Dark City

22. HAUNTED: Firsthand Accounts Aboard the Queen Mary with Author Nicole Strickland

• Dark City Productions • Season 1 • Episode 22

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Long Beach, CA | This week, we’re back aboard the Queen Mary, diving into firsthand accounts of its paranormal activity with Nicole Strickland, author of Haunted Queen of the Seas: The Living Legend of the RMS Queen Mary. From her first visit, Nicole was captivated by the ship’s blend of rich history and paranormal intrigue. Despite its wartime tragedies and mysterious incidents, you may be pleasantly surprised—these spirits are more sociable and curious than menacing, adding depth to the Queen Mary’s vibrant and storied reputation.

To learn more about Nicole Stickland’s work, check out her website at www.nicoledstrickland.com and follow her on social media at facebook.com/authornicolestrickland and instagram.com/authornicolestrickland/.

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📚 In a world of viral history clips and quick hot takes, we do right by the many historians, journalists, and researchers who made this episode possible by citing their work.  Our key reference for this episode is:

Strickland, N. (2024). Haunted queen of the seas: The living legend of the RMS Queen Mary (4th ed.). KayliMax Books.
https://nicoledstrickland.com/haunted-queen-of-the-seas

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👏 Special thanks to our talented partners:
Paolo Sbrighi for Musical Composition (instagram.com/paulosbrighi/)
Mario Cintra for Logo Design (instagram.com/alacarala/)


Speaker 1:

Hello Dark City fans. This is Leah.

Speaker 2:

And this is April. This week we have a special guest interview in honor of spooky season. Author of the book Haunted Queen of the Seas the Living Legend of the RMS, queen Mary, nicole Strickland joins us and shares some ghost stories as well as her experiences from the time that she has spent on the ship. If you haven't already listened to episode 18, where we talked about the Queen Mary's history and ghost stories, we encourage you to give it a listen first. This is Dark City, season one, los Angeles. Nicole, I just wanted to start by saying thank you for joining us. We're very excited to be able to do this with you. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you were first introduced to the Queen Mary?

Speaker 3:

Oh, absolutely. First of all, thank you guys for having me. It really is an honor. Queen Mary, where do I start? So it's one. It's an interesting story. So my mom actually ballroom danced in the Veranda Grill, which used to be the Starlight Roof Club. It was a very famous restaurant for cabin first class passengers there back in the day.

Speaker 3:

So I knew about the ship many, many years ago and it was I was spring break and it was my, I believe my junior year in college and one of my friends and I came back out here to do the three day carnival cruise that they have. So we came back out from Arizona, out here, spent spring break here, and I saw the Queen Mary for the first time out of the backseat of a car and I just remember saying to myself oh my goodness, I will be back someday, so fast forward to about 2005. That's when I actually first went on board the ship for the first time, on ADEC, where the hotel lobby check-in is, and it just felt like home. It felt instantly familiar, it felt as though I've been there before and that's actually when it started and never at that point did I realize that I would have been 20 years out. Here I am, you know, researching the ship historically, paranormally. But yeah, that's how it all started.

Speaker 2:

How many times have you investigated there now?

Speaker 3:

You know it's spanning over about 20 years. It's many, it's several I don't have an exact number per se, but several and in various different areas of the ship. So former first and third class pool, engine room, boiler rooms, other sorts of public rooms, but it's been many times. Just enough to where I can get an idea of really what's going on on board the Queen Mary.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, do you still get that same feeling that you got the first time that you went on board?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I would say yes, and it's interesting for those that have actually never been on board. But as I've done a lot of research, historical research I've interviewed former crew and former passengers and war brides and even her former crew, many of them have said, wow, the Queen Mary is sentient. Even Captain John Treasure Jones once said the Queen Mary is as closest to a human being of any ship I've ever commanded. So I think a lot of people feel this real close bond and connection with the Queen Mary. I myself am one of them and I actually felt that the first time I went on board. And it's one of those things it's hard to put in words per se, but it's just. You'll know if you're one of those people.

