After 42 years of owning the thing, the city of Long Beach still doesn’t really know what to do with the Queen Mary. Luckily for us, the 26-year-old president of a small Las Vegas entertainment company is here to save the day!
Meet Robert Sides III, who is the subject of this LA Times article by Louis Sahagun. Sides III would like to pour about $1.5 billion into making the Queen Mary seaworthy for the first time in four decades, please. This would be very bad news for the LA Times, as they would then have no reason to cover the city of Long Beach.
Of course, there are serious questions as to whether the ship can even sail again. And if it could, in what capacity it could operate. The Queen Mary is prohibited from operating as a trade ship or a commercial cruiseliner, which doesn’t leave many doors open for young Mr. Sides III.
Still, there is a bright side to this story. This magical quote:
The Queen Mary is in disrepair. She is at that stage in life when she could implode at any moment. Instead of rivets, nuts and bolts, she is held together by crustaceans.
Thank you for that, Cairngorm Entertainment Group president Tim Cook.
By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor