Liner History – United States Line magazine ad from the 1950s. Aboard the SS United States and SS America. Celebrities were featured in many of the United States Lines ads. Including Lord Ismay, the Princess Olga Koudacheff and Bobby Riggs.
To get a larger picture of the ads… click on the images.
SS AMERICA – Didn’t sail in Sept 1963 – because of a strike.
Cruising the Past: The Maritime Unions – corrupt leaders, under gangster control, along with the JET, helped kill American passengers ships. Maritime strikes were endless throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The workers demanded more wages, shorter hours and guess what? All American passengers ships disappeared in the 1970s. Thousands of jobs were lost. The unions would strike at the height of the season. Alaska Steamship was the first to discontinue passenger service in the early 1950s because of labor problems. The other lines such as Grace, US Lines, American Export Lines, Matson – soon went out of business. Now there’s one ship operating in Hawaii – but the American crews were so poorly trained they had to bring in foreigners.
Passengers on SS America departing after ships voyage cancelled when Maritime Union charged engineer with bigotry. (Photo by Truman Moore//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Passenger on SS America disapointed after ships voyage cancelled when Maritime Union charged engineer with bigotry. (Photo by Truman Moore//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Passengers on SS America in lounge after ships voyage cancelled when Maritime Union charged engineer with bigotry. Photo: Truman Moore/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Cruising the Past: SS MANHATTAN and SS WASHINGTON of the U.S.LINES crossing the pond in 1939. Preview of the SS AMERICA. Just before World War 2.
Labor Day – SS United States, SS America and SS Constitution – From our collection of photos – busy liners – New York City in the 1950s:
SS United States (US Lines) sailing from New York Harbor.
SS America (US lines) docked in New York.
SS Constitution (American Export Lines) docked in New York.
Cruise History: The Chandris Line and the SS America was the precursor of Celebrity Cruises. For a history of the SS America click here.
One of the ships operated by Chandris was the beautiful Trans-Atlantic liner America previously owned by the United States Line and initially captained by Demitrios Challioris who had been in charge of a crude oil tanker in Southampton. Chandris changed the name to the Australis.
The ship had previously accommodated three classes but underwent a major refit and became a one-class configuration geared to carry 2300 passengers.
The aft promenade decks were extended, a swimming pool was added, and air conditioning was installed.
She made 3 month voyages around the world from Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Southampton, Casablanca, Las Palmas, Cape Town,(or through the Mediterranean via Gibraltar, Naples, Malta, Piraeus, Port Said and Aden), Freemantle, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Suva, Tahiti, Acapulco, Balboa, Cristobal, Port Everglades and return to Southampton.
Chandris Lines also had the Australian Government’s prized immigrant contract bringing tens of thousands of new immigrants out to major ports in Australia The ships were always sold out so that there were 3 sittings for dinner and special sittings for kids. P&O, a rival cruise line, had ceased the line voyage business to Australia so that the Australis was now known as “the world’s largest express liner.”
Cruising the past. Just a long weekend away – Aboard the SS United States or SS America – During the heyday of trans-Atlantic travel in the 1950s – before the Jet made “getting there” what it is today! A living nightmare.
By Paul Ash – Accidental Tourist (Times, Johannesburg, South Africa)
US Line’s SS AMERICA waited 15 years to be converted to a hotel and then was wrecked while being towed.
Some people think the QE2 should have been scrapped, like so many other famous liners, on the beaches of Alang in India. Others say better a floating hotel than being turned into spoons. I’m not so sure — the track record of floating hotels is not a good one.
The first (RMS) QUEEN ELIZABETH gutted by fire in Hong Kong.
The first RMS Queen Elizabeth, retired in 1968, was sent to become a university at sea (gigantic floating dormitory) in Hong Kong, where one fine night she was gutted by fire, while the American beauty, the SS America, spent 15 years waiting to become a floating hotel before being wrecked while being towed to Thailand.
P&O’s RMS CANBERRA was ravaged and scrapped in India.
P&O’s SS Canberra took me from Cape Town to Southampton in 1992. She was filled with trophies from her career, like the bronze plaque marking her service as a troopship during the Falklands War. A year later, I had my own QE2 moment when, sitting on a friend’s balcony in Bantry Bay, we saw the Canberra slipping off across the darkness of Table Bay, lit up like a Christmas tree. I didn’t know it, but that was the last time we would see her. A few years later she was gone, sold for scrap to Alang. Spoons.
