Amazing history of the Queen Marry extends from a list of celebrity passengers, to an active role in WWII - is she haunted? Berthed as a floating luxury hotel at Long Beach, California, the once great Cunard liner Queen Mary is now considered among the most haunted historical ships in the world. A little-known collision with the British Naval cruiser Curacoa off the North Irish coast in 1942 might have something to do with this. The massive liner sliced the smaller cruiser nearly in half, sinking it and taking 338 crew members to their deaths. The Curacoa was a two-stacked C class cruiser launched in 1917 for duty in World War I. She was only 451 feet long compared to the eight-year-old Queen Mary, which measured a giant 1019 feet in length. Nicknamed "The Grey Ghost," because of its grey camouflage paint, the great liner served successfully throughout the war as a troop carrier. Even though the Nazi U-boats sought her, they never had a chance to sink the Queen Mary because of her great speed and the fact that she, like all of the other allied ships on the Atlantic, practiced a zig-zag course that made it difficult for submarines to get a broadside shot. The 83500-ton cruiser, steaming at a full 28 knots, slammed into the hapless Curacao on the starboard side, breaking open the hull amid ships. The cruiser sank almost immediately, taking most of its crew to the bottom with it. Those that dove into the icy Atlantic expected the Queen Mary to turn around and pick them up <b>...</b>
Share on del.icio.us
Share on digg
Share on Technorati
Share on reddit
Share on Yahoo!
Share on Facebook