RMS Queen Mary

This post is contributed by my friend Katia who spent four days aboard the RMS Queen Mary at Halloween last year.

RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967. Along with her sister ship, RMS Queen Elizabeth, they were British response to the superliners built by German and French companies in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936. After the outbreak of World War II, she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers across the Atlantic. Among the notable guests was British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was listed on the passenger manifest as “Colonel Warden”.

Following the war Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service and was officially retired from service in 1967. She left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and sailed to the port of Long Beach, California, where she remains permanently moored.

Nowadays the ship serves as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum, and a hotel. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is part of the Historic Hotels of America.

The ship was the site of many paranormal activities and was ranked as “one of the top 10 most haunted places in the world” by Time Magazine in 2008.

Below are Katia’s experience on the Queen Mary:

My stateroom was small with outdated furnishing. The air felt dense and heavy, not comfortable.

After checking in, I took a guided tour. At the swimming pool, my camera’s flash began to act funny. These rays/rods showed up in pictures of two different areas around the pool. I could not find the light source to explain the behavior.

The next morning I woke up at 2, hearing child footsteps in the hallway. I thought it strange at this hour, but then it could be some late arriving guest. I heard the same steps again around the same time the following morning. What puzzled me most was that I did not see any family on board the ship. (I was there for a technical conference) The suspense deepened…

The day of my departure, I got up early to catch a morning flight. At about 4AM, there was a loud bang at my door. I peeked through the peephole but saw nobody outside. During check out, I mentioned to the hotel staff their wake-up “knock”, I was told that none was scheduled. Maybe it was they simply forgot, maybe it was someone playing pranks on me – I will never find out. But what I do know is that I was happy to leave the hotel that day and fly home.

Katia’s story prompted me to look up paranormal activities on the RMS Queen Mary. It turned out that there were no lack of them. The pool, for instance, has been one of the most active haunted areas – largely by people who drowned there. The most famous one, however, is stateroom B340 – faucets were said to turn on by themselves, and sheets from the bed flown across the room – people claim that it is haunted by the ghost of a murdered staff. The activity became so disturbing that the hotel management decided to keep it from renting out.

Happy Halloween!

RMS Queen Mary
Address: 1126 Queens Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90802
Phone: (877) 342-0738
Webpage: http://www.queenmary.com/