Of course Cali says you cant take one unless you get rid of the lead paint. Then proceeds to scrap them in an open air parking lot with no thought given to the paint what so ever.
I remember as a kid in the early 90s spending the night on the Queen Mary. My brother and I got to participate in a life boat drill. We got to wear original life jackets and got to raise and lower the lifeboat that was on the starboard side rear. Idk if it was one that survived or was scrapped, but it was a cool experience I ll never forget. Hopefully this does move the ship being open again so the boats sacrifice wasn't in vain. Thanks for the update!
In 1963 my family emigrated from England to the USA on the QM. I was 6 at the time. I basically did 2 things on that voyage: I was either swimming or exploring every part of the ship I could sneak into! I actually learned to swim on that voyage. The pool was located somewhere on one of the lower decks if I recall correctly. To a child, its architecture was splendid-like the inside of a Greek temple and to this day, I still remember how, in heavier seas, the waters in that pool rolled back and forth. Such a thrill!
That's really neat! And you are absolutely correct. The pool was on one of the lower decks, if not the lowest above the boiler rooms. and the architecture is splendid like a Greek temple!
All of the lifeboats were real lifeboats original to QM and a couple other liners and were removed because the weight was damaging the ship as well as being a hazard. There was also a major lack of communication and the city only gave a 30 day notice. It takes a long time for arrangements to be made for transporting such wide lods through a metropolis, nevermind raising funds for a museum to purchase them. You may notice that none of them have propellers and that's because they were stolen when sitting there. Even mismanaged as it is the QM brings in a sixth of Long Beach's tourism money but the city doesn't care about her.
If I ever got the funds somehow I would love to transport her to the UK and restore her to a similar condition as HMS Warrior or something. I'd need to win the lottery like 100 times to even purchase her though, let alone transporting and restoring her. Would be cool to see done though by someone else in the future maybe
@@BrokenIET It would be a few billion dollars probably just to buy, and another transportation around the world is probably not possible. Queen Mary is very strong for her age but she is 90 years old. The ship is also remodeled in places very extensively that make it a safer building but a more dangerous ship on the open ocean. You could move it short distances but the safest place for it is its little lagoon. Inside it's full of wonderful original pieces and the ship is remarkably intact, but it's in need of TLC. During the covid closure it has been cleaned and some of its wood paneling restored. Much of the ship is not open to the public anymore but could be, and there are a thousand little things like cracked windows and broken fixtures. The museum aspects of the ship need an overhaul to be more appealing to modern tourists and children (people expect interactivity nowadays and QM has basically none). Critically it needs a full-time archivist and a new security system. It does have brand new fire suppression systems and automatic leak detection now! It's getting a couple bulkheads reinforced and plumbing improvements. It's still the safest place in the city in the event of an earthquake. It's not completely fair of me to say that the Long Beach government doesn't care about the ship, but if she was a person she'd be suffering emotional neglect. They keep her afloat but don't treat her like the historic monument she is. Sorry for the long reply lol. It's my favorite ship and I have things to say about how good it is and how it deserves better.
In case any of you are unaware, Queen Mary's doors reopened a few months ago and you can now once more stay aboard the ship and enjoy fine dining and bars onboard. I can personally attest to this because I just got back from a two-night stay.
@@360Nomad ummm Elizabeth was scrapped after the fire. She ended up much like Costa Concordia... half capsized near land and cut up for scrap. There is nothing or nearly nothing left of Elizabeth on the ocean floor and precious little of her was saved before the fire gutted her. I can't see that her fate was better than being towed straight to the scrapyards and was much the same as poor Normandie's.
As of right now, 3 original lifeboats are retained for preservation. Accident Boat #2 and Lifeboat #3 were kept in place, attached to their davits. Lifeboat #11 was removed from the ship and is currently sitting dockside, next to the ship. COLB has stated that 5 additional original QM boats were transported off site for storage. I have a list of the number identifications of the 5 boats, but I do not have it readily available to view, so I will try to post that later. The remaining 14 boats were disposed of in May. Of these 14 boats that were destroyed, 2 were believed to have come from the Cunard liner, RMS Sylvania; 1 was believed to have been an original QE 1940 McLean & Sons lifeboat; 2 were believed to have been post-war (1947) QE replacement lifeboats; 1 was a COMPLETE MYSTERY as to its origins and background, but was one of the boats that was aboard QM when she arrived in 1967; 1 was a fiberglass hull boat that was acquired from the Long Beach Naval Yard in 1974 after two lifeboats were destroyed when they broke from their falls. The remaining 6 boats were original QM lifeboats.
My mum saw the Queen Mary on her maiden voyage in 1936 and my dad sailed back from overseas on her in 1945. When l was a kid in 1976, we went to the US on vacation and they took me to visit her, l still remember it. As a retired sailor, it makes me sad to see these old girls fall on hard times. Worse still, was seeing my own ships being cut up for scrap metal. Broke my heart to pieces.
I'm so glad I got to see the Queen Mary and her lifeboats before they were scrapped. I hope she does not get scrapped as well it would be a damn shame.
As a kid, I remember the night in 1967 that she pulled into Long Beach, her new home. We waited in the parking lot forever for her to arrive, but first sight of her floodlights was so exciting. My Mum's from London, and became a naturalized US citizen that same year. It was a proud moment seeing her sworn in and becoming an American 🇬🇧 🇺🇲 👍
I stayed on the Queen Mary a few times. Pilot for a major airline. They used to put crews there on lay overs. Loved spending hours exploring every inch of this ship. Enjoying a beer at one of the ships bars. The life boats could have been saved with maint. But, I think maint. on a ship like this even just to preserve her is an over whelming and incredibly expensive task. And there is just no way to do it without the ship generating the revenue to support it. Especially in a state like California with so many rules and regulations that restrict projects like this and business itself. Even just the cost of mooring the ship there is huge. I used to volunteer working on WWII museum ships up in the SFO Bay area. We could do so many things preserving the ships and refurbishing them. Then the State and the EPA began restricting us. Making some work financially impossible. Sad to see her slowly slipping away. Incredibly beautiful ship. Graceful. And classy to this day. And one of the finest examples of a bygone era. The golden age of travel? And in fact, an era wiped out by what I do for a living. Jet airline travel!
