The Famous Queen Mary: Is It Haunted?

For years, rumors have flown around saying the famous Queen Mary ship/hotel based in Los Angeles, was haunted. So haunted in fact, that it earned a spot in Life magazine's edition of "The World's Most Haunted Places." But what exactly makes it so spooky and, is it actually haunted? Well, according to a lot of people who have spent the night there, yes, it is haunted. But I had to find out for myself.

First, if you’re unfamiliar with the Queen Mary, allow me to shed some light on the subject. The Queen Mary is a ship that was built in 1935 to be used as a luxury ocean liner. It soon became popular with British Royalty and Hollywood celebrities, used frequently by the likes of King Edward VIII, King George, Princess Elizabeth, and even Bob Hope. But because of the ship’s record-breaking speed and size, the Queen Mary was retrofitted to serve as a troopship during WW2. It garnered the nickname the “Grey Ghost,” and it hauled as many as 15,000 men while playing a pivotal role in guiding the allied forces to victory. On one fateful day, during escort duty, the Queen Mary crashed into another ship, the HMS Curacoa, and 300 people drowned.

After the war, the Queen Mary was returned to her original glory and reclaimed its spot as a world-class ocean liner. In 1968, the ship was retired from ocean travel and docked. Not long after, it became a hotel, offering tours and letting people stay overnight. This is where reports of the ship being haunted started. One room, B340, was closed for thirty years because of all the negative experiences guests had reported. It has since been reopened and interested guests can stay there for $499 a night. There are many YouTube videos made about that room in particular. The room does not have a number on the door, unlike all the other rooms.

Many guests have reported knocking on the walls in the middle of the night, the sink faucet turning on and off on its own, and even seeing ghostly figures looming over their beds. There’s also a tale about a little ghost girl named Jackie who likes to roam the halls.

So, is the Queen Mary haunted? Well, here's my experience. Two years ago, on a trip to Los Angeles with my friends, we booked a one-night stay at the Queen Mary. At the time, I had never heard of the ship, but one of my buddies kept talking about how it was supposed to be haunted so, obviously, I wanted to go. We arrived at one in the morning, driving from Cortez, Colorado.

On the ride there, we were looking up all kinds of videos about the ship on YouTube. One video, taken by a father with his young daughters, claimed that while aboard the ship, one of the daughter’s phones had turned on randomly and started playing music. We laughed and instantly thought the video was fake. Despite our hesitance to believe the ship could be haunted, we were excited.

We walked into the lobby, which was empty, and were greeted by a nice, but somewhat disinterested, hotel clerk. "So, is this place really haunted?" My friends and I asked. The clerk shrugged and said, "Depends on what you wanna believe."

So we get to our room at one in the morning, set our bags down, and decide to start roaming the halls in hopes of seeing something spooky. We walked around the entire ship, which is pretty big, and didn’t find anything except for another group of guys doing the same thing we were.

At this time it was three in the morning and we were about to call it quits. We were walking back to our room when something caught our eye. One of the rooms we passed didn’t have a number on it. This was the famous Room B340. We all gathered around the door, hoping to maybe hear something from inside. As we stood there, all of a sudden, I could hear music playing.

I turned to see my buddy Kirk pull out his phone. Music was blaring from it. YouTube had been opened and a random song was playing. At first, I thought that Kirk was playing a prank on us but the look on his face was that of confusion and terror. To get onto YouTube he’d have to unlock his phone with his password, which he couldn’t do because it was in his pocket. I remember we ran back to our room, minds racing, thinking about how that could’ve happened.

We went to bed and woke up at about 9 o’clock. None of us saw any ghosts looming over our beds during the night. We went on a morning walk around the ship, taking in the sights and reading about the boat's history.

So, on my one trip to the Queen Mary, I can’t say I saw any ghosts. But what happened with Kirk’s phone is still unexplained and, to this day, I think it’s the closest I’ve come witnessing the supernatural. Sometime in the future, I’ll have to book a night in Room B340 to see what all the fuss is about. If you have stayed there, what was your experience like? Do you think it's haunted? Comment below and let me know. As always, thanks for reading!