RMS Queen Mary facts for kids
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|} RMS Queen Mary is a famous British ocean liner. It sailed across the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967. The ship was built in Clydebank, Scotland, by John Brown & Company for the Cunard Line.
Queen Mary and her sister ship, RMS Queen Elizabeth, were designed to offer a fast weekly service. They traveled between Southampton, Cherbourg, and New York. These two ships were Britain's answer to the large, fast liners built by Germany, Italy, and France.
The Queen Mary began her first journey on May 27, 1936. She quickly won the Blue Riband award for the fastest Atlantic crossing that August. She lost it in 1937 but won it back in 1938. She held this record until 1952. When World War II started, she became a troopship. She carried Allied soldiers during the war. In 1943, she carried over 16,600 people, which is still a record for the most people on one ship.
After the war, Queen Mary was changed back for passenger service. She and Queen Elizabeth became very popular for transatlantic travel. They were the main way to cross the Atlantic until jet planes became common in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s, Queen Mary was getting old and losing money.
The Cunard Line decided to retire the Queen Mary in 1967. She left Southampton for the last time on October 31, 1967. She sailed to Long Beach, California, in the United States, where she was permanently docked. The City of Long Beach bought the ship. Today, she is a popular tourist spot with restaurants, a museum, and a hotel.
Contents
| History | |
|---|---|
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| Name | Queen Mary |
| Namesake | Mary, Queen of the United Kingdom |
| Owner |
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| Port of registry | Liverpool |
| Route | Southampton, New York, via Cherbourg (normal transatlantic voyage East and West bound) |
| Ordered | 3 April 1929 |
| Builder |
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| Yard number | 534 |
| Laid down | 1 December 1930 |
| Launched | 26 September 1934 |
| Sponsored by | Queen Mary |
| Christened | 26 September 1934 |
| Maiden voyage | 27 May 1936 |
| In service | 1936–1967 |
| Out of service | 9 December 1967 |
| Identification |
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| Fate | Ship hotel and museum |
| Status | Docked, Long Beach. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage |
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| Displacement | 77,400 long tons (78,642 metric tons) |
| Length |
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| Beam | 118 ft (36.0 m) |
| Height | 181 ft (55.2 m) |
| Draught | 38 ft 9 in (11.8 m) |
| Decks | 12 |
| Installed power | 24 × Yarrow boilers |
| Propulsion |
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| Speed |
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| Capacity | 2,140 passengers: 776 first (cabin) class, 785 cabin (tourist) class, 579 tourist (third) class |
| Crew | 1100 |
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RMS Queen Mary
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 Location in California
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| NRHP reference No. | 92001714 |
| Added to NRHP | 15 April 1993 |
- Changing the Ship
- Opening as a Tourist Spot
- Closure and Reopening
- Meeting of the Two Queen Marys
- Current Condition and Future
- Recent Closure and Reopening
Building and Naming the Ship
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Britain wanted to build its own large ships after Germany launched the Bremen and Europa. The White Star Line started building their huge ship, Oceanic, in 1928. Cunard planned their own large ship, known as "Hull Number 534."
Building Hull Number 534 started in December 1930. It was built on the River Clyde by the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland. Work stopped in December 1931 because of the Great Depression. Cunard asked the British Government for money to finish the ship. They got the loan, which also helped build a second ship. This would allow for a weekly service to New York.
One rule for the loan was that Cunard had to join with the White Star Line. This was another British shipping company that was struggling. On May 10, 1934, they formed Cunard-White Star Line. Work on Queen Mary started again right away. She was launched on September 26, 1934. The whole project took three and a half years and cost a lot of money.
The ship was named after Mary of Teck, who was the wife of King George V. The name was a secret until the launch. A popular story says that Cunard wanted to name the ship Victoria. But when they asked the King for permission to name it after Britain's "greatest Queen," he thought they meant his wife, Queen Mary. So, the story goes, they had to name it Queen Mary.
Cunard officials have always said this story is not true. However, some people who were there, like Felix Morley, supported the story. It was finally confirmed in 1988 by Eleanor Sparkes, whose father was with the King. Even so, Cunard still denies the story. It's also possible the name Queen Mary was a compromise. Both Cunard and White Star Lines had their own naming traditions.
The name Queen Mary was already used by a smaller ship, TS Queen Mary. So, that ship was renamed Queen Mary II.
The Queen Mary had 24 boilers and four powerful turbines. These gave the ship a lot of power. They made it go very fast, with four propellers turning at 200 rotations per minute.
Before World War II
In 1934, Queen Mary launched the new liner as RMS Queen Mary. As she slid down the slipway, 18 heavy chains slowed her down. This helped her enter the River Clyde smoothly.
