#4: The Queen Mary

My best friend used to bartend at a restaurant in the Long Beach Harbor, and whenever I needed hours of "discount" drinks, I would sit at her bar and look out at the regal Queen Mary ship, stationed in the Harbor. I had always wanted to take a tour, but as is the typical story, never really found the time. Well, at work we are re-releasing Titanic in 3D (which is going to be amazing, trust me) which also coincides with the 100th anniversary of the ship's fateful sinking. With big ships on the mind, I made a point of driving down to Long Beach a few weeks ago, excited to learn all of the interesting history of the Queen Mary.

We got to the ship after lunch, and it was perfect. The morning had been pretty overcast, and we got there right as the sun broke out. We explored on our own for about half an hour, then jumped on a "behind the scenes" tour. The tour cost an additional $8 on top of the admission price, but it was totally worth it. The ship is now a hotel and event space, and though it is technically a museum as well, there aren't many explanatory exhibits or placards to inform someone who just wants to walk around on their own.

The first thing the tour guide did was give us some facts comparing the Queen Mary to that "other famous ship" the Titanic. They were made by the same company (after the original company that started the QM was forced to merge with Titanic's company due to the Great Depression). Though the Titanic is always thought of as "the biggest ship of all time," the Queen Mary is actually twice the size (and was built 20 years later).

The Queen Mary was initially built to be a luxury cruise-liner for only about 1,000 patrons. I knew about that much going into the tour, but I had no idea of the true historic value of the ship. Since it was built to (literally) be the biggest and the fastest in the world, when World War II broke out the ship was commissioned into the British Army to transport troops from Australia, and then the United States, to Europe. They stripped out all the luxury furnishings and finery and put in barracks and painted the whole thing battleship grey. The trip from New York to England took about 5 days, and the ship consistently transported 10,000+ troops at a time. At one time, they crammed over 16,000 troops on one trip, and that still holds the record as the most people on a boat, ever. There weren't nearly enough beds for every man on board, so they had to actually sleep in shifts! The tour guide gave us the pretty amazing fact that experts estimate that the Queen Mary's service and ability to quickly transport troops to Europe when needed, shortened the length of the war by at least a year. Crazy!

Ok blah blah blah, trivia aside, the Queen Mary's story finishes like this: After WWII ended, the ship went back to being a luxury cruise liner for about 20 more years. But by the 1960's, air travel had become affordable and preferable and the trans-Atlantic cruise lines started to lose money. The owner of the Queen Mary decided to auction it off to the highest bidder, which happened to be the City of Long Beach. It was then "shipped" (hah hah) from England to California, but since it is way too big to fit through the Panama Canal, it had to go all the way around the horn of South America. The ship came, was anchored, completely re-vamped to its art-deco glory, and turned into a hotel, event space, museum and historical site.

After our tour, we passed up an opportunity to take a "Ghosts & Legends" tour, which takes people around the ship, pointing out all the sites of noted paranormal activity. I'm not a huge fan of ghosts and such, so instead we went to the bar at the bow of the ship (with all the original fixtures and decor!) and had a drink. After drinks, we took a quick tour of the engine room (mostly gutted of the boilers and propellers, but mocked up to show us what the actual controls looked like).

Our last stop was walking through the Soviet submarine Scorpion which is in the harbor right next to the QM. The submarine was crazy, so small and cramped and I can't even imagine someone living in one!

Overall, the experience was really, really interesting and a lot of fun. I am so glad we went on a beautiful day and enjoyed the harbor in the sunshine. I highly recommend it to those people (like me) that had seen the ship from afar but have never stepped foot inside. The tour was fascinating, but more than enough for me - I don't think I will stay aboard the haunted hotel anytime soon! But maybe I'll go back for Sunday brunch sometime.

The ship, with the entrance to the submarine in front and the hotel entrance in the background.

The port deck

An original shop, now turned into a gift shop, shows the ship's original art-deco beauty.

Not a great picture, but this illustrates that the ship has over 30 types of beautiful woods in it, some of which are now extinct!

The bow, with some mock WWII weapons on the deck.

The control room... I can't even describe how cramped and crazy and complicated this room was! Pretty incredible considering it powered the fastest ship in the world.

The missile compartment of the Soviet submarine Scorpion.

Enjoying a cocktail on the bow with the Long Beach harbor in the background.