A Visit to the Queen Mary, Long Beach and the Spruce Goose

The Cunard Lines ship the Queen Mary started build
in 1930 in Scotland and was ultimately launched in 1934.  The Queen Elizabeth
was built at the same time as her running mate. 
The Queen Mary was a magnificent ocean liner and today serves as
a hotel in Long Beach California.

Here are our two queens, Betty and Judy taking in the sights

June 29, 2014

1965 was a year that Cunard Lines was operating at a loss. With the
Queen Elizabeth 2 under construction,Cunard sold the Queen Mary for $3.45 mil to the city of Long Beach California
 She arrived at Long Beach in December 1967.

The Queen Elizabeth was retired in 1968 and sold off with the QE2 beginning transatlantic
in 1969.
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Long Beach California would buy over 72% of the Naval real estate 
that included the Naval Station, shipyard and the many ship piers to prepare
itself for a renaissance or cultural rebirth. 
The face, harbor, and skyline today would leave a sailor of the 1960's asking what city
was he in. It's a very nice city.

Harbor view of Long Beach skyline today 

Nice view of Long Beach

Queen Mary view with cruise ship dock right behind it on opposite side of the

dome with a cruise ship arriving in the background.

The cruise ship Carnival Imagination

directly behind the Queen Mary

readying to depart during our visit.

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Interestingly, alongside the Queen Mary is and old Russian submarine, the Scorpion

a diesel-electric Foxtrot class sub. It was commissioned in December 1971 and one of 

56 Foxtrot class Russian submarines. The Scorpion was decommissioned in 1994. Australian businessmen successfully negotiated with Russia to bring the sub

to Sydney Australia Maritime Museum. In 1998 it would be moved and sold

located next to the Queen Mary in Long Beac.

Windows? Below the Bridge

for cold weather surfacing. American subs do not have.

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Not to be seen on our visit, but in February 1982 the Spruce Goose aircraft made by

Howard Hughes was brought to the dome directly behind the Queen Mary as an exhibit. The

Spruce Goose made entirely of wood and not spruce but birch was completed in 1947.

It made only one flight with Hughes as the pilot.

The Spruce Goose as seen was acquired by 

the Aero Club of Southern Calif in 1980.

The white dome next to the Queen Mary is

where the Spruce Goose would be exhibited until February 1993.

With no takers, and Disney the owner of  the Spruce Goose no longer wanting it, 

the Evergreen Aviation Museum of McMinnville, Oregon won the bid.

It would ultimately build its museum around the Spruce Goose. It remains

on exhibit today at the museum, about 40 miles south of Portland Oregon.

Evergreen Aviation Museum at McMinnville Oregon today.

The Spruce Goose inside the Evergreen Aviation

Museum today.