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Queen Mary
Investigations and Experiences

2010

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Sunday July 25, 2010
Bob Davis (of Planet Paranormal Investigations), set up an aboard dinner and post-midnight investigation to celebrate the fact that the Queen Mary is allowing actual investigations again. Apparently when ownership changed hands, the new ones were rather reticent about paranormal investigative groups and/or sole investigators. Initially the dinner was to be from 8pm to maybe 10pm Saturday evening, then the investigation would be from that midnight until pretty much to whenever. It turned out that the management shifted the schedule... we would only have from 1am to 4am (obviously after they'd accepted the pre-payment).
During dinner across from Joe Ruffulo I sat with Bob and at my left, psychic Liz Johnson with her husband James. Liz was able to sense that at an empty table behind our immediate seating position was sitting a ghost. James quickly took a photo and got the same sort of glowing orb as showed up in the behind the scenes photo in the USC student film The Maiden and the Princess. James proceeded to take a few other shots, and the same orb shifted position. This was not a "dust orb" one could just dismiss (as so many paranormal investigators do); this one had colour, visible striations, and surrounded by the same apparent aura as in the The Maiden and the Princess photo. James kept photographing, as the Orb moved position as though annoyed its surveillance of us had been noticed.
With the schedule shift, creating after our dinner a massive multi-hour gap before we would be able to start, Liz and James and I wandered the ship, James related some of the aspects of the ship he's learned in his numerous visits. We also retrieved his mint condition 1950s radio frequency detector from their cabin (the very same cabin I'd had when I was there three months earlier, the evening of April 30th [see below]...).
We headed back and joined the main group just before 1am, at which time I also met Joe Mendoza of the group 3am Paranormal.
The plan was first to visit the pool, then the boiler and engine rooms. As we approached the pool area, Bob had us be silent as sometimes the famous little girl ghost Jackie can be heard simply (and audibly) talking or singing to herself. On entering the pool area it was quickly obvious there were (living) people already in there, long after hours. Our security guy went to shoo them out, only to learn it was a private tour group via one of the higher muck a mucks of the ship, who refused to concede (meaning also the ship's refusal to honour our contract that from 1am, we "had the pool," as it were).
Forced to back down, we waited outside in the main area of the ship at the pool area entrance, soon deciding that logically (and legally), we could insist our time be extended to compensate for the delay, we decided it'd be practical to hit the boiler and engine rooms first, giving the pool area a chance to Settle Down once the stuck-up woman's group had vacated.
We quickly headed down and in the old boiler room it seemed Really Quiet; the Sensitives in the group deducing what ghosts might have been down there seemed to back off on our approach, watching and waiting, perhaps for us to leave.
In the engine room, Bob and Liz and all tried getting famous Johnny to make known his presence. It was Sensed he was on the second level, but our security guard warned the group of a motion sensor alarm that were it to go off, he'd be unable to stop it. As Liz has "met" Johnny previously, she sat on the stopped escalator steps and he approached her and began fiddling with her hair at the back of her head (not that such activity was visible). Seemingly distant whispers were deduced as water moving through pipes, but some seeming actual voice/s were also heard (not by me; nothing clear enough to discern as a voice anyway).
Bob called on Jackie in case she was visiting the room, urging her to follow our group back to the pool as we headed out. At the pool, it still seemed as though the Queen Mary ghosts were off on a summer vacation somewhere. No amount of requests yielded any audible response/s. In the dressing rooms, Joe used a new gadget he'd acquired: an infra-red strobe light. Invisible to the human eye, it lit the area for his video camera in a way that were an anomaly to pass by, the strobe would catch it, analogous to someone moving across a regular bright-light strobe light: a "frozen frame" in real time.
At one point Liz and another Sensitive woman (Cordelia?) checked the balcony, their having "seen" two children running along the perimeter, predictably vanishing without further sighting/s.
By 4am the majority of the group was understandably exhausted; my own feet and legs in substantial ache-mode. Suddenly James called Bob up to the balcony near the exit. He'd audibly heard something like a child's squeal, and playing back his recorder, sure enough a clear happy squeal of a young girl could be heard. As were the rest of us, Bob was astonished he'd not heard it if it was audible and not an EVP.
We called it a night and wondered if anything might come up on any of our recording/s. I knew I had a lot of audio recordings through which to go. I knew the first Blue Line north left the Transit Mall at 5am, and as local Joe Mendoza said his farewells with his wife Rebeca, I was too tired to think straight enough to request being dropped off in or near downtown... as I was unaware that like Terminal Island, the area on which is the Queen Mary has no way off (or on) for late-night, technically stranded pedestrians, and the first free shuttle would not be starting until around 6am.
Group photos were taken, and we said our good-byes, and I looked forward to the next investigation which hopefully would be more generous with activity that this one seemed.


