Regarding ghost ships, one of the entries in the Life magazine I’m reading is for “The Queen Mary,” a former luxury liner permanently docked and now used as a hotel in Long Beach, Calif. (temporarily closed). When used in World War II, the ship mistakenly sheared another into half and killed 338 people. The entry notes that before its WWII service, the ship had ferried U.S. bon vivants like Fred Astaire and Bob Hope across the Atlantic.
The most haunted place on the former ship , the entry notes, may be what was the first-class pool area, “home to Little Jackie, a five- or six-year-old girl who is perhaps the ship’s most famous ghost, one who is crying out for her mother.” The entry notes other haunting aspects of the ship, including a ghostly officer who died “after drinking poison that he thought was gin.” Well, many say alcohol is poison when taken improperly.
Artistically, two works come to mind. The first is “Ghost Ship,” a supernatural horror movie released in 2002. It seems to have elements of the Long Beach hotel. The other is the novel “Moby Dick,” perhaps the best-known work of fiction dealing with sea-faring. My main memory of the novel is of Captain Ahab pacing the deck in a brooding manner; I pace too.