RMS QUEEN MARY

Description

Essentials about the RMS Queen Mary in brief

The RMS Queen Mary is probably the most unusual hotel in Los Angeles. Those who like to spend the night on a former luxury liner can rent a cabin on what has now become a floating hotel called Hotel The Queen Mary. The RMS Queen Mary has been moored in Long Island Harbor since the late 1970s.

The history of the RMS Queen Mary

The RMS Queen Mary was commissioned by the famous Cunard Line in 1936. According to Cunard tradition, the ship’s name ending in -ia was actually intended to be “Victoria”. At the request of King George V to christen the ship after “Britain’s greatest queen”, he is said to have said that his wife, Queen Mary of Teck, would feel very honored to provide her name for this magnificent ship. Of course, the shipping company had no choice but to announce that the ship would be christened “Queen Mary”.

The maiden voyage took the Queen Mary on the classic Atlantic route from Southampton in England to New York City in May 1936. However, due to dense fog, the ship was unable to capture the famous “Blue Ribbon” for the fastest Atlantic crossing. From 1938 to 1952, the Queen Mary was the fastest liner in the world and the undisputed bearer of the Blue Ribbon.

In 1940, the Queen Mary was converted for use in World War II. She served primarily as a troop transport for soldiers to Australia to expand the Pacific front. In October 1942, the worst incident in the Queen Mary’s history occurred. Approximately 10,000 soldiers were on board on a transport mission from the United States to Great Britain. Due to the danger of U-boats in the Atlantic, the Queen Mary was on a constant zigzag course the entire trip and was never allowed to stop, according to orders from the fleet command.

The technically obsolete cruiser HMS Curacoa was used for escort, which could hardly reach the speed set by the Queen Mary and therefore had to maintain a straight course. About 80 kilometers off the coast of Northern Ireland, due to several navigational and communication errors on both sides, the Curacoa ran into the bow of the Queen Mary and was rammed and cut amidships at full speed. The aft part of the escort cruiser sank almost immediately, the forward part after a few minutes. Of the 336 men on board, only 26 crew members survived.

After the war, the Queen Mary was returned to the Cunard Line and rebuilt for civilian purposes. In July 1947, the ship embarked on its first post-war voyage. Due to the increased popularity of air travel across the Atlantic, large passenger liners became unprofitable in the 1960s. On September 16, 1967, the Queen Mary sailed on her last crossing and was subsequently decommissioned.

The RMS Queen Mary as a hotel ship

The municipality of Long Beach subsequently bought the renowned ship and converted it into a floating hotel. In the process, the boiler rooms and the forward engine room were completely stripped out; only the aft engine room with its huge turbines remained as a museum. The funnels, which had been removed to better gut the engine rooms, were also scrapped due to their heavy rusting and replaced by identical-looking plastic dummies. The ship’s outside cabins were converted into hotel rooms, so that today The Queen Mary Hotel has 365 rooms with portholes as windows. Since then, The Queen Mary Hotel in Long Beach Harbor has been successfully used as a museum, hotel and convention center.

The ghosts on board of the RMS Queen Mary

However, caution is advised when spending the night on the RMS Queen Mary. Because on the ship some ghosts are said to be up to mischief. Devotees of paranormal phenomena believe that the Queen Mary is haunted by hundreds of ghosts of sailors who once died in the war. Sounds of metal bursting, eerie screams and taps suddenly gushing water even earned the Queen Mary a place in the top ten scariest places in the U.S. in 2008.

Notorious is cabin B340. Here, a poltergeist is said to be up to mischief, having torn out carpets, destroyed lamps, and even torn the blankets off hotel guests at night. The vandalic spirit has already left the hotel management with several repair bills. Meanwhile, the cabin is no longer rented to hotel guests. If all this is too scary for you, you can also just take a guided tour of the RMS Queen Mary.