RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily on the North

Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line. Built by John Brown &
Company in Clydebank, Scotland, Queen Mary along with her running mate,
the RMS Queen Elizabeth, were built as part of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly
express service between Southampton, Cherbourg, and New York City. The two ships
were a British response to the superliners built by German and French companies in
the late 1920s and early 1930s. Queen Mary was the flagship of the Cunard Line from
May 1936 until October 1946 when she was replaced in that role by Queen Elizabeth.
Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936 and captured the Blue
Riband in August of that year; she lost the title to SS Normandie in 1937 and
recaptured it in 1938, holding it until 1952 when she was beaten by the
new SS United States. With the outbreak of World War II, she was converted into a
troopship and ferried allied soldiers for the duration of the war. Following the
war, Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service and along with Queen Elizabeth,
commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger service for which the two ships were
initially built. The two ships dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation
market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s, Queen
Mary was ageing and, though still among the most popular transatlantic liners, was
operating at a loss.
After several years of decreased profits for Cunard Line, Queen Mary was
officially retired from service in 1967. She left Southampton for the last time on 31
October 1967 and sailed to the port of Long Beach, California, United States, where
she remains permanently moored. Much of the machinery, including one of the two
engine rooms, three of the four propellers, and all of the boilers, were removed. The
ship serves as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum, and hotel. The ship
is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Trust for Historic
Preservation has accepted the Queen Mary as part of the Historic Hotels of America.
With Germany launching Bremen and Europe into service, Britain did not want
to be left behind in the shipbuilding race. White Star Line began construction on their
80,000-ton Oceanic in 1928, while Cunard planned a 75,000-ton unnamed ship of
their own.
Construction on the ship, then known only as "Hull Number 534", began in
December 1930 on the River Clyde by the John Brown & Company shipyard at
Clydebank in Scotland. Work was halted in December 1931 due to the Great
Depression and Cunard applied to the British Government for a loan to complete 534.
The loan was granted, with enough money to complete Queen Maryand to build a
running mate, Hull No. 552, which became Queen Elizabeth. One condition of the
loan was that Cunard would merge with the White Star Line, which was Cunard's
chief British rival at the time and which had already been forced by the depression to
cancel construction of its Oceanic. Both lines agreed and the merger was completed
on 10 May 1934. Work on Queen Mary resumed immediately and she was launched
on 26 September 1934. Completion ultimately took 3 12 years and cost 3.5 million
pounds sterling. Much of the ship's interior was designed and constructed by
the Bromsgrove Guild.
The ship was named after Queen Mary, consort of King George V. Until her launch,
the name she was to be given was kept a closely guarded secret. Legend has it that
Cunard intended to name the ship Victoria, in keeping with company tradition of
giving its ships names ending in "ia", but when company representatives asked the
king's permission to name the ocean liner after Britain's "greatest queen", he said his
wife, Queen Mary, would be delighted. And so, the legend goes, the delegation had of
course no other choice but to report that No. 534 would be called Queen Mary. This
story was denied by company officials, and traditionally the names of sovereigns have
only been used for capital ships of the Royal Navy. Some support for the story was
provided by Washington Post editor Felix Morley, who sailed as a guest of the Cunard
Line on Queen Mary's 1936 maiden voyage. In his 1979 autobiography, For the
Record, Morley wrote that he was placed at table with Sir Percy Bates, chairman of
