Ghost Hunting

In keeping with my goal to make sure I maintain fun social activities in the midst of managing my father's chaos, I went on my much anticipated Queen Mary Paranormal Ship Walk Tour this past Sunday. We were originally planning to go in January, but a bout with the flu (my first week at my new job!) took care of that. Thank goodness. The tour starts at 8:00PM and lasts 3 hours and is not available on Saturday evenings. We were scheduled to take the tour on the Sunday of a long holiday weekend. That meant no rising early for work the next day. There's nothing like rolling out of bed at o'dark hundred with only a few hours of sleep to remind me that I am no longer a spry twentysomething and need at least 7 hours of sleep to be intelligible for work the next day.

I finally remembered to take my digital camera, but there are no pictures of this tour. Why? I was trying to catch orbs, a physical manifestation of the ghostly presence, and my camera was aimed less at people and more at the area where our tour guide (a psychic) said she could sense the ghostly presence. Other people on the tour did get photos of orbs. Unfortunately, I was not successful in my attempts. Photos of rusty doors abandoned storage rooms are not nearly as exciting without an orb in them so I deleted them from my camera.

Some background on the Queen Mary and why it is known as one of the most haunted places: The Queen Mary was built in 1934 and was named for the mother of the current ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth II. It could carry a passenger load of 3,000 with a crew of 1,000. It could hold twice as many people as the Titanic.

During World War II, the Queen Mary was painted grey (the Grey Ghost) and was used during the war efforts. She carried up to 15,000 military personnel and prisoners of war during a single trip.

Other than slicing through one of the ships escorting her during the war effort, the HMS Curaçao, the Queen Mary did not see a lot of death. Our tour guide explained that many of the phenomenon that has been experienced over the years is due to psychic imprints. This is when a memory of something is left behind and will occasionally replay like a projection. It's about as ghostly as a showing of Pollyanna at the drive in movies.

However, there are known "hot spots" that are haunted by actual ghosts (there are said to be about 150 ghosts). There are even signs posted around the ship designating areas in which there have been ghostly sightings. It's these areas we visited on the Queen Mary Paranormal Ship Walk Tour.

Our first stop was at Cabin B340, which is haunted cabin on the ship. It is said to be haunted by a murdered purser, and is a spot of poltergeist activity. As such, guests are no longer allowed to stay on here. It's one thing to spend the night a room that is haunted. It's another to be rudely pulled from the bed and knocked about.

Our guide gave us the spiel about the room. We turned the lights off, and we waited. Nothing happened and I did not feel anything particularly supernatural. Neither did our tour guide or anyone else in the group.

Our next stop was Boson’s Locker, which is several feet below sea level. Boson’s Locker is the site where the Queen Mary once sliced through the HMS Curaçao. The Queen Mary was not permitted to stop for survivors, and the 348 men onboard the HMS Curaçao drowned.

The path to Boson’s Locker is quite creepy. It's rather dark - you are encouraged to bring flashlights for this part of the journey - and you go down several flights of stairs through old storage areas to get down to Boson’s Locker. This area is way below deck. Anything you hear down here (e.g. footsteps, pounding) is not going to be someone from the living world because you're too deep below deck for that.

Once again we turned off the lights. This time, our tour guide felt more than one presence. A female nurse and a male. There was also lots of knocking, which would be the ghosts of the sailors of the HMS Curaçao pounding on the ship to get in. Several women felt something brush up against. My mother was among a few that saw a strange light. Lot's of people got pictures of orbs.

I saw nothing and felt nothing except a strong urge to run my finger across my stepfather's cheek while we were sitting still with the lights off to see if I could fool him into thinking it was ghost. I also got no orbs in my photos. Pity.

After Boson’s Locker, we went to the First Class Swimming Pool and the Dressing Rooms. The history of this area is funny because both first class and third class used the same swimming pool, but not at the same time (second class had their own pool). After third class finished, the water was drained, the pool scrubbed down, and then was refilled so that first class passengers would not get third class cooties.

The First Class Swimming Pool is reportedly haunted by the ghosts of two women who drowned there. People have reported the sounds of splashing (there is no water in the pool) and have seen wet footprints leading from the deck to the changing rooms. People have also reported seeing the ghost of a young girl, Jackie, who drowned in the pool during the ship’s sailing days.

When we walked into the First Class Swimming Pool, there was doll in a red dress sitting near some shelves. People bring toys for Jackie to play with; the doll belongs to her.

We split into two groups because there were too many people for everyone on the tour to visit the Dressing Rooms at once. One couple walked into a storage room and ran out screaming when some metal railing in the room started rattling with no one nearby. They were quite shaken.

Once the first group to visit the changing rooms came out, we told this story and they went running off to investigate. They also noticed that the doll was gone. A quick investigation uncovered that no one had taken the doll - or would confess to taking it - despite dire warnings about karma and the tackiness of stealing from a child (even a dead one).

The changing rooms near the pool are the source of negative feelings detected by numerous psychics. You're supposed to go into a stall (the doors have been removed) and have a seat while they turn the lights off. Coward that I am, I decided to squeeze into a stall with my mother (yes, I know I am lame) and hold her hand.

The changing room is not considered an actual haunting. Our guide referred to it as a vortex, and said that there are rumors that it contains some type of doorway into another reality. Apparently, it also allows ghosts to move from one area to another. The room is very dark, even with the lights on, despite the fact that it's painted bright white.

We did not get an explanation of what caused this vortex, but people have reported seeing the outline of a male and female ghost as well as shadow shapes (dark patches in vaguely humanoid form moving through the darkness). The only dark shapes I saw were of the other people on tour. I did not see or feel anything in the changing room, but I did realize that this would be a good place to hide and jump out at someone if one were so inclined.

After we came out of the changing room, we walked up to the second level of the pool to make our way to our final destination. That's where we came across the missing doll. It was on the floor in the corner, as if someone had dropped it while running.

Our last stop was to the engine room. This room is haunted by one of the famous ghosts on the Queen Mary, John Pedder. John was quite the practical joker, and it is this trait that lead to his death at the young age of 18 back in 1966. He was crushed to death playing chicken by a watertight door during a routine drill in 1966.

His bearded, coverall-wearing spirit is seen often near the door, walking through the adjacent corridors. There is lots of knocking on the walls, flickering lights, and the sound of an elevator running. There certainly is a working elevator, but it was not in use during the tour. It also ran for a lot longer than one would expect it to take an elevator to go up three floors.

The tour was enjoyable even though I experienced minimal psychic phenomenon. I am thinking of going back for GhostFest if I can get anyone to go with me. There are way more haunted areas aboard the Queen Mary than the few spots we visited, and this is exactly my kind of fun.