Ghosts of the Queen Mary: Tales from the Most Haunted Ship in the World

Josh's youngest daughter was about to start high school, so he felt like she was not his baby anymore, and before classes started, they wanted one last vacation as a family. His daughter got to choose the location. It was their tradition the kids took turn picking a dream destination before summer was gone. She was a little weird, so he wasn't shocked when she told them where she wanted to go, the Queen Mary. Having lived in Long Beach his whole life, he had always heard stories about the ship, but he had never been. The family arrived at five o'clock. They booked a short tour and then dinner and one of the restaurants inside of the ship. Josh felt wheezy and nauseous the whole time, and so did his wife and son, especially near the old pool. He was glad when the tour was over. Maybe food would help him feel better. Their walk ended at the lobby area of the ship, and his daughter wanted to go look at the boiler room before going to the restaurant. He told her that that was fine, but they couldn't figure out how to get there, so they all took turns snatching the small map from each other's hands and staring at it. This was getting them nowhere. He saw three men in old military uniforms and told his family to stop arguing. Those guys probably worked there and they would know where to go. So he walked over to them, and then the men pointed him in the right direction. Josh ran over back to the family so they could start walking. But in his rush, he realized that he hadn't even thanked the men, so he turned around to yell thank you, but no one was there. He should have at least seen them walk away. In this episode, I'm revisiting one of our earliest stories, the one about a haunted ship for Queen Mary. My name is Edwin, and here is a horror story. The mail ship Queen Mary now sits docked at the Long Beach Tarbor. It has been there since nineteen sixty seven, but it has a long history. Construction for the ship began in nineteen thirty at a shipyard in Clyde, Scotland. The goal was to make it bigger, faster, and more powerful than the famous Titanic, but it took some time to finish it. The Great Depression put a long pause on the construction of the Queen Mary, and finally, on May twenty seventh, nineteen thirty six, the one thousand foot ship set sail on her first voyage. It was a five day trip from Southampton, New England, to New York City, a trip it would make hundreds of times over the years. The ship became known for its comfort and fancy amenities. It had two swimming pools, a gym, a library, a cocktail bar, two ballrooms, and even a hospital. At the time, she was one of the fastest ships in the area. The Queen Mary was an instant hit with celebrities, politicians, and those who could afford it, But then World War II broke out. The Queen Mary was in the middle of a voyage on her way back to New York with at least two thousand people on board. The ship docked in New York City and then stopped all commercial cruises. It became a troop ship. It could transport more than fifteen thousand soldiers at a time. It even set a record for carrying the most passengers in nineteen forty three, a total of sixteen thousand, six hundred and eighty three people. The ship was so fast it usually didn't even need an escort another ship to guard it. It was able to speed away from the attempted U boat attacks. Adolf Hitler offered one million rake stacks and the highest military honor to any U boat that could sink the Queen Mary, but none were able to. It was nicknamed the gray Ghost because of its reputation. But it wasn't all good. It's over. Second nineteen forty two, the Queen Mary found herself off the coast of Ireland. It was transporting troops when word of a submarine attack came through. The Queen Mary began to sail in a zig zag pattern to protect herself, but it went wrong. The giant ship headed straight toward the HMS Curricoa, a much smaller light cruiser that was escorting her to port. Because the Queen Mary was twice the size of its escort, it ripped through the ship. The HMS Coricoa sank. The sounds of the crashing metal and the screams of hundreds of men were heard as the Queen Mary continued. It was under direct orders not to stop under any circumstances. Any men who survived the crash were swept under the Queen Mary's current as it sailed by Captain Gordon Illingsworth, ordered nearby ships to look for survivors, but only ninety nine of a crew of four hundred and thirty seven survived. There are no recorded deaths on the Queen Mary from this crash, but it is said that the screams and cries of the men who lost their lives on the Couraca can still be heard in the Queen Mary's spoiler room. By the time it retired as a troop ship, the Queen Mary carried over eight hundred thousand soldiers and traveled over six hundred thousand miles. It made one last trip to carry war brides into Canada and then returned to a passenger cruise ship. Until her retirement, the ship carried at least one thousand passengers every trip, though sometimes it was just a crew. Her last voyage happened in nineteen sixty seven. The Queen Mary left England on October thirty first of that year, heading to