RMS Queen Mary
A retired ocean liner moored at Long Beach, California, now a hotel and attraction that promotes ghost stories about its first-class pool and stateroom B340.
The ship's history page gives 2.2 million peacetime passengers and 810,000 wartime military personnel. Since leaving service as a liner in 1967 it has been a hotel, event venue and attraction in Long Beach, with an estimated 50 million visitors.
The Naval Historical Society of Australia recounts the loss of the escort HMS Curacoa on 2 October 1942, when the Queen Mary, with 15,000 US troops aboard and zigzagging off the Irish coast to avoid U-boats and bombers, had caught up with the smaller warship and was about to pass her.
The ship's own exhibits page says many paranormal investigators and mediums rank the Art Deco first-class pool as the most haunted room on board. It repeats stories of a singing girl called Jackie who plays hide-and-seek with visitors, and of the pool as a vortex where spirits cross between worlds. NBC Los Angeles reported in 2024 that stateroom B340, long rumoured to be a centre of paranormal activity, reopened to guests on Friday 13 April 2018 and closed in 2020 when the whole ship shut for major repairs.
Wikipedia says the haunting claims took off in the 1980s, possibly started by employees to draw business or frighten guests, and have spread since. It notes that Time magazine put the ship on a 2008 list of the Top 10 Haunted Places.
"These claims began in earnest in the 1980s (possibly done by employees to increase business or spook guests) and have grown since then.[134][135] For example, in 2008, Time magazine included the Queen Mary among its "Top 10 Haunted Places".[136]"
- Exhibits, The Queen Mary, Long Beach
- Queen Mary's Room B340, the ship's 'most haunted', will soon reopen, NBC Los Angeles, Alysia Gray Painter (2024)
- SS Queen Mary & the loss of HMS Curacoa 1942, Naval Historical Society of Australia, Naval Historical Review
- Ship History, The Queen Mary, Long Beach