We will be flying north soon for the holidays and each year flying into Philadelphia we pass right over the faded hull of the great ocean liner S.S. UNITED STATES still moored at her idle berth on the Delaware River. But in her glory days - 1952/1969 - she made over 300 plus North Atlantic round trips - under four masters - all without a casualty. But she also made a few Caribbean cruises and one took her to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The port of Charlotte Amalie is a lovely crescent shaped harbor but not deep enough to enable this size liner to berth. Accordingly, the vessel dropped anchor and passengers were ferried ashore via tenders. While many were ashore a storm kicked up causing the seas to surge and the captain fearing that the ship might touch bottom, hoisted anchor and moved further out to deeper water. When the shoreside passengers returned to the dock with their duty free merchandise there were no tenders to take them back to the ship and several hundred - including some staffers - spent the night in a school gymnasium. There was much gnashing of teeth and upon their eventual return some of the passengers hanged the captain in effigy. But he kept the vessel safe and her spotless record intact.
tjs
(above excerpted from Eagleblue No. 6 - Feb. 13, 2006)
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