There's a vintage poster with a black streak at the bottom and the wrong phone number — a fitting symbol for how the whole adventure of turning a retired Great Lakes carrier into a haunted ship began: imperfect, a little chaotic, and destined to become something nobody expected.

Paul Novitzke worked summers on the Vista Fleet during his time at the University of Minnesota Duluth, captaining harbor tours for the Goldfine family. Then, one day, as Novitzke tells it, Bob Hom and Dan Russell, Duluth Entertainment Convention Center executives, came aboard in their suits with an unusual proposition: Would he take over running the William A. Irvin?

They had big ambitions. They wanted Novitzke to spice up the tours and turn the Irvin into something that actually made money. Octobers were brutal:

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