Three Nights on the Queen Mary

By: NORA GRAVES

The following article was contributed by Nora Graves and edited by Katherine Clements.

LONG BEACH —I stayed on the Queen Mary in November 2012 as a birthday present and was there for 4 days and 3 nights. I was in Room A 131. I had a digital camera at the time and could not look at the actual photos until I got home and loaded them on my computer. There were orbs everywhere, a common occurrence on this ship I understand. However, my experiences were anything but common, at least to me. Let me be clear. I did not go to the Queen Mary to ghost shop, I am very interested in British Royalty and wanted to tour the Windsor Suite and see other places of interest that related to the British Royal Family. I got to accomplish that while I was there. The Queen Mary was hosting an event featuring gowns of the late Princess Diana. I got to attend this event as well.

On my first night, the TV turned on and off by itself about three times. I just attributed it to faulty batteries, and it did not happen again during my stay.

However I was awakened in the middle of the night by the sounds of a party. Loud voic- es, laughter, clinking glasses... I looked out the porthole which overlooked the water and there were no party boats around, in fact nothing was near. I looked out in the hallway and could see and hear nothing. When I inquired at the front desk, the next day, I was told the room next to mine was empty and had been all weekend.

Also that morning the light in my bathroom burned out so I reported it to the front desk at the same time and they said they would have a maintenance worker repair it. I went and had breakfast and came back to the room. The light had been repaired. I was in the room about 30 minutes getting ready to go on the self-guided tour when a maintenance man knocked on my door and said he was there to fix the bathroom light. When I told him it had already been repaired, he looked puzzled and showed me his work order. He said it was his first job of the day. Who and how did the light get repaired?

On the self-guided tour, I was pretty much alone for much of the time. I got to the steps to the Isolation Ward and could not make myself go down the steps. I felt uneasy and unsafe as if I was not alone. I felt closed in even though did not go down the steps.

I continued on to the bridge and around the ship for I really do not know how long but got turned around and needed to find a rest room. I asked a painter near the back of the ship to assist, and he showed me where a staff stairwell was near the stacks that led to a rest room near the playroom inside. When I got back to the outside of the ship, there was no evidence of a painter or fresh paint anywhere. The painter had overalls and dark hair with a mustache. I did ask a woman who was walking near the lifeboats if she had

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When I went on the guided night Ghost tour, nothing out of the ordinary happened in the usual places such as the swimming pool, vortex, or Door 13. I took several photos (when later loaded showed several orbs ). However, when I got into the boiler room, my camera battery went dead. It was a new battery for the tour so it should have lasted. The tour guide said that obligation. Regardless of the nature of the particular lien, the question of whether a lien is valid depends on whether various requirements have been met, all separate from the question of whether the money is actually owed. For maritime liens, the underlying claim must be something that provides a service or benefit to the vessel (rather than to the owner).

The “service to the vessel” requirement leads to some unexpected outcomes. For example, looking at our reader’s question, a contract for the purchase and sale of a vessel would seem to most of us to be a maritime contract. In fact, it is not. A vessel purchase contract establishes rights and responsibilities between the buyer and seller, but it does not provide a service to the vessel. This extends to any provision of the contract, including a provision for the recovery of attorneys’ fees in a dispute.

Technically, even if you have a true maritime contract, such as a contract to provide fuel to a vessel, and that contract calls for the recovery of attorneys fees in a dispute, a maritime lien asserted for unpaid fuel delivery invoices cannot include a claim for recovery of attorneys’ fees. Legal fees (maritime or otherwise) do not give rise to a maritime lien, because attorneys do not provide a service to the vessel. They provide a service to the vessel owner or other individual.

It should be noted that the exclusion of attorneys’ fees from the amount secured by a maritime lien has no effect on the underlying claim for fees. The other side in the litigation will still owe the money. This discussion refers only to the maritime lien, and as such, only to the question of whether the boat can be used as collateral for the recovery of the fees.

The only real exception to this rule ex-

Queen Mary

From page 6 happens frequently. When we got out of the boiler room to some common area, the battery worked great and performed perfectly for the rest of the evening. Lastly was the propeller room. I was still with the tour group but got a very bad feeling when looking at this pro - cluding attorneys’ fees from a maritime l ien relates to an attorneys’ fees clause found in a Preferred Ship Mortgage (a mortgage on a Coast Guard documented vessel). A mortgage is technically not a maritime lien because it does not provide a service to the vessel. Similar to a purchase and sale contract, a mortgage provides a service to the buyer or owner of the vessel.

A Preferred Ship Mortgage is a product of a statute (the Federal Ship Mortgage Act; 46 U.S. Code § 31321) that uses t he same enforcement procedures that are used to enforce a maritime lien. It is the only claim of this sort that exists only if it is supported by a written contract (verbal agreements for other services provided to a vessel do give rise to a maritime lien). As such, courts have found that everything in that mortgage contract falls under the statutory claim against the vessel for the enforcement of the mortgage.

Like most other areas of maritime law, maritime liens in general, and specifically the recovery of attorneys fees in connection with a maritime disputed, can lead to a nuanced discussion of arcane legal concepts that may not be familiar to general legal practitioners.. Always look to an experienced maritime attorney for answers.

David Weil is licensed to practice law in the state of California and as such, some of the information provided in this column may not be applicable in a jurisdiction outside of California. Please note also that no two legal situations are alike, and it is impossible to provide accurate legal advice without knowing all the facts of a particular situation. Therefore, the information provided in this column should not be regarded as individual legal advice, and readers should not act upon this information without seeking the opinion of an attorney in their home state.

Point Loma Marina

Jimmy

Pier

peller. I felt closed in, breathing seemed more difficult and I felt unsafe. I had to get out of there quickly and actually had to exit the ship and go outside before the feeling went away.

I had a lovely birthday brunch in the Main Dining room and left quite happy. When I got home and saw my photos, I was amazed.

Nora Graves

Open