If you’re travelling around Los Angeles, there are some places to visit, which you just can’t miss on your travels. Whether you’re fun of leisure activities or you are the city explorer, the visit of Queen Mary ocean liner should be on your ‚things to see in Los Angeles‘ list.
the port of Long Beach – do you see the RMS Queen Mary?
Back in the days, when planes weren’t so common to travel on, people used different ways of transportation from one place to another. In the last century, the century of industry revolution, ocean liners were very favourite and comfortable ways how to travel. Even though, after the disaster of ‚unsinkable‘ liner TITANIC, ocean liners remained still popular and one of the most popular liner of 20th century was Queen Mary. Visit Queen Mary on your trip in Los Angeles and read about its breathing history she has been through. RMS Queen Mary was in service for 30 years and during the World War II served for military purposes.
THE BRIEF HISTORY OF QUEEN MARY
The construction of this ocean liner began in the 1930 and it took almost 6 years, until the ship could start riding through the oceans. It is 310 meters long and could accommodate up to 3 104 people. Although, The Queen Mary holds the world’s record in the amount of soldiers, that were transported on board of this ocean liner. On the December 1942, exactly 16 802 soldiers were transported from the USA to the Great Britain (1). The journey from one continent to another took only 4 days, what was the best among all Oceania liners of that time. There was the theatre on board, winter garden with tropical birds, swimming pool, library, chapels or hospital. You could play tennis there, enjoy yourself in steam saunas or attend the masquerade (2). During the World War II, in the October 1942 the Queen Marry accidentally crashed to the HMS Curacoa and cut this small ship into the two parts. HMS Curacoa sank in less than 6 minutes, approximately 90 meters far from the Queen Mary (3). 338 people didn’t survive this collision.
RMS Queen Mary lifeboats
INTERESTING FACTS
- the Queen Mary was named after the wife of king of Britain – George V
- the ship has there three chimneys, but only two are real – there was the storage space for beach chairs in the third one
- it took only 4 days to transport passengers from Britain to the USA
- the construction work was paused for two years during the economical crisis (4)
- at the end of 60s, the ship ceased to be profitable because of the development of air transpiration (4)
QUEEN MARY TODAY
If you want to see this popular ocean liner, you have to go to Los Angeles in California. The ship isn’t in service anymore, but still proudly stands in the port in Los Angeles surrounded by stone barrier to make the ship standing calm, without being hit by waves from the ocean. There is an fancy hotel inside, where you can accommodate for 150 USD per night. You can enjoy all facilities that this hotel has to offer, like massages, shopping or on-board spa centre. If you do not plan to stay overnight, you can still come and pay admission, that goes from 25 USD per visitor, where the visit of old Russian submarine is included. I did not manage to get inside, but you can! Even the looking at the ship takes your breath.
old Russian submarine
me and the RMS Queen Mary
RESOURCES:
- Boj o modrou stuhu – http://www.moderni-dejiny.cz/clanek/boj-o-modrou-stuhu/ (27.2.2015)
- Loď duchou Queen Mary – http://magazin.atlas.sk/spektrum/lod-duchov-queen-mary/679665.html (27.2.2015)
- HMS Curacoa – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Curacoa_%28D41%29#Collision (27.2.2015)
- Lodní legenda Queen Mary je dnes turistickou atrakcí – http://www.denik.cz/zajimavosti/lodni-legenda-queen-mary-je-dnes-turistickou-atrakci-20140925.html (27.2.2015)
