A Ghostly Maid on the Queen Mary

Name: Ellen Bauer
Location: Long Beach, California
Date: 1970

My family went on a short vacation to the Queen Mary. We lived in San Diego and drove up for a weekend stay on the ship. At this time I was roughly 8-years-old. There was myself, parents, and two brothers. We stayed in a room that was connected by a door to the next room. My brothers stayed in one connecting room and my parents in the other. I stayed in a small connecting room to theirs that I learned was for the valet or lady in waiting while the ship sailed the seas. This room opened directly to the inside corridor, as did my brothers’ room.

That night after exploring the ship, we retired to our beds. At this time, I was unaware of the Queen Mary’s reputation of being haunted. During the night I was awoken–I felt like it was early morning (I had no windows in this room). I was awoken by a maid entering the room from the corridor. She was holding towels or sheets. As she entered, I sat up, not startled, but aware that someone was entering the room. I noticed she was wearing an old-fashioned maid dress. It was a black, long dress with a white apron, and a small black hat to match. At this moment, she was walking past the foot of my bed heading to the door leading to my parents’ room. She noticed me and leaned over from the foot of the bed toward me and with her fingers to her lips, shushed, as to let me know to go back to sleep. She then entered my parents’ room. I laid back down. Not thinking twice about a maid coming into our room delivering towels. Maybe a few hours later, I awoke with the family and we were leaving the room to have breakfast. As we existed from my room to the corridor, the maids were beginning to clean the empty rooms. These maids were dressed in grey, modern maid uniforms. No funny hat. No black long dress with a white apron. I pointed out to my parents that the maid that came into our rooms this morning was not dressed like them. They immediately paused and asked about, “Who came into our room?” and to explain further. I said, “I just assumed you had called for the maid to bring towels, and she had delivered them to you,” and then I explained what she was wearing. Their jaws dropped and they said, “We did not call for a maid, and no one came into our room.” We discussed the encounter over breakfast that day, and we still bring it up as one of our favorite ghost experiences.