- ADVERTISEMENT - Those are some of the options as Long Beach weighs the longterm costs of owning a century-old steel ocean liner. And all of the plans come with a significant price tag, ranging from $105 million to retire and scrap the ship, to roughly $500 million to move the vessel and build a new dry dock, according to a report from city-hired engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol. Long Beach has owned the Queen Mary as a tourist attraction since 1967, but for years it has leased the ship to various operators that have struggled to make a profit. The latest operator filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January and the city this month took control of the Queen Mary when former leaseholder, Urban Commons Queensway, walked away from the lease after the ship received no qualified bidders at bankruptcy auction.