Thank You so much for sharing this. I love The Queen Mary, as many do, and I am glad to know they will be restoring 4 of the boats. Sorry you weren't able to get a piece of the history. Again, thanks.
I live in Southampton England my dad served on the QM. I remember seeing the ship leave on her final journey, back then we could take the short walk from our house to see both QM and QE many times in dry dock in Southampton. Today I see all the enormous cruise liners visiting Southampton who for me sadly appear to be anonymous and void of character. Please Look after her USA the likes and history will never be repeated ❤
Ships today are like most other mechanical engineering of the modern era, devoid of grace or beauty. The best of the lot when it comes to the new floating behemoths are the ships of Royal Caribbean but even they are trending more and more towards the grotesque. Still they are a few decades behind the ugliness on display built for Carnival, Princess and NCL... I myself sailed on SS Norway (former SS France) when I was 15 and she was truly awe inspiring and a thing of beauty. She had that same long sweep of boat deck with lifeboats suspended above your head that you got to see on Queen Mary and standing on her navigation bridge wing (because you could tour the bridge back in those days) and looking along that long sweep of dark hull while underway was absolutely breathtaking...
I knew about the boats’ scrappings, and why they needed to happen. I did not, however, think anyone would get videos of it. A little hard to watch, but very intriguing 👍 Needless to say, I, like most of us here, am really looking forward to her reopening :)
I stayed aboard QM about 12 years ago and noticed that the lifeboats had some serious rust/holes in them at that time. I can only guess how much worse it must have been nowadays.
@@GregoryLancaster-rf7ce They were made of metal and we're meant to be covered and maintained. They were neither. Water collected in the boats and rusted out sections of the bottom.
It's too bad a crowdfunding project couldn't have been started to restore at least a few of them. A lot of people would have been on board for that project.
@@goodgame3374 absolutely heart breaking that they can't pay their staff. I'd be on top of a job like that in an instant!!! But I can't live and eat for free unfortunately...
@@ashleighelizabeth5916 understandable. There's nothing wrong with being paid for the value you bring. If you're the Boeing CEO being paid $62m for being fired that's greedy, but people shouldn't be pressured into justifying a salary to live & even be comfortable on just because it's fun or community focused work. (Don't get me wrong, I was raised to volunteer & have done so most of my life, including in the maritime space, but providing for family & future comes first)
@@goodgame3374 thanks, the sad part is that I live very simply and wouldn't even need that much to be happy especially in a job that would be like a dream come true. Christ if they would let me live on the ship I'd do it for next to nothing...
My father came back on the Queen Mary after WWII. He was impressed with the speed and the long lines for everything as they had so many on board. He carved his initials in the wooden railings but when I went there to look for it, I was told that the railings are in the Smithsonian storage.
All those railings were replaced as part of her refurbishment after Operation Magic Carpet. He was far from the only one to carve his name on them. I'm surprised any were saved and stored at the Smithsonian since she was a British ship that was refurbished after the war in a British yard.
As sad as this is I support it. The lifeboats were dangerous to have hanging over deck and served no practical purpose. However it makes me very happy to hear that a few were preserved. Hopefully this marks the beginning of the much needed repairs and renovations on the ship.
I'd never taken a tour of the QM, despite living in SoCal for over a decade. It was cool seeing it when my wife and I would take one of our Carnival cruises from the nearby terminal. One of the local TV stations would often show the terminal and Queen Mary in the background during anchor segments and especially during weather reports. We'd always joke about the QM being in, along with the occasional Carnival ship. Really hope that they get the ship repaired and open again, so I can finally take that tour.
I actually got to tour the ship in summer 2017, see a Titanic and Olympic artifact exhibit on the ship (including one of the actual Nomadic lifeboats and linoleum tiles, etc that had been on Titanic before her inspection but didn't make the cut) and even have dinner on the Queen Mary. For a Titanic nerd like me, it's total nirvana.
It's a shame to see them go, but we should be thankful that some of them will be preserved elsewhere. The lead paint was a safety issue that had to be dealt with; better to sacrifice most of them than lose the whole ship.
Lead paint is really NBD. It's a convenient excuse stupid people buy because *lead paint scary* I mean whole cities still have lead water pipes and it's fine. Lead is fine unless you ingest piles of it. So don't be a wall licker and wash your hands/don't put your dirty dick beaters in your orifices and you'll be fine.
I would have let one sit in my back yard just because it was from the Queen Mary, too bad they did not give anyone time to haul them off and just take them, nevermind the lead paint, if you do not eat it or sand it and leave it alone it will be fine...
@@pacificoceantsunami8497 Of course the evil Commiefornia gubm't makes sure nobody can find time and resources to save the lifeboats. I'm glad I don't live in that joke of a state.
All good things must come to an end, I get the feeling it will either be sold off and abandoned, or scrapped, or renovated beyond recognition. Im really glad i got the chance to stay on her before it all started going downhill, even if the hotel itself wasnt that great, it was amazing to get to be on a ship like the Queen Mary
When I was a young man back in 1986 I got to spend the day touring the Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose with my Grandparents. One of those days I can remember like yesterday. Everything was huge. Everything was amazing. Sad to see her days coming to an end.
For the many in the comments who are confused or misinformed about the state of the ship, its future, and the roll the city is playing here, I’d like to recommend the TH-cam channel “Alex The Historian” (TH-cam is finicky on my and so unfortunately I can’t link it here). He’s done quite a few videos going in-depth about what’s happening with the ship, and it’s thankfully not nearly as bad as some may say :)
I was lucky enough to see the ship in 1989, while the Spruce Goose was in a hanger next door. Hope they keep her. As the tour guide told us it was haunted by at least 3 ghosts.
I'm glad to have toured her back in 2015, even got to meet the comodore of the Cunard line in the dining hall near the bow a wonderful man he was. I remember the boats, a ship isn't proper without all safety measures and am sad to see them go, but better something small be lost rather than something big.
My kids and I spent a year going to the Queen Mary nearly every weekend, (we had yearly passes). We had such a great time on that ship. I'm so sad to see this.
They could build fiberglass replica boats that could be put back on the davits which could be covered in order to prevent rain from getting in them. It's not impossible
The City of Long Beach does not want to spend the money on proper upkeep and maintenance of the ship. They have been scammed several times by companies that leased the ship.
