How Old Is The Queen Mary Cruise Ship?

RMS Queen Mary is a retired British ocean liner that primarily sailed on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line. Built by John Brown Company in Clydebank, Scotland, she was joined by RMS Queen Elizabeth in Cunard’s two-ship weekly express service between 1946 and 1947. After the end of WWII, the Queen Mary began a 10-month retrofitting process to return the ship to her original glory. On July 21, 1947, the Queen Mary resumed regular passenger service and later became a hotel and tourist attraction.

The liner carried almost 57,000 passengers by May 1937. In December 1963, it began increasingly taking pleasure cruises. However, the ageing Queen Mary was not designed for cruising. Her art-deco interiors were named after Mary of Teck, wife of King George V and Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India from 1910-1936. The 2004-built RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2) cruise ship is the oldest and most famous of all Cunard liners, with fleetmates the sisterships MS Queen Victoria and MS Queen Elizabeth.

The Queen Mary was Britain’s first entry in the 1,000-foot category of ships, at 1,019.5 feet (311 meters). It had a gross tonnage of 81,237 and was built to carry 2,038 passengers. The Queen Mary was returned to Cunard on September 27, 1946, having sailed over 900,000km (600,000 miles) and carrying 800,000 people. Following an extensive retrofitting process, the ship was returned to Cunard on September 27, 1946, having sailed over 900,000km and carrying 800,000 people.

Is Queen Mary 2 bigger than Titanic?

Is Queen Mary 2 bigger than Titanic?. Yes – Queen Mary 2 is much larger than Titanic. At 1,132ft long, she is 250ft longer than Titanic. In metric terms QM2 is 76.2 metres longer than Titanic. Queen Mary 2 is also wider, taller and faster than Titanic with a cruising speed some 7 knots faster than Titanic. While QM2 is much larger than Titanic, she only carries slightly more passengers than Titanic, with QM2 able to transport a maximum of 2,695 guests and Titanic 2,435.

Who was crushed on Queen Mary?

John Pedder. Perhaps the most famous of the hauntings stories. Pedder was killed by being crushed in a watertight door in 1966 during a routine drill. During the conversion of the Queen Mary to a hotel only a few years later, after all the workmen had gone home for the day, a security guard was patrolling at night with a german shepherd dog. Apart from the dog, he was alone on the ship. Approaching a particular watertight door on D Deck, his dog went wild, obviously afraid, and refused to go any further.

The guard looked around, thinking that the dog must have sensed an intruder, but could find nobody at all. The dog had never behaved like this before.

Suddenly, the quiet was disturbed by a noise which the guard described as like “metal rolling quickly towards them”. The noise became so loud that the guard ran for his life.

Can Queen Mary 2 go through the Panama Canal?

Guests will visit Hawaii, French Polynesia, and New Zealand on this itinerary from Southampton on January 11, 2026. During the voyage, Queen Mary 2 will transit the Panama Canal for the first time ever – a history-making moment – before visiting New York, San Francisco, Kona, then crossing the International Date Line before reaching Sydney.

Queen Victoria will spend most of her time exploring the Mediterranean, savoring the relaxed island life of Mykonos, Corsica, and Palma de Mallorca, with additional voyages in the Atlantic Islands and Norway. The ship will visit 73 unique destinations with overnight calls in Istanbul, Funchal Madeira, Amsterdam, Narvik, and more.

This epic roundtrip embarks on January 4, 2026, from Southampton and begins with a call-in lively Madeira crossing the Atlantic, heading for the Caribbean. Guests will enjoy the beaches of St. Vincent, Aruba, and Dominica, along with a late evening stay in Curaçao. Queen Victoria will also stop in the vibrant Azores outpost of Ponta Delgada for guests to enjoy the Portuguese hospitality and the distinct Azorean culture.

Why is the Queen Mary ship so famous?

As World War II started, the Queen Mary’s transformation into a troopship had begun. She was painted a camouflaged grey color and stripped of her luxurious amenities. Dubbed the “Grey Ghost” because of her stealth and stark color, the Queen Mary was the largest and fastest troopship to sail, capable of transporting as many as 16,000 troops at 30 knots. After the end of WWII, the Queen Mary began a 10-month retrofitting process, which would return the ship to her original glory. On July 21, 1947, the Queen Mary resumed regular passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean, and continued to do so for nearly two more decades.

The Last Great Cruise. The increasing popularity of air travel helped signal the end of an era for the Queen Mary. By 1965 the entire Cunard fleet was operating at a loss and they decided to retire and sell the legendary Queen Mary. On October 31, 1967, the Queen Mary departed on her final cruise, arriving in Long Beach, California, on December 9, 1967. She has called Southern California her home ever since. The Queen Mary is now a floating Hotel, Attraction and Event & Wedding Venue, home to three world-class restaurants and an icon in Southern California.

Learn the story of The Last Great Cruise of RMS Queen Mary. Click here to view in a new window.

How old is Queen Mary II cruise ship?

Queen Mary 2HistoryUnited KingdomYard numberG32Laid down4 July 2002Launched21 March 2003.

• Southampton, UK (2004–2011)
• Hamilton, Bermuda (2011–present)

• Call sign: ZCEF6
• IMO number:9241061
• MMSI number: 310627000

• 134ft 6in (41m) waterline,
• 147.5ft (45.0m) extreme (bridge wings)

How many soldiers died on Queen Mary?