Speaker 3:

It's just it hits you and it's so, yeah, that's it's, it's pretty, it's an incredible feeling really.

Speaker 1:

I do have a question on that. What do you think it is about this particular ship? Or, if you've heard of it, the Cecil Hotel in LA, where they have this undercurrent of something. Oh yeah, how is that possible?

Speaker 3:

You know it's so interesting, the Cecil. Have you guys been, by the way, to the Cecil?

Speaker 1:

Oh, I don't know if you can go inside now. It's public housing. Now I've driven past it, Okay before I was able to.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so I haven't been recently, but I've heard from this, I've heard people that have actually investigated it. They've said, wow, the hotel is alive. I mean, it has such a weird history, you know, it has suicides and murders and whatnot. I think with the Queen Mary there's different layers of history. I think the Queen Mary has such a rich historical narrative from having dignitaries and members of the aristocracy and World War II service men and what celebrities dignitaries, like I said, so many people from all walks of life have sailed on the Queen Mary. Like I said, so many people from all walks of life have sailed on the Queen Mary and just her career during the war and just all this history with the ship. I mean you can go a lifetime learning about the Queen Mary and still not uncover it all.

Speaker 3:

So I think history is probably first and foremost as to why there's so much activity on board. But then you have to think about too, while she sits in water. There's a theory that, okay, if ghosts and spirits may be attracted to water, it's a natural conductor of electricity. You have the items that went into the making of the ship. You have the iron, you have the manganese, bronze propellers. You have the 56 different varieties of woods from all over the world. So you have all of these components and I think they just all work in tandem and providing a nice layer of spiritual activity.

Speaker 2:

What was your first paranormal experience on the ship?

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh, my first one. Okay, yes, this would have been now, this would have been with Jackie, but I didn't know it at the time, so this would have been 2005. And so I was staying on ADEC. Where was I? Portside Forward ADEC, and it was about one or two in the morning, give or take, and I decided to go walk around. So I exited my room and I remember turning left, going forward, and something said turn around. So I turned around and maybe about I'd say, 10, 15 feet from me there was a little girl standing in the middle of the hallway wearing what looked like a blue nightgown or like a blue plain dress, and she didn't say anything, but her hand went slightly up, as if she was going to wave to me, and she slightly smiled and then I saw her dissipate. So, as the years went on.

Speaker 3:

I realized that that was with Jackie, and so people have seen her. She's thought to be very similar to like a Shirley Temple, very intelligent, about six and a half seven years old. We don't know her origins. It's thought that the late psychic resident Peter James felt that maybe she passed away in the second class pool.

Speaker 3:

Again, that's not been verified so we don't really know her origins but for whatever reason, she's highly intelligent, very interactive, drawn to certain people. Oh my gosh, I have so many experiences with her, both hearing her audibly to EVP captures to seeing her. She's adorable, absolutely adorable. I love her.

Speaker 2:

What other types of experiences have you had aboard the Queen Mary and other than Jackie? What are some of the most memorable ones?

Speaker 3:

Oh gosh, there's so many to describe over like so many years. I always tell people it's very audio friendly so you can be on board and hear disembodied vocalizations, both male, female, young and old, whisper, regular tone. It's very visual. So a lot of people will see like full bodied apparitions or partially manifested apparitions, a lot of shadow figure interplay, more common, I would say, in the hotel deck areas and in the former first and third class pool. But I've had so many experiences from different disembodied vocalizations to seeing full bodied apparitions of former crew, former passengers, even World War II servicemen, some of the more I shouldn't say famous but more well-known spirits like Jackie or the young crewman. That's sad. I'm not going to mention his name out of respect for the family. But the tragic case of the young man from York's sad, I'm not going to mention his name out of respect for the family, but the tragic case of the young man from Yorkshire who was on his I believe his third voyage in 1966. He was a fireman and bilge cleaner and was found wedged in watertight door. Number 13 sadly didn't make it so.

