Ghost Stories! (Tell me ya scared or not?)

Queen Mary

The following story took place on board The Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. The story is absolutely true. If you had the misfortune of taking the "ghost tour" on the Queen Mary, a few years ago, you may have heard the story and seen the photo- graph that I took (until I forced them to remove it from public viewing), please understand that the story they told was incorrect and embellished to make it more entertaining and less scary. This story is copyrighted and may not be reproduced for profit without my express written consent. This posting may be cross-posted to any other newsgroup, if posted in its entirety.

Several years ago I became very ill with a respiratory virus. After my recovery, as a treat to myself a a friend who had helped to care for me, I purchased tickets for a Halloween party and tour on The Queen Mary with an overnight stay.

For those of you who aren't familiar with The Queen Mary, it is a retired Cruise ship that has a permanent home in the water (with a jetty built around it) at Long Beach. The cabins have been converted into hotel rooms, although they had tried to maintain the art deco feel of the ship, not all of the rooms have the original fittings in them.

We checked into the hotel and had spent a long day exploring, eating junk food and partying in the Spruce Goose Dome (the dome of doom, I think they called it!). The room that we were given had been remodeled and looked like any other hotel room. Because I had been ill, and was exhausted from our busy day, we returned the the room at about 11:30 p.m. We realized immediately that there was a problem. The ship was full of roudy revelers and our room was NEXT TO THE COKE MACHINE! About every 30 seconds we heard a can fall. We knew that there was no way we were going to get to sleep in that room.

I called the desk and asked to be moved. We were told that no rooms were available because of the party. I asked to speak to the manager and was told again that the hotel was sold out. I told him that we did not wish to stay and would be leaving for another hotel. He asked me to hold and about 60 seconds later came back on and said that they did have one room available.

We were taken to a very small cabin on the harbor side of the ship. The room was decorated with all of the original built in deco furniture! It was gorgeous. As I mentioned, I was exhausted from our busy day, but when I walked into that room I felt like I'd had 8 hours sleep and 4 cups of coffee. I was wired. Being a camera buff I pulled out my 35 mm and began taking pictures of the art deco fittings. I took about two rolls of film.

To understand what happened next, I have to describe the room. It was rectangular, perhaps 20 x 12 feet. It contained two twin beds which were parallel to the wall with the windows facing the harbor. Between the beds was a built in vanity.

My friend got into the bed next to the windows. Her head was just below a port hole window. One of those round things with the screws around it. I was in the bed across the room. The light next to my bed was the last one on and as I turned to her to say goodnight I saw, quite distinctly, that there was a man standing next to her bed. He was looking at me, over his shoulder and he turned his head to look out the window. Then he just disolved and was gone. The man had been wearing a dark coat made of a stiff fabric, like wool. He had a beard and was wearing a hat like a captains hat. I immediately associated his clothing with a military uniform.

I turned out the light and didn't say a word. Now, you are probably thinking, why in the world didn't you say anything to her, but imagine my position. It was Halloween night, I had just recovered from an illness, I was tired and I didn't believe in ghosts. Plus, I didn't want to scare her. I really didn't know what to do. So, I just laid in bed, shivering beneath the covers, wide awake.

My friend, on the other hand, fell fast asleep. I was acutely aware of her breathing and every other noise in the ship. I thought how ironic it was that she should be asleep because she is normally a very light sleeper but I figured that she was just tired too. The next thing I knew I heard her sit up in bed and start SCREAMING my name.

Not a shout, a scream that went on and on, she was almost hysterical. By the time I got the light on, after knocking everything off the table, she was awake and crying. I tried to get her to talk to me and tell me what had caused her to be so upset. She kept repeating that she'd had a bad dream, but wouldn't tell me more. We went back to bed with the light in the bathroom left on. Neither of us slept much that night and we left the hotel eearly the next morning.

