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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781626193147 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Arcadia Publishing SC |
| Publication date: | 09/16/2014 |
| Series: | Haunted America |
| Pages: | 144 |
| Sales rank: | 404,094 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d) |
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CHAPTER 1
THE QUEEN IS CROWNED
RMS Queen Mary. You will be hard-pressed to find someone in this world who has not heard of this magnificent ship. If asked, they will tell you that she was a passenger liner from a long time ago, or that she is a hotel somewhere in California, or that she is "that haunted ship" they saw on TV. They may tell you that she is like the Titanic or that she is smaller than her older cousin (which she is not), but if you ask them to tell you about the things this ship did or why she is now a tourist attraction, you will most likely get a blank stare. For all her fame and notoriety, people still do not know or understand the Queen Mary's place in history or why it is so important to keep her story alive for the generations that follow us or for those spirits that remain to this day on board the "Stateliest Ship Afloat."
After World War I ended, the North Atlantic passenger trade heated up between the European nations, and Cunard was at the forefront of this new battle. Still sailing its prewar ships but seeing new and faster liners coming from Germany and France, Cunard quickly began designing replacements for its older fleet. It was decided that two large, fast ships would be more economical than the current fleet of smaller vessels, so Cunard sought out perhaps the best shipbuilding company of the day to help design and build its new massive liners, John Brown & Company Shipbuilders.
On December 1, 1930, the first keel plate was laid on job #534, and while not yet known, history itself was being built in the now famous shipyard. Work progressed well on the vessel until the economies of the world began to slow, and when Black Tuesday hit, all work on the ship ceased. Thousands of shipbuilders were laid off, but two of those men working on job #534 were not seen for three years after the work stopped. Over the intervening years, Cunard worked diligently to get its newest vessel built. Its three aging liners were still in relatively good shape, but the cost of maintenance was exorbitant in the Depression years, and passengers were scarce. Cunard begged the British government for an infusion of money to continue its work, but the Crown wanted Cunard to ally itself with its chief rival, White Star Line, in a bid to save both companies. Finally, in desperation, both of the proud shipping giants agreed, and the Cunard White Star Line was formed.
Work recommenced on the massive hull in April 1934, but as the men started back to work, there was a grim discovery in the bottom sections near the double hull. Two of the men who had been working on the ship when the Depression hit were found dead not too far from each other. Their families had assumed that they had committed suicide after learning they were out of a job, but there was no evidence found to support a case for this. To this day, it is still unclear what happened to these men, but because of the proximity of the corpses and the fact that a welding torch was found near one of the men, it is believed that a buildup of fatal gases may have been the cause. The late Peter James has stated that the spirit we know as "John Henry" is one of these poor men who were found. There is another tale told about a welder who was working between the double hull when he was inadvertently sealed inside and eventually died. It is said that when it was discovered what had happened, the company, with permission from the man's family, had funeral services right there on the ship and left him in the hull as a way to save money and time. The authors believe this to be urban legend but a haunting tale nonetheless.
To this day, guests and investigators report hearing the sound of tapping in the lower sections of the ship. This is most common in the area around what is known as the "Green Room," which is located near the old Boiler Room Stage. It is speculated that these taps and bangs are the crewmen who perished, trying to let us know that they are still on the ship and performing their duties in death as they did in life.
Since the British government was now the major stockholder for the new ship, it required Cunard to give periodic reports to the Crown. Every month, an agent would arrive at the palace with an update on the progress. It was during one of these meetings that the king asked, "And what shall our new ship be named?" Instead of telling the king that Cunard was going to name her RMS Queen Victoria as planned, the agent stated, "We are pleased to inform you that Cunard wishes your approval to name our newest and grandest liner after England's greatest queen." To this, the king responded, "My wife shall be pleased at the compliment, gentlemen." So it was that job #534 was christened RMS Queen Mary.
On September 26, 1934, Her Majesty Queen Mary christened job #534, and the grand liner slid into the River Clyde to the cheers of those gathered. She would spend the next twenty months getting fitted out. Cunard spared no expense in the lavish appointments the ship was given, and the most famous artists of the time were commissioned to paint murals, sculpt bas-relief, etch glass and work ornate bronze doors all into a spectacular Art Deco showcase. The ship had three classes of accommodations, two pools, three nurseries, elevators and entertainment salons for all three classes, and she also served gourmet meals to all passengers, regardless of class. When complete, the RMS Queen Mary would truly become the "Stateliest Ship Afloat."
HER SEA TRIALS COMPLETE, the Queen Mary set sail on her maiden voyage on May 27, 1936, and it was believed that her captain would try for the coveted Blue Riband, the award for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic. However, thick fog en route dashed any hope of that occurring. Once back in England, the ship was dry-docked briefly for minor adjustments, and on her second westbound voyage, she set a new maritime speed record and won the Riband from her French rival Normandie.
