The Queen Mary // 187 // Haunted ship

Transcript

It started as an idea. A grand idea. The concept began in 1926. There was fierce competition at the time between ship building companies in Britain, Germany, Italy, and the United States. Cunard’s planning committee developed the idea to have a fleet of two modernized ships to save fuel and lessen operating costs. The two ships needed to be large, fast, and strong. The first ship would be called Queen Elizabeth and the ship we’re focusing on is Queen Mary. In November of 1930, the model went through the final trial runs. Cunard Line accepted the design and John Brown and Company was given a $30 million dollar contract for the construction of Job 534. Engineers spent many hours simulating every aspect of North Atlantic weather to make sure the vessel could handle all of the conditions. More than 8,000 prototype experiments took place and construction began in November of 1931.

Initially, everything was going well, and the crew was ahead of schedule and Cunard announced that they would have the liner ready for launch in May of 1932. On December 11th, 1931, the work on the ship was halted and 3,000 people lost their jobs due to The Great Depression. The company board chairman, Sir Percy Bates, insisted that they continue construction on Queen Mary, and he received contributions in the mail from people that wanted to help get the ship completed. The British government intervened and subsidized the constructions of Job 534. In return for the financial support, the Cunard Line was forced to merge with the ailing White-Star Line to form Cunard-White Star Ltd. The ship was completed and weighed 81,237 tons with a total of 12 decks.

The Queen Mary officially launched on September 26th, 1934. More than 200,000 people showed up to watch her and the children even got the day off school to witness the event. No one knew the name yet, there were 101 proposed names, and it was still being referred to as Job 534 and many people believed it would be named Queen Victoria. As Her Majesty Queen Mary, reigning Queen of England, cut the satin cord and smashed a bottle of Australian wine against the ship’s bow, she said, “I am happy to name this ship, Queen Mary. I wish success to her and to all who sail in her.”

The Queen Mary had various public rooms, 21 elevators, 3 restaurants, a ballroom, a gym, beauty salons, two pools, a garage, mail processing areas, three playrooms, a chapel and synagogue, writing and drawing rooms, two libraries, three lounges, three smoking rooms, a shopping area, isolations wards, and a hospital. There were 5 boiler rooms, two turbo generation rooms and four propellers made of manganese (main-ga-neice) bronze. The ship carried 24 lifeboats, which could accommodate up to 145 people. More than 30 artists, artisans, and sculptors were hired to design the interior passenger areas and the ship was built with rare woods from all over the world. They used 56 varieties of woods, and The Queen Mary was dubbed, “The Ship of Beautiful Woods.”

This was the first vessel to use Korkoleum flooring and Formica and silver bronze was used throughout. The details were extravagant and intricate, and it drew many famous people to the ship. In September of 1939, war was officially declared between Britian and Germany and both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were requisitioned for service in World War II. In March 1940, the British government informed Cunard that the Queen Mary would hold troops in combat.

Queen Mary was a constant target for Hitler’s navy, so the whole ship was painted grey to camouflage it and all the furnishings were removed. The giant letters, spelling out the ship’s name, were removed, a machine gun was positioned inside and for a while, the ship was referred to as “The Grey Ghost.” An ASDIC underwater sound detection system was installed, and a single 4-inch gun was placed on the fan-tail. Thirty-three guns, 12 rocket launchers, canons, a range finder, and a central gun control house were positioned throughout. Both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth contributed to the war effort in ways that no one could have foreseen. They were both able to carry so many passengers and travel through routes that the smaller vessels couldn't handle. Queen Mary helped to lessen the duration of one of the most brutal wars in history.

America entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor and Queen Mary was called upon to carry the troops. May 11th, 1942, was the first day in history for any ship to carry 10,000 people, but in August of that same year, the Queen Mary began carrying over 15,000 per trip. By the end of the war, she had carried over 800,000 soldiers, completed 72 trips, and traveled 569,000 miles. The ship broke her own record on July 25th of 1943 by carrying 16,683 people.

This great ship was obviously extremely helpful to the troops, but Adolf Hitler couldn’t stand it. He offered a prize of $250,000 and a reward of the Iron Cross to any submarine skipper who could sink her and while she narrowly missed several disasters, she survived. During one trip, Queen Mary sailed into Trinidad to refuel and a German submarine sunk two idling vessels. If Queen Mary hadn’t received an urgent coded message to leave port and change route, that could have been the end.

