Aaron McDowell, a security guard in Stockton who considers himself an amateur historian, recently put his skills to work by helping to restore a Vietnam War-era mine sweeper, the Lucid.McDowell has lodged a bid to take possession of a lifeboat from the aging Queen Mary in Long Beach so he can restore the six-ton craft in his landlocked Central Valley backyard.
But the lifeboats may not get a second life, according to a group of historians and preservationists who worry that the city has imposed too many conditions and too short a bidding period to save all the lifeboats. They fear most of the boats will be junked or sold for scrap metal. The lifeboat debate is the latest chapter in the ship’s 55-year history in Long Beach, where the 1,019-foot-long ship has been docked, drawing 1.6 million visitors a year before it closed in 2020 because of the pandemic. But the ship has also been the subject of numerous disputes among city officials and preservationists over how to repair and restore it, how much to spend and who should oversee the work.
Most of the lifeboats were not originally on the Queen Mary when it sailed its maiden voyage in 1936 but were salvaged over the years from the Mauretania and Queen Elizabeth, according to historians.and is giving potential bidders until March 25 to submit offers. Rohrer and the QMI group say the city should have set aside more time — perhaps as much as six months — to find preservationists around the world interested in the lifeboats.