What The Ale?
31. The Queen Mary
ghosts, cryptids, murder, conspiracies, beer, what, the L. Hello friends. Hello. Welcome back to Wet the Ale. I'm Alana Ray. And I'm Mama J. Before we get into our normal episode friends, we know we mentioned in our flight, but of course we're just making it clear this is the first week of March episode we've just been super busy with moving things and all the things so we just wanted to let you know. But other than that, do you have any of what the L moments, Mama? Hmm. Um, you know, my Wet the Ale moment is probably, I wasn't a little funderbender a couple months ago and the, it was a 17 year old kid driving a brand new red Corvette. And his mom acted like she was going to take responsibility and all the things and then she's totally ghosted me. And so it's just frustrating because that's terrible role modeling for your kid and it's real annoying so but tomorrow I'm finally going to meet with the her insurance company to address the damage to my car and all of that. And then my youngest child was injured in that accident. And so that's frustrating too because we're needing to start physical therapy and all the things and it's just annoying when people don't take responsibility for themselves or their children. We're real. That's just. It's so stupid. Like, I don't know, it's not that hard to be an athlete or to not be an asshole, I guess. Yeah. If you, it sucks. Yeah, like you're deductible or whatever's going to go up or, you know, whatever, but like. Yeah. Well, and if anything was like when the kid got out of his car, he already has mom on the phone and she was like yelling at him like, I can't keep paying for your fucking mistakes and you're so irresponsible. And I can't trust you and you drive too fast and like all of this stuff. And then when I was talking to the insurance today, she was like, oh, they did document this accident and I was like, oh, they did like because they totally ghosted me. And she was like, oh, this was December 1st, right? And I was like, no, it was December 7th. And she was like, well, where was it? And then I described her where it was. And she was like, oh, this is a whole different accident was like, well, yeah, but that's probably the accident that she was yelling at him about. So yeah, apparently he was in an accident six days before he hit my car. Wow. Yeah. That's insane. But that's how I 17 year olds driving a brand new red Corvette. Like. Oh, whatever. But anyways, that's my what the yell because it's just a headache to get all this stuff handled. That's fair. Yeah. And how about you. Any what the yell? Let's see. I think. Well, I quit my job and my boss is giving me the silent treatment, which is really interesting. So. And I get it. I mean, it definitely sucks that I'm leaving, but I kind of expected at least a like, Hey, thanks for all the good work you did while you were here. Yeah, on the silent treatment. So, but maybe that's showing why it's a good thing that you're leaving. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't know. That's just been weird, but I have like a positive one me and my coworkers are all going to go out and celebrate my new job tomorrow after work. So I'm excited for that. Yeah. Well, I hope you have a good time. Thank you. Thank you. What are you drinking today, Mom? I am having an iced tea because it's an iced tea kind of vibe today. Sometimes iced tea is great. I had a nice tea with lunch today. Nice. What about you? Anything good. I am just having some red wine. My partner and I were both having some wine with dinner today. So I decided to just keep that going. Good idea. Yeah. All right. So, Alana, did you know that the RMS Titanic has a much bigger, bolder and haunted cousin? Of course she does. Do you know who her cousin is? I mean, I would assume it's the Queen Mary. Yes, ma'am. You're so good at these games, Alana. I was going to say the other ship, the Olympia, that was like made at the same time as the Titanic too. So that was my other guess, but it's not as like big in the supernatural thing. Okay. Yeah. So this is a British ocean liner that was built in 1936 by the canard white star line. So it was designed to be a transatlantic passenger ship. And, you know, she had all the finest amenities. So, you know, big fancy dining rooms, big swimming pools, it had daily radio broadcasts, which currently back then was a big deal. It had a nursery for the kids, a hospital and even a kettle for the passengers, dogs. And she could travel from England to New York in four days flat at a top speed of 32 knots. Wow. And I don't know if I mentioned it, but she's twice the size of the Titanic. So she was a big girl, big and elegant and all the things. Okay. Okay. So then in a world during World War II, she was repurposed for transport for military personnel. And so she, you know, they like tried to cram as many people in as she as they could on her. And so she often had like 15,000 soldiers into a space that was designed for 2200 passengers. Oh, okay. That had to be held for those soldiers. And it said that during the time that she was a transport for military, she carried over 800,000 servicemen. And back and forth to different locations