California, and it took thirty nine days because the ship was too big to fit through the Panama Canal. She arrived at her final resting place in December nineteen sixty seven, where she can still be found today, and at the end of her thirty one years traveling the ocean, the Queen Mary carried more than than two million passengers. The ship has now been docked in the city of Long Beach, longer than it had spent traveling the seas. Although it was hard for many to believe when a psychic who predicted the Queen Mary would be more popular once it stopped carrying passengers, the psychic said this back in the nineteen thirties, and it's one of the most visited places in California today. The energy of all these people from past and present could be the reason the tales of hauntings that have persisted through all these years. The unknown number of deaths on board could also have something to do with these stories. It's said that at least forty nine deaths happened on board the Queen Mary, dating back to its first voyage. On June eighth, nineteen thirty six, seamen Arthur John Francis Golding was scrubbing the deck when he somehow fractured a skull and died on the spot, and so he was buried at sea. In nineteen forty nine, Senior second Officer William Eric Stark meant to just have a drink after a long day of work. He didn't know that the gin bottle he grabbed contained a deadly chemical carbon tetrachloride. Some say he died in his office on board, but others say that he died after the ship landed in England. At a hospital in nineteen sixty six, twenty year old John Petter was doing his normal checks. By all accounts, he wasn't the best worker, but he tried. He liked to take shortcuts and this might have cost him his life. When he didn't turn up to check in with his supervisors that went to find him, he was found between door number thirteen. He had been crushed to death. No one saw how it happened, but they think that he tried to jump between the doors before they closed and he was too slow. It said that at least two others have been crushed to death by door number thirteen as well, although these are not recorded. Those are probably the most tragic known and recorded deaths, aside from other natural things like heart attacks. There are rumors of a little girl that drowned in one of the two pools, though there are also no records of it. There's another story of two sisters who were murdered in room B four seven four, and it said little four year old Dana, two year old Penny, and their mother were all found strangled to death in their bed. Their father was found dead in the bathroom from a self inflicted gunshot. The truth is these murders happen in Virginia and the grandmother was on board the Queen Mary after it all happened. The crew was instructed to not tell her until the ship landed back in England. Even then, people claim to see Dana and Penny in the corridors on B deck where room B four seven four is located. Some have heard them calling out to their mom, even in the green room and the boiler room. That boiler room and the green room are the source of a lot of hauntings on board. Myra worked on the Queen Mary back in the early two thousands and this is one of the places that scared her the most. They have this little room it's called the green room. A psychic used to go there and what she used to do it was really cool. She used to have dinner with the guests and then you would go around ten o'clock till midnight to do a ghost tour. But she would take you to different places where no one could really go through. It's literally this little room in the middle of this big old empty space in the bottom of the ship. So we go. She's like, when you go there, you're gonna see a man. There's a man there. And I'm like, whatever, I will see what we see. We got there and she's like, all right, guys, everyone turn off your flashlights because there's no lights in there. So she's like, everyone turn off your flashlights. So we turn off her flight lights and kid you not, you just see this shadow of a big, bald, tall man. He was walking. He stood right in front of me. My friend is holding me, I'm holding her. Then I told my friend. I was like, hey, stop touching my hair. She's like, Myra, I'm holding you. I was like no. So then I turned on the light and then she's like no, turn it off. And I'm like no, I felt someone touch my hair, and I guess that's the thing. Like he likes to like caress women's hair. He apparently hates guys. There is a guy that used to work with her. He did a lot of tours. This guy was a bigger guy, like two hundred I don't know, just like a big guy, and he couldn't go in the green room because when he was in there they saw him get pushed to the wall and got lifted. Maris said that even this guy was there and he was like, yeah, he has to wait outside because things always happen like that and the spirit does not like him. But there is something about that room. For this episode, we also spoke with Stephanie Strange, and if you're into the paranormal you might already know who she is. She's a medium man. She hosted the popular show Something Scary for some time. She also talks about all this kind of stuff on her TikTok page. I believe it