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Lady in Waiting
This is the proud and sad story of SS United States
In 1952, the U.S. Navy in cooperation with cruise line United States Lines set out to build a grand ocean liner, that was to be America's answer to Cunard's "Queens" ships, the RMS Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and later the QE2. She would be just as luxurious and opulent on the outside, but deep in her insides she held a secret that made her special. In the gathering Cold War, the Navy wanted a boat that could easily be converted to a troop carrier or a hospital ship, just as her sister ship SS America had been during World War II. As such, the United States was built heavily compartmentalized-- standard on a warship but absolutely unheard of on an ocean liner. One compartment gets opened-up in an attack, and the rest of the ship keeps going. In addition, there wasn't one stitch of wood on board other than the butcher blocks in the galleys-- even the piano was made of a special, fire-retardant variety (throughout the ship exotic materials like spun glass were used in wood's place so the passengers wouldn't miss it). This obsession with survivability stretched right down to the engine rooms-- two, completely redundant and identical, but in different parts of the ship so the boat could keep steaming in the event of attack.
And it was those engines, monstrous, steam powered babies-- the most powerful on any ship until the advent of nuclear-powered supercarriers-- that gave United States her greatest triumph-- the fastest transatlantic crossing of all time, a record the ship amazingly still holds.
As the largest (nearly 1000 feet), heaviest, most opulent, and almost certainly last ocean liner built entirely by American hands, she was truly the national flagship, and women in their finest long gloves and men in hats were proud to make passage aboard her. Over countless miles and unforgettable voyages, she introduced American pride, ingenuity, and luxury to the world, her signature red white and blue funnels towering over the water, and gleaming from top to bottom.
But, economics, the jet engine, and the passage of decades got the better of SS United States. Time in particular ran away from the ship, and even at her fastest, she couldn't catch up.
Today, nearly six decades after her keel was laid down, SS United States is lashed by garish blue nylon line, rusting and rotting, to a pier in South Philadelphia. What used to proudly look out across the Seven Seas now looks down on an Ikea. Thousands of people shuffle by without a thought and barely a glance, seemingly in service to a use-it-up-and-throw-it-away culture to which the United States is utterly foreign.
There is hope for this grand ship, but it is fading. After a long line of well-intentioned, but ill-financed owners, this piece of Americana is now controlled by Asian-parented Norwegian Cruise Line. NCL has vowed to restore her to sailing condition-- but with the NCL America line losing money, and estimates to make United States seaworthy again running in the hundreds of millions, that looks less and less possible. Even if she could be made to sail again, SOLAS safety regulations would force the addition of additional superstructure and lifeboats, making her look nothing like her designers intended. And finally, there is the matter of the SS France, later SS Norway, another national flagship that NCL took ownership of, that was later broken for scrap off a lonely beach in India. The legality of that breaking is still in dispute.
What was once, and still is, the fastest ship in the sea now sits still. But every so often, she pulls against those ugly blue lines as if to say, "come on, let's make just one last trip."
If you are as fascinated by this ship's past, and as horrified by her probable future, as I am, please visit:
ssunitedstatesconservancy.org/SSUS/Home.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ss_united_states
(photo and description copyright 2008 John J. Griffin)
Lady in Waiting
This is the proud and sad story of SS United States
In 1952, the U.S. Navy in cooperation with cruise line United States Lines set out to build a grand ocean liner, that was to be America's answer to Cunard's "Queens" ships, the RMS Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and later the QE2. She would be just as luxurious and opulent on the outside, but deep in her insides she held a secret that made her special. In the gathering Cold War, the Navy wanted a boat that could easily be converted to a troop carrier or a hospital ship, just as her sister ship SS America had been during World War II. As such, the United States was built heavily compartmentalized-- standard on a warship but absolutely unheard of on an ocean liner. One compartment gets opened-up in an attack, and the rest of the ship keeps going. In addition, there wasn't one stitch of wood on board other than the butcher blocks in the galleys-- even the piano was made of a special, fire-retardant variety (throughout the ship exotic materials like spun glass were used in wood's place so the passengers wouldn't miss it). This obsession with survivability stretched right down to the engine rooms-- two, completely redundant and identical, but in different parts of the ship so the boat could keep steaming in the event of attack.
And it was those engines, monstrous, steam powered babies-- the most powerful on any ship until the advent of nuclear-powered supercarriers-- that gave United States her greatest triumph-- the fastest transatlantic crossing of all time, a record the ship amazingly still holds.
As the largest (nearly 1000 feet), heaviest, most opulent, and almost certainly last ocean liner built entirely by American hands, she was truly the national flagship, and women in their finest long gloves and men in hats were proud to make passage aboard her. Over countless miles and unforgettable voyages, she introduced American pride, ingenuity, and luxury to the world, her signature red white and blue funnels towering over the water, and gleaming from top to bottom.
But, economics, the jet engine, and the passage of decades got the better of SS United States. Time in particular ran away from the ship, and even at her fastest, she couldn't catch up.
Today, nearly six decades after her keel was laid down, SS United States is lashed by garish blue nylon line, rusting and rotting, to a pier in South Philadelphia. What used to proudly look out across the Seven Seas now looks down on an Ikea. Thousands of people shuffle by without a thought and barely a glance, seemingly in service to a use-it-up-and-throw-it-away culture to which the United States is utterly foreign.
There is hope for this grand ship, but it is fading. After a long line of well-intentioned, but ill-financed owners, this piece of Americana is now controlled by Asian-parented Norwegian Cruise Line. NCL has vowed to restore her to sailing condition-- but with the NCL America line losing money, and estimates to make United States seaworthy again running in the hundreds of millions, that looks less and less possible. Even if she could be made to sail again, SOLAS safety regulations would force the addition of additional superstructure and lifeboats, making her look nothing like her designers intended. And finally, there is the matter of the SS France, later SS Norway, another national flagship that NCL took ownership of, that was later broken for scrap off a lonely beach in India. The legality of that breaking is still in dispute.
What was once, and still is, the fastest ship in the sea now sits still. But every so often, she pulls against those ugly blue lines as if to say, "come on, let's make just one last trip."
If you are as fascinated by this ship's past, and as horrified by her probable future, as I am, please visit:
ssunitedstatesconservancy.org/SSUS/Home.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ss_united_states
(photo and description copyright 2008 John J. Griffin)