No, not with my own ears. No.
We have to check that out.
- All right, Brian, you stay on the cameras? - Yes sir.
Okay.
What is happening here, Jess?
Hauntings.
[Jessica] We need to investigate the spot
where the camera captured a ghostly figure.
Between the camera malfunction, that video anomaly
and what sounded like a scream.
That's three bizarre events happening at the same time.
Go in right here.
- Can go right here. - We're going right here,
[Phil] We get to the spot in question,
and I start with the simplest idea first.
Was that figure on the video, a person?
Hey, Brian, you, can you see me on the camera?
[Brian] Yeah, I see your legs, your head, your hands.
- [communicator beeps] - All right, I'm gonna turn off my light.
Let's try this again.
[Brian] I see you.
All of me? You can't see through me?
It's not a trick of the camera?
[Brian] Yeah, I mean, It's Phil, holding a flashlight in the dark.
So...
Should I look for any fresh footprints?
If it was a person, then the only way out of here
without crossing in front of our cameras, again,
is through this opening.
[Jessica] What's out there?
[Phil] Man, it's really swampy.
-[Jessica] Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's swamp. -Yeah.
If somebody was walking through there to mess with us
and they were wearing any kind of, like, rain boot or anything,
they would be leaving marks in the swamp.
Like, all that grass would be pushed down,
none of it is.
On top of that, they would not be see through.
The camera's, like, this far distance
like how maybe it's just a trick of that, but...
We caught a ghost on camera.
[Jessica] Phil's attempt to explain our evidence came up short.
All right, Jess.
[exhales]
So, I immediately begin a call and response session.
If our cameras recorded a spirit,
I need to try and make contact.
Is there anybody here?
What's your name?
Were you a soldier here?
While I may not be getting any audible responses,
I'll analyze my recordings later to see
if the digital recorder picked anything up.
[exhales]
[Phil] I'm not ready to agree that what we saw
was supernatural.
I wonder if there's something either inside the fort
or out in the marsh,
that's causing us to see and hear strange things,
echoing off the stone walls.
Let's go this way.
[Jessica] To figure out if the sounds are coming
from somewhere else in the fort.
We head to a section we haven't explored.
Oh, hey, check it out.
-This is a tombstone? -I don't know. It looks like one.
Let's see.
In memory of Lieutenant Colonel Charles S. Stewart.
Mobile Alabama of the 21st Regiment.
Oh, in command of this fort when killed here,
- April 30th, 1863. - Whoa.
Huh, that's weird. This is, like, the only plaque
or memorial or anything that I've seen
in this entire place.
That's a good point.
- For a specific person. - Must have been an important man.
Well, yeah, I wonder what happened.
I'm going to do some research on who this was.
[Phil] Okay.
The next morning, we're still trying to wrap our heads around
the evidence we collected.
So, while Jess researches the name on the plaque we found.
[Jessica] Oh, jeez, a fatal accident at Fort Morgan.
[Phil] I turn my attention to the mysterious scream
we recorded.
[screaming on recording]
My guess is it's some kind of animal.
To help me identify it, I've set up a meeting
with wildlife biologist JJ McCool.
He agreed to meet me on short notice,
but said there's something he needs to deal with first.
[mutters]
Hey.
Whoo. We got ourselves a 'gator.
Yeah.
- Hey. - I contacted local wildlife biologist JJ McCool.
- We got ourselves a 'gator. - Not too happy either.
To tell me more about the animals that live around Fort Morgan.
He's had close contact with just about every species
of wild animal in the area.
I watched sale.
While I was on my way to meet him,
he got a call about an alligator in a yard,
and I offered, okay, I begged to give him a hand.
If you'd come up from behind.
Then push his mouth together.
- Watch your hand. - [groans]
Whoo, look at this.
Oh, my God.
- He's not too happy that you're here. - Yeah, not too happy.
Okay, where are we taking it?
Oh, let's go put him in my trucks. We can relocate him.
Look at that.
Alligator wrangling. Check.
[Phil] How big would you say this is?
[JJ] I'd say he's probably about a good six feet long,
very healthy, really healthy little gator.
I mean, this thing is incredible.
Clearly, you know the wildlife here,
so that's why I called you.
I told you we were investigating Fort Morgan,
and when we were out there last night, we heard a noise.
And I have a feeling.
It might have been an animal,
- so do you mind taking a listen? - Now.
Right.
[screaming on recording]
- Do you hear that? - Mm-hmm.
[screaming on recording]
The only thing we got down that really makes a noise like that,
that's a wildlife would be a bobcat.
And it's spring, so they'll breed, you know,
all through the spring and into early summer.
If you get close to them. It's a real, deep,
guttural type of sound. But, at a distance,
it sounds like almost screaming.