We need to keep the _Queen Mary_ preserved & docked for as long as humanly possible! She is the last Ocean Liner & the only “living” connection we have to her “ancestors,” The _Olympic, Titanic & Britannic._ *_I plan to visit Queen Mary in Long Island someday._*
Its said that the lifeboats were extremely heavy and that their weight was placing an enormous amount of strain on the superstructure, particularly where the launching davits attached to the promenade deck, literally peeling the down the side of the superstructure. The other issue being that they would often fill with rainwater, were rusting through and in danger of breaking up as they hung above the heads of passing tourists on the boat deck. I’ve wondered though if saving them isn’t an option, could they be replaced, simply for cosmetic reasons? I’ve seen examples here in TH-cam of an enormous 3D printer printing out an entire residence that was even larger than these lifeboats. Wouldn’t that be a possibility? Is there a lightweight 3D process that would make this possible? I have fond memories of this lovely old ship, watching her sail in on her final day when I was 10yrs old. My parents driving me across LA repeatedly to go on the ship tour. High school dances, family weddings, and later when I moved away from the area the Queen Mary is where I would always stay. I’m 65 now and I’ve recently returned to the area, living in Long Beach and happily anticipating her reopening…she’s a lovely old ship and I look forward to stepping back into her observation bar, lifting a glass, and toasting her return!
"You can't take the boat home unless you prove to us you can deal with lead paint, various contaminants, the Three Little Pigs and the Holy Spirit." *Proceeds to wreck the aforesaid boat in a wide-spaced, windy waterfront parking lot. What a bunch of (insert your positive expeletive here). Great video on a sad topic, Tom. Cheers.
I remember when her majesty first made port. You used to just be able to board her and walk around the decks for free years ago. I haven't even been in long Beach since 2007.
Proper funding and lack of notice to raise that funding were the primary culprits there. Anybody who wanted one had to prove they could transport it and had to also prove they were equipped to deal with lead paint removal in an environmentally conscious way. Maritime museums and museums in general are almost always chronically underfunded... People will pay three figures to go watch a professional football game but will balk at having to pay much more than $20 to $30 for a museum of almost any kind.
@@ashleighelizabeth5916 yeah… I guess unfortunately that is true. Maritime museums definitely have a lot less than other museums too, here in Canada museum ships like Haida and Sackville run purely off donations which can be few and far between sometimes. Still a shame tho
@@ModernFossilOuttakes2004 yes I agree.. it is a crying shame. I'd give my eye teeth to work on almost any museum ship in the world and be able to earn a living wage doing it. I've thought about that idea for a long long time but almost every one I've ever seen uses primarily volunteer staffers. That's the thing that people don't get about the idea of universal basic income. Free a person up to do the job they want in life and most of them aren't going to sit at home. There are people who truly do love to cook and who really do enjoy waiting tables. I loved my last customer service/sales job until they replaced my departing boss with a complete and total asshole that destroyed the experience for me. And that's despite the fact that the job NEVER paid enough for the workload I shouldered...
A fine example of corruption; easier to spend money on pointless work then actually solve a problem; the whole concept was a financial boondoggle for the city.
I remember growing up in San Pedro during the 1960's and watching this ship in its early days at Long Beach. There was a lot of excitement and appreciation from that generation. Today, the city leaders that steward this ship are criminals to society. The city rots and this ship has been rotting as well.
I lived on the her majesty for a year when I my yacht was getting an overhaul. Replaced my screws, the mercruisers engines onboard, davits, helm, it was $$$$ but I stayed on the Queen marry because, land is not for me :) I love ships, born in Channel Islands California in 1983. Joined the coast guard in 2002, ships are my life. I hope the Queen Marry gets some much needed love and support. She’s one of the few remaining ships with those beautiful lines. Never to be seen again. Unless Blue star and Palmer still plan to make Titanic II 😢
Thank you for the informative video. As a resident of Los Angeles I was wondering what was to come of the lifeboats. Sad ending. My late father immigrated from Scotland aboard the QM in 1950. He subsequently returned to the UK and the back to the US and I know one of those trips was aboard the Sylvania. He spent 20 years in the USN, much of that time stationed at the old Long Beach Naval Station. It must have been interesting always seeing the ship that brought him to America when he was 8 years old.
Old, motorised lifeboats, launched by one crewman? Wow, they were certainly ahead of their time. Anyway, if I'll ever go to Long Beach in my life, I'll make sure to first visit this ship.
It's a shame that no alternative could be found, but safety is paramount especially if, as we all hope, the ship is reopened as a hotel in the near future
It’s obviously sad to see these little beauties go, honestly it would be better if they were out into a museum or other museums across the globe but I understand that these things happen and lifeboats were never intended to be a proper puzzle piece part of the ship especially because when it’s a shop that’ll never move from dock again.
The lifeboats were apparently causing stress on the side shell of the ship. Theres $5 million repair plan for the Queen Mary and is apparently going to reopen near the end of 2022.
@@thejagotishow It's California, one of the most draconian totalitarian government states in the nation. Don't bet on it. It'll probably be broken up because Gavin Newsom is skeered that it'll pose a "ginormous threat" to the environment.
I would have taken those lifeboats and placed them directly in the little sheltered "pond" the Queen Mary is sitting in. Tourists could then take boat rides all the way around the ship and in the wide area on the starboard side. For a slight fee, of course.
I never got that about CA ,places like Vernon or Sun Valley are so polluted its killing trees ...plus lead paint in Long beach is the least you should worry about.
Don't you get it??? It NEVER has anything to do with actually helping the environment. It's always about stomping out dissent by using a flimsy, STUPID excuse like "ooh, a teensy bit of lead paint! Burn those lifeboats NOW or you'll be arrested!!" That's how California is and it'll continue to get worse until there's nothing left. And yet, they still want to keep the morons in charge as long as possible. Meanwhile. Oakland and San Francisco are collapsing from soaring crime and just DESPICABLE 'government' mismanagement.
if the water collecting in the life boats they could have easily drilled some draining holes in the bottom since they werent going to get used as an emergency vessel. a real shame they tore them down. Also, having to prove you can contain the lead for environmental reasons or you couldnt take it? what do they think wrecking them in the parking lot does? sounds like someone in the county wanted them destroyed badly..
Glad to hear most of them are replicas, softens the blow a bit. If they want the lifeboat look l, I suppose they could have 'lifeboats' more built for that purpose, perhaps sealed at the top so rain water doesn't collect. Then again a more open deck may be good.
