FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2008
CONTACT: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations,
409-765-7834
molly.dannenmaier@galvestonhistory.org

Galveston Historical Foundation adds Tall Ship Tour "Halloween Aboard Elissa" to its Line-up of "Haunted" Offerings this Fall

Galveston’s famous restored tall ship ELISSA will be inhabited by sailors of the past this October as Galveston Historical Foundation (GHF) adds a new tour to its line-up of "haunted" offerings for the season. The ship is moored next to the Texas Seaport Museum at Pier 22, Harborside Drive and 22nd Street, Galveston.

(click on the picture to download it in a press ready format)

"Halloween Aboard Elissa: Nautical Superstitions, Haunted Happenings, and Tall Tales from the Ship’s Ancient Mariners" is a spooky sunset tour of Galveston’s squared-rigged, iron-hulled fully restored 1877 barque. Tours will be given Friday and Saturday evenings October 24, 25, 31 and November 1 at 6:30 p.m. Space is limited. Advance ticket purchase is required. Tickets are available online at www.galvestonhistory.org. Tickets are $12 each. Children five years old and younger are admitted free. Call 409-763 1877 for more information.

Tour guests will walk ELISSA’s deck and explore her cargo hold, crew quarters, and captain’s cabin by the light of oil lamps. The ship’s crew will tell about the superstitions of sailors of the past, ghost ships, and speculation about possible haunted happenings, mutinies, smuggling, and more in ELISSA’s past. ELISSA’s crew members will offer first-hand accounts of eerie experiences that ELISSA’s they have had aboard. Tour guides will point out the sounds the ship makes at night—including a tapping emanating from the iron hull—from long vanished workers? Guests will hear for themselves the creak of the deck and whistling of the rigging, the clink of a mooring chain coming under strain suggesting a life lurking stealthily in the iron hull, and the groaning in the hawsepipe like a man sighing under a burden.

"Halloween aboard ELISSA" is part of Galveston Historical Foundation’s "Historic Hauntings" offerings in October. GHF’s other haunted attractions include "Spirits of the Past," a guided dusk tour of Galveston’s Broadway Cemetery in which a dozen re-enactors give graveside portrayals of notable famous and infamous Galvestonians interred there; "Are We Haunted," a special tour of Ashton Villa that highlights legends and ghost stories of the mansion; and "Haunted Harbor Excursions," a one-hour narrated exploration of spooky corners and tragic sites in and around Galveston Harbor aboard GHF’s motorized passenger vessel Seagull II. Full descriptions of all GHF’s "Historic Hauntings" are available at www.galvestonhistory.org.