Even though the records of what events transpired during the war years (1939-1945) are confidential, the number of deaths that have occurred otherwise are not. Officially, 49 passengers have died while aboard the Queen Mary.

While she may be docked in Long Beach, California since her retirement in 1967, now utilized as a hotel, Mary’s reputation as a ghost ship has grown exponentially within the past 40 years. A luxury liner as fine as any ship built in the docks of Great Britain, the Queen Mary’s accommodations mean that not even the dead wish to leave.

• Did You Know?. When Cunard Line commissioned project #534, they intended to name the ship after Queen Victoria, keeping with the tradition of ship names ending in “-ia” (e.g. Mauritania). But when the directors propositioned King George V, asking for his blessing to name the ship after England’s “greatest queen,” legend has it that King George replied, “My wife will be delighted that you are naming the ship after her.” George’s wife was Queen Mary.
• Sir Winston Churchill took passage on the Queen Mary on three separate occasions during the course of the war, even going so far as to call the ship his headquarters at sea. One such trip featured him and his cabinet deciding their plans for the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. In honor of the Prime Minister, guests can make a reservation to stay in the Churchill Suite.
• Passengers aboard the ship on July 9, 1948, experienced an 18-minute delay in their departure. Holding up the most luxurious vessel in the world was Clark Gable wishing his love interest at the time a very long goodbye.

What happened to the Queen Mary cruise ship?

Queen Mary is permanently moored as a tourist attraction, hotel, museum and event facility in Long Beach.

Queen Mary, bought by Long Beach in 1967, was converted from a seafaring vessel to a floating hotel. The plan included clearing almost every area of the ship below “C” deck (called “R” deck after 1950, to lessen passenger confusion, as the restaurants were located on “R” deck) to make way for Jacques Cousteau’s new Living Sea Museum. This increased museum space to 400,000 square feet (37,000m2).

It required the removal of all the boiler rooms, the forward engine room, both turbo generator rooms, the ship stabilisers and the water softening plant. The ship’s empty fuel tanks were filled with local mud to keep the ship’s centre of gravity and draft at the correct levels, as these critical factors had been affected by the removal of the various components and structure. Only the aft engine room and “shaft alley”, at the stern of the ship, was spared. The remaining space was used for storage or office space.

What is so special about Queen Mary 2?

Entering service in 2004, the 2,691-guest QM2 is no mere cruise ship. Instead, she is the world’s only ocean liner – the last example of that great breed built to sail with speed and comfort across thousands of miles of open ocean. With no direct rival, she is known and loved around the world. But is she as fantastic as they say?

Well, first impressions count, and the welcome I receive as I embark is pretty special. I am clapped on board by a team of bellhops in striking scarlet uniforms, whose brass epaulettes sparkle like the polished wood that lines each deck.

I’ve heard a lot about QM2 but nothing has prepared me for the beauty of her art deco-inspired interiors. With classic curved lines, sunburst carpets and a magnificently decorated atrium, she’s a stunning ship that manages to delight with her traditional furnishings while keeping the passenger experience bang up-to-date. But before I explore, I need to find my home for the next three days – a Queens Grill suite on deck 10.

Has the Queen Mary ship sunk?

HMS Queen Mary, a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy entered service in 1913 and sank at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. TS Queen Mary, a Clyde steamer in service 1933–1977, now retired and as of 2023 under restoration on the River Clyde in Scotland, United Kingdom.

How did the Queen Mary crash?

On October 2, 1942, Queen Mary was rounding the north coast of Ireland on the last leg of her journey from New York to a Scottish port with the 29th Infantry Division aboard (the 29th was joining the buildup of Allied forces in Britain and would later take part in the Normandy invasion at Omaha Beach). Since she was now within range of German aircraft, she was joined by escorting vessels, including Curaçao. Both ships were sailing evasive zigzag courses about 37 miles north of the coast when the liner cut across the path of the cruiser, striking her amidships at a speed of 28 knots.

The collision tossed sailors on the upper deck of the cruiser “like falling autumn leaves,” as one witness reported it, into the freezing waters of the Atlantic.

“The Queen Mary sliced the cruiser in two like a piece of butter,” Alfred Johnson, a 22-year-old crewman on the Queen, later said.

When did the Queen Mary ship crash?

One of the worst accidents occurred on October 2, 1942, when a British antiaircraft cruiser and the famous British liner Queen Mary collided. The mishap cost 236 British seamen their lives; only 99 were rescued.

During World War II many of the great Atlantic liners, such as the luxurious, 1,020-foot-long Queen Mary (which had a comfortable capacity of 1,174 passengers) and her sister ship Queen Elizabeth were converted into troop carriers, each capable of carrying more than 15,000 troops. The two ships were the largest and fastest troopships involved in the war and, because of their speed, often traveled out of convoy and without escort. By the end of the war, the two ships transported more than 800,000 troops.

Queen Mary had been launched in September 1934 and had served the Atlantic trade from 1936, when she set a speed record for the Atlantic crossing, until the outbreak of the war, when she was converted to troop-carrier duty.

Where is the Queen Mary ship today?

With emerging preferences for air transportation, the Queen Mary docked permanently in Long Beach in 1967, where it now floats on Californian waters as an iconic attraction.

Entry prices will vary depending on your choice of program or event at the Queen Mary. All visitors must hold an admission ticket or hotel room key for access to the public facilities of the ship. For more information, visit the official website of the Queen Mary.

Ocean liners are constructed for transcontinental journeys across certain ports in different continents, while cruises are designed for smaller routes and are usually sailed nearer to land.