I like how they were so concerned over the lead paint. They smashed the life boats without a bag system to catch every splinter & no respiratory PPE. To bad they didn't advertise the boats I'm sure the local maritime museum would have wanted 1x at least or a private auction could have fetched a good price.
Somewhere out there - eBay or something - there's gotta be a little glass vile with "QUEEN MARY Lifeboat scraps" for sale! I absolutely REFUSE to believe that they are gone forever! I don't want to give up hope of losing history... again!
I get why it was done, but it doesn't make me any less sad to see the old girl losing some of what made her a ship. Really she's legally a building now, but still.. Very odd that they insisted on proving you could deal with the lead paint before they'd let you take a boat and then proceed to slam and whack the selfsame lead-painted objects with an excavator out in the open. Might not've been able to meet such lofty criteria, but I would gave at least liked to get some measurements to build a 1/2 or 1/4 scale version to go toodling around in on the water.
Scrapping these lifeboats is historical sacrilege to maritime preservation. After making a strong effort to share both their availability and the City of Long Beach's proposal template with maritime museums across the UK, this is painful news to learn. In receiving feedback from these museums, there were not enough funds to pay for transport nor sufficient space to accommodate them on an individual museum basis. The City of Long Beach was very short-sighted regarding what to do with these maritime artefacts and offered little time for museums to write a proposal or to pool their resources in a way that might have enabled acquisition of all of them and transporting in bulk. As someone who grew up in California and now has spent the second half of his life in the UK, close to Southampton in fact, the handling of these lifeboats, let alone the state of decay allowed to happen to RMS Queen Mary, is beyond reprehensible. RMS Queen Mary is the lone survivor of the Golden Age of Transatlantic Travel from the 1930s, and the only major express liner of that era with its fittings almost entirely intact. She is a masterpiece in maritime architecture, Art Deco interior design and as a time capsule to a glamorous age of travel we'll never see the likes of again that must be preserved.
I couldn’t imagine Long Beach without the Queen Mary, hopefully the city, county, and state will put money into it instead of the garbage they put money into. I remember the ship vividly back in the 80’s when I would visit my aunt till to today when I go out fishing and drive my boat right alongside her. They need to find a loophole to get her on short cruises to Catalina and Mexico. I know there’s a lot money to go into getting her seaworthy, but it’s possible.
That’s sad that part of history was destroyed like that even if any of the lifeboats that were scrapped didn’t belong to the Queen Mary, they belonged somewhere. It’s just sad to see.
It's all gone, removed during her conversion in 1968, apart from a few things at the very stern that were too inaccessible for the crews to bother taking out. Even the funnels you see today are fake (the real ones were removed to make the holes needed to pull out the rest of the machinery).
Now-a-days with cruises being so ubiquitous and inexpensive using an old cruise ship as a hotel doesn't pencil in considering all the extra maintenance of a ship berthed in salt water.
They could have at least saved all them and restored them to be preserved for years to come sad to see them scrapped 😢 Hopefully they will build new ones to fit into the davits and they won't prove to a eventual possible hazard in the future
![*SPECIAL* Lifeboat Conversion Ep20: Multi-day sea trials in the Thames Estuary, England [4K]](/img/n.gif)
Of course Cali says you cant take one unless you get rid of the lead paint. Then proceeds to scrap them in an open air parking lot with no thought given to the paint what so ever.
USA is a savage land, always has been
typical Commiefornia.
*California Logic*
It's a damn shame smh.
lmao
I remember as a kid in the early 90s spending the night on the Queen Mary. My brother and I got to participate in a life boat drill. We got to wear original life jackets and got to raise and lower the lifeboat that was on the starboard side rear. Idk if it was one that survived or was scrapped, but it was a cool experience I ll never forget. Hopefully this does move the ship being open again so the boats sacrifice wasn't in vain. Thanks for the update!
that was one of the ones
@@Reaglesracing44_ I'm hoping you ll say it was one of the ones that survived, but I feel it was one that was scrapped?
In 1963 my family emigrated from England to the USA on the QM. I was 6 at the time. I basically did 2 things on that voyage: I was either swimming or exploring every part of the ship I could sneak into!
I actually learned to swim on that voyage. The pool was located somewhere on one of the lower decks if I recall correctly. To a child, its architecture was splendid-like the inside of a Greek temple and to this day, I still remember how, in heavier seas, the waters in that pool rolled back and forth. Such a thrill!
That's really neat! And you are absolutely correct. The pool was on one of the lower decks, if not the lowest above the boiler rooms. and the architecture is splendid like a Greek temple!
It is also no longer accessible with the exception of just a handful of guided ghost tours. So cool you got to experience this!
Because the pool room above the boiler room is collapsing. @@hapymom13
Thank you for filming this. You were at the right place, at the right time. Keep up the great work you do!
All of the lifeboats were real lifeboats original to QM and a couple other liners and were removed because the weight was damaging the ship as well as being a hazard. There was also a major lack of communication and the city only gave a 30 day notice. It takes a long time for arrangements to be made for transporting such wide lods through a metropolis, nevermind raising funds for a museum to purchase them. You may notice that none of them have propellers and that's because they were stolen when sitting there. Even mismanaged as it is the QM brings in a sixth of Long Beach's tourism money but the city doesn't care about her.
If I ever got the funds somehow I would love to transport her to the UK and restore her to a similar condition as HMS Warrior or something. I'd need to win the lottery like 100 times to even purchase her though, let alone transporting and restoring her. Would be cool to see done though by someone else in the future maybe
@@BrokenIET It would be a few billion dollars probably just to buy, and another transportation around the world is probably not possible. Queen Mary is very strong for her age but she is 90 years old. The ship is also remodeled in places very extensively that make it a safer building but a more dangerous ship on the open ocean. You could move it short distances but the safest place for it is its little lagoon.
Inside it's full of wonderful original pieces and the ship is remarkably intact, but it's in need of TLC. During the covid closure it has been cleaned and some of its wood paneling restored. Much of the ship is not open to the public anymore but could be, and there are a thousand little things like cracked windows and broken fixtures. The museum aspects of the ship need an overhaul to be more appealing to modern tourists and children (people expect interactivity nowadays and QM has basically none). Critically it needs a full-time archivist and a new security system.