On March 24, 1936, the ship ran aground on the River Clyde. But tugboats quickly helped her get free.
During her trials in early 1936, Queen Mary reached a speed of 32.84 knots.
Her first journey began on May 27, 1936, from Southampton. Sir Edgar Britten was her captain. Queen Mary was the largest passenger ship in the world at 80,774 gross register tons (GRT). Her rival, Normandie, was slightly smaller. However, Normandie was later made bigger, taking back the title. Queen Mary sailed very fast on her first trip to New York. She arrived on June 1, 1936.
Some people thought Queen Mary's design was too old-fashioned. Especially when compared to Normandie's modern, sleek bow. But Queen Mary became more popular, carrying more passengers than her rival.
In August 1936, Queen Mary won the Blue Riband from Normandie. She had average speeds of over 30 knots. Normandie won it back in 1937. But in 1938, Queen Mary took it back again. She held this record until 1952.
Inside the Ship
The Queen Mary had many amazing features for passengers. These included two indoor swimming pools, beauty salons, and libraries. There were also children's play areas for all three classes. The ship had a music studio, a lecture hall, and even telephone service to anywhere in the world. Passengers could also play outdoor paddle tennis and use dog kennels.
The biggest room was the first-class dining room, called the Grand Salon. It was three stories tall with large columns. Many rooms on the ship had air conditioning. The first-class swimming pool was two decks high. This ship was also the first ocean liner to have its own Jewish prayer room.
The first-class dining room had a large map of the Atlantic crossing. A small moving model of the Queen Mary would show the ship's progress on the map.
For a different dining experience, there was the Verandah Grill. This was an exclusive restaurant for about 80 passengers. At night, it became the Starlight Club. The ship also had the Observation Bar, a stylish lounge with great ocean views.
Many talented designers and artists worked on the ship's interior. Woods from different parts of the British Empire were used in the public rooms. The rooms ranged from very fancy first-class suites to smaller third-class cabins.
- Queen Mary Art Deco Interiors
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First class dining room, now known as the "Grand Salon".
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Mural in the main dining room, or "Grand Salon".
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First class dining room, now known as the "Grand Salon".
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Observation Bar.
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Observation Bar lounge.
World War II Service
In August 1939, Queen Mary was sailing back to Southampton from New York. The world situation was tense, so the battlecruiser HMS Hood escorted her. She arrived safely. But when she sailed to New York again on September 1, war was declared. She was told to stay in port.
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In March 1940, Queen Mary was joined in New York by her new sister ship, Queen Elizabeth. These three huge liners stayed idle for a while. Then, Allied leaders decided to use them as troopships. Sadly, Normandie was destroyed by fire during her conversion. Queen Mary left New York for Sydney, Australia, in March 1940. There, she was turned into a troopship. She would carry Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the United Kingdom.
For the war, the ship was painted navy grey. Because of her new color and great speed, she was called the "Grey Ghost." To protect against magnetic mines, a special coil was added around her hull. Inside, furniture was removed and replaced with simple wooden bunks for soldiers.
About 6 miles of carpet and many valuable items were removed and stored. The wood in the rooms was covered. Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were the largest and fastest troopships in the war. They often carried as many as 15,000 men on one trip. They usually traveled alone and very fast. This made it almost impossible for U-boats (German submarines) to catch them. Adolf Hitler even offered a large reward to any U-boat captain who could sink either ship.
The Queen Mary had one serious accident during the war. On October 2, 1942, she accidentally cut through one of her escort ships, HMS Curacoa. This happened off the Irish coast, and 338 lives were lost. Queen Mary was carrying thousands of American soldiers. She was ordered not to stop under any circumstances, so she kept going. The destroyers with her later rescued 99 survivors.
Later that year, in December 1942, Queen Mary carried over 11,000 people. During this trip, a giant rogue wave hit the ship. It was calculated that the ship rolled 52 degrees. If it had rolled just three more degrees, it might have capsized.
From July 25 to 30, 1943, Queen Mary carried 16,683 people. This is still the record for the most passengers ever on one vessel. This was only possible in summer, as many passengers had to sleep on deck.
During the war, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill traveled on Queen Mary three times. He used it for important meetings with Allied leaders. On one trip in 1943, Churchill and his team planned the Normandy Invasion. Churchill later said that these ships were vital for the war effort. By the end of the war, Queen Mary had carried over 800,000 troops. She had traveled over 600,000 miles.
After World War II
After bringing war brides to Canada, Queen Mary made her fastest ever return trip to Southampton in early 1946. It took only three days, 22 hours, and 42 minutes. From September 1946 to July 1947, Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service. She got air conditioning and updated rooms. She and Queen Elizabeth then became the main ships for transatlantic travel. They made a lot of money for Cunard.