Speaker 3:

People have experienced him as well as different energies. Even phantom cats have been spotted on board. Oh my gosh, yeah, I mean I'll tell that experience but it's so hard to condense because there's been so many. But yeah, it's been a range. But just it's very consistent which and I've investigated a lot of different locations, you know ships, homes, uh, historical, other historical, even asylums and whatnot. And with the Queen Mary there's such a consistency in the activity and you can have one person report almost an identical experience five years apart. Another person almost reports the same thing. So there's just a really good sense of consistency. Is it haunted? My definition for a haunting would be that there has to be some sort of historical tie to the property. So whatever activity is going on there, there has to be some sort of historical tie, some connection to the history, and I think you do have that with the Queen Mary Speaking about the cat.

Speaker 3:

So I was in the woman's changing room area in the former first and third class pool during an investigation. I think this was when was this 2015.? So we were all in this area and I was in one stall and some of the other people were in other stalls and all of a sudden, across from me, this woman shouted out. She said I felt something touch my ankle, so then we all just got quiet and then walking out of that stall. Then we all just got quiet and then walking out of that stall. Many of us saw a cat, almost full bodied, walk out of the entrance to the women's changing rooms, then, after a few moments, walked right back in and meowed right in front of us, and it was captured on the recorder. Oh, these are the types of. I mean, there's so many different types of experiences. I've had my hair kind of tugged. I've been like touched on the shoulder. Phantom smells. There's a, an earthbound. Some people call him the. What is that? Cologne?

Speaker 2:

I forget the name of the old spice.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yeah, I was on and again it could have been another person staying in another room, but it was so pungent in the bathroom and then I walked out into the room and then it was gone. And then it just it was gone like in a matter of seconds and I thought, well, if it was anyone living, it kind of would have stayed after a while. So I mean, it's just there's been so many, it's really hard to describe them all. I try to get them all in my books but it's really hard.

Speaker 3:

Are any of them malevolent? Not in my opinion. Nope, not at all. That is great. Yeah, people have said oh, nicole, you're an expert on the Queen Mary. I disagree with that, because I think the real expert is the ship itself. I feel like I'm a student of the Queen Mary and, yes, I've been going there for years. I have a pretty good idea of the paranormal activity and, based on my own experiences, I do not at all. I think the ship is a very welcoming, very loving sort of vessel. Yes, she's seen tragedy. She's seen death, hard times during the war and whatnot, but no, not one time in my experience have I ever felt threatened. So that's my take.

Speaker 1:

That's my kind of haunting, see, right, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to go anywhere knowing it's haunted.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there was a TV show I'm not going to say the name and the first half of it or whatnot and someone did come on and say this is a ship with evil forces. And I just sat there and it almost made me want to cry because I'm like that is so not the truth. I mean, when you look at her history, she's done so much for humanity, for example lessening World War II by about a year, along with her sistership. So she's a very humanitarian sort of vessel and I think a lot of people go on there. They don't realize and don't appreciate its history and what it's gone through.

Speaker 1:

So Right, and I always wonder too, when people say it's evil, what do they mean by that? What did it do? Besides, you know, violate what we think you know is real and not. But it's not the same as doing something evil, right, right.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, that's a good point. I think there's a difference between the word negative and malevolent, because you, someone, can, you can have an entity that maybe had a negative experience, maybe had a tragic death, but that doesn't mean he or she is negative per se. But a lot of times people go on and maybe, like I said, they don't know the history, they're not familiar with the energy or the environment, and you have to be careful that they're not projecting their own stuff onto it. Sometimes it's a fear of the unknown too.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, or what they think is going to happen, yeah, and so then they kind of misquote the energy there and misinterpret it. But in my experience, no, not at all. It's very welcoming.

Speaker 2:

Are there rooms that you can stay in if you don't want any activity happening while you're in them?

Speaker 3:

That is a hard question to ask, because you know ghosts and paranormal activity doesn't act on you, right?

Speaker 2:

They're not like okay, I'll stay in these three rooms.

