Long Beach
Queen Mary Hotel
This ocean liner, now permanently docked at the Port of Long Beach, was commissioned in 1936 and made over a thousand Atlantic crossings. Many incidents of strange rapping noises, moving objects, disembodied voices, and ghostly apparitions have been reported by staff, guests, and investigators on the dry docked ship.
The First Class Swimming Pool is haunted by the ghosts of two women who drowned there. One is dressed in 1960's clothing and the other wears 1930s attire. The forlorn ghost of a little boy who fell overboard near the pool has also been sighted in the passageway there. Many psychics have had detected strongly negative feelings in the Changing Rooms at the end of the pool.
The old first class lounge, now know as the Queens Salon, is haunted by the ghost of a beautiful woman in a flowing white dress. Unexplainable balls of light and the apparition of a black-haired man in a 1930's suit have been seen by tour guides in the First Class Suite area.
The Forward Storage Room, where the ship�s archives are kept, is haunted by the sounds of children playing. Inexplicable pounding sounds have been recorded near the Bosun�s Locker, which is the area of the hull which sliced the British Light Cruiser Curacoa in half during World War II.
Because of her wartime sailing orders, the Queen Mary was not allowed to stop to rescue survivors, and 338 men perished in the cold ocean. The Tourist Class Swimming Pool is haunted by the presence of a woman who drowned in it, and the third-level Cabin B340 is haunted by a murdered purser and is no longer rented out because of unexplained disturbances there.
Poltergeist activity has been reported in the Kitchen, where a cook was murdered during World War II. It is said his cooking was so terrible that it caused a riot among troops being carried to the front. The violence quickly got out of hand and the cook ended up stuffed inside an oven and burned to death. His ghastly screams were somehow impregnated into the ship's iron bulkhead and are sometimes replayed to startled visitors.
The ghosts in the ship�s Morgue could have any of a number of identities. Sixteen crewmembers, two G.I.s and 31 passengers have died on the ship. But the most documented sighting is the apparition of an 18-year-old crewman, John Pedder. Pedder was crushed to death while trying to slip through an automatically closing door in Shaft Alley during a routine watertight drill on July 10, 1966. It was hatchway Door #13.
Another crewman is allegedly haunting the Queen Mary is Senior 2nd Officer William Stark. He was accidentally poisoned in 1949, when he drank tetrachloride that the staff captain kept in an old gin bottle. So far, over fifty witnesses have reported paranormal happenings on this ship, and the list keeps growing.
The Queen Mary Hotel and Museum is berthed at Pier J in the Port of Long Beach. The mailing address is: The Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, CA 90802-6390. Call 310-435-3511 for information or 800-437-2934 for reservations.