Touring The Queen Mary

On Thursday of last week we went to visit

the ocean liner, The Queen Mary.

It's about double the size of the Titanic!

And it holds the record for carrying the most

people on board during WWII when 

it was used for carrying troops.

The assistant pastor took us on the tour.

He has an incredible memory for the

history that happened with this boat!

His facts and statistics were amazing!
Definitely a neat "field trip" :-)

They had redone the inside to make it look

like it had when it was built in the 1930's.

Interesting tidbit of History right here...

Winston Churchill was on the boat, actually

in this very room, when he signed the

Normandy Invasion!

They even had the upper class and lower class separated.

This was the lower class dining room.

The view from out of the window.

Mrs. Van was sure to point this out to me ;-)

Aw.. this is the life! ;-) haha

We just had to get a picture since people

probably get the idea from all our sight-seeing

adventures that we never work!  It just happens

that on the Cali tour there's more sights to see, I guess :-)

Believe it or not, we really do work at times ;-)

Another interesting history tidbit...

The famous preacher, Gypsy Smith, 

died of a heart attack while on board.

Some very interesting causes for death!

The Isolation Ward

I was so thankful that, even though I was feeling sick 

this week, that I didn't have to stay in a place like this :-)

This is a telephone booth for those of you

who don't know what this is... ;-)

The "upper class" dining room

This chain link was massive!

I was told that each link weighs 250 pounds!

Lighthouse for you, Aunt Woody! :-)

Lifeboat

The captains quarters

Notice it has four knobs.. do you want

a freshwater or saltwater bath? :-)

During a bad storm, there was only two of these

windows on each side that had "windshield wipers"

so you could see where you were going..

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor

I think their story is so interesting how he abdicated

the throne in order to marry this divorced woman.

Must've really loved her!

Replica of the Titanic

Down in the "belly of the beast"

These two gentlemen heard our good tour guide

and followed us for some of the tour :-)

These were the doors that when an alarm would

sound they would be closed so as to prevent water

from coming in, I think.  Anyway, the workers

would try to be daring and slide through before the

door shut.  One man didn't quite make it through,

though.. and this was the door where it happened.

This is one big wrench :-)

It was really neat!  They've made a balcony on the outside 

of the boat where you can go and see the propeller.  

It's hard to tell in the picture, but it was massive!

16,683 souls at one time on board.. I guess never

in history has there ever been as many people on

board anything else as there was at this time.

That's a LOT of people!  Three guys had to share

one bunk and take turns sleeping, and they stacked

the bunks five or six high!  They even drained the

swimming pools and filled them with bunks!

 

It was a very interesting, informational tour!

I would definitely suggest going to see it

if you're ever in Long Beach.  But make

sure to take a good tour guide with you :-)