The Queen Mary, September 1973
Here are four more from The Queen Mary in Long Beach.
There she is, looming in the distance; the QM has become a real landmark in Southern California, but there is part of me that thinks it's a shame that she isn't out sailing the Atlantic anymore. Time marches on...
There's the pointy end of the ship! Something tells me that passengers weren't allowed out there by the tippy tip back in the ship's sailing days. Too dangerous, with ropes and chains and other equipment. Plus there was always the possibility of a narwhal attack; I'm still so worried about narwhals that I never leave my home.
The QM can't hit an ice berg anymore, but you never know, an ice berg might strike it! Never underestimate and angry ice berg. Luckily there are plenty of life boats hanging from the row of davits, ready to ferry folks 50 feet to shore.
I like this photo's composition, with the three giant funnels shrinking toward the horizon. Perspective! The many cables are there so that teams of trained monkeys can clean the entire ship each night.
There's the pointy end of the ship! Something tells me that passengers weren't allowed out there by the tippy tip back in the ship's sailing days. Too dangerous, with ropes and chains and other equipment. Plus there was always the possibility of a narwhal attack; I'm still so worried about narwhals that I never leave my home.
The QM can't hit an ice berg anymore, but you never know, an ice berg might strike it! Never underestimate and angry ice berg. Luckily there are plenty of life boats hanging from the row of davits, ready to ferry folks 50 feet to shore.
I like this photo's composition, with the three giant funnels shrinking toward the horizon. Perspective! The many cables are there so that teams of trained monkeys can clean the entire ship each night.
You know I have more Queen Mary photos!
11 comments:
Great shots, Major. I really need to go check out the QM! It's been almost 20 years since my last visit.
I love seeing photos of the Queen Mary (I believe King George would agree)! Did you know during construction, the ship was referred to as Hull Number 534, because the name was still a big secret? King George was asked for permission to name the liner after England's "greatest queen" (at the time that would have been Queen Victoria, who later would be replaced by Freddie Mercury) and George slyly responded that his wife Queen Mary would be delighted.
Lesson: Never ask the king for permission OR forgiveness - he'll mess with you every time.
Bill in Denver
Note to self,don't be drinking a beer whilst reading comments,when something out of nowhere makes you laugh out loud you may spit out some of said beer and make a mess,not to mention that's alcohol abuse,wasting perfectly good beer.
"England's "greatest queen" (at the time that would have been Queen Victoria, who later would be replaced by Freddie Mercury)"
Bill,you owe me a new keyboard...
TM!, I'm sure it's been a LOT longer than that for me!
Anon, I did know that story, but only because I did a little bit of Wikipedia research. And Freddie Mercury WAS a great queen! (I say that as a fan)
Dave, maybe the beer made your keyboard work better!
Long live the Queen!
My friends threw my 40th birthday party on the Queen Mary --they reserved 1/2 the bar inside the Observation Lounge - the art-deco 30's bar (they filmed the "after party" scene for the 1929 Acadamy Awards in the movie The Aviator) Anyway--they hired a 20's/30's Jazz band to play and after diner we all drank and dranj and drank in that lounge. We had several rooms and suites at the Queen Mary Hotel, so after the party we just had to stumble to our rooms and sleep till breakfast!!! The Louge was very very cool!
Snow White Sanctum, hear hear!
Mike Cozart, that sounds pretty cool, you must have some great friends. Are the rooms made to look vintage, or are they completely modernized?
I've stayed there a couple times, & I paid a little extra for an original outside stateroom. But they had to show me a couple rooms before we found one with the original salt & fresh water taps in the tub.
The best part though is walking around the ship in the middle of the night when no one else is around. It' flippin awesome.
Yay I can finally post on blogger again... it's been giving me fits for a while.
Monkeys. Now I'm imagining monkeys cleaning the ship every night.
Iceberg hit it? Puh! The odds against that are Titanic.
When the Queen Mary was built, Swing Time was a new movie. And what's more amazing, Willie Nelson was only 4 years old.
The larger rooms with portal windows facing the ocean and dock were like art decco apartments --one even had the original cabin floor type radio--but it didn't work. The smaller 2 single bed cabins were also very art decco, but more simple in style. A few of the center rooms - with no windows looked like a bedroom set from a 1973 Carol Burrnet show.
Great pics Major, supplementing memories and photos I can't find.
Thank you.
We stayed on the QM once in the '70's. Our room had the salt water taps. I recall it as pretty neutral motel modern with some old bits surviving. I went back in 1981 for a conference and had drinks in that lounge bar. I always wanted to be like William Powell, and ended up like Peter Ustinov, sigh.
JG
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