The RMS Queen Mary is a historic British oceanliner that is now permanently docked in Long Beach, California and serves as a floating hotel, museum, and tourist attraction. Since its maiden voyage in 1936, the ship operated as a luxury cruiseliner and a World War II troop transport ship before it was retired in 1967. With many deaths aboard there are claims of paranormal activity. We’ve had this ship on our bucket list for a long time and now that the famously haunted room B340 had been reopened, we decided it was time for an investigation.
Date: March 29-31, 2026
Location: Long Beach, California
Investigators: Chris, Matt
Location History
Before travel by airplane became common, people sought transportation across the oceans by other means. The Queen Mary was built for that purpose. Designed as a luxury transportation vessel, guests were enthralled with the spacious cabins, pools, restaurants, beauty salon, library, music studio, and sports courts among many other features. A first class ticket brought all of their dreams to life as they crossed the ocean in record time.
After 3 short years of luxury travel, the ship was repurposed to help during WWII with transporting troops and providing hospital services. The ship was repainted a grey color, and with her high speed earned the nickname “The Grey Ghost”. Many of the luxury items inside were put into storage to accommodate the movement of up to 15,000 allied troops at a time. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, even used the Queen Mary as transportation and a place to plan military tactics with the allied forces. Today, near suite M119, the room where cigar loving Churchill stayed, people have reported smelling fresh cigar smoke even when the room is empty.
Winston Churchill aboard the Queen Mary
The ship was involved in a terrible accident during the war. The captain would sail in a zigzag pattern to avoid German Uboat attacks but on one fateful trip into Ireland, one of the escort ships neglected to zig at the right time. The giant Queen Mary accidentally collided with the smaller ship, splitting it in two, leading to the deaths of over 300 sailors.
On a tour of the ship we were able to explore the area of the bow that rammed into the escort ship.
After the war, the ship was refitted and upgraded back to a luxury class oceanliner spending many peaceful years transporting passengers. In total, 58 people died aboard the ship over the 31 years that she sailed, most from natural causes and accidents.
When the company began to struggle financially, the decision was made to sell off the Queen Mary. The winning bidder was the city of Long Beach where she sits today as an integral part of their tourism. Fun fact: The very first and very last sailing of the Queen Mary were both on Halloween nights.
View of Long Beach from the ship
Our Experience
When we arrived at the ship, we were giddy with the pending adventure. Matt even found his arms covered in goosebumps as he was fulfilling a childhood dream by visiting the famous ship. Our first impression felt like we were in a different time period. The narrow hallways, low ceilings, ornate decor, the smells of original decking… all gave the impression we were actually in the past.
Original deck material
As we lugged our suitcases down a set of stairs, we asked the bellhop about the famous room B340 we were about to stay in and what he knows of its history. He pointed out an area at the bottom of the stairs near our room where a known death occurred. The ship didn’t have the stabilizers of modern times and a man was thrown down the flight of steps during a storm and ended up not surviving. In fact, we later learned that there were multiple deaths aboard the ship from people being tossed around by rough seas.
A man died at the bottom of these stairs as he was tossed into the ceiling and down the stairs by rough seas.
We also learned that the space where B340 now occupies was once a storage area. There is a story that a man was escaping a trial back in the UK and was caught onboard as a stowaway. The man was locked up in the storage space. That night he banged on the door to tell the guards that someone was trying to hurt him. They ignored his pleas only to open the door in the morning to find the man dead.
Wonky hallways outside of our room
Matt peeking back into the hallway from our room
The room itself is now actually the combination of 2 spaces to create a sleeping area and sitting area. We found the room decorations to be charming and spooky creating a perfect atmosphere for our investigation. There is a little window that looks into the sitting area from the hallway and we soon found ourselves inundated with faces peeking in (when we didn’t have the curtain closed). So we invited a couple people in to take a look, and the next thing you know we have streams of people coming through our room to take pictures and check it out. We both thought it was funny and enjoyed the chats. We did eventually have to put up signs on the window that said we were sleeping so please don’t knock!
Room suddenly inundated with looky loos! Word got out that we were letting people in and we had probably 50 to 60 people come through during our stay. LOL!
Note the little window into the hall where people kept peeking in.
Matt reading up on the Queen Mary and its haunted reputation
Journals in the room filled with accounts from other guests
I called this closet the creepy room as it was filled with odd photos a Ouija board and a crystal ball
A little nightmare material on the walls!
Our first night we took a paranormal tour of the ship where we learned of the history and claims of activity. The guide said around 5 to 10 workers per year end up quitting because they get scared working on a haunted ship. Our favorite area of the ship, besides our awesome room, was the pool. We had to take turns peeking in the pool area because the floor is now quite unstable due to the removal of giant boilers that were apparently holding up the floor. There is said to be a little girl by the name of Jackie that haunts the pool area and rumor has it, she can actually leave the ship.
The pool where a little girl ghost is often seen
People have seen a man in this wheel house even though the doors were all locked
Over the 2 nights we were there, we spent time trying to connect with any spirits in our room. We left 2 static cameras running the whole time, one in each room, but did not see anything unusual. (Lots of faces peeking in the window though!). We tried the Ovilus, EVP sessions, EMF readers, and tried to entice any ghosts to roll a rubber ball. The only thing that happened remotely paranormal was at 1230PM the first night, our REM pod went off. We had it in the creepy closet. We got up to check it out and didn’t see anything.
The one “spirit” we did see was a special drink only available to guests of B340. Apparently, the ghost in our room has been dubbed “Hank” and he has a special drink. We had to bring our souvenir key to the bar to prove we were staying there and then ask for Hank’s Favorite drink. Even though we are non drinkers, we had to try it. It was disgusting but we loved the silliness of it! I took a sip but Matt did the heavy lifting and took one for the team!
Our room ghost, Hank’s, favorite drink
Overall, we absolutely loved our stay. The ship itself was gorgeous and brightens up the Long Beach shores. We ate at both restaurants on board and had delicious meals with fantastic views. I loved the coffee shop, spooky store, hidden speakeasy, and promenade areas. I highly recommend a stay here, even if the ghosts didn’t come out to play!
Did we capture Paranormal Evidence?
Nothing but a REM pod going off.
