A Guide to the Haunted Queen Mary has a wealth of information on a single haunted site. Authors Robert Wlodarski, Anne Nathan-Wlodarski, and Richard Senate are active psychic researchers who have spent a lot of time studying the ship and relay a lot of intriguing information; however, this book's presentation is rather crude.

This 1995 edition provides a brief history of the Queen Mary, including incidents that occurred aboard many believe led to some of its hauntings; primary accounts by people who witnessed its phenomena; the transcript of a séance; photos; and diagrams and sketches to illustrate some of its accounts. This book also has appendixes listing references, selected ghost movies, and "what to do if you see a ghost."

At the ship's pool side, "a young, attractive woman in a miniskirt, is sometimes viewed walking down the stairs leading to the pool, and then vanishing behind a pillar." One employee claims to feel cold spots in the kitchen where there are no drafts or ventilation and another sees a plate fly across the cafeteria. While stopping in the captain's cabin, one tour guest starts feeling seasick--as if the ship is at sea--a sensation that passes as soon as she leaves the room.

Hauntings of major traveling vessels are fairly common. Long voyages and major journeys frequently give travelers a lot of stress and strong emotions are frequently what brings the dead back. Another ship, also permanently docked (but in the docks of the San Francisco Bay Area), where ghosts have been sighted is the USS Hornet. When Flight 401 crashed killing 101 people, Eastern Airlines salvaged undamaged parts of the plane as is the custom in the industry. Apparently, some of the crew's spirits imprinted on those parts later reused and have alerted their living counterparts to dangers that helped them save lives.

The number of uncanny encounters on the Queen Mary are almost expected when one considers its long years of passenger service were also interrupted for military use during World War II. It transported many enemy POWs during the conflict. There have also been accounts where water can act as a magnet for psychic energy. Today, the mighty ship is permanently docked at Long Beach, California, and used as a hotel. Learning the details of the ghosts is compelling for anyone intrigued by the subject.

The worst criticism this reviewer can make against this book is its poor graphic design and the way it organizes its text. While some publishing traditions become obsolete with modern technology, there are some conventions that confuse the reader when violated. For instance, serif typefaces are more comfortable for long-term reading and righthanded pages should have odd page numbers. The author biographies and selling info for other books the house has available are found at the front of this book in a manner that intrudes on a reader's mood as she prepares to read it.

Although this volume is slim, a table of contents would be helpful. It also tends to awkwardly parcel its data. Instead of reporting a fatal incident and all the phenomena that related to it in one place, it separates and classifies the tidbits by on-board deaths and "identified" spirits, verbatim primary accounts from visitors on the ship, then the employee accounts. Although this collection of facts comes from different primary sources, sometimes it's repetitive and disorientating bouncing back and forth between the different cases.

Obviously targetting a commercial market, there are no footnotes indictating sources. It'also unclear whether the list of references are actually resources the authors used in their research or if they're just meant as recommended reading; however, it is a good one for anyone looking for further books on ghost folklore.

One of the most attractive features about the Queen Mary's current management is how open it is in talking about its ghosts. It has recently organized paranormal seminars and events with Psychic Medium Peter James for anyone who wants any hands-on experience exploring this aspect of the ship. Anyone wanting more news and info can go to its website, http://www.ghostsandlegends.com, to learn more about its ghostlore.

For anyone interested in a intensive study on the hauntings aboard the Queen Mary, overlook this book's clumsy presentation. It is even more specifically for folks who have actually visited the former cruiser. On the other hand, there is nothing preventing someone who has yet to see it firsthand from enjoying this compilation as well. A Guide to the Haunted Mary is otherwise a fine in-depth study of a magnificent historical monument's paranormal activity.



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Originally posted at Amazon.com on June 18, 2001. Revised for Epinions.


Recommended: Yes