Formerly: HMT Queen Mary (1939–1946)
Long Beach, California · Founded 1936 · Building: constructed 1930–1936; launched 1934
A 1936 Cunard ocean liner, wartime troopship, and permanent Long Beach hotel whose survival depends on continued public stewardship.
RMS Queen Mary entered Cunard passenger service in 1936 after construction at John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. It later served as HMT Queen Mary during the Second World War, then sailed to Long Beach in 1967 for permanent mooring and conversion into a hotel, attraction, and events venue. The City of Long Beach regained full control of the ship and surrounding property in 2021 after a private lessee surrendered its leases.
Construction begins at John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland, where the vessel was known as Job No. 534.
Source: The Queen Mary, "Ship History"
Queen Mary is launched in Clydebank.
Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places listing, reference no. 92001714
Queen Mary departs Southampton on its maiden passenger voyage to New York.
Source: The Queen Mary, "Ship History"
While serving as HMT Queen Mary, the ship collides with its escort, HMS Curacoa, in a wartime incident that caused major loss of life.
Source: Imperial War Museums, HMS Curacoa and RMS Queen Mary wartime records
After departing Southampton for the last time, Queen Mary arrives in Long Beach for permanent mooring.
Source: Contemporary voyage accounts; City of Long Beach history of the Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, reference no. 92001714.
Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places
The City of Long Beach regains full control of the Queen Mary and surrounding leased property after Urban Commons Queensway LLC surrenders its leases.
Source: City of Long Beach press release, April 6, 2021
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
This is a widely repeated naming legend, including in the venue's own history. The reviewed material presents it as legend rather than a documented exchange, and no primary record of the alleged conversation was established in this audit.
Churchill's wartime association with transatlantic travel aboard Queen Mary is widely reported and chronologically credible, but this audit did not verify a specific primary document establishing the candidate's exact number of crossings or claim that he signed directives aboard.
A 1988 Los Angeles Times report, citing the ship's archives, identifies Pedder as an 18-year-old laborer killed by a mechanical engine-room door during an emergency drill on July 10, 1966. The death is supported by that historical reporting, but the specific Cunard logbook and coroner citations supplied in the first pass were not independently checked here.
Ghost stories about Door 13, the pool area, and other spaces were being promoted by ship personnel and tour operators by at least 1988. The existence of a haunted reputation is documented; paranormal activity itself is not established by the available evidence.
Everything below has been reported by two or more independent sources — this is an informational record of what's said about this place, not a verified account of paranormal activity. Still Open America doesn't certify hauntings as real.
Visitors and staff have reported seeing a young bearded man in blue coveralls around Door 13 and Shaft Alley, sometimes hearing whistling, knocking, footsteps, or a request for a wrench. The apparition is commonly identified as John Pedder, an 18-year-old crewman reported to have died in a Door 13 accident during a 1966 drill.
Guests, guides, and paranormal accounts describe a young girl called Jackie in the drained former first-class swimming-pool area, with laughter, splashing, wet footprints, and occasional sightings. The story says she drowned aboard the ship, but no confirmed historical record of a child drowning in either passenger pool has been located.
No contemporaneous ship, civil-registration, or coroner record reviewed confirms a child named Jackie died by drowning in either of the ship's passenger pools.
Reports describe a woman in white or a woman in a 1930s-style bathing suit appearing near the former pool dressing rooms and the Queen's Salon before vanishing. The reported figure's identity is not consistent across sources.
Guests and paranormal accounts describe unexplained knocking, faucets and lights turning on, blankets or bedsheets being pulled, doors or cupboards opening, shadowy figures, scratches, and an unseen male voice in Stateroom B340. The room's reported activity is conventionally presented as one concentrated haunting rather than separate legends for each reported event.
A recurring B340 story identifies a male presence as Walter J. Adamson, a passenger who died in the room in 1948. Accounts describe an apparition at the foot of a bed and a man who speaks or tells guests to leave.
Walter J. Adamson's death in B340 is reported in modern accounts, but the attribution of the alleged activity to him cannot be historically confirmed.
Visitors and paranormal investigators have reported children's voices, cries for a mother, laughter, and objects moving in areas associated with the former children's playroom and pool. Some reports fold this activity into the Jackie legend, while others describe more than one child presence.
Across the ship, guests and employees have reported shadow figures, unseen footsteps, knocks, screams, and a sensation of being watched in corridors and public spaces. These broader reports are not consistently tied to a specific named person or one room.
The Queen Mary's hotel history is continuous from the moment it arrived in Long Beach in 1967.
The ship arrived for permanent mooring in December 1967, but its subsequent hotel and attraction operation has involved conversion work, municipal oversight, private leases, operator changes, and periods of closure. In 2021, the City regained full control after the then-lessee surrendered its leases.
Source: City of Long Beach press release, April 6, 2021
A young girl named Jackie drowned in the ship's first-class swimming pool.
The story is part of the Queen Mary's modern haunted reputation, but this audit did not identify a verifiable contemporaneous record establishing the claimed drowning. It should be presented as unverified folklore, not as documented ship history.
Source: Los Angeles Times, "Tour of Queen Mary's Ghosts: Past Said to Haunt Giant Ship," March 11, 1988
The Queen Mary escaped scrapping because Long Beach acquired it as a waterfront attraction after transatlantic liner service lost ground to air travel. Its continued survival is not a simple story of uninterrupted commercial success: it has required public ownership, shifting private operating arrangements, and costly preservation work. In 2021, Long Beach resumed full control after the prior lessee surrendered its leases and the City began planning critical repairs.
Queen Mary ended active Cunard service in 1967, departed Southampton for the last time on October 31, and arrived at its permanent Long Beach berth on December 9, 1967. Its hotel and visitor-attraction use followed conversion after arrival, rather than beginning on the day it stopped sailing.
The City of Long Beach regained full control of the Queen Mary and surrounding leased property in 2021 after Urban Commons Queensway LLC surrendered its leases. The City described Evolution Hospitality as a third-party hospitality manager, not as the ship's owner, in its 2021 announcement.
The Queen Mary has a long-running haunted reputation, including stories connected to Door 13 and the former first-class pool area. A Los Angeles Times report documented the ship's ghost-tour culture in 1988, but it did not establish paranormal activity as fact; the ghost claims remain unverifiable folklore.
1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, CA 90802
Check the official site before visiting for current hotel, tour, dining, deck-access, and event information.