But as a rule, they're pretty quiet
unless something's got 'em stirred up.
They're very reclusive.
So if you hear 'em, there's something going on,
- you know. - Something going on, huh?
- Yeah. - Okay.
[Phil] So the noise that we all thought was a human scream
could be coming from a wild animal.
Bobcats are nocturnal, so I'll put up some trail cams
around the forest to see if we can confirm tonight,
that there's one prowling the grounds nearby.
This is amazing that just a few 100 yards away
from the fort is this beautiful habitat,
and there's got to be a lot of wild animals
living around here, so I'm looking around
to find an area that looks like it is used by wildlife as a trail.
This looks good.
These things also record audio.
So, we do get photo, video of something.
We can also give it a listen and see...
If we get something that matches up.
Batteries, this thing's on.
- Hey, hey. - Hey.
What you've been digging up?
A lot, actually. So check this out.
Charles Stewart.
There was a... him, seven others wounded
in total, two of them died later.
They were all hanging around this cannon which misfired.
This cannon had two charges in it,
obviously couldn't handle it and exploded.
Killed everybody, but him in particular,
he got struck by a piece of the cannon
which weighed over 200 pounds.
And they say that, like, all that was left of his body
was the jaw down.
- No. - And that his head is found in pieces.
- Wow. - In an accident,
because of something as simple as accidentally adding
an additional charge.
Oh, yeah, also, he has a widow Juliet.
-So, with that information, what does that tell you about -Mm-hmm.
Where to focus tonight?
Oh, well, so there's a lot of theories
as to where he actually died.
I mean, some people believe that it was at Bastion four
or maybe Bastion five,
where they would have had those cannons stationed.
[Jessica] Lieutenant Colonel Stewart was the ranking officer
in charge of Fort Morgan at the time of his grisly demise.
And I'm wondering if, even in death.
He's still in command here.
So tonight, I'll try to make contact.
All right, wanna help me set this stuff up?
- Yeah. - Put this by the door.
We're setting up a laser grid and REM pod at Bastion four.
[device beeps]
One of the suspected locations that might have been where
Colonel Stewart died.
- How's that look? - Oh, that's perfect.
The whole thing's covered.
If an electromagnetic disturbance passes through
the field of these highly sensitive instruments, we'll get an alert.
Ready?
Yeah.
Charles, are you here?
Charles, is this where you were killed?
Charles, if you're here with us,
now's the time to let us know.
[device beeps]
Charles, are you with us?
Charles, is this where you had your accident?
I can't see anything around it.
I don't see anything.
[Jessica] Charles, should we go to a different location?
- [rock clanks] - What the [bleep]?
Did that just fall out of one of the ceilings?
Brick.
- Turn on the light. - [bleep]
Brick fell.
So it fell right here.
Fell right there.
- [whispering] - Whoo.
Oh, look up there. Look at that one.
Oh, I bet you it was that one.
Charles, did you just throw something at us?
[Phil] What the hell?
[device beeps]
[Jessica] What the [bleep]?
Did you just turn that off?
- The laser? - Yeah.
Why the [bleep] is the laser not working?
Wait, point at it.
And the button is being held, held down by the clamp.
- [gasps] - Ooh.
[Jessica] What the [bleep]?
Fort Morgan isn't the only Civil War stronghold
with a ghost story.
Fort Warren in Boston Harbor is supposedly inhabited
by the angry spirit of Melanie Lanier.
Her story is that in the early days of the war.
Her Confederate soldier husband is imprisoned in the fort.
Melanie disguises herself as a Union soldier,
and sneaks over the wall.
But she's captured, and in the scuffle,
her husband is fatally wounded by her own gun.
Convicted as a spy, she goes to the gallows
wearing a black dress.
To this day, visitors to the fort report
seeing her restless spirit wandering the grounds.
Attempts to verify Melanie's story are a dead end.
There are no historical records of a Melanie Lanier,
or any woman who met that fate at Fort Warren,
but does that mean that some Bostonians
will stop believing in this haunting legend?
There's not a ghost of a chance.
[Jessica] Why the [bleep] is the laser not working?
Wait, point at it.
And the button is being held.
Held down by the clamp.
- [gasps] What the [bleep]? - Ooh.
[Phil] What?
Charles, if it's you, turn it back on.
Wait, so you just turn it back on.
- What did you do? - I didn't do anything.
I just touched it.
Keeps turning on and off on its own.
- Now, it won't turn on at all. - It's just dead.
It's just completely dead now.
- That's... - Okay.
I'll be honest, the brick is what really messed with me.
I feel like we can explain this with being
a potential battery situation.
I would assume you can explain the brick that this place is falling apart.
I mean, Jess this fort is really old
and weather beaten.