Speaker 3:

Right, so there is a haunted rooms list and I think that was generated just because those specific rooms got more reports over the years. But that doesn't mean that, let's say, a room that's not on that list that doesn't mean that it's fair game and you won't have an experience, right? So, yeah, it's hard to say, because you really, no matter where you are on the ship, can have an experience. Just, some rooms are a little bit more reported than others. Experience.

Speaker 2:

Just some rooms are a little bit more reported than than others. Yeah, I don't know how I would do with that. I've had, I've had experiences before only a couple times in life, and one time I was younger and I didn't react real well. And then one time was a little more recently and I was like there's no explanation for that, but I'm okay. Like there's no explanation for that, but I'm okay, right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's hard to know. I mean, I've had experiences where I'll feel maybe someone sitting down on the bed or rustling about in my bags of snacks or whatnot hearing footsteps knocks on the stateroom doors and you open up and there's no one there and you check the halls Sometimes phone calls that can happen.

Speaker 3:

Is that a phone issue? The stateroom doors and you open up and there's no one there and you check the halls Sometimes phone calls that can happen. Is that a phone issue? Maybe plumbing issues faucets turning on, drawers coming out again with the faucets it could be a plumbing issue, but it's just and it can be startling for some people, especially if they're you know they're not familiar. See, for me, I'm familiar with the ship, so it's like it just goes in one ear and out the other. I don't care.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I can see how it can be startling for some people, but a lot of it too. I think is is residual in the sense of that. But I think with the Queen Mary there's a bit of a mix between residual type of phenomena like a psychic imprint, right, actual intelligent energies.

Speaker 2:

I will choose to interact with you yeah, yeah so yeah, have you had um an intelligent interaction that like really stuck with you. That left a big impression on you I have.

Speaker 3:

I have actually and and there, well there's, there's several, I'm trying to think of a more recent one. I would say I'll share this one. So this was not this last July, but the July before. And again, it was the same group of friends that I mentioned earlier. We all got together just to see each other and it was I think July 8th, so it was about 1, see each other, and it was I think July 8th.

Speaker 3:

So I was about 1, 1.30 in my stateroom and I was staying on a deck way aft. So I was the way aft room on starboard. And so about 1, 1.30 and I got in my room and I just decided to do a little EVP session. Now I will advise to not do this sort of thing when you're alone, but I feel like I'm so familiar with the ship I felt comfortable to do it. So I was asking some questions and I got a sense of maybe a World War II serviceman with me. So I started to just kind of have a discussion with him and at one point I asked you know, did you sail on the Queen Mary or the Curacao? So the Curacao was its World War I escort.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 3:

I'm sure you guys have heard of this on October 2nd 1942, the compass was off by about a couple of degrees. So what happened is the Queen Mary rammed in the Curacao, sliced it in half and over 300 of its sailors perished, sadly. So the Queen Mary could not stop. I mean, commodore Ellingworth was like okay, do I stop or do I continue to go, because he had 15,000 souls on board. So he continued to go and they threw out life preservers and whatnot. So I asked this during the session. I said did you sail on the Queen Mary of the Curacao? And then I thought I heard like an audible response of Queen Mary. But then when I went and reviewed my audio a couple days later, this was EVP, so I didn't hear this at the time. There was a capture of a young man and he said I tried to miss the ship, which to me suggests intelligence, and I think he was referring to I tried to miss the Queen Mary, that perhaps, maybe he was on the curacao. Yeah, so that's an example of when you can get a real historical or a response that correlates to not only what you're talking about but to the ship's history, and so that was really touching. But I've had so many. I've had one that was really profound and I try not to talk about him too much just out of respect for the family, but this is the young 18-year-old man who came from Skipton and sadly lost his life on board.