the Cunard Line. Bates told him the story of the naming of the ship "on condition you
won't print it during my lifetime." The name Queen Mary could also have been
decided upon as a compromise between Cunard and the White Star Line, as both lines
had traditions of using names either ending in "ic" with White Star and "ia" with
Cunard.
History(1934-1939)
There was already a Clyde turbine steamer named TS Queen Mary, so Cunard
White Star reached an agreement with the owners that the existing steamer would be
renamed TS Queen Mary II, and in 1934 the new liner was launched by Queen Mary
as RMS Queen Mary. On her way down the slipway, Queen Mary was slowed by
eighteen drag chains, which checked the liner's progress into the Clyde, a portion of
which had been widened to accommodate the launch.
When she sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England on 27 May 1936,
she was commanded by Sir Edgar T. Britten, who had been the master designate for
Cunard White Star whilst the ship was under construction at the John Brown
shipyard. Queen Mary had a 80,774 gross tonnage; her rival, Normandie, which
originally grossed 79,280 tonnes, had been modified the preceding winter to increase
her size to 83,243 GT (an enclosed tourist lounge was built on the aft boat deck on the
area where the game court was), and therefore kept the title of the world's largest
ocean liner. Queen Mary sailed at high speeds for most of her maiden voyage to New
York, until heavy fog forced a reduction of speed on the final day of the crossing.
 Queen Mary's design was criticised for being too traditional, especially when
Normandie's hull was revolutionary with a clipper-shaped, streamlined bow. Except
for her cruiser stern, she seemed to be an enlarged version of her Cunard predecessors
from the pre-World War I era. Her interior design ,while mostly Art Deco seemed
restrained and conservative when compared to the ultramodern French liner.
However, Queen Mary proved to be the more popular vessel than her larger rival, in
terms of passengers carried.
In August 1936, Queen Mary captured the Blue Riband from Normandie, with
average speeds of 30.14 knots (55.82 km/h; 34.68 mph) westbound and 30.63 knots
(56.73 km/h; 35.25 mph) eastbound. Normandie was refitted with a new set of
propellers in 1937 and reclaimed the honour, but in 1938 Queen Mary took back the
Blue Riband in both directions with average speeds of 30.99 knots (57.39 km/h;
35.66 mph) westbound and 31.69 knots (58.69 km/h; 36.47 mph) eastbound, records
which stood until lost to United States in 1952.
Interior
Among facilities available on board Queen Mary, the liner featured two indoor
swimming pools, beauty salons, libraries, and children's nurseries for all three classes,
a music studio and lecture hall, telephone connectivity to anywhere in the world,
outdoor paddle tennis courts, and kennels dog. The largest room onboard was the
cabin class (first class) main dining room (grand salon), spanning three stories in
height and anchored by wide columns. The cabin-class swimming pool facility
spanned over two decks in height. This was the first ocean liner to be equipped with
her own Jewish prayer room part of a policy to show that British shipping lines
avoided the racism evident at that time in Nazi Germany.
The cabin-class main dining room featured a large map of the transatlantic
crossing, with twin tracks symbolising the winter/spring route (further south to avoid
icebergs) and the summer/autumn route. During each crossing, a motorised model
of Queen Mary would indicate the vessel's progress en route.
As an alternative to the main dining room, the Queen Mary featured a separate
cabin-class Verandah Grill on the Sun Deck at the upper aft of the ship. The Verandah
Grill was an exclusive la carte restaurant with a capacity of approximately eighty
passengers, and was converted to the Starlight Club at night. Also on board was the
Observation Bar, an Art Deco-styled lounge with wide ocean views.
Woods from different regions of the British Empire were used in her public rooms and
staterooms. Accommodation ranged from fully equipped, luxurious cabin (first) class
staterooms to modest and cramped third-class cabins. Artists commissioned by
Cunard in 1933 for works of art in the interior include Edward Wadsworth and A.
Duncan Carse.
 Wolrd War II