In 1941, the ship was traveling through the extremely hot climates of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea without air conditioning and the lower decks reached triple-digit temperatures. Men were getting into arguments and several of them died from heat exhaustion and strokes. In early 1942, German and Italian spies figured out where the ship was and sent the information to U-boats that were waiting on the Brazilian coast. The troops were able to intercept the messages and get the ship rerouted, but the spies took down an oil tanker that left the port at the exact time that Queen Mary was scheduled to leave.

A fire did erupt on B deck, under the liner’s bridge and the fire was ignited by faulty electrical insulation. It took two hours to get the fire under control, but luckily, the crew was able to put the flames out. The only major damage that Queen Mary sustained during the war was on October 2nd, 1942. The ship was on a zigzag course with World War I British Light Cruiser escort, the HMS Curacoa (Keera-so-a). Queen Mary hit the cruiser, slicing it in half, sending it to the bottom of the ocean, and killing the majority of the crew members. The captain, one officer, and 99 men survived. Due to very strict Navy order, the Queen Mary was not allowed to rescue the survivors, they were only allowed to toss them some live preservers. It all happened very quickly, and the ship sank within 5 minutes, but there were escort ships dispatched to collect the survivors.

There were about 430 crew members on the ship when it was struck. The Queen Mary was 20 times the size of the Curacoa (Keera-so-a) and when it ripped in half, the two pieces settled almost 100 yards away from each other. The captain reported the incident, and it took two hours for the escort ships to arrive, so many of the men died from hypothermia while they waited.

There was a court hearing after this incident, and it was ruled that the cruiser was mostly to blame for the accident. But I said MOSTLY. They ruled that Queen Mary was 1/3 to blame and the Curacoa (Keera-so-a) was 2/3 to blame. On July 31st, 1947, Queen Mary shed her war uniform and went back to her luxury attire. Her last cruise was on December 9th, 1967. She sailed into Long Beach, California and Captain John Treasure Jones said, “No finer ship sailed this ocean. They will never build another like her. I don’t want this to be a nostalgic crossing. We will go out in a blaze of glory and then onto Long Beach. California’s climate will be good to her.” In April of 1968, Queen Mary went into the Navy dry dock and the renovation process began. The ship was completely gutted and would convert into a museum.

It’s been voted into the “Top 10 Most Haunted Places in America” by Time Magazine, and it has earned the title of the “World’s Most Haunted Ship.”

Queen Mary was opened to tourists on May 8th, 1971, but only portions of the ship were available to the public as they were still converting some of the areas into specialty restaurants and the original First-Class staterooms were going to be a hotel. It started off with only being open on the weekends and on December 11th 1971, Jacques Cousteau’s (Jock Coo-stow) Museum of the Sea opened. Unfortunately, many of the fish in the museum died and they had low ticket sales, so this ended up closing down. On November 2nd, 1972, the PSA Hotel Queen Mary opened up and there were 150 guest rooms. Two years later, all 400 rooms were finally finished, and PSA brought in Hyatt Hotels to manage the hotel from 1974 to 1980.

In 1980, the ship was losing millions of dollars each year because the hotel, restaurants, and museum, were run by three separate companies, but the city owned the ship and operated the tours. At this time, it was decided that the ship needed one single operator. A local millionaire, Jack Wrather, was in love with the ship, so he signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach to operate the entire property. Wrather Port Properties operated everything after his death in 1984 and in 1988, his holdings were bought by Walt Disney Company.

Wrather had built the Disneyland Hotel in 1955, when Walt Disney had insufficient funds to do it himself. He had been trying to buy the hotel for 30 years and once he finally got it, he acquired Queen Mary as well, but this was never marketed as a Disney property. In the late 80s to early 90s, Queen Mary was in financial trouble. Disney was planning to add a new attraction which would be called Port Disney. It would include an attraction on the docks known as DisneySea and there would be a theme park, but plans fell through. In 1992, Disney gave up the lease to the ship, but the concept was reused later, just not for Queen Mary.

In Japan, they did Tokyo DisneySea and they recreated an ocean liner that resembled Queen Mary, but it was named SS Columbia. Once Disney walked away from Queen Mary, the hotel closed on September 30th, 1992. The ship was nominated and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and the city gained control of the ship. On February 5th, 1993, RMS Foundation Inc signed a 5-year lease to act as the operators and it was reopened as a tourist attraction and the lease was extended to 20 years. The management of the ship has changed many times over the years and several different attractions have been brought in, but it hasn’t been maintained well. In 2017, a report was issued stating that Queen Mary was deteriorating, and the repair costs were estimated to be about $300 million. The city kicked in $23 million to address the most vital repairs, but it was concluded that, “without an immediate and very significant infusion of manpower and money, the condition of the ship will likely be unsalvageable.”

