The RMS Queen Mary – Memories

by John MacFarlane 2012

Queen Mary Memories

In 1962 it didn’t take as much to impress young teenagers as it does now. My sister and I encountered the RMS Queen Mary in New York City and were mesmerized by the shear size of the vessel. Later we "donated" fifty cents each (a lot of money for a kid to spend at that time) to the Longshoreman’s Benevolent Fund for the privilege of going on board.

We were able to wander anywhere in the ship with the price of admission – only having to pay attention to the announcement "all ashore who’s going ashore" at the end of the afternoon. Visiting the ship now in her home in California fails to recapture the feel of the vibration of the ship’s engines, and the hustle and bustle of passengers, crew and visitors. I’m glad I spent the price of admission – I’ve never forgotten the experience.

I think this was one of many early experiences that formed the structure for my interest in and love of all things maritime in my life.

Nauticapedia

Site News: March 24, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 91,427 vessel histories (with 15,578 images and 12,853 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,612 entries (with 4,007 images).

In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!

My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

Also my special thanks to my volunteer content checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 10,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.


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