Is The Queen Mary Haunted? What you should know before visiting.
Amid the Art Deco splendor of the Queen Mary lies another, more sinister force—if you dare.
If the idea of visiting a grand old ship does intrigue you, you might be interested to know that the Royal Mail Queen Mary is now known more for its haunted reputation than its old-school charm.
While the former flagship of Cunard Line sits in the protected Gulf of California, it may not be as innocent as it first appears. The ship is haunted by over 150 ghosts, and staff and visitors alike regularly report possible paranormal activity. This goes beyond simple ghosts.
Lights that come on without warning, unexpected creaking knocks on doors, voices of people you can’t find, laughter and whistles that seem to come out of nowhere, drastic temperature changes, ghost sightings, and touchings. The Royal Mail Queen Mary seems to be a hotbed for paranormal activity.
In 2008, Time magazine named the Queen Mary one of the most haunted places in the United States. Additionally, over the past few decades, the Queen Mary and its creepy inhabitants have appeared in countless ghost-hunting and paranormal-themed television shows.
As you read this, chances are someone is watching or making a YouTube video about the Queen Mary’s reputation as a haunted ship.
Whether or not you’re interested in the ship’s haunting character, if you head to the Queen Mary or book a tour ticket online, you’ll quickly realize that these ghostly offerings are nearly impossible to ignore.
On the Queen Mary’s official website, there are no fewer than four tours related to the ship’s haunted status, including the Grey Ghost Project, the Haunted Encounter Tour, the Paranormal Ship Walk, and the 57 Ghost Seance.
Together, these tours make up more than half of the entertainment currently offered on the Queen Mary, with only three other tours allowing you to enjoy the ship itself and its history.
Whichever way you view it, there’s a strong bias against the Queen Mary’s haunting credentials. This is especially true around Halloween when the Cunard sign enters the Dark Harbor season.
It’s inevitable that the Queen Mary will spark some heated rumors while in Long Beach. However, when you start searching the paperwork, a question arises. Is the ship haunted, or is it just a marketing ploy to pad a bank account?
An ocean liner converted into a hotel and permanently docked in Long Beach, California, the Queen Mary is a thing of the past. But don’t let its lavish exterior fool you; it’s also the most haunted hotel in the United States (and the most haunted ship in the world).
Considering staying in one of the 200 elegant rooms or suites, here’s everything you need to know about the ship’s dark past and the ghosts that haunt its halls.
The Haunted History of the Queen Mary
The Queen Mary was originally a cruise ship for the Cunard-White Star Line. The ship was christened by Queen Mary herself on September 26, 1934, and carried luxury and military passengers for more than three decades. (During World War II, the ship was used to ferry soldiers between front lines.) The ship was decommissioned in 1967 and turned over to the City of Long Beach. Just five years later, it reopened as a floating hotel, allowing guests to sleep among the original wood paneling and tiny windows and imagine what it would be like to cross the Atlantic in style.
With such an eventful past, the memories made on this ship aren’t all happy ones. With at least 49 deaths allegedly occurring on the Queen Mary since her maiden voyage, there have been reports of ghosts in multiple areas of the ship. Today, the hotel offers ghost tours day and night to capitalize on the ghost stories.
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“Not only does the Queen Mary showcase transatlantic history, it’s also known as one of the most haunted destinations in the United States,” Chris Wilmoth, marketing director for the Queen Mary, told Travel + Leisure in an email. “The ship’s unique history allows us to offer unique and authentic experiences that delve into the paranormal, from nighttime tours and ghost investigations to overnight stays in our most haunted stateroom, B340.”
Whether you want to visit the world’s most haunted ship or stay overnight at America’s most haunted hotel, here are the places where you’re most likely to see a Queen Mary-style encounter (allegedly).
The Queen Mary’s Most Haunted Rooms
Room B340
The room was a problem long before the Queen Mary opened. In 1948, British third-class passenger Walter J. Adamson died in the room in an unprecedented manner. Later, in 1966, a woman staying in the room claimed that the bedspread had been removed when she woke up, and she saw a man standing at the foot of her bed. I screamed and called the waiter, but the man seemed to have disappeared.
In the years since guests have reported hearing knocks on their doors in the middle of the night and seeing bathroom lights mysteriously come on. Even the hotel’s maids reported running water in the bathroom when the room had been empty for days, and on one occasion, the bedspreads were immediately removed after the bed was made.
The room was closed to guests for many years but has since been reopened to anyone wanting spooky fun.
Mauritanian Chamber of Commerce
In 1989, two women were assigned to clean this hall to receive VIPs. When they entered the room, they found a guest sitting quietly in a chair in the middle of the dance floor. When a third woman came in to help clean up, she noticed the guest staring at him and asked him to leave.
As the staff began to call security, the guest disappeared without a trace right before them – a feat all three women reported seeing simultaneously.
Mayfair Room
This room was once the ship’s beauty salon but is now used as office space for hotel staff. In 2001, an accounting team member arrived for work early — 5:30 a.m., to be exact — only to feel something was off. She finished her work in the office and sat down at her desk, feeling unusually cold. Later, she felt someone rubbing against the back of her chair, but no one was there. A few minutes later, the woman saw a transparent white figure walking across the room and through the door. Needless to say, the employee snatched the keys and fled the room until her coworkers arrived.
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First class Swiming Pool
This now-abandoned shipboard pool is the epitome of luxury, complete with a lighted fountain, mother-of-pearl ceiling, and intricate mosaics. Due to issues with California law, the pool is no longer in use, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the hotbeds of paranormal activity on the ship.
Several ghostly sightings have been reported here: a young woman in a tennis skirt walks down a staircase and disappears behind a column; a woman in a vintage wedding dress walks by the pool, and a young boy in a suit with a cloud of steam appears out of nowhere with a girl in a blue and white dress. Still, he disappears in the blink of an eye.
Boiler Room 4
Many people have reported seeing a girl in this area, sometimes sucking her thumb, sometimes holding a doll in her hand. Whether or not this room is haunted by that girl, we’ll probably choose to stay away.
Door Slot No. 13
This hatch door is known as “Shaft Alley,” and was the site of a horrific accident in which a crew member was crushed to death.
One night in 1966, he was ordered to close the watertight doors of the engine room and boilers. About five minutes later, an 18-year-old crewman from Yorkshire was found slammed against hatch 13 with his arms trapped at his sides. Although the man was freed and transferred to a hospital ward, it was too late. There were signs of crushing injuries to his arms, chest, and pelvis, and his nose was bleeding. They gave him an injection of morphine, but he died soon after.
His ghost is now often seen in the area, with people reporting it chasing them and whistling. Others may have come into contact with the unfortunate crew members and noticed greasy, fingerprint-like spots on their faces. Some people saw the image of a bearded man in blue clothes who looked very similar to the deceased out of the corner of their eyes. Several others said they saw an engineer wandering the hall, asking guests if they had seen his wrench, but when they returned to look for him, he was gone.
