Queen Mary
04 April 2007 | Long Beach
Tara
We went to the Queen Mary the other day. The Queen Mary, for those of you like me who had no idea what it is - and was, is a cruise liner that was transformed into a WWII troop transporter. Although it has been retransformed into its normal cruise-liner glory, you can imagine how the troops lived in tight quarters and (according to the tour guide) only got a half of a gallon of water for five days. The first tour we went on gave a brief tour around the Main Hall and some of the restaurants. The tour guide came to a small room with glass walls that we were looking into. We didn't go in, but I saw cute little coffee shop tables and chairs. Above was a wooden sign that said "Starbucks." The tour guide explained that this used to be the first class kids play room before Starbucks ruled the world.
After the rest of the tour our guide dismissed us. No one moved. She sighed and said, "You are still here either because you are lost or you love me. If you are lost you can take the stairs up to the main hall and if you love me, I love you too." We went up the stairs to the main hall. I'm not sure I would have wanted to be in the second category.
We checked out a few more shops then took the WWII tour. A man with a receded hairline was our tour guide. He was like a walking WWII encyclopedia. You could ask him any question about the war (even if it had nothing to do with the Queen Mary) and he would tell you the answer. He told us some interesting facts along the way. For example: The Queen Mary has the record of holding the most people on one transport ship. She held more than 16,000 troups on a ship built for 3,000. Our guide said that they did "hot bunks," where the men would sleep for eight hours and then give their bunk to someone else because they didn't have enough beds for everyone. At one point I almost fell asleep because our guide kept reading tedious speeches of former generals. He sounded like one of the late night talk show hosts.
After his tour was done I convinced my family to go to the "Queen Mary Ghosts tour." I just thought some wacko that actually believed in ghosts would be leading another boring tour. We were trying to find the entrance which was on R-Deck. One of the people that worked there assisted us. "They should have just started," he said. When we walked through the doors of R-deck there were spider webs and black lights all along the halls. To tell you the truth I was really scared right then, even though nothing had happened... yet. We found the very small group of old people, some adults and a guy that spoke Spanish, watching a movie in a small room.
A creepy guy standing on a small stage was talking to them as they watched it. He had eerie black hair, a deep scary voice and the room was so dark it looked like he had black eyes. Obviously the perfect man for a ghost-walk tour guide. "Paranormal research has been going on at the Queen Mary for many years. Some have never made it out alive," he said as video captures of ghosts were playing on the three T.V screens behind him. They were pretty corny and looked as if to make us scared before we started the tour. "But," he said (his voice was much higher this time) "I'm sure we'll be fine." My legs we shaking and I grabbed my mom's arm.
"Come through the secret door with me and enter the world of the paranormal!" He cried as a wall moved away revealing a secret hatch. "Just like in the movies," I thought. He was using the word 'paranormal' way too much. As much as I'd like to say that I thought it was all stupid and cheesy, I couldn't. It looked like something from a nightmare and I was sure that at any time some ghost was going to jump out. This wasn't the boring little tour I was expecting. Our guide led us through winding musty smelling corridors with floating pots and pans and shadows of crewmen that had died. Then we came to an opening. I looked down and saw a swimming pool. It was the first-class swimming pool in its cruise-liner days and a little girl had drowned in it. It was said that she haunted the pool. Our guide told us that the crewmen used to use the pool to stack bunks in for military transport. It has been drained since 1967.
One night some of the men heard the sound of wet shoes in the pool room so they went in and saw wet foot prints that looked like someone had walked out of the pool. They looked in the pool. There wasn't any water in it. "No matter how many times our janitors mop up this pool, there is always some water in it the next day," our guide said. That was enough to really freak me out. I held onto my moms arm really tightly. She was crouched down a little. I could tell she was a little creeped out too. Then the lights went out with a big bang. And you heard the sound of wet boots walking out of the pool as the pool filled with green mist. A rusty gate opened by itself with a loud creek, then a door opened and a light from another room (supposedly the locker room) went on. Then the door closed with a loud slam. Our lights went on. "Can we go mom?" I whispered as I saw a red EXIT sign. She told me "no." I looked over and saw old people. They look like someone said they were going to die in an hour. That was how I felt. But they were old what did they have to lose? If some old lady with a walker was going to stay on this tour, so was I!
After a few minutes of fast walking behind our tour guide in the dark (we were in front, Casey and my dad were somewhere in the back, I could here them talking) me and my mom struggled to keep up. The guide was walking super fast. I guess he went to hold a door open for the group but we had no idea where he went so we just turned the corner that we thought he went around, there he was - standing up straight and holding a door open. Well, we weren't expecting this, so me and my mom screamed and jumped backwards. He didn't even flinch. "O my gosh that scared me so bad!" I cried. My whole body was shaking. This is where the embarrassing little accident happened to my mom (she slightly wet her pants!).
The elevator doors closed and the tour guide explained that there would be no more Exits .We came down to a huge room full of pipes and gages. Casey immediately found an EXIT sign. He told us a story about "Half Hatch Henry", an 18 year-old crewman that was playing "chicken" through one of the doors that had tons of pressure on it and would close in matter of seconds. He got smashed in half and they say he still haunts the ship. He set a record of six and a half times through the hatch. I don't think it was worth it.
Now that everyone was in the room the guide told us that when the Queen Mary rammed into its escort ship, more than 300 lives were lost (and may still haunt the Queen Mary) and the bow of the ship was damaged. "Though the ship has been thoroughly repaired, you can see where it was ruptured." He pointed to the jagged lines of welding and new bolts. "Oh, I forgot to tell you that there was a leak down here. But I'm sure we'll be fine," he said as he pressed a button on the control panel and spraying water filled in the little pools on either side of the handrails. "Oh No! Hurry Ladies and Gentlemen! Let's get out of here!!" He cried, walking faster than ever. I was jogging behind him along with every one else. We jumped into the elevator but the guide didn't close the doors. Then we heard the water stop and a frantic scraping sound came from around the corner. Scrape-scrape scrape-scrape. Oh my gosh a ghost! I thought as I pressed farther to the back of the rail. Then the old lady with a walker appeared with her walker scraping the uneven cement in the dark hallway. Whew. After that tour we checked out the Engine room and looked at the propellers. Casey and I talked my parents into making this day a field trip (so we don't have to make up a day of school work). It was way more fun than doing a day of school!