Speaker 3:

This was, let's see, 2015. I was in boiler room number three and I was kind of in a daydream state on what we used to call the Disney stage in there and I was looking. I was just kind of like dazing off and all of a sudden, out of my right peripheral vision, I saw something and when I looked over it was him absolutely, because there is a historical photo of him from the shoulders up and kind of in a sepia black and white tone although that's kind of the lighting in the room anyways and he moved toward me, stopped and smiled and floated back, but I felt such a sense of peace when I saw that and so that was really touching. But I have gosh, there's so many, it's just there's so many. But those are two that more recent ones, I should say.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I do like these friendly ghost experiences.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, and you will get that on the Queen Mary.

Speaker 3:

Generally less afraid. Yeah, it is a very homey and I you know it's interesting with the Queen Mary and some people may listen to this and say, oh my God, she's so full of BS. But in a way I kind of like with the seesaw. The seesaw has a little bit more of a darker sort of history, but I do believe that the ship is sentient in a way. So if you think about that and assuming that's true, you have the ship as one gigantic sentient being and then you have her human and animal spirits. So they kind of interplay and interact with one another and I think it's possible that a lot of the energy is on board, especially the intelligent ones. They know each other, it's hard to explain, it's just in it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, go ahead. It kind of reminds me a little bit of we covered. There's a haunted in in Denver called the Croke Patterson. I don't think the ghosts there are like you never know but there's definitely some that are not nice, malevolent. But so there's a theory, because that mansion and then another house or mansion the name is escaping me they were both built with. I think I called it Manitou sandstone and it's really Manitou sandstone yeah, the garden of the gods.

Speaker 3:

And so there's this theory that maybe there is something about that sandstone that is special and that's why it reminds me of, in a way, the stanley hotel in estes park, colorado, because they think that, again, the geology of it, so the limestone in the courts may hold impressions from the past.

Speaker 2:

Nicole, do you feel like the ship or any of the spirits on the ship recognize you because you've been so many times?

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh, I get asked this all the time. I think so, and I think this is the same for other people that go frequently as well. There have been many times, I can't count, but quite a few usually happens within the first five or 10 minutes that I'm on board and I'll hear male, female, regular tone voice whisper either like hi, nicole, or Nicole's here, and I'm meticulous, okay. So I look around and make sure it's not anyone else that has my name or anything like that, and on these occasions I've looked and I can't it, just I can't. It's no one else that I can, that I can decipher. So crazy. But yeah, I think so.

Speaker 2:

I think so yeah.

Speaker 3:

It's a good feeling.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Especially if it's a welcoming it is peaceful. I don't know. It seemed like in even just a little bit of research that I did, that the ship was very well loved.

Speaker 3:

Oh, absolutely, yeah, very well loved, and still is. I mean her even when she was launched. I say this and this may sound hokey, but I think the ship's destiny was sealed long before her inception. Just, I mean, even with with the depression which halted the building because she was supposed to launch in 1932 and didn't launch until 34. Current cunard chairman, sir percy bates, received thousands of letters from people saying, oh my gosh, please finish job 534, which was her whole number at the time, before she was named, and so, yeah, so it's very well loved, and even to this day as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, in your opinion, is there a certain area or areas on the ship that are the most haunted or have the most activity?

Speaker 3:

I think a lot of the areas that they go to on the tours. They just get more reports. So I think there are many areas on board that aren't traveled to as much by people, so they naturally won't get as many reports. But former first and third class pool, which is a big one, the aft engine room, the old boiler rooms, the X hall, which was actually the forward engine room, and boiler number five, those sorts of areas, public rooms, even the hotel decks. Now, in my experience and this is just based on my experience over the years forward, a and B seem to be pretty active, especially by the old third-class stairway. But again, like I said earlier, it's fair game. But I would say if I had to pick one location on the ship which has had more accounts and more reports, I would probably say the former first and third-class pool. Okay, just because it's considered the heart of the Queen Mary and whatnot, a lot of activity, a lot of reports come out from that area.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, other than Jackie, what are some of the reports that come out of the first and third class pool?

Speaker 3:

So Jackie's one of them. There is another younger girl, maybe about three. She's long blonde hair, a little bit younger. She's been seen in the pool area. She's been seen even in the engine room and boiler rooms. We don't really know who she is. There's another girl that's older, thought to be her name to be Sarah. Again, we don't really know her origins. It's thought that she's maybe. I don't know age, maybe 11, 12, dark brown hair, short brown hair.

