Queen Mary
The following storytook place on board The Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Thestory is absolutely true. If you had the misfortune of taking the"ghost tour" on the Queen Mary, a few years ago, youmay have heard the story and seen the photo- graph that I took (untilI forced them to remove it from public viewing), pleaseunderstand that the story they told was incorrect and embellishedto make it more entertaining and less scary. This story iscopyrighted and may not be reproduced for profit without myexpress written consent. This posting may be cross-posted to anyother newsgroup, if posted in its entirety.
Several years ago I became very ill with a respiratory virus.After my recovery, as a treat to myself a a friend who had helpedto care for me, I purchased tickets for a Halloween party andtour on The Queen Mary with an overnight stay.
For those of you who aren't familiar with The Queen Mary, it is aretired Cruise ship that has a permanent home in the water (witha jetty built around it) at Long Beach. The cabins have beenconverted into hotel rooms, although they had tried to maintainthe art deco feel of the ship, not all of the rooms have theoriginal fittings in them.
We checked into the hotel and had spent a long day exploring,eating junk food and partying in the Spruce Goose Dome (the domeof doom, I think they called it!). The room that we were givenhad been remodeled and looked like any other hotel room. BecauseI had been ill, and was exhausted from our busy day, we returnedthe the room at about 11:30 p.m. We realized immediately thatthere was a problem. The ship was full of roudy revelers and ourroom was NEXT TO THE COKE MACHINE! About every 30 seconds weheard a can fall. We knew that there was no way we were going toget to sleep in that room.
I called the desk and asked to be moved. We were told that norooms were available because of the party. I asked to speak tothe manager and was told again that the hotel was sold out. Itold him that we did not wish to stay and would be leaving foranother hotel. He asked me to hold and about 60 seconds latercame back on and said that they did have one room available.
We were taken to a very small cabin on the harbor side of theship. The room was decorated with all of the original built indeco furniture! It was gorgeous. As I mentioned, I was exhaustedfrom our busy day, but when I walked into that room I felt likeI'd had 8 hours sleep and 4 cups of coffee. I was wired. Being acamera buff I pulled out my 35 mm and began taking pictures ofthe art deco fittings. I took about two rolls of film.
To understand what happened next, I have to describe the room. Itwas rectangular, perhaps 20 x 12 feet. It contained two twin bedswhich were parallel to the wall with the windows facing theharbor. Between the beds was a built in vanity.
My friend got into the bed next to the windows. Her head was justbelow a port hole window. One of those round things with thescrews around it. I was in the bed across the room. The lightnext to my bed was the last one on and as I turned to her to saygoodnight I saw, quite distinctly, that there was a man standingnext to her bed. He was looking at me, over his shoulder and heturned his head to look out the window. Then he just disolved andwas gone. The man had been wearing a dark coat made of a stifffabric, like wool. He had a beard and was wearing a hat like acaptains hat. I immediately associated his clothing with amilitary uniform.
I turned out the light and didn't say a word. Now, you areprobably thinking, why in the world didn't you say anything toher, but imagine my position. It was Halloween night, I had justrecovered from an illness, I was tired and I didn't believe inghosts. Plus, I didn't want to scare her. I really didn't knowwhat to do. So, I just laid in bed, shivering beneath the covers,wide awake.
My friend, on the other hand, fell fast asleep. I was acutelyaware of her breathing and every other noise in the ship. Ithought how ironic it was that she should be asleep because sheis normally a very light sleeper but I figured that she was justtired too. The next thing I knew I heard her sit up in bed andstart SCREAMING my name.
Not a shout, a scream that went on and on, she was almosthysterical. By the time I got the light on, after knockingeverything off the table, she was awake and crying. I tried toget her to talk to me and tell me what had caused her to be soupset. She kept repeating that she'd had a bad dream, butwouldn't tell me more. We went back to bed with the light in thebathroom left on. Neither of us slept much that night and we leftthe hotel eearly the next morning.
Neither of us discussed that night with each other for weeks. Ifinally got around to having the film developed and when I gotthem back I called her. In one of the photographs, a photographof the window directly above the bed she had slept in, I saw theface of the man that had been standing next to the bed. I knewthat she was the only person that I could tell this to becauseshe had been there.
Ironically, while we were on the phone, I turned on the tv and"Eye on LA" had a program about ghosts on the QueenMary! She told me she was coming over, she wanted to tell meabout the dream. I didn't mention the photographs to her.
When she arrived, I handed her several packages of photographs tolook at. She went through them, making occasional comments onthem. When she got to the photograph of the window, she stopped.This is my paraphrase of her story:
She said that she had suddenly become exhausted and when she gotinto bed must have fallen immediately asleep. But, she didn'trealize that she was asleep. She was very worried about me andlooked over at my bed, but I wasn't in it. She looked up and atall man in a dark coat walked up to her bed. He had a beard andwas wearing a hat. She said that he pulled her blanket and sheetsaway from her and then she saw that he had a pillow in his hand.She knew that he was going to put the pillow over her face. Shewoke up screaming for me.
Now, I am sure that you can explain away her dream as concern forme, but how do you explain her dream containing the same man thatI had seen minutes before next to her bed?
Then she said, "I know you'll think I am crazy but, the manis in this picture." She was holding the photograph of thewindow. In truth, the photograph is quite faint, but like the 3dart pictures, once you see it, it is very clear.
After that day, she and I have not discussed that night. It tookme almost a year to go back to the Queen Mary. On the "Eyeon LA" episode they mentioned a book cataloging the reportsof ghosts. I had to know if anyone else had a similar experience.We were lucky to find a woman who was interested in ghosts andknew where the book was. In exchange for giving them a report ofmy story and a copy of the photograph, she let me read the book.There was a report, in the 1960's when the ship was still sailingof a woman, in our cabin I think, the cabins were renumbered inthe remodel, who reported a man in her room that pulled thesheets down. No man was found in her room or in the hallways. Hewas wearing a dark jacket and had a beard.
Since that time I have investigated other QM sightings andvisited the ship with a psychic on the anniversery of the deathof a crew member who died while working in the engine room. Butthat is another posting! Anyone else have a QM experience?