It does have brand new fire suppression systems and automatic leak detection now! It's getting a couple bulkheads reinforced and plumbing improvements. It's still the safest place in the city in the event of an earthquake. It's not completely fair of me to say that the Long Beach government doesn't care about the ship, but if she was a person she'd be suffering emotional neglect. They keep her afloat but don't treat her like the historic monument she is.
Sorry for the long reply lol. It's my favorite ship and I have things to say about how good it is and how it deserves better.
This!
@@SAOS451316 I think you mean millions not billions to buy.
Really? Someone walked off with the propellers? Wow.....
In case any of you are unaware, Queen Mary's doors reopened a few months ago and you can now once more stay aboard the ship and enjoy fine dining and bars onboard. I can personally attest to this because I just got back from a two-night stay.
I hope they don't scrap this ship, I hate seeing history being erased.
So do I.
If anything, they should scuttle her so she can rest alongside her sister, the Queen Elizabeth
@@360Nomad ummm Elizabeth was scrapped after the fire. She ended up much like Costa Concordia... half capsized near land and cut up for scrap. There is nothing or nearly nothing left of Elizabeth on the ocean floor and precious little of her was saved before the fire gutted her. I can't see that her fate was better than being towed straight to the scrapyards and was much the same as poor Normandie's.
they will. just watch. Cali has a particular habit of fucking things up.
@@aidanacebo9529 Yep, and they'll end up building some stupid club there so people can get hammered and dance to shitty music.
As of right now, 3 original lifeboats are retained for preservation. Accident Boat #2 and Lifeboat #3 were kept in place, attached to their davits. Lifeboat #11 was removed from the ship and is currently sitting dockside, next to the ship. COLB has stated that 5 additional original QM boats were transported off site for storage. I have a list of the number identifications of the 5 boats, but I do not have it readily available to view, so I will try to post that later. The remaining 14 boats were disposed of in May. Of these 14 boats that were destroyed, 2 were believed to have come from the Cunard liner, RMS Sylvania; 1 was believed to have been an original QE 1940 McLean & Sons lifeboat; 2 were believed to have been post-war (1947) QE replacement lifeboats; 1 was a COMPLETE MYSTERY as to its origins and background, but was one of the boats that was aboard QM when she arrived in 1967; 1 was a fiberglass hull boat that was acquired from the Long Beach Naval Yard in 1974 after two lifeboats were destroyed when they broke from their falls. The remaining 6 boats were original QM lifeboats.
My mum saw the Queen Mary on her maiden voyage in 1936 and my dad sailed back from overseas on her in 1945. When l was a kid in 1976, we went to the US on vacation and they took me to visit her, l still remember it. As a retired sailor, it makes me sad to see these old girls fall on hard times. Worse still, was seeing my own ships being cut up for scrap metal. Broke my heart to pieces.
I'm so glad I got to see the Queen Mary and her lifeboats before they were scrapped. I hope she does not get scrapped as well it would be a damn shame.
As a kid, I remember the night in 1967 that she pulled into Long Beach, her new home. We waited in the parking lot forever for her to arrive, but first sight of her floodlights was so exciting. My Mum's from London, and became a naturalized US citizen that same year. It was a proud moment seeing her sworn in and becoming an American 🇬🇧 🇺🇲 👍
I stayed on the Queen Mary a few times. Pilot for a major airline. They used to put crews there on lay overs. Loved spending hours exploring every inch of this ship. Enjoying a beer at one of the ships bars. The life boats could have been saved with maint. But, I think maint. on a ship like this even just to preserve her is an over whelming and incredibly expensive task. And there is just no way to do it without the ship generating the revenue to support it. Especially in a state like California with so many rules and regulations that restrict projects like this and business itself. Even just the cost of mooring the ship there is huge. I used to volunteer working on WWII museum ships up in the SFO Bay area. We could do so many things preserving the ships and refurbishing them. Then the State and the EPA began restricting us. Making some work financially impossible. Sad to see her slowly slipping away. Incredibly beautiful ship. Graceful. And classy to this day. And one of the finest examples of a bygone era. The golden age of travel? And in fact, an era wiped out by what I do for a living. Jet airline travel!
Thank You so much for sharing this. I love The Queen Mary, as many do, and I am glad to know they will be restoring 4 of the boats. Sorry you weren't able to get a piece of the history. Again, thanks.
I live in Southampton England my dad served on the QM. I remember seeing the ship leave on her final journey, back then we could take the short walk from our house to see both QM and QE many times in dry dock in Southampton. Today I see all the enormous cruise liners visiting Southampton who for me sadly appear to be anonymous and void of character. Please Look after her USA the likes and history will never be repeated ❤
Ships today are like most other mechanical engineering of the modern era, devoid of grace or beauty. The best of the lot when it comes to the new floating behemoths are the ships of Royal Caribbean but even they are trending more and more towards the grotesque. Still they are a few decades behind the ugliness on display built for Carnival, Princess and NCL...
I myself sailed on SS Norway (former SS France) when I was 15 and she was truly awe inspiring and a thing of beauty. She had that same long sweep of boat deck with lifeboats suspended above your head that you got to see on Queen Mary and standing on her navigation bridge wing (because you could tour the bridge back in those days) and looking along that long sweep of dark hull while underway was absolutely breathtaking...
I went on this ship with my girlfriend in late 2010. We went on the ghost tour. Then we ate dinner onboard. It's a beautiful ship.
I knew about the boats’ scrappings, and why they needed to happen. I did not, however, think anyone would get videos of it. A little hard to watch, but very intriguing 👍
Needless to say, I, like most of us here, am really looking forward to her reopening :)
I stayed aboard QM about 12 years ago and noticed that the lifeboats had some serious rust/holes in them at that time. I can only guess how much worse it must have been nowadays.
Surely not rust, as the lifeboat is made with wood
@@GregoryLancaster-rf7ce They were made of metal and we're meant to be covered and maintained. They were neither. Water collected in the boats and rusted out sections of the bottom.
It's too bad a crowdfunding project couldn't have been started to restore at least a few of them. A lot of people would have been on board for that project.
They're preserving some. There is one boat that is original to it that's being saved.
True. Most maritime museums seem to be heavily dependent on volunteers so they're not cash rich but that could have worked.
