Today we went to see the Queen Mary (aka QM) at Long Beach. This beautiful ocean liner was built in 1936 and retired in 1967. During her long career she was the premier luxury liner of the time, a troop transport (renamed the Gray Ghost, she was supposed to 5,000 troops at a time but eventually carried up to 16,000 on a trip), a hospital ship (bringing wounded veterans home), a family ship (bringing war brides to their husbands in the US), and then a luxury liner once again.
While she was in the war, the QM was fitted with artillery for protection, including five 40 mm machines guns, one of which is still on deck.
The QM makes regular appearances on Discovery’s “most haunted places” shows, so we took the QM Ghost Tour. Most of the ghost-stories are of unknown people. But one tragic event was very real. During the war the QM was useful because she was so fast that she could (and had to) run quick zig-zag courses to avoid being torpedoed. But on one trip her course cut across the path of one of her smaller escort ships, which was immediately cut in half. Over 300 sailors died within minutes. It’s a sad story and is the stuff ghost stories are made of, but these sailors aren’t the famous QM ghosts. Instead it’s the “Lady in White”, or the ghostly swimmer. The swimmer is supposed to be heard in the old pool, and leave wet footprints. The pool, in the depths of the QM, certainly looks spooky.
After the ghost tour, we went on a self-guided tour of the rest of the ship. We saw the old radio room, officers quarters, staterooms, and many other areas. The QM had a telephone switchboard which handled 585 shipboard lines as well as 10 ship-to-shore lines. Pretty fancy for 1936!
The bridge was beautiful; machinery of that age was supposed to be aesthetic as well as functional.
Of the areas we could see, the Queen’s Salon best represents the luxury of the ship's past.
The halls are tremendously long, and an unusual feature is that the cabin doors do not open directly into the hallway. Instead, they open into short side corridors off the hallway.
The Boiler room was really interesting. The QM ran with 27 boilers, a zillion gauges and truly ancient wiring, although it was state-of-the-art at the time.
The most amazing part was the Propeller box. They built a walkway around an enclosed area that holds 200,000 gallons of water, and in that water is the only remaining propeller. It weighs 35 tons, measures 18 feet tip to tip, and is still attached to its drive shaft. Very, very cool to see.
Later for dinner we went to Mike's house. He is famous for his fried fish, so he fixed Dorado and Wahoo, plus some hot chili. As usual, it was excellent.
Thursday we are leaving Riverside to head to Salton Sea and to the Fountain of Youth. FOY has a monthly Swap Meet and hopefully we will sell some jewelry and knives. Then Saturday, off to Quarzsite again, but this time as vendors, ready to make our fortune!
By the way, recently a virus wiped out all of our email addresses. Please send us an email note, so we can save your address again. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment