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Tales from the Haunted Ship: Legends of the Queen Mary

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Want to explore haunted legends of the world’s most famous ship? Discover chilling ghost stories about strange and supernatural occurrences said to haunt the decks of The Queen Mary.

Step onboard the legendary RMS Queen Mary and discover the eerie tales of her ghostly visitors that are said to remain, decades after the ship sailed its last voyage on the sea. For decades, passengers and crew have reported sightings of paranormal activity, from strange lights and mysterious noises to full-bodied apparitions roaming the decks of the vessel.

History of The Queen Mary

Built in 1934 and christened by Queen Mary herself, the ship is now a permanent museum vessel in Long Beach, California. The Queen Mary has a rich history of dramatic events. Some based on facts and real events, some based on rumors, tales from the passengers and crew.  

As a luxury ship it transported many famous passengers, like Elizabeth Taylor, Jacky Kennedy and other rich and famous on first class. In second and third class, many more were making their way from America to Europe or the other way around. 

During World War II the vessel was nicknamed The Grey Ghost and the ship was used as a troopship to transport thousands of troops between Southampton and New York; many of whom are said to have died during the voyage. 

A Troop Ship: During the second world was, The Queen Mary was used to transport soldiers. Here from 1943 when it was about to anchor in Sidney with Australian troops.

She was together with the ship Queen Elizabeth the largest and fastest troop ships involved in the war and could carry as many as 15 000 men in a single voyage. Churchill himself remarked that Queen Mary had shortened the war by a year. 

After her stint as a warship, she had several reincarnations including being a job site for hundreds of workers since then, which could explain why so many mysterious occurrences have been reported onboard.

The Art Deco ship retired in 1967 as the market for passengers traveling by sea from New York, USA to Southampton, England declined rapidly as airplanes now could do the work in less time. 

A Number of Haunting Legends

Many of the legends about ghosts and unexplained happenings on the Queen Mary originate from stories told by crew members, passengers, and even those who worked on her in dry dock – however, their authenticity remains unknown. 

Read more about haunted ships around the world: Here

There is an infinite list of ghosts that are supposedly haunting the ship, with over 150 ghosts to this day and counting. Here are some of them:

Stateroom B-340

The hotel promotes the suite room B-340, that originally was a 3rd class cabin as being notoriously haunted, and there are many haunted attraction tours that take advantage of these ghost legends and will bring you on a tour. 

The ghost in one of the staterooms smelling of cigar and perfume is allegedly haunted by a person who was murdered there.

It is said to be the ghost of a British 3rd class passenger named Walter J. Adamson who passed away in the room and according to people staying in the room, he has been known to stand by their beds, sometimes pulling the bed covers off. 

The Mauretania Room

In this VIP lounge, in 1989 two women were sent to clean it. When they walked in they saw a passenger sitting on a chair on the dancefloor. The passenger didn’t say a word, but kept on staring. When a 3rd woman came in to clean, she asked the passenger to move, but the passenger didn’t budge. 

They were about to call for security when the passenger just vanished right before their eyes. 

The Crewman

A bearded crewman in blue overalls is often reported off, often accompanied by whistling. It is thought that it is an 18-year old crew member from Yorkshire that died in 1966. He was killed after he was crushed under a door during a fire drill. He is now haunting the doorway known as Shaft Alley where he died. 

The Lady in White

Some legends are hundreds of years old with reported sightings of a woman in white or a child running around the ship in little period attire. The lady in white is said to be a first-class passenger who is still dancing in the Salon of the ship in a long gown. 

The Engineer

In the old engine room it is said that one of the engineers died and came back to haunt the place. 

Boiler Room Number 4

Inside of this room people have reported about seeing a little girl running around. Sometimes she is sucking her thumb or holding a doll. 

The Haunted Pool

People have reported about wet footprints on the floor near the first class swimming pool that was once a luxury place with an illuminated fountain and pearl ceiling and mosaic tiles. 

One legend is of a little girl who is said to haunt the first and second class pools, but no deaths were recorded in either pool. There are also reports about a girl in a tennis skirt and a woman in an old wedding gown. 

The Murder Suicide

Another claim of a ghost haunting the ship is made by psychic Peter James when he visited The Queen Mary. He said that in 1959, a father murdered his wife and daughters and then killed himself in room B474 and the daughters haunt the room and surrounding corridors. But it is not really proven to happen on the ship but in Roanoke, Virginia in 1964. 

Chilling Accounts From Longtime Passengers & Crew Members

From passengers to crew members of the Queen Mary, chilling accounts of strange and supernatural occurrences are said to have haunted the decks of the famous ship. One such story was that of a former captain who experienced frequent nightmares about running in circles until suddenly appearing in front of a white figure located at the bridge. 