Click on photo for full image

In the Engine Room
In the Engine Room
Outside the pool
Outside the pool
Looking down at the pool
Looking down at the pool

James's photo of the Orb
moving about behind Liz during
the pre-investigation dinner

Next to Liz at the pre-investigation dinner
(James is taking the photo).

At the pre-investigation dinner

The Queen Mary, after hours.
In the Boiler Room
In the Boiler Room.

Friday and Saturday, April 30 and May 01, 2010
Having had a good start of 2010, when Donn Shy announced the Queen Mary Ghost Hunter Conference (with the sadly and poorly abbreviated name "Queen-Con"), I immediately sent in my payment for it. It would entail speakers, ghost hunter groups, and actual well after-dark ghost hunting expeditions in the closed-to-the-public areas aboard the world-famously Very Haunted ship.
Unfortunately, discount cabin rates took months before being announced and by then what windfall I had had gone into pesky aspects of my life such as rent and such. I felt I might be relegated to a nearby Long Beach bench on which to sleep. Thankfully Donn came up with Rob Hansen, who reserved a Saturday evening cabin. Despite my having a booking Friday, I let Donn know I'd be there even if late. The booking fell through, and with me to the conference I brought a hundred dollars with which to contribute to the cost of the cabin. Thinking I'd be there Saturday, only for Saturday night was the cabin acquired. As Rob graciously refused to accept the hundred, I used it with which to get a Friday night cabin, and gave Rob the second card-key. So we each paid for one night, and had two nights' cabins, even though Rob actually stayed out all Friday night doing more on-his-own investigating with a few others. Stupidly I neglected to realize I could have done this as well, considering the official ghost hunts concluded at about 1:30-2am, and speaker Richard Senate informed us that the majority of the Most Active paranormal activity aboard ship is between 2-4am.
I bought a copy of the Heaven Can You Hear Me? book by the late Peter James, signed by its co-author Gian Temperilli. Not surprisingly, like many others in attendance, Gian is no stranger to the Queen Mary, and on each nights' outings provided numerous fascinating tidbits of information.
The event official began in the late afternoon Friday with registration and Meet and Greet, and a few speakers before the first night ghost hunt. Friday speakers included Mark and Debbie Constantino, whose EVP work is phenominal. They led the Friday night investigation, acquiring numerous EVPs, a few of which were Class A (clearly audible voices making intelligible words and/or phrases).
Michael and Marti Perry then did a two-hour gallery reading; I'd paid for both nights' investigations, so I didn't have more for that psychic reading session.
Saturday speakers included Richard Senate; Patrick Burns; Bradley Lockerman and Fernando Morris, demonstrating the Jack Searle SEC device; Scott Gruenwald and Terry Morris of the show Paranormal Stu as well as researchers of the very haunted Wolfe Manor up in Clovis; Lisa Carmody-Craft and Ed Craft on crytozoology; Keith Age; the paranormal film makers Booth Brothers; and after the dinner break, Mark Nelson of the para-x show Positively Psychic.
During the two-day event, I met and chatted with many, including but not limited ti Suzanne Stromin [who would somewhat alternate resembling actresses Missy Pyle and Miranda Richardson], and Lorie Nicole, who indicated her ghost hunter group Socal Paranormal Investigation is comprised of smaller cell-like groups, local (to me) investigations to which I will be invited... on Facebook Suzanne and Lorie soon added me.
Friday night Mark and Debbie Constantino ran the Ghost Investigations; highly experienced and long-time investigators aboard the Queen Mary, it is said they always get EVPs. We were escorted down to the engine room, the front of which resembled a large movie-studio sound stage. Crossing over rickety planks we went into a small alcove called The Green Room. Once there, those with digital recorders switched them on, many of which lain on the table therein. Those with EMF detectors and/or the impressive Ghost Radar iPhone App (downloadable here) and such kept vigil on their instruments, as Mark and Debbie spoke to the ether. After a few minutes, they'd play back what they'd recorded, going over it moment by moment, and what was obtained were numerous EVPs, some substantially clearer than others.
From there we went to the famous pool at which little girl ghost Jackie is said to haunt, with her protector of sorts, Sarah. (At the APRA group's table, they had a video loop from within the dressing room area, in which a camera operator [unaware at the time], caught a mega-clear shot of a little girl standing in one of the booths, staring out intently at the video camera operator...)
As I awoke Saturday morning, I found the massive dry-docked ship rocking almost violently, port and starboard. As I stayed in bed during this event, I was/am unsure if I was dreaming or whether perhaps experiencing a physic echo of the ship being at sea.
