AS THE SHIP TURNS: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SOME WELL-KNOWN LINERS? Bill Miller

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1 JANUARY, 2011 VOLUME XXIX, # 1 Friday, January 28, 2011 at 6:00 PM At the Community Church Assembly Room, 40 E. 35 th Street, New York, NY AS THE SHIP TURNS: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SOME WELL-KNOWN LINERS? Bill Miller They are like characters in a soap opera, a maritime soap opera. Some had long, extended lives; others were gone far too soon. Some were noteworthy, innovative, and important in the overall story of ocean liners; some were newly built, others greatly reconstructed and refitted; and, their final fates were varied. There were the inevitable scrapyards, but others were lost to fire, sinkings, and explosions. Tonight, Bill Miller will take us on a voyage of sorts, reviewing some noted and selected liners and reminding us of their lives and times. We will see not just superliners such as the UNITED STATES, FRANCE and QUEEN MARY, but also the ARGENTINA, LURLINE, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, LEONARDO DA VINCI, BERGENSFJORD, OLYMPIA, FRANCA C, OCEANIC and STELLA SOLARIS. Join us for this sentimental and reflective trip, reviewing the fleet in a voyage down maritime memory lane! The fleet s in! Some of the ships that will be featured in Bill Miller s program, clockwise from top left: OCEANIC, BERGENSFJORD, LEONARDO DA VINCI and ARGENTINA. (Bob Allen collection) ADDRESS: PO Box 384 NEXT MEETINGS: Friday, February 25; Thursday, March 24; New York, NY Friday, April 29; Friday, May 20; Friday, June 24 wsspony@gmail.com WEB SITE: THE PORTHOLE, published by the Port of New York Branch, World Ship Society, welcomes original material for publication. Address to the editor, Bob Allen, at oceanvoyag@aol.com or via the PONY mailing address.

2 SHIP S LOG Subject of John Maxtone-Graham s book launching : FRANCE / NORWAY of (Bob Allen collection) JANUARY 2011 Page 2

3 John Maxtone-Graham s new book, with cover illustration by Daniel Stoltenberg. ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES SHIP FROM TO VOYAGE PASSENGER(S) ORIANA Southampton St. Lucia Transatlantic Tony Cooke SAGA RUBY Southampton Southampton North Cape Cruise Tony Cooke BLACK WATCH Southampton Southampton Greenland/Iceland Cruise Tony Cooke ATHENA Southampton Southampton Low Countries Cruise Tony Cooke AZAMARA JOURNEY Barcelona Rome Western Mediterranean Charles & Marjorie Zuckerman QUEEN ELIZABETH Southampton New York Transatlantic Charles & Marjorie Zuckerman QUEEN ELIZABETH Southampton New York Transatlantic Bill Miller QUEEN ELIZABETH Southampton New York Transatlantic Ted Scull QUEEN ELIZABETH Southampton New York Transatlantic Paul & Marya Klee QUEEN VICTORIA New York Los Angeles Panama Canal Marilynn Klein & Janice Berger QUEEN MARY 2 New York Southampton Transatlantic Evelyn Pearl QUEEN MARY 2 Southampton New York Transatlantic Evelyn Pearl QUEEN MARY 2 Southampton Southampton Norwegian Fjords Evelyn Pearl QUEEN MARY 2 New York New York Canada / New England Evelyn Pearl QUEEN MARY 2 New York New York Caribbean Evelyn Pearl QUEEN MARY 2 New York New York Caribbean Dick Faber QUEEN MARY 2 New York New York Caribbean Dieter Killinger & Dwight Rangeler QUEEN MARY 2 New York New York Caribbean George Chandler & Dan Amatuzzo Feel free to photos taken on your cruises to The Porthole for possible inclusion in Arrivals and Departures. JANUARY 2011 Page 3