Arriving in New York Harbour, 20 June 1945, with thousands of US soldiers note
the prominent degaussing coil running around the outer hull

In late August 1939, Queen Mary was on a return run from New York to
Southampton. The international situation led to her being escorted by the battle
cruiser 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 port alongside Normandie until further notice. In March
1940 Queen Mary and Normandie were joined in New York by Queen Mary's new
running mate Queen Elizabeth, fresh from her secret dash from 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 (Normandie was destroyed by fire
during her troopship conversion). Queen Mary left New York for Sydney, Australia,
where she, along with several other liners, was converted into a troopship to carry
Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the United Kingdom.

Queen Mary's forward superstructure, shown here in Long Beach. When she came to
Long Beach, the Sun Deck windows were enlarged and an anti-aircraft gun was
placed on display astride the foremast to represent the World War II days of the great
liner.

In the World War II conversion, the ship's hull, superstructure and funnels were
painted navy grey. As a result of her new colour, and in combination with her great
speed, she became known as the "Grey Ghost." To protect against magnetic mines,
a degaussing coil was fitted around the outside of the hull. Inside, stateroom furniture
and decoration were removed and replaced with triple-tiered wooden bunks (which
were later replaced by standee bunks). Six miles of carpet, 220 cases of china, crystal
and silver service, tapestries and paintings were removed and stored in warehouses for
the duration of the war. The woodwork in the staterooms, the cabin-class dining room
and other public areas was covered with leather. Queen Mary and Queen
Elizabeth 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. Their high speed made it difficult for U-boats to catch them.
On 2 October 1942, Queen Mary accidentally sank one of her escort ships,
slicing through the light cruiser HMS Curacao off the Irish coast with a loss of 239
lives. Queen Mary was carrying thousands of Americans of the 29th Infantry Division
to join the Allied forces in Europe. Due to the risk of U-boat attacks, Queen Mary was
under orders not to stop under any circumstances and steamed onward with a
fractured stem. Some sources claim that hours later, the convoy's lead escort returned
to rescue 99 survivors of Curacao's crew of 338, including her captain John W. Bout
wood. This claim is contradicted by the liner's then Staff Captain (and later Cunard
Commodore) Harry Grattidge, who records that Queen Mary's Captain immediately
ordered the accompanying destroyers to look for survivors within moments of
the Curacao's sinking.
In December 1942, Queen Mary carried 16,082 American soldiers from New
York to Great Britain, a standing record for the most passengers ever transported on
one vessel. During this trip, while 700 miles (1,100 km) from Scotland during a gale,
she was suddenly hit broadside by a rogue wave that may have 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 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." It was calculated later that
the ship rolled 52 degrees, and would have capsized had she rolled another 3 degrees.
The incident inspired Paul Gallico to write his novel, The Poseidon Adventure (1969)
and carry the incident to a fictional extreme. This was adapted as a 1972 film by the
same name, in which the SS Poseidon is turned upside-down, and the trapped
passengers try to escape.
During the war, Queen Mary carried British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill across the Atlantic for meetings with fellow Allied forces officials on
several occasions. He was listed on the passenger manifest as "Colonel Warden".
The ship was also used to return American troops from Europe after the war.

After World War II

 Queen Mary in Southampton, June 1960

Queen Mary at New York, c 1961

From September 1946 to July 1947, Queen Mary was refitted for passenger
service, adding air conditioning and upgrading her berth configuration to 711 first
class (formerly called cabin class), 707 cabin class (formerly tourist class) and 577
tourist class (formerly third class) passengers. Following refit, Queen
Mary and Queen Elizabeth dominated the transatlantic passenger trade as Cunard
White Star's two-ship weekly express service through the latter half of the 1940s and
well into the 1950s. They proved highly profitable for Cunard (as the company was
renamed in 1947).
In 1958 the first transatlantic flight by a jet began a completely new era of
competition for the Cunard Queens. On some voyages, winters especially, Queen
Mary sailed into harbour with more crew than passengers, though both she and Queen
Elizabeth still averaged over 1000 passengers per crossing into the middle 1960s. By
1965, the entire Cunard fleet was operating at a loss.

Queen Mary on the North Sea - 1959

Hoping to continue financing their still-under-construction Queen Elizabeth
2, Cunard mortgaged the majority of the fleet. Finally, due to a combination of age,
lack of public interest, inefficiency in a new market, and the damaging after effects of
the national seamen's strike, Cunard announced that both Queen Mary and Queen
Elizabeth would be retired from service and sold off. Many offers were submitted, and
the bid of $3.45m/1.2m from Long Beach, California beat the Japanese scrap
merchants. Queen Mary was retired from service in 1967. On 27 September, she
completed her 1,000th and last crossing of the North Atlantic, having carried
2,112,000 passengers over 3,792,227 miles (6,102,998 km). Under the command of
Captain John Treasure Jones, who had been her captain since 1965, she sailed from
Southampton for the last time on 31 October with 1,093 passengers and 806 crew.
After an epic voyage around Cape Horn, she arrived in Long Beach on 9
December. Queen Elizabeth was withdrawn in 1968 and Queen Elizabeth 2 took over
the transatlantic route in 1969.