because she would pick people up from America or Australia or, you know, all the different places, but all of them to fight in a world war to. And during that time, obviously she was stripped of a lot of her amenities and her beautiful decor and all of that stuff in order to create more space for soldiers. And they also painted her gray. You know, some more military style vibe. And so she then got the nickname gray ghost. Oh, okay. Which I think is kind of fun. That was a fun name for like a military ship. I like that. Yeah. Now I do want to talk about a few because, you know, there were some notable deaths on the ship. So I want to tell a little bit about those. There are also some things that were rumored that there is no evidence for, but, you know, we'll get into that. So in 1936, Sir Edgar Britain, who was the first captain. He died of a stroke in his cabin. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. So, and that was like the year that she was born right yeah 1936 so yeah, the year she was born her captain died. And then yeah, and then I don't know if you have ever heard of the carousel incident. I feel like I have, but I am meeting a refresher. Okay. Yeah, so the carousel was like one of those ships that like. How do you call it? You know, it's trying to like guide her so it like zig zags in front of her like guiding her like a tugboat. Not a tugboat like it wasn't attached to a tug, you know, but it was just like kind of like leading the way. Oh, okay. Like a skipper. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what it's called. But so this is on October 2, 1942. And, you know, as the carousel is like guiding her. And, and the zig zag is to like throw off like possible missile attacks and things like that. You know, but the Queen Mary, as I mentioned, is very fast and she weighed 82,000 tons. And so it was hard to slow her down. And so unfortunately, she just plowed right into the carousel while it was zig zagging in front of her and basically split that ship in half. Oh my gosh. Wow. So I mean, you can, you know, imagine that probably many people died just on impact. And then, you know, obviously a lot of people were trapped on both sides of that boat when it sank. So probably a lot of people were drowned being pulled down with the boat. And there were people like floating in the water. A lot of them died of either drowning or hypothermia kind of things. And then it was said that some people did get sucked into the propeller of the Queen Mary as it passed by. Oh my goodness. So, um, now the one thing that, you know, because it was like war time so apparently wartime protocol was that the Queen Mary was not supposed to stop for any reason. So the captains are all Ellingworth. He didn't stop it. He did report it to some British destroyers that were nearby. But it took them two hours to make it there so nearby but not super close because it took them two hours. Right. So, yeah. So of the 430 men on board only 99 survived and were rescued. Wow. Okay. That's so sad. Yeah. So this is gonna bring us to our first ghosty bit. So people say that they can hear screams in the boiler room. And some say like the front of the ship, you know, in the boiler room. It just has like a really dark injury or energy because that's where the shipmate con attacked with the crew sound. Okay. So just really sad incident. I mean, that's a lot of people to die over just like a total accident and that yeah, I wish the captain had planned that better. I don't know who is responsible or if anybody, whatever, but, you know, that it was preventable. Yeah, it's hard to because I always think like in this situation I keep thinking of like sometimes you're driving and suddenly something is going slower than you think it is or something and you like a little bit like I'm like with a boat that big. Yeah, it would be hard to slow it down or turn. So just so sad, but it is very sad. It's such a tragedy that that happened for sure. Yeah. Um, now I'm going to tell you, um, well, the next one is 1949 senior second officer William start accidentally poisoned himself by drinking from a whiskey bottle that had laundry. Well, there's two reports. One is laundry deterrent. One said that it had acid in it. But yeah, so apparently he drank that expecting it to be whiskey and somebody was storing detergent or something in it. So he ended up dying. That makes me think of like how people will like store like stuff in random jars or whatever that you know so like I totally make sense like we put bacon grease and tomato sauce jars you know. Yeah. Well, and it's funny because my grandma you know she like race or up cycle or whatever she did everything. So like even like butter container she would put stuff in you know she like cleaned anything she could and used it for some other purpose. Yeah. So I could totally see that somebody innocently put their laundry detergent in there and then he ended up drinking it. Um, I mean that hurt is a very painful way to go so that's very sad. Yeah. Now there's also a rumor and this one is not substantiated that but there's a rumor that two women drown in the first class swimming pool. So these two goes to our scene around the swimming