Okay, but what set off the REM pod?
[Phil] Let's keep surveillance cameras running in here
and see what else we get. Okay.
[Jessica] We head to Bastion five,
the location that some believe is where Colonel Stewart
was killed in a cannon accident.
It's also near the location where the fort's historian
heard a disembodied voice shouting cannon commands.
[indistinct voice giving commands]
All right, wanna set up right over here?
- Is this where the cannon would have been? Okay. - Yeah.
[indistinct]
- Just rock solid. - [grunts]
- They're right here. - [REM pod beeps]
[bell dinging in distance]
Do you hear the bell?
Oh, I hear the bell.
I wonder if there's a ship passing here.
I kind of want to go down there.
Towards the beach?
- Yeah. - Let's get over there.
Okay.
I hear it.
It sounded like it was right over here.
[bell dinging in distance]
Up here. Oh, man. I hear that clear as day.
- [Phil] That's definitely coming from over this. - Yeah.
[exhales]
Oh, you heard it around here, right?
Yeah.
I mean, I'm hearing a flagpole over here to the right.
I hear a flagpole over there, for sure.
I don't know, that didn't sound like a bell.
Those oil rigs are far.
I do not think we can hear an alarm bell from there.
Is that a ship out there, they're blinking red?
[Jessica] I don't know.
[Phil] We raced back to base camp to grab
a directional microphone and my night vision scope.
That bell sounded like it was nearby,
so if it came from a boat.
It should still be in close range.
Nothing.
The boats I see all look like they're miles away.
There's a tanker that's moving.
Those things kick up a huge wave,
which would cause the buoys to move.
So, if there were any bells on those buoys,
we would hear 'em, and I'm not hearing anything.
So what did we just hear?
[Jessica] Who the hell rang the bell?
Either somebody or something rang one.
Maybe this haunting extends past the fort.
[Phil] This investigation just shot to a new level.
We need to expand our search zone to find out
what's really happening at this fort,
and in the water.
Maybe Josh can help steer this ship
in the right direction.
- Hey. - Hey, Josh.
Hey, guys, so you're wrapping things up in Fort Morgan?
What's the verdict? Any ghosts?
Yeah, we've had two phenomenal nights of evidence.
I was actually thinking we were kind of narrowing it down
as to who may have been haunting the fort,
but then we got thrown a curveball.
Okay, how so?
Just take a listen to this.
[bell dinging on recording]
Sounds like bells.
Weird right.
So, you are right near the water,
maybe it's a, it's a buoy, it's a ship,
something like that?
Those were my thoughts exactly.
So we went to the shore. We looked all up and down.
Checked the buoys, no bells.
Then we looked for boats. There was no boats nearby
that could explain that noise, so at this point,
honestly, we have no idea of what made that noise.
Wow.
[Jessica] We did hear them during the night.
Always in sets of four and so I think I know what's going on.
What are you thinking?
So, all the water surrounding the fort.
It's filled with shipwrecks including the USS Tecumseh
which went down during the Battle of Mobile Bay.
93 people died, it was super traumatic.
Back in the day, how they would communicate
was with bells during a battle.
So, I suspect that the waters around the fort
is where we should take our investigation.
So you're saying these are ghost bells?
Yes, I truly believe that the fort
and the hauntings there are connected
to potential hauntings in the water
and the USS Tecumseh.
I'm obviously not so sure about this ghost bell theory,
but that being said, I'm very happy to try
to dive on that site and see what we can uncover.
Well, the bottom line is something made that noise, right?
So I would definitely keep investigating
and if you're saying that you think
there's more work to do, out at the fort
and now out on the water.
I would suggest expanding the investigation.
You're talking about a lot of territory to cover here.
You guys might need some backup.
I have an idea.
[Josh] Next time on Expedition X.
My team is deep into an investigation
of the strange phenomenon
inside this Civil War era fort.
[Jessica] There's not a single spot in this entire fort,
that doesn't come with a story.
[Josh] Mounting evidence sends the team
on an epic search for answers.
[man speaking]
[Josh] I send in reinforcements.
World class ghost hunters from kindred spirits,
Amy Bruni and Adam Berry.
The scratch is pretty wild.
- There's so many spiders here. - Oh, my God.
- [indistinct voice speaking on recording] - [gasps]
- That was crazy. - Ooh, I've got goosebumps.
[Josh] It's an investigation that could end in disaster.
[diver] Oh, the current is too strong.
We got the line!
[Josh] Can they exhume the secrets?
- [indistinct voice speaking on recording] - Ooh.
Are there other people with you?
Hundreds.
[Josh] Of the phantoms of Fort Morgan.
For more information on Expedition X.
Head to discovery.com/expeditionx.