On January 1, 1949, Queen Mary ran aground near Cherbourg, France. She was refloated the next day and went back to work.
In 1952, Queen Mary lost the Blue Riband to the SS United States. She had held the record for 14 years.
In 1958, the first commercial transatlantic flights by jet planes began. This created new competition for the Cunard Queens. Flying from London to New York now took only 7–8 hours. Demand for sea travel dropped a lot. Sometimes, especially in winter, Queen Mary had more crew than passengers. By 1965, Cunard was losing money on all its ships.
Cunard decided to retire both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Many offers came in. The city of Long Beach, California bought Queen Mary for $3.45 million. Queen Mary was even in the film Assault on a Queen (1966).
Queen Mary was retired in 1967. On September 27, she finished her 1,001st and last trip across the North Atlantic. She had carried over 2.1 million passengers. Under Captain John Treasure Jones, she left Southampton for the last time on October 31. She sailed around Cape Horn and arrived in Long Beach on December 9.
Long Beach, California
Today, Queen Mary is permanently docked in Long Beach. She is a tourist attraction, a hotel, a museum, and a place for events.
Changing the Ship
When Long Beach bought Queen Mary in 1967, they changed her into a floating hotel. They removed almost everything below "C" deck to make space for Jacques Cousteau's Living Sea Museum. This made the museum very large.
They took out all the boiler rooms, the front engine room, and other machinery. The ship's empty fuel tanks were filled with mud. This kept the ship stable after so much weight was removed. Only the back engine room was left.
One challenge was deciding who would do the conversion work. The United States Coast Guard decided that Queen Mary was now a building. This was because her propellers were removed and her engines gutted. The ship was also repainted. Her funnels were replaced with new ones because the old ones were very worn out.
The company that first leased the ship, Diners Club, started turning the rest of the ship into a hotel. Later, Specialty Restaurants took over. This new plan focused on turning the first- and second-class cabins into hotel rooms. The main lounges and dining rooms became banquet halls.
On the Promenade Deck, the right side was enclosed to create fancy restaurants. The famous Observation Bar was redecorated as a western-themed bar.
Smaller first-class rooms were changed into shops. More shopping areas were built on the Sun Deck. The first-class cinema was removed to make space for kitchens. The first-class lounge became a banquet area. The second-class smoking room was divided into a wedding chapel and offices.
The elegant Verandah Grill was changed into a fast-food place. A new fancy restaurant was built above it. The second-class lounges were made bigger for banquets. The first-class dining room was divided into two banquet rooms. The second-class dining room became kitchen storage.
The first-class swimming pool was kept for visitors to see. But it could not be used for swimming due to safety rules. Today, you can only see the pool on guided tours. No original second-class, third-class, or crew cabins remain on the ship.
Opening as a Tourist Spot
On May 8, 1971, Queen Mary opened to tourists. At first, only parts of the ship were open. On December 11, 1971, Jacques Cousteau's Museum of the Sea opened. But it closed within ten years because not enough people visited. On November 2, 1972, the hotel opened with 150 rooms. Later, Hyatt Hotels managed the hotel from 1974 to 1980.
By 1980, it was clear that the way the ship was run wasn't working. The city was losing millions of dollars each year. So, they decided one company should manage everything.
Jack Wrather, a local millionaire, loved the ship. He signed a 66-year lease to run the whole property. He also arranged for the huge plane, the Spruce Goose, to be displayed next to the ship. This plane had been hidden for decades. It was put in a giant dome next to the liner in 1983. This brought many more visitors.
After Wrather died in 1984, his company continued to run the ship. In 1988, the Walt Disney Company bought his holdings. Disney had wanted to buy the Disneyland Hotel, which Wrather had built. When they bought it, they also got Queen Mary. However, Disney never promoted Queen Mary as a Disney property.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Queen Mary struggled financially. Disney had big plans for a resort called Port Disney. It would include a theme park called DisneySea. But these plans fell through. In 1992, Disney gave up the lease on the ship. The DisneySea idea was later used in Japan as Tokyo DisneySea.
Closure and Reopening
With Disney gone, the Hotel Queen Mary closed on September 30, 1992. The Spruce Goose was sold and moved to Oregon. The Queen Mary itself closed on December 31, 1992.
During this time, the ship was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. The Port of Long Beach also gave control of the ship back to the city.
On February 5, 1993, RMS Foundation, Inc. signed a five-year lease to operate the ship. The tourist attraction reopened on February 26, 1993. The hotel reopened partially on March 5. In 1995, the lease was extended to twenty years.
