In 1936, RMS Queen Mary took to the seas as a Cunard Ocean Liner, famed for it's rapid transatlantic crossings and art deco beauty, winning the Blue Riband by making the voyage between Southampton and New York in just under 4 days. For context...that's 3 DAYS quicker than Queen Mary 2 achieves in 2026.
Arriving in Los Angeles the QM2 met with Queen Mary and exchanged a salute of their respective ships whistles in the Long Beach area. Incidentally, one of QM2's whistles did in fact belong to Queen Mary prior to her being decommissioned in 1967! This meeting was a big deal given they hadn't met for 20 years. I popped up to the crew deck to watch and listen at around 7am. Helicopters hovered overhead to record this moment and if you check out YouTube you'll find no shortage of shared footage from US news agencies reporting this event.
With the ceremony complete, we headed to our berth around another hours slow sail away. Arriving into our LA berth I met our various shore colleagues and agreed the plan for how we would proceed with our call for the next 38 hours. Customs and Border Patrol would dictate what the immigration experience would be like for our crew and guests, I agreed what the security procedures would look like across our call. The former of those things was without a doubt a more challenging experience for everyone. Unfortunately, that's how the world looks like right now.
Our final position left us just behind the USS Iowa. Now there's a ship that's boomeranged in and out of action!! Commissioned in 1943 only to be recommissioned two further times until eventually retiring in 1990. Some serious retrofitting has gone on there to keep her in service. She's now a museum, I think we would all be after that life!
The day continued with US immigration taking it's toll on both crew and guests alike. All guests have to debark the ship and cannot return until every single one of them has been through the process. Only at that point was it my turn to head into see them and get my crewman's landing permit or form i95 as it's otherwise known. By now most of the day has evaporated but it's ok as it's been a busy one. Visitors and contractors have kept me occupied along with numerous other bits and pieces. It's been a tiring day!
Until!!!!!!!!!
An invite to join 20 or so colleagues, along with the Captain, to visit Queen Mary this evening. Have a tour, some free time to roam and perhaps a drink in her bar! This was too good to pass up!
The Queen Mary internal promenade deck
And so it was that we all climbed into some hired minibuses and headed to the Queen Mary, in full 'blues' to pay our respects to our namesake
The Bridge
The now iconic red Cunard funnels
The engine control room
The boiler rooms (now voids)
A VERY familiar hotel space
An uncannily familiar promenade deck
Queen Mary's ships side, such a familiar sight when QM2 comes into port for embarkation of guests
The preserved portside propeller, one of 22 sets she got through!!!
The officers and Captain of QM2 gifting a QM2 plaque, a handmade Cunard lion statuette and a Queen Elizabeth departure checklist to the Queen Mary. The original Queen Elizabeth was Queen Mary's sister ship
Upon the conclusion of our tour which it's fair to say attracted a fair bit of attention from the Queen Mary's visitor's and guests we had a wander around the remaining areas of the ship before heading to her art deco bar for a drink prior to loading back into the buses and departing towards our place of work.
Not to put a finer point on it, this was a fairly historic day where we gave a nod to the history of the company, had an opportunity to see just how hard it would have been to work on board, achieving such speeds, breaking records and providing an unparalleled service.
I hope QM2 will be in service long enough to see Queen Mary again but who can be sure?
A long rewarding day. Let's see what the next one brings
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