The RMS Queen Mary, a Cunard-White Star ocean liner that made her maiden voyage in 1936, served for thirty-one years as the flagship of Britain's transatlantic passenger service and as a troop transport during the Second World War. Converted to a grey-painted war vessel known as the 'Grey Ghost,' she carried up to sixteen thousand Allied soldiers per crossing and was credited by Winston Churchill with shortening the war by a year. She was retired in 1967 and permanently moored as a hotel, museum, and events venue in Long Beach, California. Over the decades she has accumulated a reputation as one of the most active haunted locations in the world, with hundreds of documented reports across her decks and cabins.
Among the most frequently cited apparitions are those tied to recorded deaths aboard the ship. The First-Class Swimming Pool on B Deck, no longer filled with water, is the location where several small children allegedly drowned; female apparitions in 1930s-style swimming costumes are reported there, accompanied by wet footprints leading from the pool to the dressing rooms. The engine room preserves the memory of John Pedder, a seventeen-year-old crewman crushed to death by watertight door number thirteen in 1966; knocking sounds and a young man in blue coveralls have been reported near the door ever since. Stateroom B340 — so infamous for paranormal incidents that Cunard briefly removed its number — is associated with unexplained water turning on in the night and a stern male figure. The ship's bow preserves the memory of the HMS Curacoa, the British cruiser the Queen Mary accidentally rammed and cut in half on October 2, 1942, killing 338 sailors; cries for help and the sound of rushing water are regularly reported in the forward compartments.
Ghost Hunters, Most Haunted, Ghost Adventures, and numerous paranormal television programs have conducted overnight investigations aboard the ship. The Queen Mary now markets these legends through her annual 'Dark Harbor' haunted event and regular paranormal tours, making her one of the most commercially successful haunted sites in the world.