@@goodgame3374 absolutely heart breaking that they can't pay their staff. I'd be on top of a job like that in an instant!!! But I can't live and eat for free unfortunately...
@@ashleighelizabeth5916 understandable. There's nothing wrong with being paid for the value you bring. If you're the Boeing CEO being paid $62m for being fired that's greedy, but people shouldn't be pressured into justifying a salary to live & even be comfortable on just because it's fun or community focused work.
(Don't get me wrong, I was raised to volunteer & have done so most of my life, including in the maritime space, but providing for family & future comes first)
@@goodgame3374 thanks, the sad part is that I live very simply and wouldn't even need that much to be happy especially in a job that would be like a dream come true. Christ if they would let me live on the ship I'd do it for next to nothing...
So many amazing memories on this ship exploring behind the scenes areas with my friend.. I hope they manage to get her proper funding again
Thanks!
thanks Cgopat!
My father came back on the Queen Mary after WWII. He was impressed with the speed and the long lines for everything as they had so many on board. He carved his initials in the wooden railings but when I went there to look for it, I was told that the railings are in the Smithsonian storage.
All those railings were replaced as part of her refurbishment after Operation Magic Carpet. He was far from the only one to carve his name on them. I'm surprised any were saved and stored at the Smithsonian since she was a British ship that was refurbished after the war in a British yard.
As sad as this is I support it. The lifeboats were dangerous to have hanging over deck and served no practical purpose. However it makes me very happy to hear that a few were preserved. Hopefully this marks the beginning of the much needed repairs and renovations on the ship.
I'd never taken a tour of the QM, despite living in SoCal for over a decade. It was cool seeing it when my wife and I would take one of our Carnival cruises from the nearby terminal. One of the local TV stations would often show the terminal and Queen Mary in the background during anchor segments and especially during weather reports. We'd always joke about the QM being in, along with the occasional Carnival ship. Really hope that they get the ship repaired and open again, so I can finally take that tour.
I actually got to tour the ship in summer 2017, see a Titanic and Olympic artifact exhibit on the ship (including one of the actual Nomadic lifeboats and linoleum tiles, etc that had been on Titanic before her inspection but didn't make the cut) and even have dinner on the Queen Mary. For a Titanic nerd like me, it's total nirvana.
It's a shame to see them go, but we should be thankful that some of them will be preserved elsewhere. The lead paint was a safety issue that had to be dealt with; better to sacrifice most of them than lose the whole ship.
Lead paint is really NBD. It's a convenient excuse stupid people buy because *lead paint scary* I mean whole cities still have lead water pipes and it's fine. Lead is fine unless you ingest piles of it. So don't be a wall licker and wash your hands/don't put your dirty dick beaters in your orifices and you'll be fine.
Almost everything has lead paint that's exposed to the elements
I have to say I'm highly impressed by this channel, excellent production values considering it's an amateur production, well presented and researched.
That makes me sick.... I mean I know they're trying to save the ship but come on they could have done better!
They had to go.
I would have let one sit in my back yard just because it was from the Queen Mary, too bad they did not give anyone time to haul them off and just take them, nevermind the lead paint, if you do not eat it or sand it and leave it alone it will be fine...
@@pacificoceantsunami8497 Of course the evil Commiefornia gubm't makes sure nobody can find time and resources to save the lifeboats. I'm glad I don't live in that joke of a state.
Sad to see the destruction of these lifeboats, replicas or not. Hopefully in the future they can install lighter replica lifeboats to her davits.
Sad that these lifeboats have been scrapped; let’s hope then that this beautiful ship opens her doors to the public again real soon👍
RIP Queen Mary's Lifeboats (except 4 of them) 1936-2022
All good things must come to an end, I get the feeling it will either be sold off and abandoned, or scrapped, or renovated beyond recognition. Im really glad i got the chance to stay on her before it all started going downhill, even if the hotel itself wasnt that great, it was amazing to get to be on a ship like the Queen Mary
When I was a young man back in 1986 I got to spend the day touring the Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose with my Grandparents. One of those days I can remember like yesterday. Everything was huge. Everything was amazing. Sad to see her days coming to an end.
For the many in the comments who are confused or misinformed about the state of the ship, its future, and the roll the city is playing here, I’d like to recommend the TH-cam channel “Alex The Historian” (TH-cam is finicky on my and so unfortunately I can’t link it here).
He’s done quite a few videos going in-depth about what’s happening with the ship, and it’s thankfully not nearly as bad as some may say :)
She deserves so much better.
Oh Man that's sad. The destruction of history.
Atleast you got a video of it.👍
Not all the life boats belonged to the ship but from other vessels and a replica or two.
I was lucky enough to see the ship in 1989, while the Spruce Goose was in a hanger next door. Hope they keep her. As the tour guide told us it was haunted by at least 3 ghosts.
The 80's were great!
I'm glad to have toured her back in 2015, even got to meet the comodore of the Cunard line in the dining hall near the bow a wonderful man he was. I remember the boats, a ship isn't proper without all safety measures and am sad to see them go, but better something small be lost rather than something big.
My kids and I spent a year going to the Queen Mary nearly every weekend, (we had yearly passes). We had such a great time on that ship. I'm so sad to see this.
They could build fiberglass replica boats that could be put back on the davits which could be covered in order to prevent rain from getting in them.
It's not impossible
They should have done exactly that with the original life boats.
Exactly, and lead paint when contained is not dangerous
The City of Long Beach does not want to spend the money on proper upkeep and maintenance of the ship. They have been scammed several times by companies that leased the ship.
We need to keep the _Queen Mary_ preserved & docked for as long as humanly possible!
She is the last Ocean Liner & the only “living” connection we have to her “ancestors,” The _Olympic, Titanic & Britannic._
*_I plan to visit Queen Mary in Long Island someday._*
I was "aw that's such a shame" until you mentioned they weren't original. Understandable that people were not queuing to take them.
Its said that the lifeboats were extremely heavy and that their weight was placing an enormous amount of strain on the superstructure, particularly where the launching davits attached to the promenade deck, literally peeling the down the side of the superstructure. The other issue being that they would often fill with rainwater, were rusting through and in danger of breaking up as they hung above the heads of passing tourists on the boat deck.
I’ve wondered though if saving them isn’t an option, could they be replaced, simply for cosmetic reasons? I’ve seen examples here in TH-cam of an enormous 3D printer printing out an entire residence that was even larger than these lifeboats. Wouldn’t that be a possibility? Is there a lightweight 3D process that would make this possible?
