The “Dead Reckoning” tour weaves through the hallways of the Donnell House in Bath on the night of the Hunter’s Moon as participants learn about the history of death and accidents that happened on the ground of the historic shipyard. Paul Bagnall / The Times Record

Maine Maritime Museum is hosting a horrific jaunt through its shipyard grounds and the Victorian-era Donnell House, sharing spooky stories of hauntings and unfortunate accidents.

The “Dead Reckoning” tour on Oct. 17 was split into two groups, with the museum’s director of education, Sarah Timm, leading one group as the Hunter’s Moon shone down over the shipyard. The participants went into three facilities maintained by staff: the Donnell House, Paint and Treenail, and Mill. The stories told came from local newspaper articles that former curator emeritus Nathan Lipfert researched with the ghost stories collected by Maine Maritime Museum staff stories. (Copies of the newspaper articles can be found in the Patten Free Library and the Maine Maritime Museum, and they are also available digitally.)

“We have literally let opened our closets and let out the skeletons,” Timm said at the beginning of the tour.

Participants were given black-and-white photo cards of people who had unfortunate accidents or died while working at the Percy & Small Shipyard and the Donnell Shipyard. They learned the fate of everyone on the card, some perishing while others survived.

“If you have been given a card, I selected you for a reason,” Timm said. “I felt you might have a connection to that individual, and when I feel like that story is time to be told, I am going to ask you if you can maybe sense a few details for us.”

According to museum staff, the Donnell House is said to be one of the most haunted places on campus. With all the lights turned off, one tour participant caught a door opening on its own upstairs during the tour.

The Donnell House was built in the 1840s. The Donnell family lived there from the 1870s and operated a shipyard behind the house from the 1860-90s. The Percy & Small Shipyard was later built adjacent to the Donnell Shipyard; the two shipyards never overlapped. The buildings for the Donnell Shipyard are no longer standing, and Timm told the small crowd they had one of the worst accident records in Bath.

One of eight accidents happened in 1897 when two riggers were making repairs to the George McFadden in the Donnell Shipyard. John Johnson and Charles Anderson were working on the mast at 100 feet when a loud crack was heard. According to ship records, the mast they were on fell to the next mast over, creating a domino effect — this was considered one of the worst shipyard accidents in Bath. Miraculously, Johnson and Anderson survived the 100-foot drop to the deck below, with Johnson suffering from a broken leg and Anderson sustaining a concussion.

There were so many accidents in the shipyard because there was no safety equipment or procedures while working. Timm said if you got hurt in a shipyard, it was considered the worker’s fault, and the shipyard’s owner was not liable for the accidents. However, shipbuilding was an economic driver for Bath in the 1880s, and the Donnell family was the social center during the 1880s and ’90s.

“Not only did [the Donnells] house parties, weddings even, the space also hosted funerals,” Timm said as everyone gathered in the cramped space of the Victorian hallways.

Clara Donnell, the matriarch of the family, contracted pneumonia when she was 51 years old, which was a death sentence in the 19th century before penicillin was discovered. She passed away, and her body was displayed in the Victorian home, which was customary during the Victorian period.

The tour neared conclusion at the Percy & Small Shipyard mill, where the story of joiner Charles Norton was told. In 1889, Norton nearly met his end by catching his jacket on a piece of sawing equipment while cutting some beams in the Arthur Sewall and Co. Shipyard. His arm was pulled into the saw blade, jamming on his bones. Norton survived the accident but would later have his arm amputated.

“Dead Reckoning: Shipyard Death and Disturbances” continues Oct. 24-30 in the lead-up to Halloween, and tickets have been going fast for residents interested in learning about the haunted history and strange stories that happened in Bath’s shipyards.