Speaker 3:

There have been sightings of people jumping into the pool. There's a woman in like an older bathing suit that is seen jumping into the pool. I actually captured an EVP many, many, many years ago of actual phantom swimming. So the pool has no water right. So you can hear on the clip people doing laps in the pool. There's activity in the women's changing room. From my experience there's a male energy in there. We don't necessarily know who he is.

Speaker 3:

Underneath the stairs Some people call there's another group of, I think a couple of men. Some people call them grumpy. I didn't describe the nickname, but that's. Other investigators have done that. Let's see. There is a. Now I've not spotted this, but I've heard claims of an old Italian POW with no legs that has been spotted in the pool area. So it's quite a few experiences. Jackie's probably the more known type of energy, but she's not just, in my opinion, isolated the pool. I've had encounters with her elsewhere as well. But it's interesting, though, to be in there and imagine seeing a woman and this sighting at least some people that have spotted this she's been seen in black and white who jumps into the?

Speaker 2:

pool.

Speaker 3:

I've not seen it myself, but I've heard many stories.

Speaker 2:

It's crazy and that she's in black and white and not what we would see with our eyes.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, isn't that weird yeah.

Speaker 2:

So you touched on this, maybe a little bit, in your book that you mentioned that there are parts of the ship that are now closed to the public that you've been able to investigate. What areas are those and what kinds of activity have you encountered there?

Speaker 3:

Gargoyle Pit, which is actually below the waterline, and so this was where they actually housed POWs. So imagine standing room, only bread and water being lowered in by buckets the heat during this time, because the ship was designed for the North Atlantic route, so during the war she would sail to a lot of these hot, humid climates. So imagine just being packed in there like sardines, bread and water lowered just in a bucket. Many of them would succumb and die and then their bodies would tragically be thrown unceremoniously overboard. So I had an experience down there once. I was with a team of investigators and we were doing some EVP work and all of a sudden I said I remember me asking the question and I said is there anything that we can do for you? And I didn't hear anything at the time. But again, when I went back and reviewed my audio a few days later, I captured a man. He sounded frail, which is interesting, and he said I'm hungry, and so that really got me.

Speaker 3:

But Patrick Wheelock used to do tours on board the Queen Mary with Beyond Investigation magazine and I think this obviously the stories in the book. He was down there one night and all of a sudden doing a tour and this woman's ponytail started going straight up and so he investigated it to make sure she wasn't. You know there wasn't wire in there or anything like that. There wasn't wire in there or anything like that. Obviously no, they couldn't explain it, but her ponytail literally went straight up and stood up for a few moments before coming down, which is to me incredible. I wasn't there this night, but that's the stories in the book, I think. Haunted Queen of the Seas.

Speaker 3:

So, that's one area. The boiler rooms right now are just accessible on certain tours, so the X Hall isn't really open. Ardek Forward's another area where Matt Schultz used to do investigations on board prior to COVID for many years and he would take people into Ardek Forward, right way forward in the rope locker area, and so that's not really open to the public and I don't think. I don't know if they're going there on tours now. I don't think so, but that was an active area as well, and that's actually right above where the curacao, where the Queen Mary sliced in half the curacao and sustained damage to her bowel.

Speaker 3:

So in that area some people, including myself, would hear phantom cries or screams of men thought to be left over from that residual, of course, from that accident.

Speaker 3:

So those are some of the areas. Again, on tours, they will take you. I just went on the paranormal shipwalk back in April and they do take you to the pool but they don't allow you to go in it right now. So we just got to see a glimpse of it from the bottom just because there's some issues with it, safety issues and whatnot. So it's different. It's different now, but if you go on the tours, I recommend the paranormal ship walk or haunted encounters. They do take you around to enough spots to where you can get an idea of what's going on and learn about the ship and whatnot.