I have fond memories of this lovely old ship, watching her sail in on her final day when I was 10yrs old. My parents driving me across LA repeatedly to go on the ship tour. High school dances, family weddings, and later when I moved away from the area the Queen Mary is where I would always stay. I’m 65 now and I’ve recently returned to the area, living in Long Beach and happily anticipating her reopening…she’s a lovely old ship and I look forward to stepping back into her observation bar, lifting a glass, and toasting her return!
Well, apparently the lead paint remediation procedures were applied at the scrapping? What are the lead paint process requirements? Thanks
3:03 They didn’t remove the lifeboats behind the bridge
"You can't take the boat home unless you prove to us you can deal with lead paint, various contaminants, the Three Little Pigs and the Holy Spirit."
*Proceeds to wreck the aforesaid boat in a wide-spaced, windy waterfront parking lot.
What a bunch of (insert your positive expeletive here).
Great video on a sad topic, Tom.
Cheers.
I had the privilige of watching the QM2 salute the QM1 with her horn 17 years ago. The old lady today is really showing her age.
Wow, sad to watch however like you said maybe a positive move forward. Thanks for sharing and as always thanks for taking us on the adventure.
I remember when her majesty first made port. You used to just be able to board her and walk around the decks for free years ago. I haven't even been in long Beach since 2007.
Should immediately put a preservation order on this beautiful old ship
The ship is currently being repaired right now
I’m surprised there weren’t any museums that could take these boats? Seems like such a shame to let them be torn to bits
Proper funding and lack of notice to raise that funding were the primary culprits there. Anybody who wanted one had to prove they could transport it and had to also prove they were equipped to deal with lead paint removal in an environmentally conscious way. Maritime museums and museums in general are almost always chronically underfunded... People will pay three figures to go watch a professional football game but will balk at having to pay much more than $20 to $30 for a museum of almost any kind.
@@ashleighelizabeth5916 yeah… I guess unfortunately that is true. Maritime museums definitely have a lot less than other museums too, here in Canada museum ships like Haida and Sackville run purely off donations which can be few and far between sometimes. Still a shame tho
@@ModernFossilOuttakes2004 yes I agree.. it is a crying shame. I'd give my eye teeth to work on almost any museum ship in the world and be able to earn a living wage doing it. I've thought about that idea for a long long time but almost every one I've ever seen uses primarily volunteer staffers.
That's the thing that people don't get about the idea of universal basic income. Free a person up to do the job they want in life and most of them aren't going to sit at home. There are people who truly do love to cook and who really do enjoy waiting tables. I loved my last customer service/sales job until they replaced my departing boss with a complete and total asshole that destroyed the experience for me. And that's despite the fact that the job NEVER paid enough for the workload I shouldered...
A fine example of corruption; easier to spend money on pointless work then actually solve a problem; the whole concept was a financial boondoggle for the city.
That why I lost my faith in capitalism
It's California, the very standard for leftwing corruption and government abuse.
Thank You for sharing, hopefully it will be "All Aboard" Soon 😄
I remember growing up in San Pedro during the 1960's and watching this ship in its early days at Long Beach. There was a lot of excitement and appreciation from that generation. Today, the city leaders that steward this ship are criminals to society. The city rots and this ship has been rotting as well.
You are spot on. The City has no interest in the upkeep or preservation of this ship. They refuse to fund this ship and wish it gone.
Miss going there as a kid. Nothing Lasts forever. Depressing
Would've been so cool to had one of these! Thanks!
I lived on the her majesty for a year when I my yacht was getting an overhaul. Replaced my screws, the mercruisers engines onboard, davits, helm, it was $$$$ but I stayed on the Queen marry because, land is not for me :)
I love ships, born in Channel Islands California in 1983. Joined the coast guard in 2002, ships are my life. I hope the Queen Marry gets some much needed love and support. She’s one of the few remaining ships with those beautiful lines. Never to be seen again. Unless Blue star and Palmer still plan to make Titanic II 😢
If they ever scrap the queen Mary, so help me.
In my honest opinion. Even if they wanted to they can't. The ship is way to valuable and support to saved it would come in rather quickly.
@@daskriegsman7013 more than likely
The Queen Mary is on borrowed time. The City of Long Beach will not fund the maintenance required to keep the ship in a decent condition.
Is that the rms titanic in the upper right of the background at 0:13?
Thank you for the informative video. As a resident of Los Angeles I was wondering what was to come of the lifeboats. Sad ending. My late father immigrated from Scotland aboard the QM in 1950. He subsequently returned to the UK and the back to the US and I know one of those trips was aboard the Sylvania. He spent 20 years in the USN, much of that time stationed at the old Long Beach Naval Station. It must have been interesting always seeing the ship that brought him to America when he was 8 years old.
Old, motorised lifeboats, launched by one crewman? Wow, they were certainly ahead of their time.
Anyway, if I'll ever go to Long Beach in my life, I'll make sure to first visit this ship.
I hope the whole ship don’t get scrapped it’s my dream to go there😢
It's a shame that no alternative could be found, but safety is paramount especially if, as we all hope, the ship is reopened as a hotel in the near future
Isn’t it already a hotel?
@@slepey_ It's been closed for the past couple years
It’s obviously sad to see these little beauties go, honestly it would be better if they were out into a museum or other museums across the globe but I understand that these things happen and lifeboats were never intended to be a proper puzzle piece part of the ship especially because when it’s a shop that’ll never move from dock again.
The irony of Kaiser "We must have one of these" Wilhelm II supporting a video about a British Atlantic greyhound.
The lifeboats were apparently causing stress on the side shell of the ship. Theres $5 million repair plan for the Queen Mary and is apparently going to reopen near the end of 2022.
Queen Mary is due to Re-Open in October this year.
I swear, if they scrap the Queen Mary, i'm seriously gonna go protest.
They aren’t
@@thejagotishow It's California, one of the most draconian totalitarian government states in the nation. Don't bet on it. It'll probably be broken up because Gavin Newsom is skeered that it'll pose a "ginormous threat" to the environment.
did u snag a lifeboat before they were scrapped?
