Liberty Ships & WWII Ghosts, Part 1, at Hendy Iron Man Museum in Sunnyvale

When BAGH visited the Hendy Iron Man Museum in 2009, we were using it as a launching point to explore several haunted spots in Sunnyvale. This time we’re focusing on its World War II production of engines for Liberty Ships and we’ll have at least one psychic who will join us to pass on any messages its astral residents may want.

The Iron Man Museum is open to the public by appointment, but it is part of an operating defense contractor facility. All visitors must be U.S. citizens and we need to submit member names a week before BAGH’s visit. Visitors must be at least 10 years old. Children must have an adult escort. Cameras, recording devices and camera enabled phones and watches are not permitted on the premises. Visitors must present picture identification upon entering the main gate reception lobby. Although located on a Northrop Grumman compound, the museum runs independently as a 501(c)(3), so the proceeds from the rsvp fee will be donated to it.

We will check in at the main entrance of Northrop Grumman on Hendy Avenue. Nearby parking is free and plentiful on Saturdays. BAGH hosts will be wearing their flashing ghost necklaces.

Afterward, for those who are interested, we can have lunch at the haunted Fibbar Magee’s Irish pub on Murphy Street.

Joshua Hendy Iron Works was on the verge of being liquidated when the Japanese attacked the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor. Instead, its new plant manager, Charles Moore, secured a contract to build the engines for the fleet of 2,710 Liberty Ships the U.S. government ordered. Hendy, an iron foundry that was best known for designing and building mining equipment, produced the engines for 754 of those ships. After Moore had the contract in his hands, Hendy’s workforce grew from around 75 to well over 10,000.

Once a new engine was built, it was loaded on a train and sent to an East Bay shipyard to be assembled with a hull. Liberty Ships composed part of the Merchant Marines class of ships commissioned to transport troops and supplies around the world. Around 200 were lost to enemy conflict and about three dozen to accidents or mechanical failure. In 1943, one was even named after the 19th century industrialist, Joshua Hendy, which survived the war. The SS Joshua Hendy served several humanitarian missions until it was decommissioned and dismantled in 1961. Other ships were named after Carole Lombard, Civil Rights Promoter Booker T. Washington, Poet Eugene Field, and several of the U.S.’s founding fathers.

When WWII ended, the large workforce at Hendy Iron Works was trimmed. The women working there were laid off so their husbands could reclaim their jobs. Hendy was sold to Westinghouse in 1947, then again to Northrop Grumman in 1996. Like many of the mining towns in the Sierras, a sudden drop in population leaves a huge psychic imprint on the immediate vicinity. For employees who subsequently remained or were freshly hired, paranormal activity has been noticed. Janitors and security guards who regularly work the swing and graveyard shifts witness the most phenomena.

For instance, a couple of security guards doing their rounds at night saw a doorknob that was supposed to be locked turn while the door shook in the otherwise empty building. Another daytime office worker said she and her colleagues could smell beans cooking from time to time in the same building. Its second story had acted as the cafeteria, which closed in 1958, when Westinghouse had possession of the campus.

Perhaps the oddest incident occurred on August 27, 2008, when Security Guards Scott Calais and Rudy Madris were watching the monitors at the CCTV control center. They noticed a bicyclist ride up to the California gate. As an 80ish-acre complex of several buildings, bicycles are provided to personnel who frequently need to move among them, but the direction this one was going was odd. Thinking an employee might be passing something to an outsider, they watched to see what the figure would do.

Instead of stopping, the rider drove straight through the closed gate, up several yards north on Roosevelt Avenue, turned into a ball of light, and in a jerking motion flew to the right and disappeared. “It was weird,” said Calais.

The Hendy Iron Man Museum is in one of the oldest buildings in the facility, which has its own stories. When contractors have come to work in the evening after office staff have left for the day, they reported hearing odd noises and some have refused to work there at night. The museum is located in the old general manager’s office, which has its own astral occupant.

Looking forward to seeing other members there.

Adrienne