Saturday, April 19, 2014

Queen Mary-The Grey Ghost

"You can't keep an old lady down!"
All through the month of April, Minnie will help me explore the people, places and things that WE call creepy, strange and downright weird. To be honest, Minnie finds almost everything creepy and strange so having the entire alphabet at our disposal is going to be a challenge. You might find what we discover delightful, or you may agree with us. Please share your opinions either way. Have fun road-tripping the Alphabet by visiting others doing the challenge as well. To find out more on the A-Z blogging challenge follow the link.







Queen Mary Haunting's


No one loves a good ghost story or haunting as much as Minnie and Queen Mary is a favorite. The luxury liner and World War II transport ship Queen Mary is one of the most haunted places of modern time in America. Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936 and with the outbreak of World War II, she was converted into a troopship and carried Allied soldiers for the duration of the war. During the war she was named "The Grey Ghost" because of the color she was painted to make her stealthy in war-time waters. Following the war, Queen Mary was refitted once again for passenger service. The ships Queen Mary and Queen Elisabeth dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950's. By the mid-1960's the ship was aging and though still among the most popular transatlantic liners, was operating at a loss and finally in 1967 she retired. The ship left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and sailed to the port of Long Beach, California, United States, where she remains permanently moored and now serves as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum, and hotel.

In her time, the Queen Mary carried sailors, soldiers, stowaways and wealthy vacationers. It is not surprising she saw her own share of deaths. In fact, there are so many hauntings that some parts of the ship are now barred from the public. But for the para-normally curious there are still haunted tours of the cabins and halls that housed death. During her over 70-year history, the Queen Mary has 49 reported deaths, so there are plenty of potential spirits to haunt her hallways. Reported hauntings include a young crewman in the engine room, swimmers in the first-class pool, a man in black, and a woman in blue. The in-house psychic, Peter James, claims that he has communicated with over 150 separate ghosts on the ship. James gives bi-monthly ghost tours of the ship and claims to have made contact with many different ghosts. 

Can't get to the Queen Mary to see the ghosts, here is a link to some images from the Queen Mary GhostCam. 

Are the ghosts real? I don’t know, but I sure do love a good ghost story. Have you ever been on a ghost tour, seen a ghost? Do tell!

Hope everyone enjoys their Easter Sunday! Lucky me gets to work...OK, maybe not so lucky. Care to share your plans?


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder where all those extra ghosts came from. o.o The Queen Mary must be a ghost magnet! I had no idea it had a haunted history!

Robin said...

This is one of those times that I wish an object could speak. Ghosts aside, I bet that ships has stories it could tell. The ghosts are only ONE thing that makes it fascinating.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Someone else blogged about that ship. Lots of ghosts on board. Would be cool to tour it.
I've been on a lot of ghost tours here in the South and on the British Isles.