The RMS Queen Mary, like many ships of her era, had dog kennels for the lucky canines
that traveled with their owners.
Ocean Liners like the Queen Mary were built to ferry passengers across the North Atlantic,
some people were traveling on important business, and others were migrants, looking to create
a new life in another part of the world.
This meant that on occasion, a dog or two may need to travel with them, and these fabulous
grand liners, which competed for top luxury, usually offered a place to house pets since
they were not allowed to stay with the owners while onboard the ship.
Titanic’s dogs have been a popular topic on YouTube, but let’s switch the conversation
to the Queen Mary, which at the time of her retirement in 1967, was the most famous ship
in the world.
The Mary’s dog kennels were located on the port side of the Sports Deck, just forward
of the middle funnel.
The room measured 30 feet long by 15 feet wide, which is about 42 square meters of floor
space.
There are no photos of the interior as it existed, but this photograph of the dog kennel
aboard SS Normandie might give you an idea of what to expect.
Nothing more than rows of kennels with a drinking basin for the dogs when they are let out of
the crates.
The Queen Mary won the Blue Ribband in 1938, making her officially the fastest ocean liner
in the world for a total of 14 years.
That meant she could sail from Southampton, England to New York in the United States in
just under 4 days.
Obviously, you can’t keep pets cooped up in a tiny cage for the entirety of the voyage,
so for that purpose, Cunard Line employed their young bell boys to walk the dogs in
an adjacent outdoor exercise enclosure.
This area measured about 80 feet long and was fenced-in for the safety of the dogs and
this is where the pets could relieve themselves.
The bell boys who walked the dogs were often tipped very well.
The owners themselves could visit their pets during normal daytime hours simply by accessing
a staircase that led up to the kennels from the Sun Deck below.
From what I’ve read the animals were treated and fed very well, but the details of what
they ate, or what activities they partook in, are very fuzzy.
One of the fascinating details of the dog kennel was the fact that before the ship had
its maiden voyage, the British Royal Family visited the Queen Mary.
The ship’s namesake, Queen Mary the Queen Mother of King Edward VIII, presented the
ship with her royal standard, and in turn, Cunard revealed a marble bass relief medallion
of Queen Mary.
King Edward VIII then toured the ship and when he visited the dog kennels he remarked,
“And not even a lamp post.”
Soon after that, Cunard had a lamp post installed.
On a side note, Queen Elizabeth II was also present on this day to tour the ship, except
she was merely a young princess, having a jolly good time on the slide in the First
Class Children’s Nursery with her sister, Princess Margaret.
The slide was later named the Royal Slide.
The kennels were not just for dogs, but for other pets like cats.
However on the ship’s Maiden Voyage in May of 1936, the kennels were also home to six
chickens belonging to Actress Frances Day.
Ms. Day insisted that she eat the freshly laid eggs from her chickens, every morning
of the voyage despite the fact that the ship was fully loaded in Southampton with 50,000
fresh eggs.
Cunard was always known for its accommodating luxury, and indeed Ms. Day got to eat her
freshly laid eggs.
Over the years, the kennels would house the beloved pets of the rich and famous.
Actress Elizabeth Taylor was a frequent passenger aboard the Queen Mary, and her dogs certainly
traveled with her.
As well as the pugs of the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor…although the royals were allowed
to bring their dogs with them into their stateroom suite which is something no other passenger
was ever allowed.
One of the more interesting stories is that of Charles Lindbergh, the famous inventor,
and aviator.
In March of 1932, Charles’s son was kidnapped and murdered by a man named Bruno Richard
Hauptmann, after Hauptmann was convicted in 1935, Charles Lindbergh and his family were
overwhelmed by the press attention and moved to Europe.
Lindbergh’s dogs followed after them in 1936 on a voyage aboard RMS Queen Mary.
Charles wrote to his mother that he was afraid his dogs “have not appreciated the honor”
of being passengers aboard the Queen Mary.
The dog kennels, besides hosting the pets of the rich and famous, had otherwise an uneventful
history for the remainder of the Mary’s days at sea.
But the Mary’s kennels served as inspiration for the dog kennels aboard the Queen Mary
2, the ship that was launched in 2003.
The Queen Mary 2 is the last true ocean liner still in service, and the largest one ever
constructed.
She is specifically built to ferry passengers across the sometimes dangerous North Atlantic
no matter how rough the weather is, and she is capable of doing it at speeds no cruise
ship can dream of surpassing.
Her dog kennels include a lamp post and fire hydrant for the dogs to relieve themselves,
and much like on the original Queen Mary, the pets get walked by bell boys, have plenty
of space to exercise, and are granted visiting hours with their owners.
When the original RMS Queen Mary retired in 1967 and sailed to Long Beach, the city had
experts determine the use of the ship as a hotel, museum, and convention center.
The recommendation was that the city try to preserve most of the ship.
They even recommended the placement of utility closets so that it wouldn’t disrupt the
historical importance of the ship’s spaces.
Well, unfortunately at the time, the ship was a project of the then city manager John
Mansell.
Mansell famously did not follow the recommendations set forth by the consultants, and the result
was what we see today where a great deal of the ship’s historic interiors were gutted
and either reused as storage spaces, utility closets, or just plain gutted and abandoned
for seemingly no purpose.
One of these spaces was the dog kennels, it just didn’t seem important enough to preserve
this space when they desperately needed an electrical closet.
And so it sits today, relatively out of sight and out of mind, hidden behind a massive air
conditioning unit that was thoughtlessly set on the large exercise area for the dogs.
Anybody that comes across this area of the Sports Deck might never know its significance,
or learn the unique tales of the furry passengers aboard the historic RMS Queen Mary.