Speaker 2:

So so, other than those two, are there other tours that the Queen Mary does that you would suggest for somebody that's just starting out, Like for Leah and I? We haven't been there yet.

Speaker 3:

Yes, totally so. Queenmarycom. That's its website. If you go under attractions, it's going to list all the tours they have historical, such as their glory days tour. They have the steam and steel tour. I believe they're bringing back the Hollywood tour, so that's going to talk a lot about the Hollywood celebrities that sailed on board both pre-war and post-war. They have a new tour called the VIP tour, and I believe one of my friends took it last, I believe last Friday, so it's like three and a half hours. So you get lunch, you get to go to all these areas and whatnot. I haven't done it, I'd like to do it. And then you have haunted encounters. You have the paranormal shipwalk. They have a new program now called the Gray Ghost Project, which is actually designed for paranormal investigations, and we have that. They also have seances on board now as well. So there's a lot.

Speaker 3:

You know there's a lot for people to do but if you go into the brunch, yeah, oh god, the brunch with the free champagne I have to stay on board or not live home to san Diego. When I do that, okay, because it's crazy, but oh, it's still. It's so good it is. It's worth every penny. It's expensive, but it's worth it. It's so good yeah.

Speaker 1:

I have a feeling the scariest thing that happens on the ship are the people who have a little too much in the bottomless champagne. Oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

And have campaign? Oh yeah, and did you hear about that accident that happened about 10 years ago? Oh no, oh my gosh, I don't remember her name and I just, out of respect for the family, I wouldn't say it anyways, but I think this was about 2015 or 16.

Speaker 3:

So there let's. The story goes is that it was a young girl. She was arguing with her boyfriend. They probably were in the observation bar. She went out on I think it was the Promenade Gangway, climbed up onto the railing and fell, hit her head. There is a dent still where you could see where her head hit. Oh my gosh, she fell into the water below and died. Oh dear, that's awful, and I was actually driving to work that morning and on the radio it hit here and I'm like, oh my.

Speaker 1:

God.

Speaker 3:

It ruined my whole day. I was like how can? That happen. Oh my gosh, you have to be careful when you're drinking on there, just because even the railings up on Sun Deck, it's very easy for someone to maybe fall off.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the observation bar is another fun area too.

Speaker 3:

I mean, they make good drinks and it's just, it's kind of a hot happening spot. They have karaoke and whatnot there. It's fun, it's good stuff.

Speaker 2:

How did you pick so in your book you had old accounts of people that have had something happen while they were on the ship. How did you decide which stories to put into your book?

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's a good in that section. Yeah, that was nice of the ship because they gave me like it was 120 page document that had people's experiences from about, I think, 1978 to up to that time. So I don't, I think I just I don't think I was random, but I wanted to pick the stories. That kind of gave a variety, different locations and different types of experiences. But there were still a lot of other stories in there that I didn't choose, not just because they were not as good as the other ones, it's just room.

Speaker 3:

But the second book I wrote Spirited Queen Mary. That's where I really go into detail spanning a lot of my experiences and the evidence I've captured, as well as other people, and just a little bit more on the hotspot locations, like what to expect, claims and theories with those, as well as more information on a little bit of a background with some of the spirits on board and their personalities. Of course we can't really know exactly who they are, but you know, when you're spending so many years on board you get an idea of who they may be.

Speaker 2:

So that was fun to write that was a fun book to write my copy of your book that I read for our episode. I have things flagged in there because I don't like to like dog your pages and stuff like that.

Speaker 3:

Oh, I like that too. That's funny.

Speaker 2:

I have so many from that section and I really had to. I only talked about a few, but I had a lot covered in there. There was a lot of good stuff in there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and there's a lot of books written about the Queen Mary. It's crazy. I can't believe I've done three so far. It's like nuts, but yeah, it's definitely a fun location to write on and there's so much history to try to condense it. It's crazy. Yeah, it's impossible, it really is you want to do it justice, but at the same time, you don't want to write a 2,000-page book either.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 3:

I can't wait for you guys to come out and go on board and take some tours. Yeah, I think you'll really enjoy it. Long Beach is fun, that whole area of Long Beach and even across the way with Shoreline Village. They have all these little shops and restaurants.