First Class: The Queen Mary was a luxury ship were many rich and famous chose to make their way on back and forth from America to Europe. Today it is mostly remembered as the worlds most haunted ship. //Source: wikimedia

Other occurrences range from changing room temperatures to hearing doors slam shut without warning while visitors board. Despite all these tales—the true origin of this haunted ship is yet to be discovered.

Many passengers have reported seeing lights dancing around certain decks on The Queen Mary as well as hearing voices whispering from empty hallways. Despite years of skeptics and non-believers, these eerie tales still resonate with many visitors on board this haunted vessel.

While many can relate to the eerie tales of supernatural occurrences onboard the Queen Mary, skeptics are quick to call these stories mere myth and legend. Despite this, one thing’s for certain: the stories of these chilling occurrences have captivated and stunned visitors for decades. Whether you choose to believe in them or not, one thing is clear – The haunted legends of The Queen Mary will never be forgotten.

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Featured Image: George John Edkins (1921-2001) Wikimedia

Is the Queen Mary Ship Really Haunted?

The Queen Mary: The Most Haunted Hotel in America

Meet The Unknown Immigrant Billionaire Betting Her Fortune To Take On Musk In Space?

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The History and Secrets of The Winchester Mystery House

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One of America’s most iconic homes is The Winchester Mystery House. Inside lies a fascinating history of the eccentric Sarah Winchester who created it as well as a ghost story or two.

The Winchester Mystery House has been an enduring American legend since its construction over a century ago. Located in San Jose, California, the 160-room mansion was created by eccentric heiress Sarah Winchester who believed it would protect her from vengeful spirits. 

Or so the rumors say at least, but is it really true? Uncover the secrets behind its haunted corridors and spooky stories as you explore this iconic landmark.

Who Was Sarah Winchester?

Sarah Winchester was born into a prominent and wealthy family in New England. She married into an even wealthier one that made their money from the gun business. It was said that at the time, she was considered to be one of the wealthiest women in the world.

Sarah Winchester: A rich widow that spent most of her inheritance on building her strange house that has puzzled everyone since she started building it.

She spent her fortune to build the sprawling Victorian mansion to house her vast fortune and to ward off spirits she believed were angry at her due to her family’s gun-making business. This belief that her family was cursed and haunted by those who were killed by the Winchester rifle started even in her lifetime.

Throughout construction of The Winchester Mystery House, Winchester gradually added new wings, staircases that lead to nowhere, doors, and other features that made the home increasingly complex and filled with mysteries until her death in 1922.

The Construction of The Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester Mystery House is today world known for its quirky features and haunted reputation, even before Sarah Winchester passed away herself. In 1895 she started to appear in the newspaper where the writers and the other locals speculated as to why this rich widow kept building the house for no apparent reason.

The Winchester Mystery House was built in an almost continuous 24-hour a day state of construction over 38 years. Sarah Winchester hired carpenters, plumbers and other craftsmen to work on the massive project day and night. 

She also employed physicians to keep her healthy during the arduous task of designing and building her fantastic home as her health was rapidly declining over the years as well. Because of this she had to take several breaks from the construction because she tired so easily.

In fact, according to legend, one room was built around Sarah while she slept so that she wouldn’t have time off from the project. Her workers named it the “Martini Room” due to her nonstop working style.

Unique Features in the Winchester House

The Winchester Mystery House contains many unique features, including staircases to nowhere, secret passages and hidden doors. This maze-like way of building her house led people to speculate that she did so to confuse the spirits that haunted her and her family and prevent them from hurting them. 

There are also odd windows, strange symbols on the floor and doors that open up into walls that people have speculated about ever since. In addition to these weird features, Sarah Winchester installed beautiful gardens within the property and added stained glass throughout the home. She even used her wealth to construct a lavish conservatory in The Winchester Mystery House with exotic plants from around the world.

If not to confuse the ghosts, why did she build such a peculiar house? A student writing his master’s thesis on it came to the conclusion that her goal was to keep workers employed and to express her artistic vision although it was ever changing.

Read about more haunted houses around the world: Here

After an earthquake in 1906, the house was severely damaged, and it never really got completely fixed. It was also at that time she stopped working on the house all together by 1910 except from maintenance. When she died in 1922 the house had 160 rooms, 2000 doors, 10 000 windows, 47 stairways and 47 fireplaces.

Just months after her death, her house became a tourist attraction and attracted everyone from paranormal investigators to the likes of Harry Houdini. And then over the years the ghost stories continued and grew.

