Find out what makes the Queen Mary one of America’s 10 most haunted attractions and the most infamous ghost ship in the world.
1126 Queens Highway Long Beach, CA 90802
The RMS Queen Mary sailed the Atlantic from 1936 to 1967, bringing more than two million passengers from Southampton to New York. More than 200 ft longer than the Titanic, and nearly twice as heavy, the Mary went from mail ship to troopship during World War II.
Even though the records of what events transpired during the war years (1939-1945) are confidential, the number of deaths that have occurred otherwise are not. Officially, 49 passengers have died while aboard the Queen Mary.
While she may be docked in Long Beach, California since her retirement in 1967, now utilized as a hotel, Mary’s reputation as a ghost ship has grown exponentially within the past 40 years. A luxury liner as fine as any ship built in the docks of Great Britain, the Queen Mary’s accommodations mean that not even the dead wish to leave.
When the Queen Mary began its wartime tenure as a troopship, it was painted with grey camouflage and refitted to both accommodate soldiers and prevent it from being an easy target for German ships. The ship’s drab appearance, paired with its speed and sleek design, earned it the nickname of the “Grey Ghost” amongst its military personnel.
No one could have predicted that its future notoriety would come at the cost of a perpetual state of haunting. But it was predicted that the Mary’s fame would come in the future.
It was 1934 and the Queen Mary had yet to leave the dockyard. It wasn’t even finished yet. But that didn’t stop Lady Mable Fortiscue-Harrison, one of England’s notable psychics from making a bold prediction.
Upon the ship’s launching into the water, Lady Mable predicted, “The Queen Mary will know her greatest fame and popularity when she never sails another mile or carries another fare-paying passenger.” Her premonition couldn’t have been more accurate.
Fast forward to Halloween 1967. The Queen has just departed from England and is on her way to Long Beach, California. By the time she gets to her destination in early December, she’ll have completed her final voyage. Left on the 31st of October 31 years after her maiden voyage. Left for her final resting place, trading in the cold Atlantic waters and grey English skies for the Californian coast and never-ending sunlight. California, where the hauntings would begin.
Members of the Orange County Society of Psychics gathered aboard the Queen Mary in 1985 to hold a series of seances. Paranormal experts joined them in investigating the abandoned ocean liner, anchored now for nearly 20 years. If ghosts were oil, they had just struck it rich.
Amongst the 49 confirmed deaths and the ones relegated to hearsay, most of the passengers that perished did so by natural means. Heart attacks, strokes, old age. But the number of deaths over the course of three decades is enough to draw attention. And then there are the unnatural deaths.
Enter John Pedder and W.E. Stark. The full extent of the toll taken on its crew during World War II and the years immediately after might never be revealed, but the stories of Pedder and Stark offer a brief insight into the dangers of life aboard the Queen Mary. Dangers that helped to create the ghosts that wander the ship’s halls to this day.
William Eric Stark, a Senior 2nd Officer from Sunderland, England. His time during WWII is unavailable, but we do know that by 1947 he was aboard the Queen where he would serve for two years. Unknowingly they were the last two years of his life. When the ship left New York harbor shortly after arriving on September 12, 1949, Stark had embarked on his final voyage.
11 days later, the Mary now safely back in Southampton, Stark was dead. Poisoned. Not only was it an accident, but it’s possible that his life could’ve been spared. All because of gin.
Captain Andrew MacKellar and a few of the men were having drinks after dinner. The captain requested that Stark fetch some gin from his cabinet. And fetch he did, or so he thought.
Reaching into the captain’s cabinet where liquor was typically stored, Stark grabbed a bottle of gin. The story goes that the light in the room was either off or dim. But Stark had no clue that the bottle was full of carbon tetrachloride, a poisonous cleaning solution.
After it was brought to everyone’s attention, everyone who drank and started to feel sick, Stark, who had drunk the most, refused to have his stomach pumped. Not concerned with the cleaning fluid burning through his digestive system, Stark continued to drink.
At least this time it was real gin.
Over the next few days, Stark’s condition worsened. Forced to remain in bed, it was much too late to rid his system of the tetrachloride. Now it was just a matter of time. Treating him in the hope of recovery. The further descent into alcohol didn’t help. And by the time the ship reached Southampton, Stark’s voyage through life was all but finished.
His wife visited him immediately upon hearing of what had happened. Stark was fading quickly now. Unable to answer the question forced beyond the tears, that of why he refused help, Stark succumbed more to his own folly than the poison just two days before his 31st birthday.
Since the ship has been a functioning hotel and resort, guests have heard cabinets banging in the middle of the night. Legend has it that it’s Stark’s ghost looking for more gin. Still stumbling in the dark, even in death.
With so many cabins and so much booze on the ship, don’t be surprised to jolt from sleep after midnight from the sound of a cabinet door slamming, wood crashing into wood, down the hall. Or maybe in your own room.
July 10, 1966. The Queen Mary is nearing the end of its run. Maintenance is needed, though somewhat absent due to Cunard Line’s increasing loss of revenue. The 50s and 60s were a time for commercial flights, not sea travel. As the ocean liner continued to see a loss of profit it also continued to see a loss of lives.
John Pedder was 18 years old, an Englishman and a fireman. In workman’s overalls, equipped with a toolbox, he was the very stuff of youth dressed in the costume of maturity.
Pedder was working in Shaft Alley, the name given to the corridors leading to the ship’s propellers. These corridors were segmented by doors that could automatically close in the event of an emergency. Periodically, tests needed to be run. Tests that saw all of Shaft Alley’s doors closing on command.
For many, 13 is an unlucky number. John Pedder is no exception to this rule. On July 10, the young fireman was working on Door 13. Drenched in sweat and grease, the ship’s lower decks were typically close to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. And then the emergency drill alarm sounded.
No one was around to see what happened, but from the scene of the accident, it seems that Pedder was caught in the middle of Door 13. He was later found crushed by the sheer force of the mechanical door. Deceased.
Those who have taken tours of the ship over the past four decades have reported the sound of metal clanging against the walls, the doorways. Something like the sound a metal tool would make should it be banged or dragged against the rusting hallways of the ship’s underbelly. Something like a wrench would make.
There have even been a few sightings of a young man wearing overalls close to Door 13. While some have not been able to look at the apparition’s face, its proximity to the door suggests that it’s none other than Pedder.
Maybe he’s still trying to fix the door that he was working on at the time of his death. There’s no need to worry about any malicious intent from this haunted corridor in the event that it truly is the spectral remnant of Pedder: he was a boy, one whose memory was warmly cherished long after such a tragic accident in the belly of the Queen Mary.
Pedder and Stark are only two of the lives that we know of that perished aboard the infamous luxury liner. Two out of 49. And of course, that number excludes the potential lives lost during the war years.
The Queen Mary is a ship of souls forever docked until it too rusts into oblivion. Until that fateful day comes when Cunard Line’s jewel joins its sister ship, Titanic, at the bottom of the sea.
In the meanwhile, the ship is open for visitation and vacation. In addition to the luxury ship’s luxurious accommodations, you have dozens of stories to learn about. From natural slipping into nothingness to the tragic cruelty of bad luck, these stories were once living. And even if they no longer walk through the ship’s cabins in spectral restlessness, there’s no harm in hearing a story or two.
You might even hear it from the source itself in the moments right before falling asleep in the dead of night, impossible to confuse with the sound of waves gently crashing against the hull of the resting ship.
The Queen Mary is open to visitors and tourists. They often offer tours or special events on the ship. For more information about visiting the Queen Mary, please visit their website.
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