Featured image credit: Russ Allison Loar
The Queen Mary has quite the reputation. No, we don’t mean a disgraced monarch. We’re talking about the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary permanently moored in the Port of Long Beach. You know, the allegedly haunted Queen Mary? She ferried the world’s ultra-wealthy across the globe’s blue highway for nearly three decades under the Cunard banner before dropping anchor for the last time in 1967. And during that time, she’s said to have picked up around 150 seafaring souls with enough poltergeist power to earn a spot on Time Magazine’s list of most haunted places in America in 2008. But are the haunted Queen Mary claims more solid than the ghosts they claim? Or is some high-seas hornswogglery going on behind the scenes?
From Luxury Liner to Grey Ghost
On September 26, 1934, the Queen Mary set sail on her maiden voyage. Queen Mary (not the haunted Queen Mary, the human one) was there to christen her, underscoring that this was a big deal. And that’s even before any ghosts were involved. For years, the RMS Queen Mary maintained its reputation for elegance against the rigors of the sea. Then, in 1940, everything changed.
With the world plunged into a second world war, military need commandeered luxury. The fine furnishings and lavish art were removed to make room for troop transport. Portholes were painted black and welded closed. But the transformation was fully completed with the vibrant smokestacks being bathed in coat after coat of grim grey paint. The effect was so stunningly different that soldiers took to calling her the “Grey Ghost.” She had effectively become a bleak phantom of herself.
The Queen Mary managed to survive the years of the war, even dodging a bounty from Adolf Hitler himself, offering $250K and the iron cross to the man who sunk Mary. Still, her ashen frame carried countless soldiers to and from the battlefields in absurd numbers. At one point, the Queen Mary managed to cram 16,600 people into a single voyage; a record that remains unbroken.
An Otherworldly Entry for Seafaring Souls
But this all sounds more romantic than it was for the poor men trying in vain to sleep in her unventilated corridors. Even on deck, they slept shoulder to shoulder as she sailed them to what was very likely an early grave. Stories tell of a madness that gripped the passengers on those tense voyages. But the Queen Mary never faltered in her purpose. When the war was over, she still stood atop the water as proud, if not as beautiful, as the day she was christened.
Amazingly, the Queen Mary returned to passenger service shortly after the war. Her luxury was restored in a manner that almost seemed to scrub those grey years away from her history. But those who believe in the haunted Queen Mary, the one infested with parasitic spirits, cite the war as the event that changed everything. The misery sustained by the souls being shuttled to the void of war just couldn’t be dismissed with a new paint job.
The Queen Mary’s Life After Retirement
Though the war left the Queen Mary unscathed, she was still no match for the passage of time. With the advent of modern cruise ships and the commercial airliner, retirement was inevitable. So, in 1967, the Queen Mary sailed into Long Beach where she dropped anchor for the last time. The city had purchased the aging ocean liner from Cunard with the plan to revitalize her as a tourist attraction and hotel literally on the water. And under this model, the Queen Mary began welcoming guests again in 1972.
Over the decades, Long Beach contracted out management of the Queen Mary to a revolving door of companies, including Pacific Southwest Airlines and Hyatt. But the most recognizable brand to take a crack at the ship was Disney. As with pretty much all things Disney, their plan was ambitious. They weren’t that interested in the Queen Mary herself, but more in the surrounding land which they wanted to host a 443-acre theme park dubbed Port Disney. But conflicts with the California Coastal Commission ended up relegating Port Disney to yet another of Mary’s ghosts.
The Era of the Haunted Queen Mary
Disney also seized on an opportunity that may have contributed to the haunted Queen Mary tales that have steeped the ocean liner in spectral infamy. It was under Disney’s watch that the first ghost tours of the ship were offered to the public. And though the Mouse has come and gone, every manager that has subsequently taken on the looming responsibility of the Queen Mary has leaned into her paranormal lore.
The Queen Mary’s years as a war ferry are often cited as an entry point for the kind of violence and tragedy commonly associated with purported paranormal activity. But ghost stories about the ocean liner weren’t popularized until the 1980s. And during her time at sea, the Queen Mary was the site of only around 50 recorded deaths; the majority of those from natural causes. Still, on the day of her maiden voyage, the Queen Mary’s spooky reputation was presaged by prominent English psychic Lady Mable Fortiscue-Harrison. She allegedly declared, “The Queen Mary will know her greatest fame and popularity when she never sails another mile or carries another fare-paying passenger.”
Marine Mayhem Aboard Mary
From the ‘80s onward, guests and crew alike have painted the Queen Mary as a lightning rod for paranormal activity. Lights snap on. Doors open and close seemingly of their own volition. Disembodied whistles, screams, laughter, knocks, and conversations dog the unsuspecting (and, to be fair, the eagerly anticipating). Cold patches hang ominously in corridors. And, on very rare occasions, people even allege to see the specters themselves.
Several accounts persist of a young girl haunting boiler room #4, appearing to suck her thumb while toting a doll. A woman frequents room B-474, allegedly the echo of a woman shot by her father while both were passengers. Strange tales of murder and mayhem seem to permeate every room and corridor. But some areas seem to be a bit more haunted than others.