Queen Mary from the Northern side of Long Beach harbour

Queen Mary is permanently moored as a tourist attraction, hotel, museum, and

event facility in Long Beach. From 1983 to 1993, Howard Hughes' plane Spruce
Goose, was located in a large dome nearby. (This structure is now used by Carnival
Cruise Lines as a ship terminal, and as a venue for the local roller derby team, the
Long Beach Derby Gals.) an event venue, it was formerly a soundstage.
Since drilling had started for oil in Long Beach Harbour, some of the revenue
had been set aside in the "Tidelands Oil Fund." Some of this money was allocated in
1958 for the future purchase of a maritime museum for Long Beach.

Queen Mary from the stern

When Queen Mary was bought by Long Beach, the new owners decided not to
preserve her as an ocean liner. It had been decided to clear almost every area of the
ship below "C" deck (called "R" deck after 1950, to lessen passenger confusion, as the
restaurants were located on "R" deck) to make way for Jacques Cousteau's new
Living Sea Museum. This increased museum space to 400,000 square feet
(37,000 m2). It required removal of all the boiler rooms, the forward engine room,
both turbo generator rooms, the ship stabilisers, and the water softening plant. The
ship's empty fuel tanks were filled with local mud to keep the ship's centre of gravity
and draft at the correct levels, as these critical factors had been affected by the
removal of the various components and structure. Only the aft engine room and "shaft
alley", at the stern of the ship, would be spared. Remaining space would be used for
storage or office space. One problem that arose during the conversion was a dispute
between land-based and maritime unions over conversion jobs. The United States
Coast Guard had final say: Queen Mary was deemed a building, since most of her
propellers had been removed and her machinery gutted. The ship was also repainted
with its red water level paint at a slightly higher level than previously. During the
conversion, the funnels were removed, as this area was needed to lift out the scrap
materials from the engine and boiler rooms. Workers found that the funnels were
significantly degraded, and they were replaced with replicas.

A passageway in First Class accommodation, now part of the onboard hotel

With all of the lower decks nearly gutted from R deck and down, Diners Club,
the initial lessee of the ship, converted the remainder of the vessel into a hotel. Diners
Club Queen Mary dissolved and vacated the ship in 1970 after their parent company,
Diners Club International, was sold, and a change in corporate direction was
mandated during the conversion process. Specialty Restaurants, a Los Angeles-based
company that focused on theme-based restaurants, took over as master lessee the
following year.
This second plan was based on converting most of her first- and second-class
cabins on A and B decks into hotel rooms, and converting the main lounges and
dining rooms into banquet spaces. On Promenade Deck, the starboard promenade was
enclosed to feature an upscale restaurant and caf named Lord Nelson's and Lady
Hamilton's. It was themed in the fashion of early-19th-century sailing ships. The
famed and elegant Observation Bar was redecorated as a western-themed bar.

Queen Mary's bridge, now open to visitors

 The smaller first-class public rooms, such as the Drawing Room, Library,
Lecture Room and the Music studio, would be stripped of most of their fittings and
converted to commercial use. This markedly expanded retail space on the ship. Two
more shopping malls were built on the Sun Deck in separate spaces previously used
for first-class cabins and engineers' quarters.
A post-war feature of the ship, the first-class cinema, was removed for kitchen
space for the new Promenade Deck dining venues. The first-class lounge and smoking
room were reconfigured and converted into banquet space. The second-class smoking
room was subdivided into a wedding chapel and office space. On the Sun Deck, the
elegant Verandah Grill would be gutted and converted into a fast-food eatery, while a
new upscale dining venue was created directly above it on Sports Deck, in space once
used for crew quarters. The second-class lounges were expanded to the sides of the
ship and used for banqueting. On R deck, the first-class dining room was reconfigured
and subdivided into two banquet venues, the Royal Salon and the Windsor Room. The
second-class dining room was subdivided into kitchen storage and a crew mess hall,
while the third-class dining room was initially used as storage and crew space. Also
on R deck, the first-class Turkish bath complex, the 1930s equivalent to a spa, was
removed. The second-class pool was removed and its space initially used for office
space, while the first-class swimming pool was used for hotel guests. Combined with
modern safety codes and the structural soundness of the area directly below, the
swimming pool is no longer in use. No crew cabins remain intact aboard the ship
today.
Queen Mary as a tourist attraction

