"GHOSTS CAUGHT" On Queen Mary

Uploaded on Thursday 12 August 2010

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The Queen Mary is haunted and is no stranger to haunted happenings. Throughout the years, Queen Mary employees, guests and visiting psychics have reported unexplainable events and paranormal activity aboard the ship. Visitors to Shipwreck will have the opportunity to encounter these areas as they descend deep into the bowels of the ship and navigate the closed corridors and dark hallways of this massive haunted vessel!

Located 50 feet below water level is the Queen Mary's engine room, which is said to be a hotbed of paranormal activity. Used in the filming of the Poseidon Adventure, the room's infamous "Door 13" crushed at least two men to death, at different points during the ship's history. The most recent death, during a routine watertight door drill in 1966, crushed an 18 year-old crew member. Dressed in blue coveralls and sporting a beard, the young man has often been spied walking the length of Shaft Alley before disappearing by door #13.
Two more popular spot for the Queen’s other worldly guests are its first and second class swimming pools. Though neither are utilized today for their original purpose, spirits seemingly are not aware of that. In the first class swimming pool, which has been closed for more than three decades, women have often been seen appearing in 1930’s style swimming suits wandering the decks near the pool. Others have reported the sounds of splashing and spied wet footprints leading from the deck to the changing rooms. Some have also spied the spirit of a young girl, clutching her teddy bear.
In the second class poolroom, the spirit of another little girl named Jackie is often been seen and heard. The unfortunate girl drowned in the pool during the ship’s sailing days and reputedly refused to move on, as her voice, as well as the sounds of laughter has been captured here.
In the Queen’s Salon, which once served as the ship’s first-class lounge, a beautiful young woman in an elegant white evening gown has often been seen dancing alone in the shadows of the corner of the room.
Yet more odd occurrences have been made in a number of first-class staterooms. Here, reports have been made of a tall dark haired man appearing in a 1930’s style suit, as well as water running and lights turning on in the middle of the night, and phones ringing in the early morning hours with no one on the other end of the line.
In the third class children’s playroom, a baby’s cry has often been heard, which is thought to be the infant boy who died shortly after his birth.
Other phenomenon occurring throughout the ship, are the sounds of distinct knocks, doors slamming and high pitched squeals, drastic temperature changes, and the aromas of smells long past.
These are but a few of the many reports of apparitions and strange events occurring at this luxury liner turned hotel.

Quote: "In the area of this heavy door in the Engine Room, we got some very creepy feelings, Kathy Weiser, December, 2005."



QUEEN MARY SHIP:
In late August 1939, the Queen Mary was on a return run from New York to Southampton. However, the international situation led to her being escorted by the battlecruiser HMS Hood. She arrived safely, and set out again for New York on 1 September. By the time she arrived, the Second World War had started and she was ordered to remain in post until further notice alongside the Normandie. In 1940 the Queen Mary and the Normandie were joined in New York by Queen Mary's new running mate Queen Elizabeth fresh from her secret dash from the Clydebank. The three largest liners in the world sat idle for some time until the Allied commanders decided that all three ships could be used as troopships (unfortunately, the Normandie would be destroyed by fire during her troopship conversion).

The Queen Mary left New York for Sydney, where she, along with several other liners, was converted into a troopship to carry Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the United Kingdom. Eventually joined by the Queen Elizabeth, they were the largest and fastest troopships involved in the war, often carrying as many as 15,000 men in a single voyage, and often travelling out of convoy and without escort. During this period, because of their wartime grey camouflage livery and elusiveness, both Queens received the nickname "The Grey Ghost". Their high speed meant that it was virtually impossible for U-Boats to catch them. Once, Germany was nearly successful; whilst the Queen Mary was in South American waters, a radio signal was intercepted which indicated that spies had reported her last refuelling stop and a U-Boat was waiting on her line of voyage. After being alerted, the Queen Mary changed course and escaped.

On 2 October 1942, Queen Mary accidentally sank one of her escorts, slicing through the light cruiser HMS Curacoa off the Irish coast, with the loss of 338 lives. Due to the constant danger of being attacked by U-Boats, on board the Queen Mary Captain C. Gordon Illinsworth was under strict orders not to stop for any reason, the Royal Navy destroyers accompanying the Queen were ordered to reverse course and rescue any survivors.

In December 1942, the Queen Mary was carrying exactly 16,082 American troops from New York to Great Britain, a standing record for the most passengers ever transported on one vessel. While 700 miles from Scotland during a gale, she was suddenly hit broadside by a rogue wave that reached a height of 28 metres (92 ft). An account of this crossing can be found in Walter Ford Carter's book, No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love. Carter's father, Dr. Norval Carter, part of the 110th Station Hospital on board at the time, wrote that at one point the Queen Mary "damned near capsized... One moment the top deck was at its usual height and then, swoom! Down, over, and forward she would pitch." The incident inspired Paul Gallico to write his story, The Poseidon Adventure, which was later made into a film by the same name, using the Queen Mary as a stand-in for the SS Poseidon.

During the war, the Queen Mary carried British Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic for meetings with fellow Allied forces officials, he would be listed on the passenger manifest as "Colonel Warden" and insisted that the lifeboat assigned to him had a .303 machine gun fitted to it so he could "resist capture at all costs".


The world's most famous ghost tours aboard the Queen Mary. Throughout the Ghosts & Legends show, you'll see - and experience - first-hand the haunts of the ship's most-reported spirits. During this daily ghost tour, visitors will find themselves entranced by the dramatized reenactments of actual paranormal and historic events that guests and crew members have reported over the years.

One of this ghost tour's most hallowed spots is the ship's pool, where wet footprints mysteriously appear and women in vintage bathing suits visit for a leisurely swim - even though the pool has been drained of water and out of use for more than 30 years. Are these ghostly apparitions real - or a figment of the imagination?

Testimonials from passengers and crew members continue to be reported and documented, but do ghosts really exist aboard the Queen Mary? Review the myths, legends and evidence on this one-of-a-kind ghost tour and decide for yourself.




"Grey Ghost"
Resting in Long Beach Harbor is the HMS Queen Mary, a colossal ship that was bigger, faster and more powerful than the Titanic. The 1,000-foot ship began her life when the first keel plate was laid in 1930 at the John Brown shipyard in Clyde, Scotland. The depression held up her construction between 1931 and 1934, but she was finally completed, making her maiden voyage on May 27, 1936.
For three years the grand ocean liner hosted the world’s rich and famous across the Atlantic including the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, David Niven, Mary Pickford, George and Ira Gershwin, and Sir Winston Churchill, just to name a few. Considered by the upper-class to be the only civilized way to travel, she held the record for the fastest-ever North Atlantic crossing.
Resting in Long Beach Harbor is the HMS Queen Mary, a colossal ship that was bigger, faster and more powerful than the Titanic. The 1,000-foot ship began her life when the first keel plate was laid in 1930 at the John Brown shipyard in Clyde, Scotland. The depression held up her construction between 1931 and 1934, but she was finally completed, making her maiden voyage on May 27, 1936.
For three years the grand ocean liner hosted the world’s rich and famous across the Atlantic including the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, David Niven, Mary Pickford, George and Ira Gershwin, and Sir Winston Churchill, just to name a few. Considered by the upper-class to be the only civilized way to travel, she held the record for the fastest-ever North Atlantic crossing.

DETAILS

Language: English

Country: United States


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