Even though Queen Mary was new and modern, she was still designed from classic plans and had the characteristics of the older vessels — in other words, she rolled with the waves and quickly gained the nickname "Rolling Mary." This became a problem when, during one of her early voyages, the ship sailed into a storm, and as the liner pitched with the waves, the passengers were tossed about like rag dolls with nothing to hold on to. During the construction of the ship, it was decided that handrails would take away from the aesthetics of the liner, and therefore they were not installed. This oversight allowed many injuries to occur and may have actually caused a little girl to lose her life. The children in third class were fond of sliding down the staircase near the front of the ship and were doing so when the storm hit. A young girl was sliding down the rail when a large wave slammed into the ship and pitched the bow sharply upward. This violent toss caused the child to fall, and she hit the deck hard. When the medical staff arrived, it was found that she had broken her neck, and she was pronounced dead. To this day, there are reports of a spectral child near this staircase that vanishes when approached. The Queen Mary was dry-docked following this trip to have handrails installed, and nubbing was placed on any stairway that might be used as a slide in the hopes of preventing any more deaths.
In the following years, the RMS Queen Mary sailed without much ado, apart from her rivalry with the French Liner Normandie. They would trade the Blue Riband back and forth, with the Queen Mary setting the time and then the French vessel recapturing it not long after. This was a time when the North Atlantic route saw its greatest tourist traffic, and the two great liners were the main cause of this. Each ship had her own following, with the RMS Queen Mary sailing with such celebrities as Clark Gable, David Niven, Cary Grant and Greta Garbo. Stars weren't the only notaries to sail this route, and she would also carry heads of state, such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and even the king of England himself.
The storm clouds over Europe were gathering, and Cunard started to notice a rise in immigrant traffic aboard its ships. Even though the Queen Mary was now known as a luxury liner, she still had a third-class level, and her well-known auspicious treatment of her passengers meant that she was a favorite for those coming to America to avoid the war everyone thought was about to erupt. She still carried her rich and famous passengers, and so it was on September 1, 1939, that the captain of the Queen Mary heard about the invasion of Poland by Germany and then, on September 3, was sent a communiqué by Cunard that the English government, along with those of France, Australia and New Zealand, had formally declared war on Hitler and his Reich. When the passengers who were gathered in the grand salon heard the news, they called out, "God save the king!" Bob Hope, who was on that voyage, quietly said in response, "And the Queen Mary." Indeed, if it had been known at the time what this magnificent ship was about to do for not only England but also the world, then everyone on board might have stood up and echoed Mr. Hope's words. The RMS Queen Mary was about to embark on an adventure that would take her thousands of miles and have her break records that still hold today. She would be hunted, sought after and have a bounty put on her masthead by one of the most powerful and evil men the world has ever known, but she would sail on and laugh in the face of that evil.
CHAPTER 2THE GRAY GHOST RISES
Once the RMS Queen Mary arrived in New York Harbor on September 4, 1939, her captain was told to stand down and await further orders. The Crown had not yet decided what the fate of the liner would be but deemed it too dangerous to sail back to England with Hitler's U- boats patrolling the Atlantic approaches to the British Isles. It wasn't long before her sister ship RMS Queen Elizabeth joined her in port, and the two Cunarders, along with the Queen Mary's longtime rival Normandie, sat at wharf awaiting orders. This decision would take months, and while the Queen Mary waited, she was slowly being transformed into a sleek gray behemoth capable of carrying thousands of troops to the aid of England. RMS stands for Royal Mail Ship, which meant that the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were part of the Royal Navy's auxiliary fleet, so it was always a certainty that the two great liners would be called up. What wasn't certain was the job they would be called to do.
While the ships were each receiving their coats of gray paint, most of the fine furnishings were being removed from the Queen Mary, and standard troop bunks were being installed. Her portholes were carefully masked so as to emit no light, sandbags were placed around areas deemed "sensitive" and temporary light antiaircraft guns were installed on her decks. A careful cover story was created to fool any German spies who may have been lurking about New York that the Queen Mary was to become part of the Canadian Royal Flying Corps training unit, and so it was on March 21, 1940, that the grand liner slipped out of New York Harbor on her way to Sydney, Australia, via Cape Town, South Africa.