4 PLEASE SEND YOUR STORIES AND PICTURES! We know that many of you have great stories about your cruises, maritime interests, collections and other topics of interest to WSS PONY members. To contribute to the Porthole, just contact Bob Allen at a meeting or via at oceanvoyag@aol.com. If possible, please send stories in Microsoft Word format. Hardcopy stories should be mailed to the WSS P.O. Box. YOUR DAILY PROGRAMME SEAPORT MUSEUM NEW YORK, Contact via reservations@seany.org or call Decodence (the continuing exhibit about the French Line s NORMANDIE of 1935) at 12 Fulton Street. This is your last chance to see this spectacular exhibit, which CLOSES ON FEBRUARY 14, Contact Seaport Museum New York for details on tour and event times, pricing and reservations. VANCOUVER WSS & VANCOUVER MARITIME MUSEUM For information or if you visit, contact Glenn Smith: , glenn.smith@worldshipsocietyvan.ca. February meeting will be on Wednesday February 9, Tom McLean will present a program entitled Marine Surveying Cruise Ships: What the Passengers Don t See. Meetings are held at the Vancouver Maritime Museum at 1905 Ogden Avenue (Kitsilano Point). CUNARD S FIRST FEMALE CAPTAIN SHIP NEWS Inger Klein Olsen took command of the QUEEN VICTORIA in early December, becoming Cunard Lines first female captain. Olsen, 43, a native of the Faroe Islands, joined Cunard in 1997 as first officer of the VISTAFJORD. After assignments in other Carnival Corporation lines, she returned to Cunard in August 2010 as Deputy Captain of QUEEN VICTORIA. Cunard s president and managing director Peter Shanks commented on Captain Olsen s new position: While we are far from the first shipping company to have a female captain, it is nonetheless noteworthy when such a long-established British institution as Cunard makes a break with its captaincy tradition. But as Mark Twain drily observed the folks at Cunard wouldn t appoint Noah himself as captain until he had worked his way up through the ranks. Inger has certainly done that, and we are delighted to welcome her as our first woman driver. ROUGH SAILING ON WINTER CRUISES Travel Dynamics International s CLELIA II (ex-renaissance FOUR) encountered extremely rough water in the Drake Passage between Anarctica and Ushuaia on December 7. The small (4,077-ton) vessel encountered 30-foot seas and 60 mph winds and was struck by a huge wave which broke a bridge window and cut off power to one of the engines. CLELIA II arrived safely in Ushuaia on December 9, without serious injury to the 88 passengers and 77 crew; her next cruise was cancelled in order to make repairs. Extremely high winds and rough seas prevented Royal Caribbean s 90,090-ton BRILLIANCE OF THE SEAS from entering the port of Alexandria, Egypt on December 12. Glass shattered, furniture was damaged and three public rooms were closed for the balace of the 12-day cruise. The BRILLIANCE continued on to Malta, and then completed the cruise as scheduled in Barcelona; 105 passengers were injured and treated on board. Royal Caribbean refunded the fares and offered on-board credits for the approximately 2,000 passengers. The massive storm reportedly was also responsible for sinking a cargo ship near Ashdod, Israel. Carnival Cruises CARNIVAL INSPIRATION was unable to dock in Tampa, FL at the end of a cruise on December 13, due to high winds. She docked the following day, and the subsequent cruise was shortened by one day. Carnival offered discounts and refunds to compensate inconvenienced passengers. THESE DOCKS ARE CROWDED! Six liners were in the Port of Southampton, England on January 5. It was the first time in over 50 years that the port had witnessed so many liners in one day. The ships were Cunard s QUEEN ELIZABETH and QUEEN VICTORIA, P&O s ARCADIA, Fred Olsen s BLACK WATCH and BALMORAL and Saga s SAGA RUBY. On that day, over 19,000 passengers passed through the port. On the same day, a rare gathering of four liners was in the Port of Los Angeles, CA: Princess Cruises GOLDEN PRINCESS and SAPHIRRE PRINCESS, Crystal Cruises CRYSTAL SYMPHONY and Peter Deilmann s DEUTSCHLAND. Over 13,000 passengers were processed through the port. JANUARY 2011 Page 4

