Maiden Voyage

Commodore Harry Manning (center) made the record setting maiden voyage on the S.S. UNITED STATES in July 1952. The Eastbound transit from New York to England was 3 days 10 hours 40 minutes. Margaret Truman was a passenger and they let her blow the ship's whistle passing Bishop Rock (the finishing line). After receiving all the awards, Manning did not stay on very long. It was said that in an earlier career he had been a member of Amelia Earhart's aeronautical team. He was fortunate to have left the air and turned to the sea before her fateful flight. In 1994 a colleague of mine in London said he felt there was a similarity between the BIG U and the TITANIC - except for their fates - in that - Both sought to break the record crossing on their maiden voyage - both had their Naval Architects on board (ours being William Gibbs) -and both had owner's family members on board (ours being Gen. John M. Franklin's sister). Our ship's Westbound crossing was also a record averaging 34.51 knots. These transit times were both record crossings taking the Blue Riband from Cunard's QUEEN MARY 1. (Above excerpted from "The Eagle Blue Chronicles".
P.S. There is a current book published by Simon & Schuster about Mr. Gibbs titled "A Man and His Ship." His grand-daughter is a force behind the Conservancy efforts to save the ship.
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BIG U Revisited V

Between voyages the ship spent several days docked in New York to re-fuel, take on stores, change laundry, etc. and give the crew time in the city. It also provided opportunity for "events". In the mid 1950s the Colgate Comedy Hour was competing with the Ed Sullivan Show for the TV audience on Sunday night. So in March 1955 Colgate brought their show to Pier 86 on the Hudson River with the S.S. UNITED STATES as a backdrop with the gangway down. Appearing on the gangway at the left are singer Gordon MacRae and the Gabor sisters with their mama and the band playing on the pier. It was a bit of a coup for Colgate as Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town was performing in a Manhattan studio several blocks away. This was featured in Life Magazine at the time and was early in the vessel's active lifetime.

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BIG U Revisited IV

The S.S. UNITED STATES was built at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. in Newport News, Virginia which makes up part of the Hampton Roads. Her maiden voyage was in July 1952 and she was active until 1969 during which time she would make periodic visits to the "yard" for routine drydocking. When out of the "yard" it was an overnight sailing back to New York and an ideal opportunity for shipboard entertaining. Our Norfolk District Manager was a good old boy with many friends and clients in the tobacco industry and tobacco was the number one export from Norfolk at the time. He was given permission to entertain "freight customers" on those overnight junkets  - call them "non-paying passengers" - one way - I never learned how they all got back to Norfolk but it must have been a happy bunch of Virginians.
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Next - TBA (Mon.)

Avoirdupois

I just read where the Samoa Airline is charging airline fares by the kilo - i.e. your personal weight plus baggage. Their island hopping aircraft are small and the average Samoan can be obese - and weight affects fuel consumption. Some years ago I was going down island in the West Indies using a carrier LIAT (Leeward Islands Air Transport). These were small propeller driven planes where the pilot handled and stowed the baggage. He sized up his four passengers by weight and girth and placed us and the baggage in strategic locations in the cabin so as to balance the "weight." Considering all the aggravations we currently undergo at our airports, the last thing we want to see are SCALES.
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Next - BIG U Revisited IV

BIG U Revisited III

The second (Aft) smokestack on the S.S. UNITED STATES was a "false funnel" housing the dog kennel which could accommodate up to 20 canines. Some wealthy passengers traveled with more than one pet. Seemingly unrelated, the deck chair blankets were two toned - gray plaid on one side  and rose plaid on the reverse made by a woolen mill in the Mid-west U.S.A. I was privileged to obtain several at auction  - still new in their envelopes - when the S.S. AMERICA was taken out of service. On occasion these lovely wraps could be "holed" by errant pipe smoker's ashes and were no longer suitable for the deck steward to tuck you in. I learned much later that U.S. Lines employed several seamstresses at Pier 62 North River (Hudson) who cut out the burn holes and tailored the smaller blanket for the kennel master to use for the dogs' comfort. Nothing wasted! Wishing the Conservancy good luck in their efforts to save our ship from the scrap yard.
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Next - TBA

The Home of Golf

Most people know that the game of golf was invented in Scotland when a few lads went out with sticks and struck a small white thing thru the links as their courses are called - and then struck it again and again. Last week Tiger Woods took home a million dollars for four days work doing the same thing. Now comes Donald Trump who has built a golf course near Aberdeen in Northern Scotland only to find that the government there has erected a wind farm offshore with eleven HUGE windmills
that are spoiling the esthetic view from his course. His protests have been in vain. He also has plans for a hotel in the area. When I think of The Donald's current predicament,  it reminds me of that Irish song -"Me Father he was ORANGE and me mother she was GREEN."
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Next - TBA

BIG U Revisited II

During the off season on the North Atlantic the S.S. UNITED STATES would sail on cruises to the Caribbean and elsewhere. One such trip took her to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The harbor at Charlotte Amalie is a lovely crescent shape but not deep enough to allow our vessel to dock so she would anchor offshore and shuttle passengers to the landing via ship's tenders. While several hundred passengers and cruise staffers were ashore visiting the duty free shops, a storm kicked up causing choppy water in the anchorage. The Captain, not wanting the ship to touch bottom, hoisted anchor and moved further offshore. When the shoppers returned to the landing with their duty free merchandise there were no tenders in sight. So this group along with a few company staffers spent the night in a local gymnasium. Upon returning on board it was reported that some disgruntled passengers hanged the Captain in effigy. But he kept the ship casualty free and she remained that way for seventeen years and four hundred voyages transporting over one million passengers.
(Above excerpted from "The Eagle Blue Chronicles" February 13, 2006 EagleBlue No. 6)
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Next - The Home of Golf