Long live the Queen!
Wait…what? Mate, it’s America’s semiquincentennial. Hardly the time to be cheering for the British monarchy.
Yeah, nah.
I’m talking about the RMS Queen Mary.
She sailed into Long Beach, California on December 9, 1967, and now a stationary hotel and museum (On December 11, 1967, she was conveyed to the City of Long Beach and removed from the British Registry).
I have had three encounters with this great ship: as a vendor employee, patron, and celebrant.
But first some history of the Grand Old Lady.
She was built by the Scottish shipbuilding firm John Brown & Company at their shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland, known as “Job No. 534.”
Her Majesty Queen Mary, after whom the ship was named, launched her at 3:10 p.m., on September 26, 1934. With scissors, Her Majesty cut a satin cord which released a bottle of Australian wine (Gobsmacked—not a Kiwi Babich vino?) which shattered on the port bow.
A rainy day could not keep away about a quarter of a million onlookers to the event as the band played Rule Britannia.
C’mon, sing it with me:
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves;
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.”
Let’s keep the creative vibe going—recite with me the closing stanza of UK’s Poet Laureate John Masefield’s poem Number 534 composed to celebrate and honour the launch of RMS Queen Mary.
“May shipwreck and collision, fog and fire,
Rock, shoal and other evils of the sea,
Be kept from you; and may the heart’s desire
Of those who speed your launching come to be.”
Captained by Sir Edgar Britton, with 1,957 passengers and 1,174 crew, The RMS Queen Mary’s maiden voyage began on May 27, 1936, departing Southampton, England, stopping briefly in Cherbourg, France, before crossing the Atlantic to New York.
Hardly, the passenger ship for every Tom, Dick, and Harry, the RMS Queen Mary was a floating transatlantic five-star hotel and Royal Mail Ship, contracted by the British government to carry overseas mail (what the RMS stands for). Notable guests include Ella Fitzgerald, James Stewart, Robert Mitchum, Alfred Hitchcock, Bob Hope and Winston Churchill.
Everything changed during World War II. The luxurious ocean liner was converted into a troopship, painted battleship grey, and became known as the “Grey Ghost.” This also included carrying Australian and New Zealand troops from Sydney in 1940.
During the Second World War, John Masefield’s poetic line “and other evils of the sea” proved to be a benediction: despite a bounty offered by Adolf Hitler of $250,000 and the Iron Cross, the Queen Mary was never successfully attacked or damaged by German naval forces.
My own history with the Queen Mary spans three very different visits. My first “Welcome Aboard” moment was in the 1990s as an employee for On Command Video. They provided pay-per-view movies to guest rooms. During this time, I was never a vacationer of the five-star floating hotel; just provided five-star service!
My second visit was on Saturday, May 30, 2026, as a patron for The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy. My wife and daughters surprised me with an early Father’s Day gift with tickets to a 90-minute theatrical production inside the Queen’s Salon that combined stage actors performing eerie monologues from Poe’s literature. Dim lighting, period décor, made it feel as though Poe himself might step through the door.
Each of the four tales was followed by a waiter serving custom-crafted cocktails to embody the vibe of each story. Montresor’s Revenge was my favourite monster-mix.
And tonight, July 4, 2026, I stand aboard the Queen Mary with my wife Teresa celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
As I muse on the Queen Mary’s remarkable history, she has become a symbol of the evolving relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. Once bitter enemies, our nations are now among the closest of allies. Churchill famously described this partnership as the “Special Relationship,” and the Queen Mary’s permanent home in Long Beach stands as a fitting reminder of that enduring bond.
Francis Scott Key, like you, 212 years ago, I gaze to the night sky. “The rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air” are no longer signs of war, but brilliant fireworks celebrating the birth of a nation.
God bless America!