Ghost Sightings and Supernatural Encounters

It’s not just the architecture of The Winchester Mystery House that has caught the attention of visitors; reports on supernatural encounters also abound. For example, Sarah Winchester’s spirit is said to still haunt reportedly haunt the house, along with other spectral apparitions and spirits of former employees. 

Still to this day the popular belief is that she thought she was haunted by those who died from the Winchester guns, and the guilt she felt from it and the money she got from it kept her as well as her home haunted. 

One of the most popular ghosts in The Winchester Mystery House is a mustached man named Clyde. He can be seen pushing a wheelbarrow down in the basement or trying to fix stuff around the house. Guests have sometimes commented about how they liked the actor in the white overalls and Victorian boater hat. When the staff replies that they haven’t hired an actor they figured that the worker Clyde has been at it again. 

Shadowy figures have also been spotted in corridors and doors have opened and closed without a discernible cause. Some visitors describe feeling an eerie presence when they explore this historic landmark that never seems to be completely at rest.

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A Haunted History – Winchester Mystery House

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The Witches of the Black Diamond Mines

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Guarding the old mining community, these ghosts of these two women have been dubbed witches by the locals, feared as well as revered in their lives. Who were The White Witches of the Black Diamond Mines?

Before the place in the San Francisco Bay area used to be a bustling mining community at the turn of the century. The coal mines was operating until 1945. Now the mines are closed and the place forgotten, but the remains can still be reached an hour away from San Francisco. 

Although named the Diamond mines, there was no sparkling diamonds to be found in the mines. Instead it was coal, the black type of diamonds. It is here the legend of the white witches started to take hold of the mining community.

Overview

Type of Haunting:Female Ghost, Witches
Place:USA, North America
Other:Haunted Cemetery
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The Contra Costa County is ranked as the scariest place in California because of legends like the Black Diamond Mines and the White Witches that are said to be haunting the place.

The White Witch in Rose Hill Cemetery

Sara Norton worked as a midwife to the people living in the small towns across the bay area and she delivered over 600 babies in her time. She was a widow to Noah Norton that even got the town Nortonville named after himself. 

She died however in 1879 at the age of 68. She was on call at her midwife duties when she was thrown from a carriage to make a delivery in Clayton and was killed in the accident. 

According to the legend, Sarah was not a religious person and told her own kids that she didn’t want a church funeral. However, when she died that was exactly what they gave her and her spirit became enraged. On the day of the funeral a storm crashed their plan and they decided to go through with the funeral the next day. The next day however, another storm came crashing and ruined their plans. The townspeople took the hint and skipped the formalities and buried her in the Rosehill Cemetery. 

From then on the spirit of Sarah has been spotted in the old mining towns as well as floating around the tombstones in the graveyard. 

Mary the Wailing Witch in the Black Diamond Mines

Another lady that is haunting the place is Mary, who history forgot her last name. She was working as a nanny in the 1870s, but in contrast to Sarah that brought life into this world, her legacy tells that she put life out. 

All of her children that she cared for died of illness and it was not soon before she was accused of witchcraft after some local townspeople allegedly found evidence of her dark rituals that resulted in the death of their children. 

In some variations of the legend, she worked as a school teacher, not a nanny. And with the diseases of the times, it is not unlikely diseases went through the community, striking the kids at the same time. So was it a tragedy or witchcraft? The townspeople certainly was of the belief that it was and set out to punish her.

The legend differs from how Mary met her death. Although the evidence is lost to us, it supposedly was enough to hang her for her crimes in some versions of the story. In other version her dead body was found in the mines under strange circumstances. But it was not enough to bring her out of this world. 

To this day she is spotted guarding the mines wearing all white and seeking revenge for her murder. But there is also another side to her hauntings. It is said that it is mostly children that see her, and she pushes them out from the dangerous mines that are filled with harmful gasses and unstable tunnels. 

So the question remains, is she remaining in the world as a resentful witch, or as a protector of children that she wasn’t able to be alive?

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Haunted? Why East Bay’s Black Diamond Mines Are So Spooky To Some | Concord, CA Patch

Black Diamond Mines is Most Haunted Cave Near San Franciscoi

Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve | East Bay Parks

Spooky Trails and Tall Tales California: Hiking the Golden State’s Legends, Hauntings, and History by Tom Ogden

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The Westerfeld House — The House of The Occult

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All that jazz and rock’n roll with witchcraft and satanic rituals clearly took its toll on the Victorian house known as the Westerfeld House. But is it still a hint of paranormal presence lingering there? Or has the restoration brought it back to its original sweet glory?