pool and they're wearing their 30s or 60s attire respectively because they supposedly died during different decades. And then there was a rumor that a little boy fell off the boat and that he kind of hangs out in that pool area and that a little girl named Jackie also died somewhat how you know in that area and then. But so all of them haunt the pool. We'll get a little bit later about whether things are rumored or proven. And then this story, you know I found this on a couple different sites so I think there's probably at least some truth in it but apparently a cook died in a pretty horrific way. So, you know they picked up some soldiers in Australia. And you know some of the things say well the Australians were complaining about the food, you know I don't know what they were really fighting about. But the rumor is that they shoved the head cook into the oven and they burned him to death. Wow. Yeah, so, you know people, yeah I mean yeah I mean people just say that they can hear screams near the kitchen, you know, and like it feels like it's reliving the fact that he was like roasted alive. And you know there this is one of the ones that I'll say there are no records to say that this is how the chef died or to substantiate these rumors. But you know people tend to believe it and you know I don't know it's true or not but I'm just putting it out there. Right. Now this next one we know is true it's documented. So in 1966 and 18 year old crewman named John Petter got crushed by door number 13 during a watertight drill. And so this was like an automatically closing door so like if the ship was taking on water like these doors would automatically close to like block the water from getting further into the ship. Oh, so like they wouldn't stop if like a person was in front of it or something. Yeah I mean I might take is they're just very heavy doors. So I don't know. Why you know if they if they he knew this drill is happening I don't know why he was. Near the door or why he you know couldn't get away or how fast the door is moving or anything but it is documented that he was crushed by the closing door. And he's often seen wearing white coveralls. And people like say that like you'll hear him whistling or you know he'll like ask people for his wrench or something. You know so yeah but I think that's interesting. Now. Queen Mary ended up being retired and let me see. 1965 and that's when she found her home in my beautiful hometown of Long Beach California. And, and I'll just share that as I kid, like, you know the Queen Mary was there and then the plane spruce goose they were like both there. And all of my parents and all of their friends like the big thing was to go to parties on the Queen Mary like if you went to a party on the Queen Mary that meant you were like in the know, like holding me up class. Yeah, you know and, but I remember you know because my mom was not like a swanky party go or tie it but I remember she went on a party on the Queen Mary and she felt very like oh look. So you know it's it's a beautiful ship. And you know they still to this day it's like a tourist attraction. So you know it's like a hotel and a museum, and they do go stores and I have only been on the Queen Mary once and it was for a New Year's Eve party. I don't know what year do you think that was a lot of that was like, maybe like 2014. Yeah, I was a teenager but I don't think I was like out of the house yet. Because I remember we had my cousin comes sit with you guys at a hotel nearby while we went to this party on the Queen Mary. And so yeah I mean it's, it's old, you know I mean you can see that it was like beautiful and whatever at one point but it definitely is old, but it's still a really fun place to have a party and we had a great time. We did not have any ghost experiences I will say that you did. Yes you did. We did. You don't remember the party. We're about the party. Girl, you told me when you came home that there was like the room next door to you or somewhere on your floor was like raging and having a party and then when you went and talked to the people they were like what party are you talking about. Oh shit I totally do remember that wasn't not a thing. Oh my god I forgot about that. I was like I thought you totally did. Oh my gosh I totally forgot about that. See how my memory goes. That was actually like 10 years ago so. Yeah, no yeah I do remember that that we heard things and then later other people were like what like that was nothing. But when we went there it was cool too because you know everybody's in their formal New Year's Eve gear, but they had the ice skating rink open so you could like ice skating your formal gown is kind of cool. That sounds difficult like yeah you had a long gown can you imagine trying to ice skate that'd be hard. Yeah so anyways I just wanted to share personal experience but so I found that in the actual official records there are 55 reported deaths on board. Okay, but you know this article didn't know that records weren't always completely accurate or things weren't always documented so there could be more some people definitely suspect there was more. So but the 55 consisted of 16 crew members and at least 