US Line’s SS UNITED STATES doomed to rotting away.
America’s own sea greyhound, the SS United States — whose westbound transatlantic record of three-and-a-half days remains unbroken — is rusting away in Philadelphia. She has sweeping lines that tug at the heart and big, fat funnels that hint at powerful machinery beneath them. There are — expensive — plans to put her back in service but these days, it’s often cheaper to build a new ship with modern engines.
Which is exactly what all the cruise companies are doing. And magnificent ships they are. Huge, stately things, stuffed with diversions. But there’s something missing, like the fables that surround the old, great liners like a cloak. Maybe the new ships will get it too — if their careers span decades and they pick up the scars that working ships do.
One thing they will never have, though, is the distinction of being a working ship rather than a floating palace. This, perhaps, is why the end of the QE2’s career is a gloomy thought. She was launched in 1967 and christened by her namesake. But the jet age and cheap air travel had arrived and ocean liners no longer held the keys to the world. Airliners were cool and air travel was glamorous — remember those sexy airline ads of the ’60s? If we knew then what we know now, maybe we would have stuck with the ships and the world would have been a slower place, which would be no bad thing.
The QE2 is a link to a world a little more innocent than ours, and when we lose those things, we get a little harder and a little more jaded. Losing the QE2 is like losing the grandmother you love.
I hope she has a happy retirement in the boiling Arabian Gulf, away from the freezing Atlantic. And I hope, truly, that someone doesn’t give me a spoon one day made from the steel hull plates of the world’s most beautiful ship.
Photo of a burial at sea aboard the SS United States in the 1950s.
The body pictured here on the promenade deck of the SS United States most likely could have been a crewmember in the stewards or catering department.
Notice how canvas curtains have been placed so passengers could not see the burial.
Besides the officers, there are mainly stewards and cooks in the photo. The ship would not have carried the crewmember to the next port. The SS United States on a trans-Atlantic crossing probably would have housed a passenger’s body. But most lines did not. Passengers were buried at sea.
Two passengers were buried at sea on the SS Canberra aboard a 1968 sailing from Los Angeles to Australia.
Until the last couple of decades, burial at sea (passengers or crew) was common. Corpses were not carried to the next port. In the late 1960s, I sailed from Los Angeles to Australia aboard the SS Canberra and there were two burials at sea. Both were passengers.
The burials took place around six in the morning.
We were sailing via the Orient so there were long passages at sea – 6 to 7 days. There were no morgues aboard ship. The body would be wrapped in a canvas bag and pushed overboard. It would be covered with a flag but the flag did not go with the body. The Anglican (Episcopal) service of burial was read, with officers, crew and some passengers in attendance. There was no announcement in the ship’s paper.
Recently, I was aboard the Princess Cruise’s Island Princess, touring the crew’s quarters and galleys. There is a refrigerated compartment known as the morgue and bodies are kept there until they can be removed at the next port.
Marlon Brando and Salvidor Dali enjoying after dinner coffee in the First Class Lounge of the SS United States.
It’s Captain’s Dinner aboard the SS United States in 1956 in the First Class Dining Room. And this is the one night Judy Garland left her stateroom. Pictured: Producer Sid Luff and his wife Judy Garland with friend John Carlyle (and number one fan) at right.
The S.S. United States arriving at Bremerhaven Columbus Bahnhof – Germany. This dreamlike photo of the S.S. United States is a wonderful composition and gives the viewer a sense of the close relationship the people of Bremerhaven had with the shipping industry and its sea going passengers.
The SS United States (also known as “The Big U”) is an ocean liner built in 1952 for the United States Lines. At 53,329 gross tons, she is the largest ocean liner to date built entirely in the United States and still holds the record for the fastest westbound transatlantic crossing.
The fastest way to cross!
In 1952, on her maiden voyage as the new flagship of the United States Lines, the United States captured the Blue Riband with the fastest eastbound and westbound transatlantic crossings on record. The entry of the United States marked the first time a U.S.-flagged ship held the Blue Riband, surpassing European speed records which had stood for decades.The United States lost the eastbound record in 1990, but still holds the westbound record. The United States plied the transatlantic with passenger service until 1969, and she outlasted the demise of her original owners.