I would have taken those lifeboats and placed them directly in the little sheltered "pond" the Queen Mary is sitting in. Tourists could then take boat rides all the way around the ship and in the wide area on the starboard side. For a slight fee, of course.
"Jackson Where's your new fishing boat?"
"That's it right there Jim"
"That's a lifeboat Jackson, not a fishing boat"
"Who said it was a fishing boat?"
Nice that you were able to film the scrapping, I guess.
I never got that about CA ,places like Vernon or Sun Valley are so polluted its killing trees ...plus lead paint in Long beach is the least you should worry about.
Don't you get it??? It NEVER has anything to do with actually helping the environment. It's always about stomping out dissent by using a flimsy, STUPID excuse like "ooh, a teensy bit of lead paint! Burn those lifeboats NOW or you'll be arrested!!" That's how California is and it'll continue to get worse until there's nothing left. And yet, they still want to keep the morons in charge as long as possible. Meanwhile. Oakland and San Francisco are collapsing from soaring crime and just DESPICABLE 'government' mismanagement.
if the water collecting in the life boats they could have easily drilled some draining holes in the bottom since they werent going to get used as an emergency vessel. a real shame they tore them down.
Also, having to prove you can contain the lead for environmental reasons or you couldnt take it? what do they think wrecking them in the parking lot does? sounds like someone in the county wanted them destroyed badly..
Glad to hear most of them are replicas, softens the blow a bit. If they want the lifeboat look l, I suppose they could have 'lifeboats' more built for that purpose, perhaps sealed at the top so rain water doesn't collect. Then again a more open deck may be good.
Would be cool to get ahold of one of the life boat motors.
What's with those two lifeboats at the front in your drone footage?
They’re being kept aboard the ship, and are thankfully not due to be scrapped. I forget why exactly, but still.
@@DerpyPossum Wonder why Tom didn't say that in the video.
I like how they were so concerned over the lead paint. They smashed the life boats without a bag system to catch every splinter & no respiratory PPE. To bad they didn't advertise the boats I'm sure the local maritime museum would have wanted 1x at least or a private auction could have fetched a good price.
I really thought the lifeboats had an arched canvas cover over them for this reason, and also shelter, if they were ever needed, for the passengers?
You are correct, however the Queen Mary has fallen into serious disrepair and the lifeboats did not receive preventative maintenance.
Good reporting!
Somewhere out there - eBay or something - there's gotta be a little glass vile with "QUEEN MARY Lifeboat scraps" for sale! I absolutely REFUSE to believe that they are gone forever! I don't want to give up hope of losing history... again!
I get why it was done, but it doesn't make me any less sad to see the old girl losing some of what made her a ship. Really she's legally a building now, but still..
Very odd that they insisted on proving you could deal with the lead paint before they'd let you take a boat and then proceed to slam and whack the selfsame lead-painted objects with an excavator out in the open.
Might not've been able to meet such lofty criteria, but I would gave at least liked to get some measurements to build a 1/2 or 1/4 scale version to go toodling around in on the water.
She's tipping to the right - Queen Mary ship Mary Babiec
If I was the guy in the digger I would have moved them into the water and sent them adrift, so we enthusiasts could collect them later haha
I remember when the news of this came out, I emailed two maritime museums in my country. To this day I still don’t have a reply
@fox star line….why didn’t you try to buy them?
Scrapping these lifeboats is historical sacrilege to maritime preservation. After making a strong effort to share both their availability and the City of Long Beach's proposal template with maritime museums across the UK, this is painful news to learn. In receiving feedback from these museums, there were not enough funds to pay for transport nor sufficient space to accommodate them on an individual museum basis. The City of Long Beach was very short-sighted regarding what to do with these maritime artefacts and offered little time for museums to write a proposal or to pool their resources in a way that might have enabled acquisition of all of them and transporting in bulk. As someone who grew up in California and now has spent the second half of his life in the UK, close to Southampton in fact, the handling of these lifeboats, let alone the state of decay allowed to happen to RMS Queen Mary, is beyond reprehensible. RMS Queen Mary is the lone survivor of the Golden Age of Transatlantic Travel from the 1930s, and the only major express liner of that era with its fittings almost entirely intact. She is a masterpiece in maritime architecture, Art Deco interior design and as a time capsule to a glamorous age of travel we'll never see the likes of again that must be preserved.
BUB BUB the ENVIRONMENT! WE'S GOTTA "SAVE" the ENVIRONMENT FOR OUR CHILDRENNN!! - Gavin Newsom.
I couldn’t imagine Long Beach without the Queen Mary, hopefully the city, county, and state will put money into it instead of the garbage they put money into. I remember the ship vividly back in the 80’s when I would visit my aunt till to today when I go out fishing and drive my boat right alongside her. They need to find a loophole to get her on short cruises to Catalina and Mexico. I know there’s a lot money to go into getting her seaworthy, but it’s possible.
They need to move her to a state that isn't run by crazy people like Gavin Newsom. He should be in a mental hospital.
I can't believe a museum or collector didn't take these. The lead paint could fixed the put on display
Attended three proms in the old ship. She has been in limbo for 30+ years..
...and how did that method of scrapping mitigate the lead hazard???
That’s sad that part of history was destroyed like that even if any of the lifeboats that were scrapped didn’t belong to the Queen Mary, they belonged somewhere. It’s just sad to see.
You're right; this is a good thing. Waste of deck space as it was on an unsinkable ship.
Can’t understand why , someone would scrap perfectly good boat’s!
Fibreglass replica's should be installed .
Lots of motors and propellers. Where did they go?
As she still got all the gubbins in the engine room i assume she was steam powered back in day would love to see the engines and boilers
It's all gone, removed during her conversion in 1968, apart from a few things at the very stern that were too inaccessible for the crews to bother taking out. Even the funnels you see today are fake (the real ones were removed to make the holes needed to pull out the rest of the machinery).
Correct me if I'm wrong or misheard something-each lifeboat was 10 tons?!
Now-a-days with cruises being so ubiquitous and inexpensive using an old cruise ship as a hotel doesn't pencil in considering all the extra maintenance of a ship berthed in salt water.
They could have at least saved all them and restored them to be preserved for years to come sad to see them scrapped 😢
Hopefully they will build new ones to fit into the davits and they won't prove to a eventual possible hazard in the future
Queen Mary my Beloved
Sad I remember seeing the ship parked off of Newport Rhode Island...