The Queen Mary’s Haunted Hotspots
If you believe the tales, the most active areas of the haunted Queen Mary include:
- The Engine Room (specifically watertight door 13)
- The Mauretania Room (a.k.a. the Garden Lounge)
- The Queen’s Room (formerly the first-class salon)
- Room B340 (regarded as the most haunted point of the ship)
- Room B474 (where the aforementioned murder allegedly occurred)
- The Swimming Pools (particularly the first-class pool)
The Mauretania Room
In 1989, two members of the cleaning crew entered the Mauretania Room (or “Garden Lounge”) to prepare it for a VIP event. They were immediately greeted by the sight of a man sitting alone in a chair in the center of the dancefloor. As the man mutely stared at the cleaners, a third crewmember joined them and, believing the man to be a guest, asked him to move. He responded with an eerie stare. Alarmed, one of the women called for security. While never breaking his gaze, he seemed to simply evaporate into the ether.
The Queen’s Room
Over ten years later in 2001, a member of the Queen Mary’s accounting team arrived early to work in the ship’s former salon which had been converted to offices. At approximately 5:30 am, she began to feel a chill. A force brushed against the back of her chair, though she was alone. Moments later, she witnessed a transparent entity, clad in white, casually move across the office area and pass through the solid door.
The Engine Room
One of the most enduring ghost stories of the Queen Mary is that of 18-year-old crewmember John Pedder who was crushed to death behind watertight door 13 during a routine drill. Accounts describe Pedder’s ghost as a benign presence, recognizable by his beard and overalls. He’ll often enquire about the whereabouts of his wrench or whistle to alert guests of his presence before fading away.
The Swimming Pools
Arguably the area with the most detailed eyewitness accounts, the Queen Mary’s first-class swimming pool is rumored to be haunted by Jackie Torin, a spirited little girl who allegedly drowned on the premises. While she tends to frequent the pool, guests and crew have also sighted her elsewhere on the ship. Witnesses describe wet footprints running alongside the pool and the disembodied sounds of children splashing and giggling. What makes these accounts so unsettling is that the swimming pool has been bone dry for years. It was drained due to failure to meet California’s code.
Witnesses describe seeing other ghosts near the pools of the haunted Queen Mary as well. These include a young woman wearing a tennis skirt, a woman in an antique bridal gown, a besuited little boy, and even a seemingly sentient cloud of mist. Perhaps ghosts love swimming pools just as much as we do. But psychics have proposed the prolific paranormal activity results from the presence of a vortex hovering in a hallway leading to the swimming pool dressing rooms. It supposedly allows easy travel between the land of the living and the dead.
Stateroom B340
But no area of the ship holds the same notoriety as stateroom B340. Steeped in urban legend, the room didn’t originally exist. Rather, it is the combination of three former third-class staterooms. Among them was room B226 in which British author Walter J. Adamson was said to have passed. Another tale insists that a passenger murdered two women before being locked by the crew in his third-class room. Accounts state that the murderous prisoner began frantically banging at the door, begging to be let out, claiming something was inside the room with him. When the crew opened the door in the morning, they discovered the man’s mutilated body.
Dating from the late ‘60s, the area that would become stateroom B340 was a seemingly constant source of guest complaints. The water in the bathroom would mysteriously turn on without prompting. A rapping at the cabin door would wake sleeping guests. But the worst was a shadowy figure, startling slumberers by pulling their sheets off and staring at them eerily from the foot of the bed. Due to these complaints, the room was barred from the public sometime in the 1980s.
Yet, in 2018, stateroom B340 was once again made available for booking with marketing leaning into the room’s hair-raising reputation. For one, management reopened the room on Friday, April 13. If that was too subtle, the room includes a chest packed with tarot cards, ghost hunting gear, a crystal ball, and a Ouija board.
The Dubious Truth Underlying the Haunted Queen Mary Legend
This all leads to the spectral elephant in the room for the haunted Queen Mary which becomes more and more solid with each modern fact about the deteriorating ocean liner. A haunted Queen Mary brings in more money than a ghost-free Queen Mary. In March 2021, Urban Commons, a brand that had taken over control of the Queen Mary’s operations, filed for bankruptcy. The city of Long Beach donated to the ship’s upkeep with $23 million but it still wasn’t enough. When the ship reverted to Long Beach’s control, the city used available funds to address the most pressing repairs. But the Queen Mary was getting older. And over the decades that it sat moored in Long Beach, a high number of brands that took on operations of the ship lost a staggering amount of money.
But then we have to factor in the ghosts themselves. Ocean liners like the Queen Mary keep meticulous records and logs documenting occurrences on the ship. Certainly, they’d note violent murders. Yet you’ll need a lot of luck to find any reputable mention of the violence linked to stateroom B340. Or any drowning deaths at the ship’s swimming pools. Or a father gunning down his daughter in room B474. In fact, virtually all of the confirmed deaths recorded on the Queen Mary stem from natural charges. Even British author Walter J. Adamson who seems to only exist via articles about stateroom B340.
All that we can say for certain is that the Queen Mary is an immaculate piece of history. The fact that it’s right here in Long Beach is a privilege. And if ghost stories maintain that privilege, we’re all for it. Then again, you won’t catch us spending the night in stateroom B340 anytime soon.