14 passengers that died on board, but most of them were natural causes and then of course the accidents that I've mentioned. Okay. So some of the things that people experience on the Queen Mary is the severe temperature changes so the drop in temperature. Okay and so other than temperature changes there was also reports of knocking and I don't know if you remember the episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved, where I don't know a guy dressed like a captain I don't know who he was. But he was telling Shane and Ryan that he did the, what is the, you know, the, what is that shaving a haircut or something. Yeah, so he did that and then you know he heard the in response. Yeah, I do remember that. Yeah. And then other things just the like slamming doors screaming lights flickering on and off. And, yeah, so I mean just kind of all the things that you usually hear about in a hunting. There's a report of sounds of children laughing and swashing in the pool and then what footprints walking outside of the pool when nobody is there. Wow. And there, of course, as a lady in white because there is always a lady in white, but this lady is happy and dancing in the lounge. Good for her, you know, yeah, about sad ladies and white. Good for a day. I'm crying ladies and white. So, you know, it's good to hear a lady in white that's like, you know, having her fun time. Well, you know, I'm going to get to the haunted rooms, but I do want to say, you know, claims of hauntings apparently became more prevalent in the 1980s and then, you know, those stories continue to grow and grow and grow and then in 2008 is when time magazine listed the Queen Mary in the top 100 or top 10 most haunted places. Okay. And so that's going to bring us to a couple other rumors that we don't know if are true, but there's a state room that is supposedly haunted by a spirit of a person who is murdered there. And then there's another story of a young girl who hunts that second class swimming pool, and then a father who murdered his two daughters on board. Oh, my God. You know, canard the shipping company owner or whatever parent company says that those kind of things are not in the records that nobody ever drowned on board. And, you know, like the only serious injury around the pool was a person that dove into the first class pool and injured her lips and nose on the bottom of the pool. And nobody was ever murdered on the ship. Okay. Now canard notified a passenger on a ship that her family had been killed in a murder suicide in Virginia. And so people are saying maybe that story got twisted into something happening on a ship, but they stand firmly that nobody was ever murdered on the ship. It could also be like an insurance thing. I mean, I'm not trying to like stir the pot here, but that didn't happen on the ship that happened, you know, yeah, the ship. Oh, I don't know. I mean, you know, but rumors legend urban love agents, you know, like those kind of things happen so I don't know which you're not. Totally. You know, the ship is reportedly haunted by over a hundred spirits and the most spirited room is state room B three four zero. So three forty. And this is where, you know, the activity there is so intense that a lot of the members of the crew won't go there. And so there's this is another rumor that in 1948, a third class passenger named Walter James Adamson mysteriously died in there. And there's belief that maybe it's his ghost that's haunting that room. And then there's another theory that claims that staff locked a man into the third classroom after he murdered two women in the 60s. And again, the parent company says nobody was murdered, but you know, whatever. During the night he was heard like beating on the door screaming for the guards to let him out. And then when they opened the door in the morning, they found his body, bloody and mangled. Oh my gosh, that he had been ripped apart. And but he had yelled that there was something inside the room with him. Oh, and then when the ship was retired. Three third classrooms were combined that that created that one larger room B three forty. And that's, you know, when people started reporting odd things. Now other women who have stayed on the ship say that they've awoken having their bed covers ripped off of them or seeing a man at the end of their bed or hearing voices. It's turning on and off by themselves, things moving, you know, not being where they left them, that kind of thing. And then the ship apparently received so many negative reports about room B three four zero in the 70s that it was closed off to the public for over 30 years. And then it was finally reopened as a haunted attraction and this is 2018. I sort of thought it was before that, but yeah, this source said it was reopened as a haunted attraction in 2018. You know, I feel like you still have to reserve it like it's not like you could just randomly get it like you. Yeah, no, I think I think you have to pay a pretty penny for that. Yeah, because I know. I, when I saw and that's why we drink, they actually ghost toured there and I'm not going to tell their stories y'all can look that up if you want to, but they, like while they were ghost hunting