Check it out Lew--->

Cunard Line

I would love to see that..

Oh man are you kidding? I was in Quebec City in 1983 and just happened to catch the QE2 on its once-a-year call in that fine city. I have never seen the QM2, though the parents of a friend of mine cruised on it through the Mediterranean. I didn't know that the Queen Vic was in service yet.

To see the three of them together, with NYC in the background would be wonderful. It's times like that I'm thankful for the internet, at least there will be ocuntless photos and video clips of it (not the same thing, but better than nothing of course)

Personally, I am biased towards the Golden Age, the great White Star and Cunard ships (even the UNITED STATES, which you and I have both seen rotting in Philadelphia). I mean, give me a 4th dummy stack any day over a rock-climbing wall or basketball court.

But, ships then were built for transport, ships today are built for cruising, obviously their designs reflect that.

My favorite liner of all time is the Normandy. My grandfather was working in NYC when it burned and he saw it and told me how sad he was at seeing such a fine ship be destroyed like that. You know back in the old days, to place a ship strictly on a "cruising" schedule was considered an insult to the ship. The real service was between NYC and "the continent" or Southhampton. How I would love to be able to go back in time and take one of those runs on The Normandy, The Bremen, QEI or QMI. Cunard specialized in "efficiency" and the French Line, well it specialized in flair.

La Normandy
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...side01_NYC.jpg

<font color="#0000FF" size="1">[ December 31, 2007 12:05 PM: Message edited by: Beachcomber ]</font>

Lew, a really, really great read I suggest heartily if you have an interest in the Golden Age of ocean travel is "Sway of the Grand Saloon" by John Malcom Brinnan. I need to pull it off the shelf and read it again. I also have from Time-Life books "The Great Liners" which has a great pull-out section on the interior of The Normandy.

It's huge, but it lacks the style of the old liners of the 1920s-1930s:

http://www.boatingsf.com/photos/quee...n_mary2-01.jpg

An American Legend:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...s_postcard.jpg

I have an orginal, 1954 OFFICIAL RAILWAY GUIDE. As far as I'm concerned, it's the scripture. But anyway, besides listing every railroad station and timetable, it also lists every air and ship schedule (it's the size of a small phone book, and that's with small pring). In the ship section, what's interesting is that the timetables are sorted by vessel. As you alluded, some vessels (not just the various companies, but the different vessels within those companies) had different reputations. You just didn't hop the next ship to Southhampton or Cherborg, you selected a particular vessel and time. Well, the DORIA is listed in there, as is the UNITED STATES. Incidentally the STOCKHOLM is not, which tells me that it probably did not have a regular U.S. run in 1954. I think the DORIA only sailed about 3-4 years, a beautiful post-war design but not enough to withstand a head-on collision.

I do not have the Malcom book you mentioned but I do have the Time-Life books. I picked up a book called "Ocean Steamers" one night at Half-Price books, and the interesting thing about it is how it lists all the vessels by company, and TITANIC gets no more of a blurb than any other listing. I guess I see the author's point, he only devoted lenghty article space to the significant, historical vessels (like SAVANNAH, EMPRESS OF IRELEAND, etc.) and I guess his point was that a vessel that never even made one crossing isn't worthy of the same attention one would give vessels that had a long career. That said, it is the most famous vessel of all-time (after the PACIFIC PRINCESS, of course) and one would think it should get a bigger write-up. Speaking of the Love Boat, I had the honor of watching it depart NYC in 2001 (I believe). At that point, it was making the run to Bermuda and back. I believe it has since been retired, they have brand new PACIFIC PRINCESS but as far as I'm concerned, if there's no Gopher, no Isaac, and no Julie your Cruise Director, it ain't the LOVE BOAT.

The Pacific-Orient Line's Canberra had nice lines:

http://www.ssmaritime.com/canberrajul79.JPG

RMS Queen Elizabeth. I read in one of my books that during one voyage transporting troops from the US to England during WWII if it had rolled just another 4" (in the storm it had to pass thru) it would not have been able to recover and would have capsized taking all 50,000 to the bottom of the sea. Hitler would have enjoyed that...
http://www.ocean-liners.com/ships/im...elizabeth1.jpg

Not a good day for the Andrea Doria. A great read on the collision with the Stockholm is "Saved" by Hoffer.

[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0WTbx.KIXlHiooAoCijzbkF/SIG=1217jaro2/EXP=1199207178/**http%3A//seahunter.org/Andrea_Doria_morning.jpg[/img]

I would like to have seen Captains Pickard and Stubing trade ships for one episode. Let's see how Stubing handles a Romulan incursion and how Pickard would deal with all the minutia of sitting at the captain's table with a bunch of puffy, pale and sun burned tourists from Ontario, Canada. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Would not have been pretty. He would have had to bring Worf along.

I think Steubing would do ok on the 1701-D. The rest of them would realize rather early on that he's more or less window dressing, and they'd just prop him up in Guinan's bar and have him mingle with people (while Riker actually did the dirty work).

But Jean-Luc would struggle on the PRINCESS. You can't tell Bernie Koppel to "make it so." And you know how little tolerance he had for frivolity, can you imagine the headache he'd have from the moment Charo came aboard and started to do that silly dance she does?

Worf? Are you kidding? The moment Charo started that "cuchi cuchi" crap he'd pull out his phaser and try to fry her. And like Counselor Troi wouldn't take Julie (your cruise director) aside and try to help her with that cocaine problem.

Ah, the rough life at sea....

You were talking about the NORMANDIE, and you talk about an inglorious end...I mean, at least the DORIA went down in a collision at sea. Nothing like capsizing in port because the NYFD hadn't taken Fire Prevention 101.

I think you would agree with me that the most glory-filled way to sink is to go down fighting (and I mean, against another ship; not some aerial attack, not some submarine, I'm talking ship v. ship). And in non-wartime, going down in a storm, at the mercy of the tempest...

Conversley, the worst way to end is by sinking while at port. I mean, pathetic.

If I was a ship I think I would want to be blowed up by a disgruntledted cook or engine mechanic or assistant captain. Not by a passenger though, that would suck.

If you wanna throw up, be sure to watch "Speed 2." Even worse, I thought the first "Speed" was actually pretty good. But "Speed 2"......I mean, God help us all....