SS United States “waiting” at Philadelphia – December 2007.
Since 1969, the United States has not been in service. She has bounced around the world with promises of service from owner to owner. The ship is currently docked in Philadelphia until a decision is made about her fate which does not look good.
A Brief History of the Passenger Ship Industry…
The earliest ocean-going vessels were not primarily concerned with passengers, but rather with the cargo that they could carry. Black Ball Line in New York, 
in 1818, was the first shipping company to offer regularly scheduled service from the United States to England and to be concerned with the comfort of their passengers. By the 1830s steamships were introduced and dominated the transatlantic market of passenger and mail transport. English companies dominated the market at this time, led by the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet (later the Cunard Line). On July 4, 1840, Britannia , the first ship under the Cunard name, left Liverpool with a cow on board to supply fresh milk to the passengers on the 14-day transatlantic crossing. The advent of pleasure cruises is linked to the year 1844, and a new industry began.
During the 1850s and 1860s there was a dramatic improvement in the quality of the voyage for passengers. Ships began to cater solely to passengers, rather than to cargo or mail contracts, and added luxuries like electric lights, more deck space, and entertainment. In 1867, Mark Twain was a passenger on the first cruise originating in America, documenting his adventures of the six month trip in the book Innocents Abroad. The endorsement by the British Medical Journal of sea voyages for curative purposes in the 1880s further encouraged the public to take leisurely pleasure cruises as well as transatlantic travel. Ships also began to carry immigrants to the United States in “steerage” class. In steerage, passengers were responsible for providing their own food and slept in whatever space was available in the hold.
By the early 20th century the concept of the superliner was developed and Germany led the market in the development of these massive and ornate floating hotels. The design of these liners attempted to minimize the discomfort of ocean 
travel, masking the fact of being at sea and the extremes in weather as much as possible through elegant accomodations and planned activites. The Mauritania and the Lusitania, both owned by the Cunard Line of England, started the tradition of dressing for dinner and advertised the romance of the voyage. Speed was still the deciding factor in the design of these ships. There was no space for large public rooms, and passengers were required to share the dining tables. The White Star Line, owned by American financier J.P. Morgan, introduced the most luxurious passenger ships ever seen in the Olympic (complete with swimming pool and tennis court) and Titanic. Space and passenger comfort now took precedence over speed in the design of these ships-resulting in larger, more stable liners. The sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage in 1912 devastated the White Star Line. In 1934, Cunard bought out White Star; the resulting company name, Cunard White Star, is seen in the advertisements in this project.
World War I interrupted the buidling of new cruise ships, and many older liners were used as troop transports. German superliners were given to both Great Britain and the United States as reparations at the end of the war. The years between 1920 and 1940 were considered the most glamorous years for transatlantic passenger ships. These ships catered to the rich and famous who were seen enjoying luxurious settings on numerous newsreels viewed by the general public. American tourists interested in visiting Europe replaced immigrant passengers. Advertisements promoted the fashion of ocean travel, featuring the elegant food and on-board activities.
Cruise liners again were converted into troop carriers in World War II, and all transatlantic cruising ceased until after the war. European lines then reaped the benefits of transporting refugees to America 
and Canada, and business travelers and tourists to Europe. The lack of American ocean liners at this time, and thus the loss of profits, spurred the U.S. government to subsidize the building of cruise liners. In addition to the luxurious amenities, ships were designed according to specifications for possible conversion into troop carriers. Increasing air travel and the first non-stop flight to Europe in 1958, however, marked the ending of transatlantic business for ocean liners. Passenger ships were sold and lines went bankrupt from the lack of business.
The 1960s witnessed the beginnings of the modern cruise industry. Cruise ship companies concentrated on vacation trips in the Caribbean, and created a “fun ship” image which attracted many passengers who would have never had the opportunity to travel on the superliners of the 1930s and 1940s. Cruise ships concentrated on creating a casual environment and providing extensive on-board entertainment. There was a decrease in the role of ships for transporting people to a particular destination; rather, the emphasis was on the voyage itself. The new cruise line image was solidified with the popularity of the TV series “The Love Boat” which ran from 1977 until 1986.
Courtesy of Duke University…
