In the past two weeks our family got better acquainted with two of history’s grandest ocean liners. The previous weekend we visited a traveling exhibit in Buena Park, CA entitled Titanic, the Artifact Exhibition. It started by handing out boarding passes of passengers who boarded the ship on April 10, 1912. From these passes our family learned about three people in detail: who they were, why they were traveling, and a few other interesting facts. At the end of the exhibit we learned “our faith”: were we among the lucky ones who survived the accident, or was April 14, 1912 the last day of our life. (In case you are curious: only one of us survived.) Throughout the exhibit we marveled over 200 artifacts that were recovered from the bottom of the ocean, and we even touched part of the ship. We really enjoyed this exhibit.
We enjoyed it so much, that the following weekend we decided to visit an actual ocean liner, which happened to be the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. This over 1,000 ft (300m) long ship sailed the North Atlantic Ocean between 1936 and 1967. During this time she carried over 2,000,000 passengers between England and New York as well as mail (being a Royal Mail Ship or RMS). The Queen Mary became a soldier transporting ship during World War II, once carrying 16,082 American soldiers from New York to Great Britain. After the war she was refitted for passenger service again, and sailed over the Atlantic Ocean until 1967. Her last trip brought her to Long Beach, California, where she became a hotel and a museum.
After this program we continued out tour of the ship. First, we walked by the shops in the Main Hall, then we visited the deck in front of the bridge, and upon returning to the inside of the ship we walked through a corridor which takes you to the hotel rooms.
Premier Exhibitions
Queen Mary