though, because I saw something like that near that same area. My friend invited me as her plus one to the fifty seven ghost theatrical sans that they have going on, which is amazing. By the way, prior to that room, we were waiting by the bar area near the lobby where there's a piano and they say don't touch the piano, but the piano has some type of significance to it. The lady by the bar, she's like, oh, are you guys doing the seance. I'm like, yeah, we're doing this theatrical seance. And she's like, oh my god, that room is really haunted. I didn't know it then, but the seance room is behind the pool area. In terms of the layout of the ship, the seance room is technically next to the pool area. This is what they said. Apparently some workers were cleaning that area by the seance room, and someone captured a photo of a little girl in the mirror area. And so this is going even weirder because we did the seance. And again, it's a theatric it's a magic show. It's not anything spooky, though. I do believe the magician does draw in some of the influence of the supernatural in his seance, because of course, you know, you kind of have to. At the very end of the seance, he had these dolls. I don't know if they're like animatronics. I don't know if that's the correct terminology. One of them is in a little wooden box and you can see it's face poking out of the wooden box. There's these other two dolls. Against the wall by the vinyl record player. When we were all heading out of the room. There was a particular where we had to exit the room. We had to, like, I guess, retrace our steps, which is very similar to some cultures and how you don't want something following you. Well, as we were getting the. Doll in the box, you can kind of see its eyes, right, some one thing like made it poke out even more where you saw its full face. I thought that was part of his theatrics, you know. I'm like, I'm not thinking anything, Like, I'm like, okay, whatever, it's probably his tricks. Well, the couple in front of us, they were freaked out by that, so we're exiting. Everyone scurried out of there. It was myself, my friend, the couple, and these two girls that were sisters. The couple asks the magician, hey, can you tell is the story of that doll? Because I think it's haunted. It poked its head out, and. I'm like, it's a theatrics. Why are they asking about this? But he apparently had a story on it. I zoned out. I didn't even know what he was saying, because this is where the weird stuff happens. His body is in front of the door, the glass doors to enter the sands room. But his back is facing it. He's facing us. I'm on his right side facing like his side profile, but that's also where I can see the metal doors on it the other side of him, if that makes sense. The couple is directly in front of him, facing him, but their backs are facing the stairs. The girls, the two sisters, are between the couple and myself. One of the girls is definitely looking at the metal doors and his side profile like I am. And by the way, these stairs are also We're near the stairs where apparently people have died and fallen off and hurt themselves. They say that there's no recorded death, so I'm a little confused on those details, but I know that there's something very predominant with those stairs and having activity and being dangerous. He's explaining this story about the dolls, but behind him through the glass, I see this white orb, a physical white apparition. I've never seen anything like it before. It walks past him towards the metal doors. I'm like blinking profusely because I'm like, is there an eyebooger? Is there like a weird glare? What's going on with my vision? What's happening? My brain is trying to comprehend what is happening here. I would have thought it was an eyebooger, but then this white opparition is trying to open the metal doors and you can hear the metal clanking. You can hear it, and I'm like, okay, no, no, no, no, no no, he's not touching that. He's not even near the doors. He's closer to our side. And then it just. Dissolves through the doors, and I was like, what did I just see? I hear the girl next to me gasp. She's like oh, and then she turns to her sister and pats her on the shoulder. She's freaking out, like did you see that? Did you see that? So then I grab her and I'm like, no, no, no, did you see what I just saw? We both saw it. And the magician is explaining the history of the dolls, and the couple is obviously, like very intently listening to him. So that's how I rationalize how no one else saw it other than me and the girl, because we're just like, what the hell just happened? And we both heard the metal clanking, we both saw the white orb thing dissolved through the doors. That was wild recently, I went back on there to show my friend where the stuff happened. Another friend it was during the day, because the sandss, I think are held at night or later in the evening. No, noa was there, and there's music plane. There's the record plane playing by itself. There's no one in the room. It's locked, the lights are dim, there's only lights where the dolls are at and it's just this music plane. It's like very like nineteen fifties or like very old time in that