Posted on 10/06/2009 8:47:30 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
PHILADELPHIA -- Dan McSweeney has a few ideas for saving the United States.
That would be the SS United States -- the fastest ocean liner in the world. Bigger than the Titanic and fast enough to water-ski behind, she's a steamship so sophisticated, her capabilities remained a Cold War secret for decades.
She transported royalty and starlets. Her crew served frog legs in first class. Before the dawn of the jet age, the SS United States was the Concorde of her era. 'Big U' in Big Trouble?
Admirers call her the "Big U." Today, she could be in big trouble.
The once-proud ship is rusting away in the Delaware River, across from an Ikea. Its owner, cruise line NCL Group, has put her up for sale.
"This is the endgame," says Mr. McSweeney, a 39-year-old former active duty Marine officer with infectious enthusiasm for the vessel. Sometimes he goes on ship-touching trips, sailing into the river with a few like-minded individuals to put their hands on the hull.
Mr. McSweeney and a small band of the ship's most loyal fans fear the worst: That the Big U will get sold to "ship breakers" -- metal scavengers who will gut and fillet the SS United States on a beach somewhere in India, where many old ships go to die.
The symbolism isn't lost on them. "What does it say if the United States is towed to Asia for scrap?" asks Steven Ujifusa, another ship aficionado.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
When the Queen Mary was first brought to Long Beach, maybe 1986, I was doing a trade show at the local arena and had finished setting up the booth early and just decided to wander down to the QM to take a closer look (about 1 mile from the arena) There was a gangway to the pier and I just walked aboard. I wandered all over the ship and saw nobody. Not a soul. I am sure I was the only one on board, it was simply sitting there, wide open. I wandered around the thing for a couple of hours, which was pretty cool. But it was kind of like a Twilight Zone episode. The long galleries of passenger cabins were amazing, there must have been literal forests of the tightest birdseye maple ever seen in the paneling.
It would cost simply astronomical amounts of money to refurb these ships as tourist attractions, considering the types of ADA (elevators and aisle widths and wheelchair access and turnarounds in bathrooms) and fire and code requirements, not to mention the amounts of dockside parking that would be required to support economic feasibility for these things as attractions. It’s been tried half a dozen times, never successfully as I can recall; if Disney couldn’t make it work w/the QM, it’s hard to see who could make it work. It’s one thing to refurb a Jeremiah O’Brien liberty ship, that’s just grey steel and 1/3 as long. But to make a dilapidated QM into the kind of upscale attraction it would need to be would cost zillions.
The other thing is that many millions of people have been on huge ships because 3-4-5 day cruises are a pretty common thing to do, really, only costing as much as an upscale hotel for few-day cruises. So I don’t think the intrigue of being on a “giant ship” is all that big a deal any more.
If it is simply economically unfeasible to return her to being an ocean liner, I wonder if someone couldn’t make a great hotel out of her?
“When the Queen Mary was first brought to Long Beach, maybe 1986,.....”
I think that was 1968. Transposed numbers I s’pose. Pier “E”, Berth 132 IIRC. Yes, she was most impressive, and they stripped her of almost everything. Sold off all sorts of history. I knew a man that bought much of what was on board for resale.
Shortly after the Mary was moved from that birth it became the temporary home to ITS, which then moved in 1971 to Pier “J” Berth 234.
She might have been berthed at LB since 1968 but my adventure I know was in 1986 because that’s the only year I worked for the company who sponsored the booth at that show. (Maybe end of 1985/start of 1987) I 100% know it was the year the Challenger blew up.
However, it’s more than possible I misused the term “first”....brought to LB. I moved to LA in 1982. I actually have no idea when she was “first” brought there.
When I wandered thru, she was not what I would call “stripped”. There was upholstery on the seats in the bars. There were hinges on doors. All over the place were beautiful handrails with a wonderful nickel-steel patina. There was an eentsy smell of mold/mildew. It was neglected, peeling-paint style, but certainly not vandalized. Heh, today, left open in that condition for 2 weeks it would have 3000+ gang graffiti tags spray painted on every flat surface as well as having everything screwed in ripped out, every piece of glass smashed, and immense piles of trash piled up in every room where there was a place to sit and smoke crack.
