The Ghosts and Legends of
Queen Mary Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/cruise02/mary/mary.html
You could call Queen Mary a floating museum, now that she is permanently dry docked in Long Beach, California harbor — but she is much more than a icon of a glorious past.
Queen Mary StatisticsShe is emotional nostalgia.
She is a representative of not only an era of distinguished travel, but also a huge Art Deco memento to still living veterans of World War II. The Queen Mary was a major instrument of war, then of peace. She ferried thousand of troops from Pacific theater from 1940 to 1942 and then from North America to European theater — and she still to this date holds record of most passengers carried on a single voyage — 16,000 GIs.
Many of exhibits onboard Grey Ghost are representative of her days as a troop carrier. Longer than mighty Titantic, Queen Mary was fastest ship on high seas, even Wolf Pack U-boats couldn't keep up to her amazing 28.5 knots. Why was she called Grey Ghost? She was painted a military camouflage grey and she glided through starry, wind swept waters like a ghost — and if you take Ghost and Legends Tour, you will learn that many passengers thQueen Mary Historic Time Lineat died on-board (over 40) during her trans-Atlantic crossings often reappear at odd times and locations — dressed in vintage period fashions.
And then there are 330+ British sailors that were killed in a highly top secret and tight-lipped disaster. The Queen Mary was so fast that one of her escort cruisers, H.M.S. Curacoa (Kir-A sow-a), tendering her off coast of Scotland, crossed her path and proved too slow. The Queen sliced through cruiser's mid-section and sunk warship in minutes, taking those lives to their secret, watery grave — and news never appeared until after war to avoid alerting Axis powers of her true North Atlantic route. The accident barely caused a ripple in Queen, but a large section was gouged out of her bow superstructure, and you can see where replacement steel was welded back in on Ghost and Legends Tour.
Cruise From Long BeachThe Queen Mary is more than a museum or keepsake for an entire war generation. She is also today a fine dining experience and a wonderful 365-stateroom hotel. You can voyage from past to present in museums, but real artifacts are staterooms made up exactly as they were during Queen's magnificent heyday.
The warm paneled woods and huge staterooms now offer outside cabin porthole views over harbor of Long Beach. At one time you could draw warm seawater (heated by ships enormous boilers) or freshwater for your bath — with special soaps provided for seawater bathing that was de rigueur of day. Queen Mary still provides comfortable quarters and special milled soaps and toiletries, and maybe when you wake up in morning for your morning juice your breaStay On The Queen Marykfast companion will be one of those ghostly apparitions reading morning newspaper in your suite's antechamber. Don't laugh or mock — there have been such reports — and on many occasions, and recently.
I indulged myself for all-inclusive experience as a modern-day passenger and I was amazed at new renovations that included air conditioning and internet access, data ports, touch-tone direct dial phones, and king, queen and twin beds.
Stay At The Queen MaryThe ship was first to use that innovative material of times — plastic — Bakelite is found on certain areas of her hallway handrails. The Queen Mary has latest in fitness equipment, and a bustling business center. During her epic classical era Queen had a squash court, swimming pools, grand ballroom, and a small, but well equipped hospital.
Just about every section of Queen Mary is now open for exploration. What a beautiful ship she is and I feel jealous that I am denied North Atlantic passage on her foot polished decks, rubbing elbows with elite of North America and Europe. Celebrity passengers have included Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Liberace, Jack Benny, Gloria Swanson, and other Hollywood and royalty types.
The Queen Mary is now a private enterprise leased from City of Long Beach, which paid more than $3 million to bring her to port in 1967, a port that once was a hub of Liberty ship construction during World War II. My mother was a riveter at Long Beach dockyards, so she must have known harbor well.