Neither of us discussed that night with each other for weeks. I finally got around to having the film developed and when I got them back I called her. In one of the photographs, a photograph of the window directly above the bed she had slept in, I saw the face of the man that had been standing next to the bed. I knew that she was the only person that I could tell this to because she had been there.

Ironically, while we were on the phone, I turned on the tv and "Eye on LA" had a program about ghosts on the Queen Mary! She told me she was coming over, she wanted to tell me about the dream. I didn't mention the photographs to her.

When she arrived, I handed her several packages of photographs to look at. She went through them, making occasional comments on them. When she got to the photograph of the window, she stopped. This is my paraphrase of her story:

She said that she had suddenly become exhausted and when she got into bed must have fallen immediately asleep. But, she didn't realize that she was asleep. She was very worried about me and looked over at my bed, but I wasn't in it. She looked up and a tall man in a dark coat walked up to her bed. He had a beard and was wearing a hat. She said that he pulled her blanket and sheets away from her and then she saw that he had a pillow in his hand. She knew that he was going to put the pillow over her face. She woke up screaming for me.

Now, I am sure that you can explain away her dream as concern for me, but how do you explain her dream containing the same man that I had seen minutes before next to her bed?

Then she said, "I know you'll think I am crazy but, the man is in this picture." She was holding the photograph of the window. In truth, the photograph is quite faint, but like the 3d art pictures, once you see it, it is very clear.

After that day, she and I have not discussed that night. It took me almost a year to go back to the Queen Mary. On the "Eye on LA" episode they mentioned a book cataloging the reports of ghosts. I had to know if anyone else had a similar experience. We were lucky to find a woman who was interested in ghosts and knew where the book was. In exchange for giving them a report of my story and a copy of the photograph, she let me read the book. There was a report, in the 1960's when the ship was still sailing of a woman, in our cabin I think, the cabins were renumbered in the remodel, who reported a man in her room that pulled the sheets down. No man was found in her room or in the hallways. He was wearing a dark jacket and had a beard.

Since that time I have investigated other QM sightings and visited the ship with a psychic on the anniversery of the death of a crew member who died while working in the engine room. But that is another posting! Anyone else have a QM experience?



I want to be in another place.
I hate when you say you don't understand.
(You'll see it's not meant to be)
I want to be in the energy, not with the enemy.
A place for my head.

I was interested in this story so much when I read it. hi` hi` hi`...you know what, I'm gonna give you 5*........

The Cyber Ghost...
Directions:
Stare at this picture for 1 minute and a ghost
will appear in the room. This really does work so
make sure you stare for the full minute!




Did that creep you out?
I want to be in another place.
I hate when you say you don't understand.
(You'll see it's not meant to be)
I want to be in the energy, not with the enemy.
A place for my head.

Hô lỳ....my heart was beating ...bùm bùm bùm....
luongvec

ooh how surprising it is! I started to see the clock on my computer because 1 minute passed but nothing appeared..... I thought it was a just a joke but no sooner I looked up the screen than she turned up. A bit scary but she's a beautiful ghost, isn't she? Great job, shtp!
Wanna be to a place where there're just you and me, nobody else, so we can be free....
Được britneybritney sửa chữa / chuyển vào 00:38 ngày 07/05/2003

Yup, She's a nice ghost, does she look like you BritneyBritney? I think i c her everyday in my mirror haha!
I want to be in another place.
I hate when you say you don't understand.
(You'll see it's not meant to be)
I want to be in the energy, not with the enemy.
A place for my head.

I see her every day in my mirror, too

yeah, me too. You're so smart ,shtp, to say such things!
I wrote ur name in the sky, but the wind blew it away
I wrote ur name in the sand, but the waves washed it away
So I write ur name in my heart, where noone can take it away and 4ever it will stay...

OMG!
...isn't poetry one of the biggest gifts to forget our daily life of sorrow?...

OMG wat?
I want to be in another place.
I hate when you say you don't understand.
(You'll see it's not meant to be)
I want to be in the energy, not with the enemy.
A place for my head.