apparently like, Zach Bagan's had been in the room the night before so the energy was like the darkest. And the energy was pissed off and Zach was just there, because he was not happy Zach was in the room. But they were saying that like it was very active and like probably the most like reactive place they'd ever gone ghost hunting so. Yeah, I do think that is interesting that it was closed for so long. And we, you know, we had done the ghost tour, but, you know, again, it was like a million people on the ship for New Year's Eve so it was very crowded and everything and when we were in the boilover room. I did see this man in this fine Victorian get up, but you know with some steampunk vibe and I was like, but you know he turned out to be an actual bartender, not a ghost person. But I did love his vibe because everybody else was just formal and he was kind of this dark mysterious thing so he committed to the bed you know when I appreciate it. No, it was very cool but the boiler room, I mean it, I don't know probably every boiler room just kind of feels creepy because it's kind of dingy and dark and whatever I mean but so it definitely felt like we're down there but yeah we didn't have any experiences down there. Okay, that's fine. But again, there were lots of people there, there was a bar set up in the little corner I mean it was small tight little bar in the corner. And they had, you know, they had cocktails and like little files, you know, so little, you know, so yeah so we did not witness anything in the boiler room but that apparently is a very active spot. Interesting. Yeah, so any thoughts on the Queen Mary. Anything. I just think there's something about Mary you know I think spirit to her. I think she, you know, I feel like every big ghost thing I've ever watched definitely covers her at some point so there's some. I was just thinking when you brought it up I was like I remember like one of the first ever episodes of Unsolved Mysteries I ever saw like the older one from the 80s was they were on the Queen Mary. They were like talking to the to the captain and he went like not Robert Stack but whoever they were interviewing was saying that he like was on one of the stairwells and there was this like man who like just was like walking really closely behind her on the stairs Oh my gosh, well I'm glad it wasn't ghost but that's creepy. Either way it's creepy. Yeah, but I, you know, I would actually like to go back and revisit and do the ghost tour with a smaller group, you know, when we're not all tipsy from champagne and informal wear. It was a little Tuesday afternoon when no one would like to go with a smaller group and just see how the vibe feels then because you know when I was on the ship it was definitely a party vibe. You know, and they do put on a good party so if anybody's looking for a place to have a nice party that you know that ballroom is great and they had different rooms for different kinds of music and all the things it was great. So if you're looking for a party it was a lot of fun. I can do the ghosty things when it's a little quieter and less chaotic. Yeah, I feel like a New Year's Eve party is, it could be the best and the worst place for hauntings to happen because maybe people won't realize their hauntings or maybe, you know, like the ghosts wouldn't come out, you know, so either way it's like. It's interesting, but yeah, yeah so that's all I got I was trying to keep it a little bit short and sweet since our flight was so long but I definitely think it's worth a visit if you're in Long Beach. And you know Long Beach is fabulous it creates beautiful people and just saying. We have lots of family members who hail from Long Beach not just you. Yeah, but yeah so if you're ever in that area I definitely think it's worth seeing and you know I mean yeah it's definitely not as grand as it once was because she's getting old but you can still picture what it would have been like back in the day. And you know they do their best to try to keep it up but you know it's a museum it's a hotel you know it's just kind of a tourist attraction so, you know, you get that feeling when you're there too but it was very cool, definitely want to go back. Yeah I mean any pictures I've seen of the ship are absolutely gorgeous so I would love to go someday myself so. Yeah, I happen. Yeah, well if you ever get back on the west coast girl girl, don't at me right now. No I'm excited for you but I will miss you. I miss you too, but at least we have a weekly conversation already. That's why I'm grateful for this and grateful for you. Yeah, and we appreciate you all friends and I appreciate you for telling us the story mama. But anyway, I'm somehow skipping things just keep following us on Instagram at what the opod you could DM us there or email us at what the opod at gmail.com if you have any spooky stories or anything like that you'd like to share with us. And we are getting our patreon bonus episodes uploaded for March, well or single episode not multiple. So keep an eye out for that. And outside of that friends I just want to say we appreciate you and I appreciate you mama. You too baby. - Good night. - Good night. - Good night. - Good night.