The ship as a hotel, with permanent boarding gangways

On 8 May 1971 Queen Mary opened her doors to tourists. Initially, only portions
of the ship were open to the public as Specialty Restaurants had yet to open its dining
venues and PSA had not completed work converting the ship's original First Class
staterooms into the hotel. As a result, the ship was open only on weekends. On 11
December 1971 Jacques Cousteau's Museum of the Sea opened, with a quarter of the
planned exhibits completed. Within the decade, Cousteau's museum closed due to low
ticket sales and the deaths of many of the fish that were housed in the museum. On 2
November 1972 PSA' s hotel opened its initial 150 guest rooms. Two years later, with
all 400 rooms finished, PSA brought in Hyatt Hotels to manage the hotel. It operated
the facility from 1974 to 1980 as the Queen Mary Hyatt Hotel.
 By 1980, it had become apparent that the existing system was not working. The
ship was losing millions each year for the city because the hotel, restaurants and
museum were run by three separate concessionaires, while the city owned the vessel
and operated guided tours. It was decided that a single operator with more experience
in attractions was needed. Jack Wrather, a local millionaire, had fallen in love with the
ship because he and his wife, Bonita Granville, had fond memories of sailing on it
numerous times. Wrather signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach to
operate the entire property. He oversaw the display of the Spruce Goose, on long-term
loan. The immense plane, which had been sitting in a hangar in Long Beach for
decades unseen by the public, was installed in a huge geodesic dome adjacent to the
liner in 1983, attracting increased attendance. His Wrather Port Properties operated
the entire attraction after his death in 1984 until 1988, when his holdings were bought
by the Walt Disney Company. Wrather had built the Disneyland Hotel in 1955,
when Walt Disney had insufficient funds to construct the resort himself. Disney had
been trying to buy the hotel for 30 years. When they finally succeeded, they also
acquired the Queen Mary. This was never marketed as a Disney property.
Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Queen Mary struggled financially.
Disney pinned their hopes for turning the attraction around on Port Disney, a huge
planned resort on the adjacent docks. It was to include a theme park known as Disney
Sea , themed around the world's oceans. The plans eventually fell through; in 1992
Disney gave up the lease on the ship to focus on building what would become Disney
California Adventure Park. The Disney Sea concept was recycled a decade later in
Japan as Tokyo Disney Sea , with a recreated ocean liner resembling Queen Mary as
its centrepiece.
With Disney gone, the Hotel Queen Mary closed on 30 September 1992. The owners
of the Spruce Goose, the Aero Club of Southern California, sold the plane to the
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in Oregon. The plane departed on barges on 2
October 1992, leaving the huge dome empty. The Queen Mary tourist attraction
remained open for another two months, but on 31 December 1992, the Queen
Mary completely closed her doors to tourists and visitors.
On 5 February 1993, RMS Foundation, Inc signed a five-year lease with the city
of Long Beach to act as the operators of the property. The foundation was run by
President and C.E.O. Joseph F. Prevratil, who had managed the attraction for Wrather.
On 26 February 1993 the tourist attraction reopened completely, while the hotel
reopened partially on 5 March with 125 rooms and the banquet facilities, with the
remainder of the rooms coming on line on 30 April. In 1995, RMS Foundation's lease
was extended to twenty years, while the scope of the lease was reduced to operation
of the ship. A new company, Queen's Seaport Development, Inc. (QSDI), was
established in 1995 to control the real estate adjacent to the vessel. In 1998, the City
of Long Beach extended the QSDI lease to 66 years.
In 2005, QSDI sought Chapter 11 protection due to a rent credit dispute with the
City. In 2006, the bankruptcy court requested bids from parties interested in taking
over the lease from QSDI. The minimum required opening bid was $41M. The
operation of the ship, by RMS Foundation, remained independent of the bankruptcy.
In Summer 2007, Queen Mary's lease was sold to a group named "Save the Queen,"
managed by Hostmark Hospitality Group. They planned to develop the land adjacent
to Queen Mary, and upgrade, renovate, and restore the ship. During their
management, staterooms were updated with iPod docking stations and flat screen
TVs, and the ship's three funnels and waterline area were repainted their original
Cunard Red color. The portside Promenade Deck's planking was restored and
refinished. Many lifeboats were repaired and patched, and the ship's kitchens were
renovated with new equipment.
In 2004, Queen Mary and Stargazer Productions added Tibbies Great American
Cabaret to the space previously occupied by the ship's bank and wireless telegraph
room. Stargazer Productions and Queen Mary transformed the space into a working
dinner theatre complete with stage, lights, sound, and scullery.
In late September 2009, management of Queen Mary was taken over
by Delaware North Companies, who plan to continue restoration and renovation of
the ship and its property. They were determined to revitalise and enhance the ship as
an attraction.
In April 2011, The City Of Long Beach was informed that Delaware North was no
longer managing Queen Mary. Garrison Investment Group (the current owner of the
Queen Mary) said this decision was purely business. Delaware North still
manages Scorpion, a Soviet submarine that has been a separate attraction next
to Queen Mary for the last decade.
Evolution Hospitality, LLC. assumed operational control of the Queen Mary on 23
September 2011, with Garrison Investments leasing Queen Mary.
Meeting of the Queens

