Queen Mary Visit to Japan Is Proposed

Opening a new chapter in the storied history of the Queen Mary, the ship’s operator is negotiating with Japanese interests to move Long Beach’s best-known icon to Tokyo Bay for at least three years.

The negotiations are being conducted by Joseph F. Prevratil, who operates the Queen Mary under a lease from the city, and are being closely followed by municipal leaders, a number of whom are expressing skepticism.

Though city officials are keeping a safe distance from the discussions at this point, their informal involvement comes at a time when they have been raising the ship’s profile as part of the campaign to promote the Aquarium of the Pacific and the adjacent Queensway Bay development. Both are under construction in what the city hopes will be a $650-million public and private waterfront tourism center.

The ship’s absence from the harbor “would leave a gaping hole,” said City Councilman Alan Lowenthal, who nonetheless was among the city officials saying they would keep an open mind to the negotiations as long as city interests are protected.

Despite past commitments to keep the ship in the city, the Japanese bid is being entertained because it could mean Long Beach would get as much as $40 million to overhaul the ship, parties to the talks say.

City Manager James C. Hankla said such big amounts of money are being discussed that the city has a responsibility to listen. But he added that the discussions about moving the Queen Mary were “premature.”

“We’ve been down a lot of blind alleys with the Queen Mary,” he said, adding that Prevratil has made a number of proposals that “haven’t panned out.”

Promoter-businessman Prevratil has drawn criticism from Queen Mary supporters who would like to see the ship restored to its pristine 1936 condition but have watched with dismay as promotions such as bingo nights and a bungee-jumping tower were added to generate dollars. On the other hand, Prevratil has won his share of supporters because he turned a chronic money loser under previous operators into a profit-maker for the city.

Estimates by several sources are that the city has spent at least $100 million on the ship since bringing it to Long Beach in 1967, and that private managers have lost an additional $50 million.

Only a few details of the proposed deal have been released. The City Council would have to approve any proposal to move the ship.

Minimally, Prevratil said he wants the Japanese investors to put up $40 million to outfit and upgrade the ship, provide $5 million to tow it to Japan and another $5 million to tow it back, plus pay the city millions in fees for use of the ship while it is in Tokyo Bay.

The Japanese want the ship as a tourist attraction and as a ready-built 365-room hotel, Prevratil said.

The Queen Mary, the flagship of the Cunard steamship line during its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, is not considered seaworthy. It would have to be towed to Japan on special floats, a trip that would take 55 days, Prevratil said. Critics argue that work done to turn the ship into a tourist attraction so compromised its structural soundness that it might not survive the trans-Pacific crossing.

Prevratil said that the deal stood a 50-50 chance of coming together and that he should know by late January.

Prevratil would not disclose the Japanese investors.

he said he is talking to, but he said he has made three trips to Tokyo at their invitation.

Critics are starting to protest.

“Prevratil can talk about anything he wants to, but getting it done and getting it approved are two very big hurdles,” said John Thompson, a community activist who serves as volunteer president of the Historical Society of Long Beach. “The ship is still owned by the citizens of Long Beach.”