It's been more than 40 years since the original Queen Mary came to Long Beach harbor to stay (it's now a hotel and museum loaded with history).
- Bob Mann
It’s a beautiful day along the coast in southern California, and I’ve been soaking up the sun, the perfect ocean breeze, and an awful lot of history on board the original Queen Mary, now permanently stationed in Long Beach harbor as a museum and hotel.
I’m a native of Long Beach and lived in this area for the first 42 years of my life. I remember what a big event it was in 1967 when the Queen Mary made her final voyage and pulled into this harbor at last (she had to go all the way around the tip of South America to get here, since the Panama Canal was about 8 feet too narrow for her to squeeze through). I’ve seen the ship from a distance many times, of course, but never came on board until today. I must have assumed it was not worth seeing—just another tourist thing—but I was certainly wrong about that!
Being onboard (and especially having one of the hotel “staterooms”) gives you an appreciation for this ship’s incredible history. Not just as an elegant passenger ship that set the standard for the “golden age” of transatlantic travel, but also as a wartime transport ship that moved some 750,000 troops back and forth during World War II. All around the ship you’ll see memorabilia from those times, including huge photos of royalty and other celebrities who sailed “across the pond.”
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