Queen Mary and Queen Mary 2 meeting in Long Beach, California.

On 23 February 2006, RMS Queen Mary 2 saluted her predecessor as she made a
port of call in Los Angeles Harbour, while on a cruise to Mexico. On March
2011,Queen Mary was saluted by the MS Queen Victoria while fireworks were going
on, and on March 12, 2013, the MS Queen Elizabeth made a salute while there were
fireworks.
The salute was carried out with Queen Mary replying with her one working air
horn in response to Queen Mary 2 sounding her combination of two brand new horns
and an original 1934 Queen Mary horn (on loan from the City of Long Beach). Queen
Mary originally had three whistles tuned to 55 Hz, a frequency chosen because it was
low enough that the extremely loud sound of it would not be painful to human
ears. Modern IMO regulations specify ships' horn frequencies to be in the range 70
200 Hz for vessels that are over 200 metres (660 ft) in length. Traditionally, the lower
the frequency, the larger the ship. Queen Mary 2, being 345 metres (1,132 ft) long,
was given the lowest possible frequency (70 Hz) for her regulation whistles, in
addition to the refurbished 55 Hz whistle on permanent loan. Fifty-five Hz is the "A"
note an octave above the lowest note of a standard piano keyboard. The air-
driven Tyfon whistle can be heard at least 10 miles (16 km) away.

Queen Mary's wireless radio room

Whiskey Six Romeo Oscar(W6SRO)

Queen Mary's original, professionally manned wireless radio room was removed
when the ship was moored in Long Beach. In its place, an amateur radio room was
created one deck above the original radio reception room with some of the discarded
original radio equipment used for display purposes. The amateur radio station, with
the call sign W6RO ("Whiskey Six Romeo Oscar"), relies on volunteers from a local
amateur radio club. They staff the radio room during most of the public hours. The
radios can also be used by other licensed amateur radio operators. In honour of his
over forty years of dedication to W6RO and Queen Mary, in November 2007 the
Queen Mary Wireless Room was renamed as the Nate Brightman Radio Room. This
was announced on 28 October 2007, at Brightman's 90th birthday party by Joseph
Prevratil, former President and CEO of the Queen Mary.
Rumors of hauntings

Following Queen Mary's permanent docking in California, the ship was rumored
to be haunted. Since the 1980s, this supposed haunting has been featured in the
marketing and promotion of the ship, with various attractions and tours presenting the
theme for visitors. The ship was ranked as "one of the top 10 most haunted places in
America" by Time Magazine in 2008. In particular, Cabin B340 (formerly Cabin
B326, prior to the ship's refitting after World War II) is alleged to be haunted by the
spirit of a person who was murdered there. Individuals have reported hearing sounds
of children playing in the nursery. Other reported ghosts include a young sailor who
was accidentally killed in the ship's engine room, crewmembers of the Curacao who
were killed when Queen Mary collided with her, and an unidentified "lady in
white". At least one book has been written on the subject.
At least 49 crew and passengers are known to have died during the Queen Mary's
service as a luxury liner. Although many hauntings are reported as the ghosts of
drowning victims, the ship's logs do not record any instances of passengers
drowning. Approximately 75% of the deaths were crew members, and about 25%
were passengers. It is unknown how many servicemen or POWs died aboard
the Queen Mary during her stint as a troop transport ship in World War II; these
records are housed by the US military and have not been released.