In the beautiful city of San Francisco there is a house that catches the eye of those passing by. Gothic, beautiful, bold and old as many of the surrounding houses are. But perhaps none other than this house has acted like a magnet for its peculiar tenants over the years. 

Old House: 1198 Fulton Street has a history of occult and strange tenants almost since it was first built in 1889.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith/wikimedia

The William Westerfeld House, or simply the Westerfeld house is an historic building right by Alamo Square. The picturesque Victorian Italian styled villa at 1198 Fulton Street is today steeped in history, some more haunting than others, as well as some are more true than others.

The origin of the house however is a sweet tale as the building was built for the German confectioner William Westerfeld in 1889. By this time he had already established a chain of bakeries and built this 28 room mansion. Business was good for Westerfeld, however, he died only a few years after the house was built in 1895 and since then, sweet turned darker to pitch black. 

It was bought by John Mahoney and the building’s cultural reputation started to take place where strange occurrences happened. He loved to entertain his guests with spectacular shows, and among others, Harry Houdini himself tried to send telepathic messages to his wife across the Bay. So the experimental and spiritual part of the house started early on. However, no one could have guessed just how dark it would get. 

Czarist Night Club And All That Jazz

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After the Westerfeld House had served as a home to Mahoney, it fell into the hands of many different people with different purposes. A group of Czarist Russians turned it into a nightclub called Dark Eyes in the roaring 20s. It was informally known as the Russian embassy because of all the meetings taking place on the upper floor. 

After the second world war the home was converted into apartment buildings, mostly rented out to African-American jazz musicians playing in the nearby jazz clubs during the Beat area. This house jazz area lasted until the 60s, when jazz was replaced with rock and the political and philosophical beatnik area morphed into the wild and spiritual 60s. 

The Occultists In the Westerfeld House

In the 60s the Westerfeld House was used as different types of collectives, and one of those who set a mark on the house as well as recorded it, was occult filmmaker, Kenneth Anger who lived there from 1966 to 1967. During those times it was a rather rough area in the city and the people frequenting there, darker and rougher than many.  

It is here the story of the Westerfeld House turns from strange to occult. At best, the time Anger and his peculiar guests spent in the house was a terrible nuisance to all the neighbors with all the acid being taken and satanic rituals being held. At worst, they stirred up the rumours of paranormal activity to the house as well as opened the gate to hell. 

Satanic Rituals: Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey started frequenting the house, holding black masses in the Westerfeld house. Here from the movie, ‘Invocation of my demon brother’, made by Kenneth Anger.
Photo: Invocation of my demon brother/IMDB

“Up at Fulton and Scott is a great shambling old Gothic house, a freaking decayed giant, known as The Russian Embassy.”

This is how the writer Tom Wolfe talks about the Westerfeld House when he introduces it in his book: ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’, chronologizing his time spent there with a group of hippies.

Anger himself was an occultist and drew much of his elements in his films from Thelema, a pagan oriented religion founded by perhaps the most well known occultist, Aleister Crowley.

Another notorious person that stayed under the roof was Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil lived here for a while before he joined the cult of the Manson called, the Family. Beausoleil was chosen by Anger to inhabit the role of Lucifer in a movie he was working on. Together they spent their nights in the tower, trying to look for UFOs. And according to Anger, he did indeed have a “a couple of very good flying saucer sightings.” Here it is important to note just how important taking acid was to Anger. 

Allegedly, Beausoleil stole reels of Angers film: Lucifer Rising and took off with them being on bad terms. Manson himself made frequent visits to this house, and according to caretaker, Kelly Edwards, it was here that Beausoleil were drawn into the cult that eventually was behind the Helter Skelter murders. 

Black Masses of the Church of Satan

Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey also spent time in this very tower as shown when Anger shot the movie ‘Invocation of my demon brother’ where we in this psychedelic experimental movie can see LaVey, aka, ‘The Black Pope’ himself holding a black mass. According to Anger, the film was assembled from scraps of the first version of Lucifer Rising. It includes clips of the cast smoking out of a skull, and the publicly filmed Satanic funeral ceremony for a pet cat.

But he did not look after UFO’s as Anger did on his acid trips. Instead, he spent his time practicing witchcraft, as well as worshipping Satan with around 500 candles in this wooden building. This tower used to have a large pentagram etched into the floorboards to keep the wiccan and satanic rituals more permanent. He also owned a lion cub as he used to be a lion tamer before starting the Church of Satan. You can see proof of that very lion because of the scratches in the wooden paneling, even to this day.  

As well as spending time in the tower, he also performed satanic rituals in the ballroom on the ground level of the house. 

