RMS Queen Mary, Long Beach, CA



The RMS Queen Mary is a retired British ocean liner that sailed primarily on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line – known as Cunard-White Star Line when the vessel entered service and built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. Queen Mary, along with RMS Queen Elizabeth, were built as part of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly express service between Southampton, Cherbourg and New York.

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.

Following Queen Mary's permanent docking in California, claims were made that the ship was haunted. In 2008, Time magazine included The Queen Mary among its "Top 10 Haunted Places". One of the staterooms is alleged to be haunted by the spirit of a person supposedly murdered there. The Queen Mary Hotel promotes suite room B-340, a former third class cabin, as "notoriously haunted". 

In present day, the Queen Mary functions as a tourist attraction and a hotel; visitors are especially intrigued by one woman who checked in, but never checked out. Guests and workers alike have reported sightings of the White Lady a woman floating at the end of a first-class lounge, called the Queen’s Salon, dressed in a ghostly white evening gown  for more than half a century. Whether you believe it or not is up to you, but there is some photographic evidence for the curious.

Perhaps it’s Little Jackie’s tragic history that inspired her to stick around the haunted vessel, but we may never know. Jacqueline Torin was 5 or 6 when she drowned in the ship’s second-class pool, which is now the Royal Theater. Visitors report hearing Little Jackie splashing, calling for her parents, and even responding to questions when prompted. Some visitors believe that Jackie has a friend, Sarah, who drowned in the same pool in 1949.

Just like Little Jackie, John Henry has a sad story of his own that has inspired ghost-hunters to try to reconnect with his spirit. Henry worked in the boiler room, and it was here that his remains were found. Ghost-hunters report seeing Henry’s shadowy figure lurking between the boiler room and the green room. Some even claim to have spoken with Henry, who sometimes audibly responds to questions about beer.

Who knows what particular spirits may be flitting in and out of the Queen Mary? It is the gruesome resting scene of many killed, as well as the birthplace of so many happy memories. 

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