Haunted Maritime Museum, Victoria B.C.

“You sure know when the building accepts you.”

                                                      ---Museum Heritage Guide

The Maritime Museum of
British Columbia.

This museum is located on Vancouver Island in Victoria’s historic Bastion Square. It is an impressive 1862 building which was this cities courthouse, jail and, gallows for many years.

A famous ghost that resides in this museum is Mathew Begbie  *, known in Canada as the “hanging judge.”

Judge Matthew Begbie

Staff and visitors while on the third floor where the courthouse was once located, have seen his ghost. His tall figure dressed in black robes is seen walking across the area where the court bench is located.

Voices, footsteps, and the distinct sweet smell of a pipe are all experienced in this room as well.

The judges’ ghost appears to wander for his shadowy, bearded apparition is also seen standing at a window near the museum’s entrance as well as gliding down the main staircase.

The museum staff and guides report many other ghosts reside in this building. Some are believed to be criminals that were executed on the gallows.

In a small alcove off, the Shipbuilders Room, on the first floor, is where visitors, either individually or in groups, report feelings of being choked. Others report feeling a heavy weight as if something is standing on their shoulders.

These reports do not surprise the staff for many of them have had the same experience of being suffocated in this area—it is in this alcove where the gallows stood.

On the second floor, directly below where the courthouse once stood, are ship models and exhibits about the Canadian Coast Guard, and lighthouses.

The staff feels that several of these exhibits and artifacts have ghostly activity attached to them.

It is in these galleries that disembodied voices are heard and objects are moved without reason. Apparitions are also seen roaming about in this area.

The reconstructed courthouse
at the museum.

In a small, nonpublic room that holds special collections, staff always feel, an overwhelming sense of despair and grief.

This room is where in the past, prisoners were held while they awaited their verdicts.

Despite all this ongoing paranormal activity the museum’s staff never gets the impression these ghosts are a threat.

 *  Matthew Bigbie was B.Cs first chief justice. He served on the bench until his death in 1894. Streets, schools, and mountains in B.C. all bear his name. But Bigbe is a controversial figure because of his role in the hanging of six chiefs during the Tsilhqot’in war. More can be read here.