5 I M THE BOSS! Norwegian Cruise Lines CEO Kevin Sheehan participated in the reality TV show Undercover Boss in early January. The diguised Sheehan was seen struggling with apprentice positions on the PRIDE OF AMERICA sailing from Honolulu and the NORWEGIAN EPIC on a Caribbean cruise from Miami. In the show, interspersed with interesting behind-the scenes footage, Sheehan addressed his TV audience with observations about his new appreciation for the hard-working crew. At the show s conclusion, he rewarded several crew members with whom he had interacted with promotions, charitable donations and support for who those who endured long separation from family members. He also announced that NCL would add $100,000 to an ongoing crewenrichment program. The NORWEGIAN EPIC, seen here at New York in 2010, was featured in a recent episode of Undercover Boss. (Bob Allen) A TREEHOUSE AT SEA Celebrity Cruises announced design modifications to the CELEBRITY SILHOUETTE and CELEBRITY REFLECTION, the final two vessels of their SOLSTICE Class. SILHOUETTE will have a two-deck-high atrium lounge called The Hideaway (in the space occupied by Team Earth on the in-service ships), featuring trees with built in lounging platforms, and a variety of other casual seating. The piano bar, Michael s Club, will be redesigned as a craft beers bar, featuring up to 50 international beers. The Hot Glass Show at the top-deck Lawn Club venue will be replaced with two new indoor-outdoor restaurants and rental cabanas. Sister ship REFLECTION, in addition to these changes, will be expanded with another deck of cabins including 34 Aqua Class suites featuring extremely large verandahs. CELEBRITY SILHOUETTE will be the first vessel of this class to be based in Bayonne, NJ, during the winter of In related news from Celebrity, the Solsticization planned for CELEBRITY INFINITY in November 2011 will include 37 new Aqua Class cabins with their own restarant, Blu, as featured on the newer SOLSTICE Class ships. Also, several suites that were built without private verandahs will have them added during the renovation. A SAD ANNIVERSARY The Port of New York marked a sad anniversary in December. A recent New York Times article described the events of 50 years ago, when on December 19, 1960 a disasterous fire broke out on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. CONSTELLATION, which was in the final stages of construction in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In a freak accident, a forklift operator who was moving a large steel trash bin caused a steel plate to shift, shearing off the main plug of a diesel fuel tank. Five hundred gallons of the fuel poured through openings in the deck, eventually igniting several decks below, possibly after contacting a welder s blowtorch or a hot piece of metal. Hundreds of firefighters arrived on the scene to fight the ensuing conflagration, which took 17 hours to extinguish. Fifty workers were killed in the blaze and 330 were injured, but remarkably no firefighters died and many hundreds of shipyard workers were rescued from the fire. The New York City Fire Department was already under tremendous stress on that December day just three days earlier, they had been called to the scene of the deadly collision between two airliners over Park Slope, Brooklyn, and three days later there were two more large fires to battle in the same borough! The Times noted that while other high-profile New York City accidents have been memorialized decades later (such as the GENERAL SLOCUM fire of 1904 and the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911), there have been no rememberances of the CONSTELLATION tradgedy and the unfortunate victims. JANUARY 2011 Page 5

6 The U.S.S. CONSTELLATION ablaze at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on December 19, IS BIGGER BETTER? (Associated Press / New York Times) Now that the first decade of the 21 st Century has ended, here s a look back at the world s five largest liners at the end of each of the last 11 decades, with their respective gross tonnages: : MAURETANIA (Cunard) 31,938 LUSITANIA (Cunard) 31,550 GEORGE WASHINGTON (N. German Lloyd) 25,570 KAISERIN AUGUSTA VICTORIA (Hapag Lloyd) 24,581 ADRIATIC (White Star) 24, : LEVIATHAN (US Shipping Board) 54,282 IMPERATOR (UK Shipping Controller / Cunard) 52,117 OLYMPIC (White Star) 46,439 AQUITANIA (Cunard) 45,647 MAURETANIA (Cunard) 31, : MAJESTIC (White Star) 56,551 LEVIATHAN (United States Lines) 54,282* BERENGARIA (Cunard) 52,226 BREMEN (North German Lloyd) 51,656 EUROPA (North German Lloyd) 49, QUEEN ELIZABETH (Cunard) 83,673 NORMANDIE (French) 83,243 QUEEN MARY (Cunard) 81,237 BREMEN (North German Lloyd) 51,656 REX (Italia) 51, QUEEN ELIZABETH (Cunard) 83,673 QUEEN MARY (Cunard) 81,237 LIBERTE (French) 51,839 ILE DE FRANCE (French) 44,356 NIEUW AMSTERDAM (Holland America) 36, QUEEN ELIZABETH (Cunard) 83,673 QUEEN MARY (Cunard) 81,237 UNITED STATES (United States) 53,329 LIBERTE (French) 51,839 ORIANA (P&O) 41, FRANCE (French) 66,348 QUEEN ELIZABETH 2 (Cunard) 65,863 RAFFAELLO (Italia) 45,933 MICHELANGELO (Italia) 45,911 CANBERRA (P&O) 44, NORWAY (Norwegian Caribbean) 70,202 QUEEN ELIZABETH 2 (Cunard) 66,851 CANBERRA (P&O) 44,807 ORIANA (P&O) 41,915 OCEANIC (Home) 39, NORWAY (Norwegian) 76,049 SOVERIGN OF THE SEAS (Royal Caribbean) 73,172 FANTASY (Carnival) 70,367 QUEEN ELIZABETH 2 (Cunard) 70,327 CROWN PRINCESS (Princess) 70, VOYAGER OF THE SEAS (Royal Caribbean) 137,276 GRAND PRINCESS (Princess) 108,806 CARNIVAL DESTINY (Carnival) 101,353 MILLENIUM (Celebrity) 90,228 DISNEY MAGIC (Disney) 83, ALLURE OF THE SEAS (Royal Caribbean) 225,282 OASIS OF THE SEAS (Royal Caribbean) 225,282 FREEDOM OF THE SEAS (Royal Caribbean) 154,407 INDEPENDENCE O/T SEAS (Royal Caribbean) 154,407 LIBERTY OF THE SEAS (Royal Caribbean) 154,407 * The LEVIATHAN s original tonnage of 54,282 is listed. In 1923, the US Lines re-measured the LEVIATHAN at 59,957 tons after renovating the vessel. They then changed it to 48,932 tons in 1931 without altering the ship, casting doubt on her actual tonnage. JANUARY 2011 Page 6