In 2004, a dinner theater called Tibbies Great American Cabaret was added. It was in the space where the ship's bank and radio room used to be.
In 2005, the company running the ship faced financial problems. In 2007, a group called "Save the Queen" took over the lease. They planned to fix up the ship and the land around it. They updated the hotel rooms and repainted the ship's funnels and waterline to their original red color.
In September 2009, Delaware North Companies took over management. They also planned to restore the ship. But in April 2011, they stopped managing it. Evolution Hospitality, LLC. took over in September 2011.
Meeting of the Two Queen Marys
On February 23, 2006, RMS Queen Mary 2 visited Los Angeles Harbor. She saluted her older namesake, the Queen Mary.
In March 2011, MS Queen Victoria also saluted Queen Mary with fireworks. On March 12, 2013, MS Queen Elizabeth did the same.
The Queen Mary replied with her one working air horn. The Queen Mary 2 used a mix of new horns and an original 1934 Queen Mary horn. The original Queen Mary had three whistles tuned to a very low frequency. This was so the loud sound wouldn't hurt human ears.
Modern rules say ship horns must be in a higher frequency range. But Queen Mary 2 was given the lowest possible frequency for her size. The old 55 Hz whistle from the original Queen Mary can be heard at least 10 miles away.
Current Condition and Future
In 2016, a real estate company called Urban Commons took over the lease. They were responsible for the ship's daily care and long-term repairs. They planned to greatly renovate the ship and develop the land around it.
In July 2017, workers found the ship's old forward gear room. It had been sealed up during the 1960s conversion and forgotten.
In 2017, a report said the ship was in poor condition. The hull and supports were rusting. Repair costs were estimated at nearly $300 million. In November 2016, the City of Long Beach put $23 million towards urgent repairs.
In August 2019, an engineer inspecting the ship said it was in the worst condition he had seen. He said it needed a lot of money and workers right away. He warned that the ship might soon be beyond repair. City officials disagreed, saying they had already done a lot of work.
The $23 million for repairs ran out in 2018. Many urgent projects were still unfinished. For example, the ship's lifeboats were rotting and needed to be removed.
In October 2019, the City of Long Beach warned Urban Commons that they were not keeping up with repairs. Urban Commons then gave a new plan, including removing the lifeboats.
Recent Closure and Reopening
The Queen Mary closed in May 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company managing the ship faced bankruptcy. Court documents showed that the repair work done by Urban Commons was incomplete or done poorly. The ship needed major safety repairs before it could reopen. In June 2021, the City of Long Beach took back control of the ship.
An engineering firm found that $23 million was needed for urgent safety repairs. The report said the ship was at risk of flooding or even capsizing. On September 21, 2021, the Long Beach City Council voted to consider giving control of the ship to the Harbor Department. The rotting lifeboats were removed because they were damaging the ship's structure. The city saved 11 original lifeboats for restoration and scrapped the rest.
In June 2022, the city made a new agreement with Evolution Hospitality. The company would manage the ship, while the city would handle repairs. By November, the city had spent $2.8 million on plumbing, Wi-Fi, handrail repairs, and new lights. They also started working on the ship's boilers.
The ship opened for limited tours on December 15, 2022. A full public opening happened on April 1, 2023. The repairs and more tourism helped the Queen Mary earn over $3.5 million in profits from April to December 2023.
W6RO Radio Room
The Queen Mary's original radio room was removed when she docked in Long Beach. A new amateur radio room was created one deck above. It uses some of the old radio equipment for display. This new radio room, called W6RO ("Whiskey Six Romeo Oscar"), opened on April 22, 1979. Volunteers from a local amateur radio club run it. Other licensed amateur radio operators can also use the radios.
In November 2007, the radio room was renamed the Nate Brightman Radio Room. This was to honor Nate Brightman, who dedicated over 40 years to W6RO and Queen Mary.
Alleged Hauntings
After Queen Mary was permanently docked in California, stories began that the ship was haunted. These claims started in the 1980s and have grown since then. For example, in 2008, Time magazine listed Queen Mary as one of the "Top 10 Haunted Places." Some people say certain staterooms are haunted.
However, some experts say these stories come from pareidolia. This is when your mind sees patterns or images in random things. It can also come from daydreaming while doing repetitive tasks.
Still, the Queen Mary offers several haunted attraction tours. These include "Haunted Encounters" and "Grey Ghost Project." These tours focus on paranormal activity. But they also share facts from the ship's logs, like records of deaths. This way, guests can experience the alleged hauntings without inventing fake stories.
See also
In Spanish: RMS Queen Mary para niños