I went to the local Wal-Mart and acquired a new digital recorder; later Lorie clarified it was the model she has and uses so it should get EVPs just find.
I won one of the raffle prizes, the Queen Mary Behind The Scenes Tour, which I was told was sort of a VIP version of the Ghosts and Legends Tour.
The Saturday night investigation got a little muddled; initially it was to be two small groups, which would make it more intimate, but they got combined, which caused an issue with ship tour escort Zack, as the maximum in a group was 25, there were now 29, four (or more) of whom did not pay the additional cost of the evening tour. I had had just enough to pay for both when I registered Friday afternoon, so my wrist-band proudly declared that fact. Sadly, Donn is Too Nice, and she chose to eat the additional cost herself: and Zack agreed to take on the whole 28 (Donn did not stay with us).
Patrick Burns led the Saturday evening investigation, this time starting in Cranksaft Alley, where a crewman lost his life to being crushed by a closing bulkhead. Gian clarified that the doors don't close slowly as one would see in a film. To prevent sinking, these dang things close at 75mph in half a second: it was like being crushed in a mousetrap. Astonishingly, the crewman did not immediately die, as they did not open the door, knowing that that would immediately kill him. They had time to bring down a priest for Last Rites.
Patrick had told us during his talk that his Blackberry made for an excellent EVP recorder, and having acquired the upgraded model, learned the new one has a noise cancellation aspect, rendering it useless for EVP work, so he knew to retain his previous model he then used for the rest of the night.
With no apparent positive results, we headed back down to the Green Room, where we got a few EVPs. As one part of EVP work is to point out real-time sounds, so during playback they're don't become false positives, I noted some sounds of workers in a second story section. Others heard it too, but we realized... would there be workers up there at nearly 1:00am? Zack did not know whether they would be workers or not, but I was not the only one to hear the sounds of human movement and voices.
From there we went to the pool and got several. Zack did his best to keep the area quiet, mostly from outside the pool area. At one point we heard noises from the inaccessable part, through which we were brought. Zack quickly opened the door to startled APRA members trying to sneak in for a li'l "impromptu" investigation. Zack escorted them through and out, all of us seeing their large-font APRA t-shirts as they interuptingly quickly walked past us.
As I did not learn until later that afterward I could have stuck with a few of my new friends for some EVP investigating in accessable areas of the ship, I turned in.
I should point out I lived with a rather high-maintance chocolate lab named Champ, who was rather insistant when he was awake. Heaven forbid on a weekend one would attempt to sleep in: he would let loose these mega-barks until you bloody well got up and took'im out. Sadly, at the age of fifteen Champ passed away Veteran's Day 2009.
I awoke and went to the bathroom around 7am; I noted Rob was in his bed. I returned to my bed and drowsed until about 8am when I opened my eyes. Then through the absolute silence, inches from my face, came a single loud mega-dog bark. It was clearly a lab or a dog that size, and while it was not exactly his bark, I auto-exclaimed, "Champ...!" as I would do when he would start morning (or late-night) barking. Calling his name generally distracted him and quieted him for a few moments as he realized someone was paying attention to him.
The bark and my subsequent verbal outcry had Rob vocalize, signifying he was awake. He validated it; he had heard it as well, but as it was directed at me and he was about fifteen feet away, he had heard it more of a thunk than a dog bark. I explained about living with a lab long enough to know its timbre. I got out of bed and showed him where in three dimensional space the invisible dog had to have been standing. As we were discussing it, I went to the front sink which is by the door, at which point there was a massive thunk from outside against the door. It sounded like someone outside had tripped or collapsed and had fallen sideways against the door and had fallen to the carpeted deck.
"That's kind of what [the bark] sounded like to me," Rob said, as I simultaneous threw open the cabin door. Based on the sound that was barely an instant earlier, there should have been someone on the deck at the door, either getting up or requiring immediate assistance. Predictably, the lengthy silent corridor was void of corporeal life. Rob and I concurred that that was not a surprising result.
So with nothing scheduled for Sunday, other than time to sleep before the noon check-out, there was no one really around to whom to say goodbye to whom I'd already said thus several hours before, I headed out for home. I found the weekend event well worth th'price of admission, and very much look forward not only to the next such event, but Lorie notifying me they're heading out to investigate some place locally...