7 (Bob Allen Collection) A few of the famous ships that were among the five largest afloat at the end of each decade of the 20 th Century, from top down: LEVIATHAN (1920, 1930); EUROPA / LIBERTE (1930, 1950, 1960); NIEUW AMSTERDAM (1950); and UNITED STATES (1960). JANUARY 2011 Page 7

8 SHIP OF THE MONTH PRESIDENT CLEVELAND (Bob Allen collection) Owner: American President Lines, San Francisco Dimensions: 609 x 75.5 Builder: Bethlehem, Alameda (CA) Shipyard Gross Tonnage: 15,359 Route: San Francisco Hong Kong Maiden Voyage: December 15, 1947 Service speed: 19 knots Last Voyage: January, 1973 Passenger Capacity: st Class, 454 Tourist Class Demise: Scrapped, Kaohsiung Taiwan, 1974 After World War II all great maritime nations, including the United States, needed to quickly rebuild their decimated merchant fleets. The first newly-built liner in the US fleet was the very handsome and elegantly appointed PRESIDENT CLEVELAND, followed shortly by her twin sister PRESIDENT WILSON. Originally ordered by the government as the final two of ten P2-SE2-R1 Class troop transports, the ships were rendered redundant by the cessation of hostilities. The unfinished vessels were purchased by American President Lines and completed as the PRESIDENT CLEVELAND and the PRESIDENT WILSON. They were the largest and finest liners built in a West Coast shipyard, and were designed to operate on an important route during those early postwar years, connecting the US with the Philippines, China and Japan. Along with the beautiful Matson ships operating to Hawaii and the South Pacific, the PRESIDENT liners were a common site along the San Francisco waterfront during the 1950 s and 1960 s. The PRESIDENT CLEVELAND featured an unusually long forward deck with three sets of kingposts, and an aft deck with two additional sets. With her light grey hull, white superstructure and twin red and blue funnels with the distinctive white eagle logo, the PRESIDENT CLEVELAND seemed much larger than her 15,000 tons. First Class accommodations were simple but elegant, in a restrained postwar style, with much use of glass, mirrors, wall murals and indirect lighting. Reflecting her itinerary, there was a considerable amount of Chinese art and decorative fixtures integrated with the décor. Tourist Class was spartan, but provided the basic comforts for the budget long-distance traveler. Enormously popular for her first 20 years, the PRESIDENT CLEVELAND later suffered from the competition from the jetliner, and was eventually sent cruising to destinations as diverse as Alaska, Mexico and Europe. However, when her original 25-year subsidy from the government expired, she was quickly sold to the C.Y. Tung Group of Taiwan and was to cruise for their Orient Overseas Lines as ORIENTAL PRESIDENT. Unfortunately, the worldwide oil crisis and recession of the early 1970 s ended those plans, so the beautiful and historic liner was scrapped in OFFICERS EXECUTIVE BOARD COMMITTEE HEADS Chairman: Carol Miles Bob Allen Program: Ted Scull* Vice Chairman: Marjorie Dovman Richard Faber Finance: Alan Borthwick Membership Sec y: Tom Rinaldi Doug Friedlander* House: J. Fred Rodriguez* Branch Sec y: Roxanne Almond* David Hume* Membership: Tom Rinaldi Treasurer: Alan Borthwick David Powers* Newsletter: Bob Allen George McDermott* Nomination/Recruit: George McDermott* J. Fred Rodriguez* Special Events: Dan Vaccaro Ted Scull* David Sykes* Dan Vaccaro * = past chairman JANUARY 2011 Page 8