respect and of that era. There's no one here. Why is a music plane? This is very eerie. So me and my. Friend Orlando are like, is it playing by itself? He saw the light flicker when we went there. I was like, I don't know. If this is paranormal. My message the magician and I said, by the way, we stopped by the seance room. You weren't there. It was locked and the music was playing. Was that you? And He's like, yeah, I leave a music plane for the ghosts. So the magician is aware that there are ghosts in there. Little Dana, Penny and John are not the only spirits on board of the Queen Mary. They say that there's at least one hundred and fifty different spirits in the ship. Today, there are tales of another little girl who was said to have drowned in the room. She's known as Jackie, and many have seen her or heard her calling for her parents. Maira believe she encountered Jackie. I was working at the cafe. I was a hostess. We always had people like tourists come in and some people didn't really speak like our language, which was fine, and they're European. They came. They were like, oh, can we have a party of four? I said, a party of four? What do you mean there's a party? I was like, you mean five, there's five of you and they're like, no, there's four. And I was like, okay, maybe they don't understand. I was like, oh, give me a minute. So I went to the back and I'm like, hey, can you do a party of five? They're like okay, So they set up the table. What I saw was it was the husband and wife. There are three kids, and one of the kids was behind the husband. I do believe she was kind of like you know, when you're like scared, like you're shy, she was like behind him, and I still remember how she looked. She had blonde hair banks like the old things. She was just really cute. She had a lacey dress with a little ribbon. I was like, I don't understand. And then when I went to go see them, I was like, hey, where's your little girl? And they're like, what little girl? Like there's this is these are my kids, And I was like, no, I saw a little girl. And I was so freaked out, so scary. I couldn't stay in the front anymore because I closed and I had to go to the back and I was in the middle of the restaurant and every time I would see someone, I would go up there. But I was so scared because I swear I physically saw her. Now, when I do mediumship kids different I don't see, and this one it was just like a complete like apparition, and she looked human, like she was a human. Me and my knee who I want to say she was six. She wandered off into the Bankwood Hall area. They also do like dining and stuff out there. Because this is the early two thousands. I don't know if you remember this or anyone will remember this, but it was like those very like clonky brick digital cameras. When digital cameras were becoming a thing, like, there was a limited amount of photos that you could take too because SD cards had very low gigs back then, you still couldn't take that many photos, at least for me, I couldn't. I was like, Okay, I'm gonna be very mindful with the photos that I take on this trip. I don't want to run out of memory. My niece was running around in the bank Wootthall area was very echoey, but they had like this like grandfather clock thing. It was really eerie. I took a picture of her dancing, and as she's trolling around, I took like maybe two photos. Because I was trying to be very conservative with the photos. I didn't think anything of it. We then walked out of there because a maintenance person or a janitor had walked in there and we did not want to get in trouble, so we ran out of there. We went with my sister. We walked around and we and elsewhere. Fast forward. I get home from this trip. I had photos from the funeral, I had photos from the Queen Mary and all the things that we did. I was showing my friends because I'm like, oh my god, I got a digital camera. Do you want to see the photos before I uploaded on MySpace. So we're looking through the photos. One of my best friends she's like, hold up, what's that? And I'm like, what's what? And it's in that room, the banquet hallroom. Looks like there's this white apparition of a man, an older man, just standing next to the grandfather clock looking at us. It's a white apparition. It doesn't look like you and I. It looks like this white apparition just sitting there staring at us. It seriously looked like a tall man with like a very stern face. He was wearing like a flannel shirt with it's a very like nineteen. Fifties worker attire. When my friend saw it and I'm like, that does look like a man. We ran inside the house and it was my friend Sierra, my friend Joey, and myself. We all saw it. We uploaded it on the computer, my Windows ninety eight, Windows ninety five, and we uploaded this photo and when we would upload it, it would disappear, but it would show up on the digital camera but not on the computer. We all saw it. We were all thrown off by this, like what the heck. But of course we chalked it up as like maybe like a glitch with these cameras, because it's those early models. We were trying to find some logic with it. Of Course I don't have the image. I'd have to like maybe dig through MySpace if it's