There were many incidents of neglect that included flooding of the Grand Ballroom with sewage after a pipe that had been patched up with duct tape burst. It was also critical that the lifeboats be removed because they had rotted and were in danger of collapsing. In October 2019, the City of Long Beach warned Urban Commons that the company was failing to uphold their commitment to the ship, and they were in danger of defaulting on its 66-year lease agreement. They responded by submitting a plan for repairs, but of course, due to Covid, they closed their doors in May of 2020 and Eagle Hospitality Trust filed for bankruptcy. Long Beach took control back in June 2021 and they had to address the urgent safety repairs. The ship was vulnerable to flooding or potentially capsizing. Repairs were done to save the ship and it now serves as a hotel, museum, and tourist attraction in Long Beach, California.

HAUNTINGS

Knocking or tapping sounds on the stateroom doors and walls

Doors open or unlock on their own

Phantom footsteps

Banging or hammering sounds

Lights that turn on and off

Disembodied voices

Cold spots

Items go missing or are moved to another location

Reports of seeing shadow figures

Electronic battery drainages

Scent of cigar smoke or cologne

Water splashing in the drained pools

Children laughing

Faces appear in the tiles

Males are seen wearing vintage overalls

Women are seen wearing 1930’s swimsuits

Ghost soldiers walk around the hallways or decks

The former first- and third-class pools and dressing stalls are the most haunted areas of the ship.

Now we’re going to go through some of the known ghosts.

JACKIE

May have been a stowaway

She has curly blond hair

Does not appear on ship manifests

Is she a spirit? Or a tulpa, psychokinetic or PK creation from all the people travelling to the ship and calling her name.

Psychic Peter James mentioned Jackie in the 1990s and he believed she drowned in the second-class pool.

Jackie likes to play games and sing songs. On the tour, they will have the guests sing London Bridge, the ABC’s, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The group will intentionally leave out words of the song to see if Jackie’s voice can be recorded, singing along.

Some investigators wonder if Jackie is even a little girl. Perhaps she is something darker? Could she be multiple spirits? Or a demonic entity that’s pretending to be a little girl?

Many mediums have said they feel a strong and evil energy on the ship.

SARAH

Child seen in the first- and third-class pool area, often in the dressing rooms

Some people believe she guards a portal that exists on the ship

Aggressive energy

Some people say she is around 8, but others say she is a teen

BOY IN NAVY BLUE

Toddler that has a blue light around him

Spotted in several staterooms, the deck, or pool area

Curly red hair with navy blue and white clothing

GHOST CAT

There’s a ghost cat in the dressing room

Belonged to a former crew member

Very talkative

ENGINE ROOM

Machinery sounds

Ghostly sightings

Disembodied voices

On July 10th, 1966, J.P., a former Queen Mary fireman and cleaner died on the ship. He was found around 4 AM, trapped in watertight door #13 located in the starboard shaft alley side of the aft engine room. He was only 18 years old when he died in the ship’s hospital. He is often seen in or near the area that he was trapped in, and he will sometimes ask visitors for a wrench. People that enter the engine room will often leave with mysterious grease marks on them.

There is a story about J.P.’s death that says he was playing a game of chicken with some of his crew members. They were seeing how fast they could slide through the doors as they were automatically closing and he wasn’t able to get through in time, but in the book, I read, the author believes this is false. The author pointed out that Cunard’s crew members were heavily trained and had a reputation for providing excellent service. Also, if the crew members knew he was in there, it’s likely that they would have gotten him out much quicker and perhaps he wouldn’t have died. The crew members who found his body didn’t report seeing anyone else in or near the engine room.

J.P. seems to like long, dark hair. During the tours, many young women with long brown hair have felt a little tug. There's also a young female child that hangs around this area.

JOHN HENRY

A boiler room worker passed away while on his shift. A few psychics say he got burnt in the boiler rooms, but his death wasn’t documented. He likes to communicate and during different EVP sessions he has confirmed that he likes beer, cigars and Christmas.

AMANDA

Female spirit in the boiler rooms who weeps, may be named Amanda, but again, no documentation of her death.

FEMALE CHILD

Approximately 4 years old

Blond hair

Wearing a light blue nightgown

Holds a stuffed animal

Can be heard giggling

LADY IN WHITE

Often seen in the hotel lobby bar, by the piano, but she also goes to the pool area, the bar, and the salon.

