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RMS Queen Mary Visit

February 5, 2014 - 2 Comments

January, 2010

One of the best parts of this business is being able to go on buying trips to search out rare and unusual ocean-liner memorabilia. I often go on successful buying trips in California, and while there, I always stay a few nights on Cunard’s majestic Queen Mary. My visit in January, 2010, was no exception, but what was exceptional was the situation I found when I got on board.

At that time a new operator of the ship was doing some much needed refurbishment. Fortunately for me, the project they were working on during my stay was re-carpeting all the hotel rooms on Main Deck. As a result, I got a chance to go in and check out every cabin and suite on both the port and starboard side of Main Deck. Best of all, I had my camera. It was a rare treat. Aside from today’s maids and a few stewards back in the 1960’s (and maybe a couple of you on this list!), practically no one can say they have been in every cabin on Main Deck. Check out a few photos from this trip below.

You can click any of them for a larger version.

: I think she needs a good paint job! Still she has beautiful lines.

: The spiral staircase to the original projection room forward of the first-class lounge.

: All the furniture in the hotel rooms had been removed and stored in the nearest public room. Here is some in the third-class garden lounge forward on Main Deck.

: Some of the beautiful furniture that is still being used on board nearly 80 years after the maiden voyage.

: A suite chair with some second-class dining room chairs in the background.

: A smoking room chair from the Queen Elizabeth.

: James Hawley sitting in the QE smoking room chair.

: A former port-side suite bedroom.

: Note the fantastic veneer.

: One of her largest suites with the interconnecting wall opened. I was told this almost never happens.

: A section of the cabin occupied by Cunard Chairman Percy Bates on the maiden voyage. I suspect he would be appalled at her state today.

: The entrances to all of her suites were particularly well thought out, each having a vestibule to deaden corridor noise. Most still have the original consoles and mirrors, many of which were different.

: Your author hanging out in the entrance vestibule to a suite.

: Some of the best marquetry on the ship, thankfully still in very good condition.

: This was one of the most interesting cabins because of the use of the very rare Zebrano veneer on the cabinets. This cabin is a beauty!

: Thankfully, there are still many cabins on Main Deck that still sport many of their original fittings, such as fans, writing desks, mirrors, etc.

: When exploring the cabins, the closets sometimes yielded gems such as this beautiful Art Deco footstool.

: The last operator started renovating the cabins forward on Main, A, and B decks over ten years ago. This is what one of those cabins looked like in 2010.

: The project was halted because of lack of funds, and it unfortunately appears that all of the original paneling was ripped out of these cabins. One wonders why. The current management is putting them back into hotel service (without the paneling).

: Furniture being moved back into an inside cabin. I saw a surprising number of original head boards that had NOT been ruined by Disney when they tacked on naugahyde covers.

: The new carpet in the first-class dining room.

: Not seen for nearly 30 years is the teak decking on the starboard side of Promenade Deck. It was in better shape than I thought it would be. During the upgrades, they found many old bottles from the 1980’s (when the restaurant was last renovated).

: Rather than just re-carpeting, they used this Zamboni-like machine to tear up the parquet floor that was under the carpet. They did, however, leave the modern dance floor in the center of the room.

: Sadly this destruction was a total failure with the subfloor ruined beneath the parquet now popping up all over the room. Walking on the new carpet is like galopping across a trampoline.

: Someone mentioned that there was an original second-class cabin on the Mary with an odd window arrangement. Rather than having a porthole, it has a window that looked aft out onto the second-class promenade on A Deck.

: I found this rather intriguing so I asked the front desk if they knew which cabin I was referring to. They didn’t, but they kindly took me to find it anyway. Here is a shot in A-177 (the original number), looking aft at the window.

: The arrow points to the location of this window on a 1957 deck plan.

: Long Beach through one of the ports.

: Back in 1989, when the stern docking equipment was removed to make way for a pool(!), a maritime historian saved what he could before it went to the smelter. Twenty years later, it was donated back to the ship. Here is the donated capstan on the wharf. Let’s hope they don’t turn it into a flower pot like the other one they have!

: She *really* needed a paint job in 2010 and still does today! There is an almost perfectly straight line running aft from the prop box to the stern. The area below does not look like it has been painted in many, many years. One wonders if management just never finished painting her all the way because the public is not supposed to walk this far aft, and they figured no one would ever know.