Speaker 1:

It's a lot of fun. Yeah, village, they have all these little shops and restaurants. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, I wanted to ask you because I saw that you have it's a paranormal research society, and it sounds like you just do broader work in this space. I would actually just love to hear to you more about, like, how you got into that and what your work is like.

Speaker 3:

So I've been one of these ever since childhood, just to be interested in the paranormal, ghost, spirit, spirit communication, the afterlife, whatnot. And so I've had experiences going back as far as like four or five Maybe I did earlier and I just don't remember them, but that interest in the unknown stayed with me. So I would read everything I could on it or watch documentaries, TV, and so when I was at the University of Arizona, my maternal grandmother passed away and she called me the night before she passed. I had a discussion with her and then I found out the next morning that she passed away and I was very close with her. So then when I went back out to San Diego for a few days just to be with family, I was there. And then when I came back out to Tucson, I started having odd experiences in my apartment that I didn't ever have prior. So I thought, oh, I just chalked them away as neighbors noise, what have you? But these were doorknobs moving by themselves, a disembodied hand caressing my face, to me actually seeing the apparition of my grandmother, and again I thought is this grief doing this? Am I causing this? But I think she visited me so ever since then. That's when I wanted to really get out in the field and investigate.

Speaker 3:

So I worked with different teams in Southern California and that's when I founded the San Diego Paranormal Research Society in 2009. And so we specialize mainly in San Diego, Southern California. We've investigated private homes, historical sites, many of them in San Diego, Southern California. We've investigated private homes, historical sites, many of them in San Diego businesses. I present on the topic a lot, so I have about 15 different topics that I talk about related to the paranormal. So investigation classes as well that we do for people that want to learn how to investigate the paranormal. We're not that active right now in terms of investigating ever since COVID. We'll probably start maybe more in the spring. But that's kind of how it all came out for me in terms of getting the team up and running and we enjoy it. We also for 10 years I don't know if you've heard of a location that's in Vista and it's called the Rancho Buena Vista Adobe, so it's an old Adobe from 1850. And we actually did tours there for about 10 years private investigations as well. So it's a really nice location, but that's kind of how it all started for me.

Speaker 3:

And then books three on the Queen Mary. I have one on the Adobe. Let's see what else. I just co-authored one with Marie D Jones and Denise Agnew. That's Women on the Fringe and it talks about different women in the paranormal, the Afterlife Chronicle. So it's a book on life after death and the afterlife. Let's see San Diego's Most Wanted it's kind of a take off of America's Most Wanted, I guess, I don't know. So I talk about historical spots in San Diego in that book. And then let's see what else I did. Oh, so the Queen Mary ones. And then in my very first book, which I took out of print, I might, because I want to redo, it was field guide to Southern California hauntings, and then, yeah, that's about it. So I have several more in the queue. I just have been lazy and I haven't started them yet, but someday I will.

Speaker 2:

I will like you have your hands full already.

Speaker 3:

I know, I know. Well, don't we all?

Speaker 1:

it's called adulting right, yeah, not enough time.

Speaker 3:

It's not enough time. No, I gotta sleep somewhere, but this was so much fun, thank you so much for having me on and yeah, we'll meet up one of these days.

Speaker 1:

Nicole, if our listeners want to explore more of your work or follow you on social media, where's the best place to find you?

Speaker 3:

My website is NicoleDStricklandcom, so N-I-C-O-L-E. I don't have an H in there, so NicoleDStricklandcom. And then Facebook. My main page is same at Nicole D Strickland. I'm on X but I'm not on there that much and that's at S D P? R S, nicole. And then Instagram is. Author Nicole Strickland.

Speaker 1:

We'll link it in the show notes too.

Speaker 3:

Sounds good, sounds like a plan, thanks ladies, this was fun.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, this was great, thank you.