still even up there, to see if I can find these images. I know for a fact that all three of us saw it, and we were all freaked out by that. That was one of Stephanie's first experiences aboard the Queen Mary, but it wouldn't be the last. She actually went back not too long ago and found herself in the same area. When we were walking around we visited. I told my friend what happened with the activity I brought this thing that's called the Poulter script. The way that I describe it in simplified terms is receiving attacks from a spirit. Some people may know this device as an ovulus if you will do paranormal investigations or you're familiar with it. The idea is that it draws in the electric magnetic fields and converts them into words, and just generates the words based on that. It doesn't hear you. It's not responding to you. It's just generating words, and so that may not be as impressive. But what's impressive is that it's very on points. Sometimes in the general area that we're in. It doesn't have a camera, it doesn't have a mic on. It's literally a word generator. We were upstairs again by the banquet hall area. If you head towards the bar, so not the cafe, not the banquet hall, not the gift shop, but if you got head towards the bar, there's this room. It's closed off through a glass, but you can see the room. It's a children's play area. There's dolls in the corner, there's books, there's toys, and I think it's antiques from that era or maybe stuff from the ships. I have no idea, but it definitely you can tell that there's stuff that is very much not from this time. We have this Poulter script because I feel like it's the less distracting device to have on while you're walking around, and it's not distracting people. It's not loud. My friend Orlando and I were just like having it on. And it said rabbit, Rabbit, and at first I'm like that's really weird. But this will be important later because I didn't realize this, but my friend Orlando's Instagram handle is mister Jack Wabbitt. I don't know if it was trying to get his attention. So then we go to the other side of the room and we're looking at the dolls at this point, and then the word generates hat corner, hat sat And in my Instagram video you can see that there's this doll on a little rocking chair with a hat near the corner. And so I'm like, are we talking to you? And then the thing generates me as in like, yes, that's me, and so I'm like, oh no, this is the most on point this device has been throughout the ship, because we had walked around by the pool area, the sounds area, even outside on the deck. And then it says eleven years old. I have it all on video, you can see it, and I'm like, what is happening? So we're like, was it the doll? Was it the spirit of the little girl that's on the ship allegedly that followed us up there? I have no idea. And it was at that same banquet hall where Myra felt the most unease. The feeling there. It felt like if you're in jello, Like I don't know how to explain it, but it just had this weird vibe and you feel like everyone's staring at you. It was just really creepy, like you could feel just eyes on you right away. Within a week, I would hear my name get called. Sometime. I would feel like because you're walking in like the deck the ship is long right, so you're walking to clock out, and I would always feel like someone was running to get you know when you feel like someone running behind you and then they'll just stop right when they were like right behind me, so I was like, who is that? I'll turn around. Then there's no one Like I used to get chills. There was like no one there. People have seen a little girl singing children's songs, playing hide and seek, and then she disappears before their eyes, always near one of the two pools, and neither pool has water yet. People have reported hearing sounds of splashing. Some have heard wet footprints walking behind them, only to turn around and see no one there. In the old salon, some have seen a beautiful young woman in a white dress dancing by herself, and then she disappears into the dark shadows of the room. Some have seen a tall, dark haired man in an old suit who disappears into the first classrooms. There's also reports of a baby's cry in the old children's playroom and countless door slams, temperature changes, and disembodied knocks and screams. Despite all the unsettling experiences reported by so many people, just like Myra and Stephanie, thousands of people still visit the Queen Mary every year. If you're a fan of horror and of haunted places, it looks like you have some ghosts waiting for you to visit. This episode of Horror Story was researched by Tess Redman, written by Christina Lumagghi, and narrated by me Edwin Kowarulas. Special thank you to Myra and Stephanie for their accounts at the Queen Mary. Also thank you very much for your ideas for the stories that we share here, and if you have more, reach out to us over at horror story dot com and check out our other shows by Scary FM. By listening to our episodes ad free, you will also be supporting the production. You'll find out more over at Scaryplus dot com. Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary everyone, See you soon.