Beatrice Muller

Beatrice Emily DuMont Muller (April 24, 1919 – October 4, 2013) was an American author and long-term passenger on cruise ships. Muller was born in 1919 and raised in Somerville, New Jersey, during the Great Depression. In 1942, she married Robert Arthur Muller, a chemical engineer, and they raised two sons in a house in Bound Brook, New Jersey. The couple went on a world cruise on the Cunard Line ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1995, the year Robert retired. As they enjoyed the experience, they returned every subsequent year for the ship's world cruise. During the 1999 world cruise, Robert died on the ship. In 10 months, Muller sold all her possessions and relocated to the Queen Elizabeth 2 to be a full-time passenger.

Muller lived on the Queen Elizabeth 2 between January 2000 and November 2008, the month the ship was moved to Dubai to become a floating hotel. She expressed interest in living on the Queen Mary 2 next, and she continued living on cruise ships until 2009. In 2010, she was living in New Jersey, where she was working on Queen Elizabeth 2: My Home In Paradise, a book she published in 2011 that described her experiences on the ship. Muller died in 2013 at age 94.

Early life Beatrice Emily DuMont Muller was born on April 24, 1919, to Newton Wesley DuMont (1889 or 1890 – 1936) and Helen Stout (1894 or 1895 – 1969). In 1630, Muller's ancestors, who were Huguenots, fled France for America. Her father began his career as an auto mechanic, was the owner of a radio outlet, served in the 2nd New Jersey Infantry, was a firefighter for 25 years, and was a member of Solomon's Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons.

Muller grew up in Somerville, New Jersey, during the Great Depression. She was a passenger saved from the SS Morro Castle when it burned off New Jersey in 1934. Muller was in the Girl Scouts of the USA and received a diploma from Somerville High School. On September 12, 1942, at the Second Reformed Church in Somerville, she married Robert Arthur Muller, who worked as a chemical engineer. The couple had two sons, Allan (born in 1949 or 1950) and Geoffrey (born in 1955 or 1956). During the summer, the family traveled to the Maine coast or South Carolina coast to board boats and spend time at sea. In 1961, she and her husband founded a Myrtle Beach–based engineering consulting company, and in 1964, they returned to New Jersey. At each port, they would visit the city to "keep [their] land legs". While receiving care in the ship's hospital, he died, having been rescued by the ship's physician in two earlier incidents. Allan, the couple's older son, arranged to have Robert cremated when the ship docked in Southampton in England. Including two houses she owned in New Jersey and Maine, she sold nearly all her belongings in the following 10 months but retained her Briarcliffe Acres, South Carolina, house as a rental. Every year, Queen Elizabeth 2 went on a 108-day world cruise. In the world cruise beginning around 2006 or 2007, it visited five continents, 25 countries, and 41 cities, and Muller said her favorite cities to visit were Auckland and Hong Kong. Her room was a interior cabin. The passenger line came up with the costs for sailings in the immediate future, and Muller and a Cunard vice president discussed it every January. After she received a spreadsheet of the prices, Muller prepaid her cruises by 60 days. She purchased her fare using a travel agent. Crew members called her Bea, and she remembered all of their names. She read books in her cabin, citing the Harry Potter book series as a favorite. She met celebrities on the ship including Bill Cosby, Vic Damone, and Marvin Hamlisch. Security measures implemented after the September 11 attacks barred her from having friends on board as guests for tea or lunch when the ship stopped at ports. On the ship on its last day with Cunard Line, Muller was joined by her son Allan as she observed the ship dock at the Mina Rashid cruise terminal, the British flags lowered, and the Middle Eastern purchasers formally take custody of the ship. After disembarking from Queen Elizabeth 2 for the last time, she planned to fly from the United Arab Emirates back to the United States. Of MS Queen Victoria, Muller told The Times in a 2008 interview that the ship "is lovely but she's not built to go as far as these ocean liners—she's not as strong".

In 2008, Muller was an "official resident" of Somerville, New Jersey, while she was still living on cruise ships. The president of Cunard had said to her, "Write your book—I'll sell it on my ship". She died on October 4, 2013, at 94 years old.