Pictures

William Chiodo was a Carpenters Mate and eventually Chief Carpenter. He describes his work on the BIG U as follows. " Twice each day we took soundings of all the bilges, pipe spaces and ballast tanks. Much repair work had to be done, you have to make everything out of aluminum or stainless steel. No wood could be used. We also replaced porthole glass when they leaked or were blown out by heavy seas. We also prepared the anchor for dropping. We had to maintain 24 lifeboats, by greasing the release gear and the boat fall wheels. We worked 8 hrs a day 7 days a week. Harry Manning was the first Captain. We called him Hurry Up Harry. He was always in a hurry to maintain schedule, regardless of the weather. The ship would pound all night and you got very little sleep. The company got on him to slow down when the weather got bad. the best Skipper was John Anderson.

Bill Lee spent nearly thirty years in the shipbuilding industry, including Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. He writes. Did you know that the UNITED STATES had a complete extra set of props, maintained at the ship yard for years? When she came in for her 'annual', one of the first things they did was pull all four of the old ones and replace 'em. Then, the ones removed were taken to machine shop, inspected and rebalanced, as necessary. Rebalancing usually entailed buildup and grinding of eroded areas; sometimes the replacement of chunks of missing metal along the leading edges where the spinning blades had hit something or other. It was something to see those multi-ton, about 25 foot in diameter 'wheels' (as we called them) being turned at 100-200 rpm. Afterwards, they were put on sturdy stands that usually sat behind the main office building (only because that was close to the main machine shop). For the first few years, they were covered with canvas (the two-five bladed props were supposed to be secret); then they just sat there.

NCL, the innovative Norwegian Caribbean Line, had grown so much that they needed another ship. In 1977 the cruise market was booming and there wasn't time to build a totally new ship. Buying a ship from a competitor in prosperous times meant paying too much. Conversion to an existing ship was clearly the ideal solution to quickly expand the fleet.

For a time the leading candidate was the SS United States. But the sale was thwarted by the fact that several features of the "Big U" remained classified a US Military secret. The Line had to settle on their second choice the France.

Two years latter, in 1980, the government sold the ship to a real estate developer. The ship has been in steady decline since then.

Turns out they were not the only interested buyer. Recently received (4/11/04) an email from Michael Yannaghas who worked for the Chandris Lines London office. "Anthony Chandris made a long and serious study of the United States for possible acquisition for the Australia Run with a capacity of 4,500 berths.... The talks with US Lines and the US Maritime Commission foundered however on amongst other things her US troopship status."

NCL did finally buy the United States with the potential of converting her to a state of the art modern cruise ship in their U.S. Flagged fleet. The ship still lies in Philadelphia awaiting a decision from NCL

From the International Herald Tribune, In our pages section, September 9 2004
Accidental Voyage

"Don't go far and be back in good time for lunch," called out Eugene Hart's grandmother as he left his home in Brooklyn last Friday morning [Sept. 3] with 17 cents in his pocket. Eugene, who is 11, promised he would - and, "cross my heart," he meant it. Tonight [Sept. 8] Eugene wound up in this port across the Atlantic on the liner United States. He said when he set out he first intended to go to a movie. "I only had 17 cents and I thought it would be a good way to spend the morning," he said. "I then saw in the paper where the United States was in port, so I thought I would go and have a look. I spent 15 cents for the subway to Times Square and walked to Pier 86." The big liner was there all right, so Eugene just walked aboard. "I saw a man in uniform," he said, "but he didn't say anything to me. I was still looking around for a couple of hours when I found the ship out at sea." Eugene was confined to the hospital during the voyage over. Eugene said he had received a telegram from his mother, a telephone operator in Brooklyn. "Mom told me she'd be waiting at the pier," he explained a little anxiously. "I guess I'm going to get into trouble, but I've never been whipped before."

Captain John Anderson appeared on the game show What's My Line?, on EPISODE #297 of February 12, 1956. What's My Line? was one of network television's longest running and most beloved prime time game shows, with a broadcast run of seventeen and one-half years.
The game consisted of four panelists trying to guess the occupation of a guest contestant. As the questioning rotated, a panel member asked questions, and the guest would answer either "yes" or "no." A contestant received $5 for each "no" answer, and ten "no" answers ended the game in favor of the contestant.

That evening Dorothy Kilgallen blew a golden opportunity when she asked the commodore if his vessel was "smaller than an ocean liner," to which he promptly answered "no." It then left the door wide open for Bennett Cerf, who made the correct guess.

Thanks to Suzanne Astorino What's My Line database manager at TV Tome for the information including biography of Captain Anderson. For more information on Captain Anderson and the show check out What's My Line?: EPISODE #297 - TV.com

Dear S/S United States supporters, Recently, NCL sent a project team to Philadelphia to conduct an extensive technical review of the venerable ship. We would like to report that she is in good shape and we are taking very good care of her. We have also cataloged over a hundred boxes of blueprints that we received from the previous owners. Although not a complete set, the drawings will be of real help to our technical team with their work. When we announced the purchase of the S/S United States in April last year, we talked about her potential to become a state-of-the-art modern cruise ship in our U.S. Flagged fleet. We also talked about the fact that the purchase and restoration of the vessel would be a long-term project as we focused on Project America and our work to restore a new U.S. flag operation to the cruise industry. We intend to do our part to return the U.S. maritime industry to the greatness it once enjoyed. As I'm sure you can imagine, this is a huge task. For example, without a single U.S. flagged oceangoing cruise ship presently in operation, there is no trained base of American crewmembers to tap, so we must find them and train them all. We have also invested millions of dollars to start building a new brand, NCL America, and the infrastructure that is required for a U.S.flag operation. In addition, hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in building our initial U.S. flagged cruise ships. Although we are well under way in our endeavor, we have experienced a setback as the first of the Project America vessels, Pride of America, has been delayed. As some of you may know, the vessel listed 15 degrees while docked at her shipyard and took on water up to three decks in a heavy windstorm in January. The ship, which was slated to begin cruising on July 4th in Hawaii, was recently refloated and we are working with the shipyard to assess damages and determine a new delivery date for that ship. As you can imagine, this has been a hurdle in the process, but we will not be deterred from launching our U.S. Flag operation this year and ensuring the continued employment of the more than 1,000 U.S. seafarers we have already hired. Accordingly, we have announced the early introduction of the U.S. flagged ship, Pride of Aloha, to take over Pride of America's itinerary and to begin service in July. Only with the success of these U.S. flagged ships in Hawaii and our new U.S. flag operation will we be able to succeed with the even more complex challenge of bringing back the S/S United States. The outpouring of goodwill from many of you on Pride of America and our purchase of the S/S United States is wonderful, and we salute the S/S United States Foundation for the work done over the decades to preserve the legacy of this amazing ship. I also wanted to let you know that very soon we will begin selling the "S/S United States Worlds Fastest Ship" aboard our entire fleet. The publisher will continue to donate a portion of the proceeds to the Foundation. The S/S United States has a great maritime heritage, and we believe that she has a great maritime future as well. We urge you to join with us in supporting the return of U.S. flag passenger/cruise ships to the oceans of the world. The love for the S/S United States is real. To you, she has always been more than a steel hull. And better than anybody, you know this ship's past and its potential. And we know it too. Warm regards, Susan Robison, Director, Public Relations Norwegian Cruise Line