Long Beach, California is home to the former cruise ship RMS Queen Mary. Though this vessel survived duty during World War II, it didn’t survive the jet age, which ravaged the transatlantic cruise line business from the late 1950s onward. In 1966, Cunard sold Queen Mary to the city of Long Beach for $3.45 million. Five years later, the old ship reopened as a floating hotel boasting hundreds of rooms and volumes of period artwork and wood carvings. Now, there are 347 rooms and suites aboard the Queen Mary at a three-star standard with amenities including Serta mattresses, flat-screen TVs, and safety deposit boxes.
All of this character belies the Queen Mary’s dark history, which could rank it among the most haunted destinations in the world, such as Mexico’s Island of the Dolls. At least 47 people died on the ship during her career and a further 337 perished when Queen Mary crashed into and sank HMS Curacoa on October 2, 1942.
As is the case for many of America’s best haunted hotels, like Colorado’s Stanley Hotel, such tragedies have helped stir superstitious legends around the Queen Mary. Both guests and staff have reported knocking in the night, water running in empty rooms, and even covers pulled off a freshly made bed. Are these stories explainable? Are they mistaken or fabricated? Or are there truly numerous apparitions that haunt this venerable ship? Delve into the macabre phenomena on some of the best spooky ghost tours in America, including the Queen Mary’s Haunted Encounters Tour, and spend the night aboard…if you dare.
Haunted rooms on the Queen Mary
During the Haunted Encounters Tour and other paranormal offerings on the Queen Mary, you’ll hear about the ship’s many spooky happenings. Staff have seen a little girl wandering Boiler Room #4 on more than one occasion, either sucking her thumb or carrying a doll. No one has gotten close enough to discover any more about her. Elsewhere in the ship’s innards is Hatch Door #13, which crushed an 18-year-old crew member in 1966. The poor man’s ghost is said to be a regular down there, running along the hallways asking for his wrench…