Once the RMS Queen Mary arrived in Australia, the real work of converting her to a troop ship commenced. The ship was dry-docked, and the temporary guns were replaced with permanent antiaircraft armament fore and aft. Along the Sun Deck, larger-caliber guns were installed for protection against surface ships and submarines, with one placed far aft and one on either side just below the forward superstructure. While the installation of the defensive weapons was occurring, the rest of the liner's civilian appointments were being removed. Carpets, china, tapestries, deck furniture and any of the decorative woods that could be removed were put into storage. Expanded medical facilities were added, and more bunks were installed, along with hammocks in the areas where bunks wouldn't fit. When the ship finally left the dry dock, there was not one section of the Queen Mary that hadn't been redone for her trooping duties.
Her first assignment was to transport 5,500 Australian troops to England to help in the defense of France. The Queen Mary, along with several other ships, including three Canadian liners, left Sydney Harbor on May 4 headed for Clyde, Scotland. Hitler invaded westward on May 12; quickly overran Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark; and made deep advances into France so quickly that the Allied armies scarcely had time to react. By the time the troops arrived in Scotland, the war in France was all but over, and because the British army had lost all of its tanks, artillery, armored vehicles and many of its men, it was decided that the fresh Australian troops would be used to help bolster the defense of the home islands.
On June 29, 1940, the Queen Mary again set sail for the Far East. This time, her destination was the port of Singapore. There she would be dry-docked again for much-needed engine work and the installation of paravanes (devices to cut the cables of explosive mines). Once the work was complete, she again headed to Sydney to gather more troops, but this time, she would be delivering them to India. The Queen Mary would spend the next seven months ferrying troops between Bombay, India, and Sydney, Australia, with stops only for repairs and the installation of a degaussing strip. This strip was a device that fed a constant electrical current through the hull, which caused magnetic mines to "ignore" the ship as she passed.
After the Italian army had invaded Egypt, the British managed to push it back deep into Libya. This did not sit well with Hitler, who needed the oil reserves of North Africa to keep his war machine going. To bolster the beleaguered Italians, Germany sent perhaps one of its greatest generals, Erwin Rommel, to take back the lost ground and to capture the oil fields of Egypt and beyond. Once the Desert Fox, as Rommel was known, arrived in the theater, he immediately went on the offensive and began to push the Allied troops back to the very gates of Alexandria, just miles from Cairo. It was clear that England would need more troops to shore up its faltering front lines, and it would need them quickly. The Queen Mary, with her large troop-carrying capacity and the fact that she was already close to Australia and New Zealand, was tasked to help save North Africa. On April 9, 1941, the Cunard Queen left Sydney Harbor with a full complement of Australian and New Zealand troops, collectively known as Anzacs, and headed for Egypt.
Sailing aboard the Queen Mary while in her transformation as a troop ship was uncomfortable at best, but as the ship was built for the North Atlantic transit, certain accommodations were deemed unnecessary and therefore never installed on the liner. Things such as air conditioning and high-capacity ventilation were conspicuously absent. This lack of cooling systems was fine in the cold North Atlantic but could be deadly while transporting troops in the high temperatures of the South Pacific, Indian and Mediterranean Seas. It was not uncommon for the thermometer to hit well above one hundred degrees below decks, and that — coupled with high humidity and insufficient ventilation — caused many men to succumb to heat exhaustion and stroke. To this day, there is no clear record of how many men — Australian, New Zealand and, later in the war, American — may have perished in this manner, but what is known is that the number is most likely very high.
In November 1941, the Queen Mary was on her way to Cape Town, South Africa, and while en route, the Japanese bombed the American Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Before the ship even arrived on the continent, the United States had declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy. Knowing that it was just a matter of time before England was brought into the Pacific conflict and knowing that Japan had a large submarine fleet and that Britain had few escorts available in the South Pacific, it was decided to send the Queen Mary to the relative safety of New York Harbor to await further orders. The Cunarder arrived on January 12, 1942, but was immediately sent to Boston Harbor to have her troop capacity almost doubled to ten thousand. The first time the Queen Mary carried U.S. troops was on February 18, 1942, when she departed New York for Australia on what the GIs dubbed the "forty days and forty nights" cruise. The ship then settled into a routine of sailings from Great Britain to North Africa and New York to Scotland. The RMS Queen Mary made history on August 2, 1942, when she sailed with the First Armored Infantry Division on board; this was the first time an entire division had been carried on a single ship.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Ghosts of the Queen Mary"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Brian Clune with Bob Davis.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword Christopher Fleming 9
Acknowledgements 17
1 The Queen Is Crowned 21
2 The Gray Ghost Rises 27
3 The Queen's Golden Age 43
4 The Voyage Home 55
5 The Re-berth of a Legend 59
6 The Hauntings 65
7 The Hot Spots 89
8 Tales from the Dockside 121
Epilogue 137
A Tribute to Peter James Frank Beruecos 139
Bibliography 141
About the Authors 143
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