The Queen Mary

JohnHart · Mist Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Posts: 35

The Queen Mary

Location: Long Beach, California

History: The Queen Mary was designed in 1920; she was to be the first of a pair of 1,000 foot long ships. They were to provide weekly transport between Southampton and New York City. Construction began in December 1930 and was completed on September 26, 1934.

The Queen Mary departed on her maiden voyage, under the control of the Cunard White Star Lines, on May 27, 1936. The voyage took just over 12 hours to deliver its 1850 passengers to America.

From 1936 to 1939 the Queen Mary served as flagship for the Cunard White Star Line, but it 1939 she was converted to carry troops from American during World War II. She carried more than 800,000 troops during a six year time frame. After the war ended she transported 20,000 soldiers and their war brides back to America.

In July 1947, the Queen Mary resumed her duties as a passenger liner along with her sister ship, the Queen Elizabeth. They continued their duties throughout the 1950s until passenger planes took all of their business. In 1967, the City of Long Beach purchased the Queen Mary and gave her a permanent home. She now serves as a hotel and tourist attraction, call (562) 435-3511 for more details.

Haunting: Considering the amount of people that have traveled and worked on the Queen Mary it is no wonder that there are numerous ghosts that haunt the ship. There are ghosts of former passengers that haunt the passenger sections, there are ghost of past crew members that haunt the areas below deck, and there are ghost of soldiers from her days as a troop transport.

On October 2, 1942, while transporting troops, the Queen Mary collided with one of her escort ships, the HMS Curacoa. The Curacoa was split in half and sank; 338 men perished in the accident. When the ship is quiet pounding sounds can be hear near the bosun's locker, which is the near the area of the hull that slices through the Curacoa.

The accommodations for the soldiers being transported the war were miserable at best, the ship was over crowded and the living conditions left a lot to be desired. It was inevitable that some of the soldiers would never make to the war alive. The ghosts of two such soldiers haunt the morgue.

The passenger sections are haunted by the ghosts of passengers that died while on the ship. The two pools on board have hauntings tied to them. The first-class pool is haunted by the ghosts of two female drowning victims. One ghosts is from the 1930s and the other from the 1960s. The tourist-class pool is also haunted by the ghost of a woman who drowned there.

The first-class section is haunted by a few more ghosts. The ghost of a young boy, who fell overboard, can be seen roaming the passageways of the first-class section. The ghost of a woman dressed in a white flowing gown has been seen in the first-class lounge and the ghost of a man in a 1930s suit has been reported in the first-class suite area. Cabin B340 is haunted by the ghost of a purser, who was murdered in the room.

The hauntings are limited to the passenger sections; numerous crew members have died onboard the Queen Mary and still haunt the areas below deck. The cooking during her time as a troop transport was terrible, one day a fight broke out in the kitchen, during the fight the cook was pushed into the oven where he burned to death. Screams from his ghost can still be heard in the kitchen area.

A young crewman named John Peddler named was crushed by the automatic door for hatch thirteen; his ghost has been known to harass people passing through the area. Another crew member haunting the Queen Mary is Senior Second Officer William Stark. He died when he accidentally drank tetrachloride that he mistook for gin.
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John Hart
Vintage Computer Collector