“If it is simply economically unfeasible to return her to being an ocean liner, I wonder if someone couldn’t make a great hotel out of her?”
It exists as that, today, you can call and book a room.
http://queenmary-px.trvlclick.com/
It is a tad problematical in some respects, in that the a/c isn’t the greatest, the plumbing fixtures are a tad dated, and the walls between cabins are from an era when people talked in hushed voices in a considerate fashion instead of wandering down long hallways flaming drunk and making all the GD noise they possibly can. You are also semi-captive and the service isn’t exactly stellar. It’s fine for the historical experience a time or two but it isn’t as comfortable as a Hyatt or whatever.
When I was a kid my aunt sailed to Europe every year on a different country’s ship, and we’d go to see her off. I remember her traveling on the United States, the Ile de France, one of the Cunard Q’s, the Christofo Columbo. That was one helluva way to travel! And just being on the ship, seeing the opulence was wonderful fun for a kid who lived an entirely middle-working class existence. Hadn’t even thought about it in years till this thread tonite.
Must have been opulent-plus!
The big and especially the newer cruise ships still are, for the most part. I worked on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship Jewel of the Seas 2004-2005 as a musician and it was pretty posh, as finely appointed as any high end hotel. Crew quarters...ehhh, different story!
“Crew quarters...ehhh, different story!”
Was it ever thus!
“my adventure I know was in 1986 because that’s the only year I worked for the company who sponsored the booth at that show.”
Hmmmmmm interesting. I screwed up BTW. I realized after I’d gone back to bed that I’d posted berth 132 when in fact she was at berth “E”122 in 1968, which is at the South end of Terminal Island, and at the foot of the Gerald Desmond bridge, but at this point it doesn’t really matter. What matters now is finding out when, and how she was either moved for what purpose, or where she actually was in 1986 for your adventure.
My wife was doing the books for some of the Queen Mary Village vendors that are at the entry to the park prior to that time, and IIRC the Mary was already ensconsed in rock, so she wasn’t moved, therefore she must have been in her existing position at Pier “J” at the time.
I recall there was a time the Mary exhibit, and Hotel were shut down by the City when they took her back from management by the privately owned Talashay management company (phonetic spelling, don’t know how to spell his name actually), and that may have been the period you had the opportunity to get aboard.
I recall the City was actively seeking a buyer for the Mary at that time, and yes the Mary would have seemed intact to most folks, but she had much of her accessories pillaged back in the sixties, and what was left was a new coat of paint, stenciling, and embossments. Yes lots of original was still on board. At a point a few years prior to your adventure I had the job of restoring some of the glass in the stairwells, and cutting down and moving other glass, and mirror objects as well at the direction of the Queen Mary management. I remember I didn’t like working with those people at all.
That would be interesting. Sort a permanent dock kind of thing?
“Crew quarters...ehhh, different story!”
Was it ever thus!
^^^^^^^^
LOL, oh yeah! I saw a Nat’l Geogrphic special some time ago where an ancient Phoenician text had been translated...and it came out [roughly] as “how come we don’t get to eat in the buffet?
The QM1 first came to Long Beach on December 5, 1967. Huge day for the LA area since the Rams beat the Packers on a blocked punt on the same day. George Allen was the head coach at the time.
I also remember when the USS New Jersey came to port for its refurbishment. It docked in the berth next to the QM1 at a 90 degree angle.
Yeah, like they do with riverboat casinos. Minus the mafia, graft, political corruption, etc.
In other, semi-related news, it’s Fleet week in San Francisco this weekend. I’m going. One of the most awesome experiences I have ever had was going aboard the Battleship Missouri while it was berthed near the Bay Bridge. The guns were bigger than my house! I feel honored to have done so.
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