She wears a white evening gown

She is seen dancing

WINSTON CHURCHILL

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill has been seen many times on the Queen Mary

He smokes cigars on the Sun Decks, hangs around the Churchill Suite, or walks around the gift shop.

WILLIAM ERIC STARK

Senior Second Officer William Eric Stark ended his shift on September 18th, 1949, and he accidentally mixed a drink with lime juice and tetrachloride. This is a colorless liquid with a sweet chloroform like smell that can be detected at low levels. It used to be used in fire extinguishers or cleaning agents, but it was phased out because it can affect the nervous system and degenerate the liver and kidneys, or cause death. William believed it was gin, but he knew something was wrong immediately after drinking it. He had a stomachache and he said the drink tasted awful. He was fighting a cold at the time, so he wasn’t able to smell the tetrachloride. Unfortunately, he became very ill, fell into a coma and died on September 22nd of 1949. People have seen a man walking around the engine room, holding a clipboard, and they believed it’s William.

GRUMPY

Lurks under the stairs in the pool room and growls at people

LIST OF SOME DOCUMENTED SIGHTINGS

A dark figure of a woman wearing clothing from the 1930s to 1940s

Lights turn on and off by themselves

Drawers open on their own

Guests have seen their bags move across the floor on their own

A man was seen sitting in the chair next to a bed when a guest woke up

A woman was seen wearing a brown dress with a pink bow around her waist. She was sitting on the chair under the porthole, and she turned into mist when she walked towards the door.

The radio station changes on its own

There are sounds of clothing moving around in empty closets

Feelings of being watched

Reports of hearing whispers, laughter, and disembodied voices

Knocking on the doors, but no one is there

Guests have felt someone climbing into bed with them and they felt paralyzed, they also report that blankets are yanked off while they’re sleeping

Water faucets turn on during the middle of the night

Doors slam on their own

A man wearing trousers and a buttoned shirt was seen carrying a towel and toothbrush, then he vanished.

MYTH of B340

Legends say a man’s murdered body was found in the cabin’s bed, but some stories say it was a woman’s body and there is also talk of being poisoned to death, having a throat slit, gunshots, or maybe suicide. People say that hotel management no longer allows anyone to rent B340 due to paranormal activity, but it’s not true. The author of the book says that the legend began in the late 1980s to early 1990s when the Disney Company owned the ship’s management lease. The Disney cast wanted to scare visitors, so they started making up stories. There is no record of anyone dying in room B340 and the last time that particular cabin was actually used was in 1967, but that’s not due to paranormal activity.

The hotel portion of the ship opened up in late 1972 and it did not include any of the rooms on B deck. It wasn’t until the late 1980’s that some of the B deck rooms were opened up for use, but that one wasn’t included, and the plumbing hasn’t been functional in that room since the ship was docked in 1967.

PROPELLER ROOM

When the Queen Mary sliced HMS Curacoa (Keera-so-a) in half, sending it to the bottom of the ocean, many of the sailors were pushed into the propellers and dismembered. People have mentioned feeling very anxious or panicked in this room.

TITANIC

In the 1990s, the Queen Mary held the Titanic exhibit in the R Deck Forward area. Queen Mary was larger than the Titanic. It was about 1,018 feet long and weighed more than 81,000 tons and the Titanic was 883 feet long and weighed about 46,000 tons. So, it’s believed that some of the Titanic hauntings have transferred to the Queen Mary. There have been 49 documented deaths on the Queen Mary and there are potentially over 150 known spirits on the ship.

Theories:

The ship is haunted due to the tragedies that happened

Ghosts can be emotionally attached to certain objects and the ship is filled with antiques

The pools are portals to the other side and that explains why so many spirits are seen and heard in the pool area

The Queen Mary website says the hauntings are due to the “intriguing and varied past”

Spirits are able to draw energy from large bodies of water and the ship rests in the ocean.

I'll end with a poem by Joe Allen, titled The Mary

“Remember her with nostalgic awe,

The happiest ship ever, to the core,

She answered the call in Britain’s need,

Thwarting enemy subs with nimble speed.

Transporting troops to lands afar,

Earning the ‘Atlantic’, ‘Pacific’ and ‘Burma’ Star,

To injured seamen broken in fall,

She dashed to their rescue as the S.O.S. call.

The time has come for this Old Beauty,

To retire her from Atlantic duty,

When she sails off to Long Beach in atmosphere terse,

She will finish the engines her grand crew disperse

The toast is The Queen the end of an era,

Here’s to the Mary the greatest ship ever.”

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