Sunday, May 09, 2010
EVP
I saved my audio recordings to my computer, and went over them. Some of the EVPs I heard were EVPs the hosts obtained, that I only "got" via their own playbacks. However, in the third segment I had, in which I was in the pool dressing room, one of the questioner girls asked Jackie if she could see the light [presumeably] on her EMF meter. On my recording is the quiet female voiced reply: "On this side..."


My 01 May 2010 Queen Mary EVP

Click on thumbnail to view full size image...

Crewmen who died aboard ship;
there's also signage about passengers
and stowaways who perished on board...

Finally meeting Donn Shy.

Debby Constanino with Donn Shy.

Mark Constantino runs the slide show.

Donn Shy presents the speakers.

Below decks the first night;
Terry, Suzanne and Victoria

Meeting the Constaninos
and the Booth Brothers

In the old engine room;
strangely I seem to see a face.

The segment of the same photo
clarifying where I think I see a face.

The famous haunted pool, "home" to
young girl ghost named Jackie.

Another angle looking down at the pool;
orbs are often dismissed by ghost hunters
but I can't help noticing I caught one here...

With Debby and Mark Constantino;
catching another orb, suspiciously
lurking about above Mark's head...

As one can tell by my sitting there,
I didn't take this photo of Debby and
Mark Constantino's EVP presentation.

The locked off entrance to the pool's balcony.

The first-night investigation group, Friday.

The enthralling Richard Senate speaks.

Patrick Burns' presentation.

Bradley Lockerman and Fernando Morris
presentation of Jack Searle's SEC device.

Bradley Lockerman and Fernando Morris
demonstrate Jack Searle's SEC device.

Prototype of Jack Searle's SEC device.

With Victoria Gross and Scott Gruenwald.

The Booth Brothers show previews of their films.

The Booth Brothers.

Saturday night cabin M206 bathroom:
love the flusher valve next to the seat...

With Lorie Nicole and Karen Cannon-Makshanoff

Star of the para-x.com show
Positively Psychic, Mark Nelson
demonstrates psychometry.

With Donn Shy and Mark Nelson;
the presenters all signed
her promo poster-board...
Fran Spencer enrolled me to sign it,
due to my actor "celebrity" status...

Looking forward to the next such event...!

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