Rock n Roll

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After Angers departure from the Westerfeld House, the occult was turned into rock’n roll as the likes of Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin, Tom Wolfe and Jerry Garcia among many others passed through the halls, either as tenants, or holding concerts at the Avalon Ballroom. It continued to be used as an underground rock scene until the 70s, when the first attempts to rehabilitate the much used building began. 

And although the owner that took over in 1986 had no occult interest, he also wanted to be on the safe side when initiating the old house with a particularly rocky history. The new owner of the Westerfeld House, Jimmy Siegel told hoodline that: 

“I was always attracted to the architecture of the building,” he told us. “The occult happenings in the house were of little interest to me but to be on the safe side I had the monks from the Hartford Street Zen Center do a cleansing and a blessing for the house when I bought it in 1986. I have never experienced any darkness or paranormal activity in the house.”

The Addams Family House

Siegel bought the Westerfeld House because it looked like something the Addams family could have lived in and he had always loved the architecture and design from the Addams family. And under a LSD trip in his teens, his dreams of owning this particular house started to take hold. 

Siegel turned his drug induced dream and turned it into his life mission. He spent his time restoring the Westerfeld House that had long been neglected. And with it, he also preserved the history of it. 

Today the rooms in the Westerfeld House are rented out to various people and as movie sets. According to reports, none of them have complained of any malevolent activity or remains of satanic activity. But they have reported about ‘overwhelming emotions’ as well as a physical presence in their home, with nightmares being a common trait of the tenants. Paranormal activity of psychological manifestation of knowing the house history?

Even Siegel himself mentioned he had what he called a paranormal experience in the house to SFGATE:

“I was in bed watching TV and my bed violently shook. I assumed we were having an earthquake, only nothing else was moving. Then I felt someone get into bed with me even though I was alone. It was quite unnerving.”

So what is it Siegel? Was the Westerfeld House haunted or not?

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National Register #89000197: Westerfeld House in San Francisco, California

William Westerfeld House

The Spooky History Of The Westerfeld House

Invocation of my Demon Brother & Lucifer Rising – Kenneth Anger

This Alamo Square Victorian holds 100 years of SF counterculture history 

Visiting the Westerfeld House and Its Haunted Past. — Eric J. Kuhns 

Westerfeld House – [2021 

The Westerfeld House: San Francisco’s most storied Victorian

Dark Tourism, listicle, Review

5 Haunted Attractions to Visit

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Perhaps this is not the greatest summer to travel, but as the borders are opening up, so do we as well move over greater distances than we have. Perhaps some of these places are even closer to you than you think? Here we have gathered some of the most haunted attractions around the world you can visit for a ticket.

Winchester Mystery House
San Jose, California

The Mystery House: Front view of the Winchester Mystery House/Ben Franske

This strange house, built upon the money, wealth and grief of the family fortune, the gun trade, this house is something else. Wind winding staircases going nowhere, doors leading to unknown destination and who know how much else secrets and hauntings the house holds.

Akershus Fortress
Oslo, Norway

By the Sea: Akershus Castle in Oslo, Norway/Pudelek (Marcin Szala)

The fortress was built in medieval times, withstanding plague, starvation from the cold winters and as a last stand during wars. It is also the location of several ghost the fortress has claimed as its own over the years. Smacked in the middle of the modern city of Oslo, it stands as a stark contrast of old and new, living and dead.

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Island of the Dolls, (La Isla de las Muñecas)
Mexico City, Mexico

Isla de las Muñecas: nearby the Xochimilco canals/Esparta Palma/wikicommons

If not for the ghost, go for the creepy decor. Allegedly a man found a dead girl and her doll. He started collecting dolls to appease the girls spirit. Now the island is full of them, hanging from trees, looking at all the tourists taking their holiday at this peculiar place. For around 200 pesos you can get a boat to take you there. On the island, there is also a bar. So, hey, holiday!

The Catacombs
Paris, France

Bones: Wall made of skulls, catacombs of Paris/Djtox/wikicommons

A final resting place for some, not so restful for others. The catacombs were created in 1786 and are 500 miles of an underground maze, built of bones of the dead. And for a ticket, you can walk them. It has been held several scary paranormal claims, and it will only probably be more of them.

The Tower
London, England

The Tower: This is a picture of the so called White Tower of the Tower of London/Dietmar Rabich, London, Tower of London, White Tower — 2016 — 4679, CC BY-SA 4.0

Yes, the tower, how many ghosts do you have captured? The fortress smacked in the busy streets of Londong have been a infamous spot for death and misery for over 900 years. It also holds some royal ghosts that never found peace, among them Anne Boleyn and Mary, Queen of Scots.

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