THE FASTEST PASSENGER SHIP IN THE WORLD

July 17, 1964

My wife and I have crossed the Atlantic by ship three times, twice with the SS United States and once aboard the SS France.

THE FIRST TRIP

 
July 17, 1964, my wife and I and our 6-month old baby departed New York for Europe aboard the fastest passenger ship in the world. We reached the Port of Lehavre, France on July 23 after just six days, and took the "Boat Train" to Paris. We shall never forget the railway station in Paris, where we had to wait six hours for a train to Austria. We searched in vain for a waiting room; but the only chairs were in a restaurant and the very brusque waiter made it clear that we were only to use a chair if we were eating. We had no interest in eating for six hours, so asked at the ticket booth if there was a waiting room. No one understood English. Our six-month-old son desperately needed a change of diapers, so my wife performed the task on top of a suitcase in the center of the hall. I searched the entire station for a trash can for the disposable diaper and finally discovered an entire row of them outside on the sidewalk. When our baby decided that it was time for a drink, he refused to accept another unheated bottle! His ear-piercing screams reverberated from the polished marble floors and walls of the station. A thousand eyes stared as we tried to settle him, but it was useless. Finally, a friendly American Army officer saw our plight and ushered us into the American Servicemen's Lounge and warmed the baby's bottle for us. The remainder of our stay was spent on their plush leather sofa.

This Revell model of the SS United States cost only $1.39 in 1964 and is on display in our living room. We even kept the box.

THE SECOND TRIP

Four years later, on September 25, 1968, we again boarded the SS United States for what would be the ship’s final Atlantic round trip. We sailed first to Dover, England and then on to Bremerhafen, Germany, where we disembarked on September 31. This time, we had two lively boys and my wife was harboring a stowaway daughter, born in May.

On the second day out of New York, a storm warning was posted, and on the third day, our ship was heaving and rocking like a chip of wood. The light weight and narrow hull made the ship fast, but these features certainly didn’t help in a storm! When we asked a sailor if he considered this a bad storm, he just laughed, "I've been working on this ship since it was built and have weathered many a storm. When it gets bad enough, they string ropes in the hallways to hang onto." The following day, there were ropes in the halls and stairways.

The dining room was nearly deserted because so many passengers were seasick; even stewards and waiters were sick. The tables had sideboards that could be slid up to keep things from falling off the edge, and our coffee cups were only half-filled. Because of the size of our family, we booked our passage in the cheapest cabins available and now we understood why they were cheap. The cabin was located at the very front of the ship with a porthole window, which means we experienced the worst of both the heaving and tossing motions. The above-mentioned sailor told us that he had never experienced such a storm in his twenty-eight years at sea!

I have often wished that we had a movie camera for that trip. The scene in the ship nursery would be a sure winner on the "Funniest Home Video" TV show. Our boys loved to play with the beautiful toys and thanks to the storm, there were few children to share them with. Most nursery floors are now carpeted, but for some unknown reason, the SS United States nursery had a highly polished tile floor. The children soon became accustomed to the pitching and heaving ship and played with their toys while sliding across the room. When they neared the wall, they extended one arm to brace themselves. When the ship rolled on its other side, they would continue playing again until they had to reach out for the opposite wall!

Amazingly, none of us got seasick, but when we docked in Bremerhafen, our youngest complained that the ground was moving! A few seconds later he got "docksick" and threw up!

The SS United States was placed in mothballs after her return to America.
 

Souvenirs include menus, a flag from the gala dinner table, soap and a sailor's hat given to one of our boys. We even have a steamer trunk which we used on the voyages with baggage room stickers  attached.

THE THIRD TRIP

Incidentally, our June 26-July 3, 1974 Atlantic crossing aboard the SS France, was also it’s final voyage before being sold to Norway.
 

Because it was the last trip of the SS France, the steward gave us half a dozen ash trays as souvenirs.

THE SS UNITED STATES TODAY

The once mighty ocean liner quietly awaits its fate near the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia. Here are a few photos taken from my brother's boat and from the fence.