10 March 1985
We spent the day at two of California’s icons that are/were based in Long Beach. One of them, the Queen Mary (aka the Long Beach Hotel) is still there.
This post covers our visit to the ship, which earned the moniker, The First Lady of the Sea, following her 1936 maiden voyage.
Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose … when they were both in Long Beach.
[scanned from postcard]
At 1,237 gross tons, the Queen Mary (QM) was once the world’s largest passenger ocean liner afloat. 1,019 feet (311 m) long, the ship made 1,001 transatlantic crossings. Built with all the pride of Britain’s centuries of seafaring tradition, the QM presented to the world a standard of craftsmanship unequalled in shipbuilding history.
During WWII, the Queen Mary was drafted into military duty, gaining the moniker, The Gray Ghost. She transported more than 750,000 troops and travelled almost 600,000 miles (965,000 km). On one record-breaking trip, she transported 15,998 troops. No wonder Hitler was obsessed with sinking the QM — he offered a quarter of a million dollars and the Iron Cross as a reward. Although the u-boats tried and tried, they never came close — the Queen was the fastest ship at sea.
The Gray Ghost
“The famous British liner, Queen Mary, arrives in New York Harbor, June 20, 1945,
with thousands of US troops from European battles.”
[Photo from the public domain]
For more information about the Queen Mary, click here (the Long Beach Hotel website) or here (Wikipedia article). And here’s a website authored by a maritime historian.
Welcome aboard the QM.
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First Class Boarding Lobby (L) and First Class Main Lounge.
Long Beach Marina from the aft deck.
The QM had sufficient lifeboat capacity for its passengers.
The QM held the Blue Riband from 1936–1937 and 1938–1952.
QM’s Spic & Span Engine Room.
Shaft Alley is 30 feet (9 m) below the waterline. The shafts connect
each of the four engines to the four giant propellers.
the Emergency Steering Station was never used over the million miles
the Queen logged at sea.
Propeller securing nut (R) and the fairing cone that covers the nut.
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