A Tribute to S.S. United States

There was a time when the enthusiasm and zeal of the ability to create speed had the imagination of the world.

In the 1950s there was a craving to create the fastest car, the fastest plane and the fastest ocean liner. The world took notice of speed records to be made and broken. One such record was the time it took to cross the Atlantic by ocean liner. That record 3 days, 10 hours and 42 minutes is still held by the S.S. United States, done during its maiden voyage in July 1952. It bested the previous record then held by the Queen Mary by 10 hours and was a celebrated feat.

Now the S.S. United States is rusting away, with reports being circulated that the $80,000-per-month cost to keep this ship afloat in Philadelphia may cause its present owners to scrap it.

When I landed in Paris last spring I saw one of the S.S.T. Concorde’s propped up at the airport. It was sad to see this once mighty example of technology and, yes, decadence on an unceremonious display. If you ever saw one take off or land you understand my feelings. If you ever had the honor and money to ride in it, you understand even more so. Both were status symbols of their times, the 1950s and the 1970s, of travel with panache. But both however were status-symbol-money losers, as I suppose are all luxury items.

As a boy, the few times we went to a Broadway show, the family car would drive down the West Side Highway and I would get to see the S.S. United States moored somewhere around 46st Street on the Hudson River. The ship was so beautiful with its black and red paint shining because the it was only out of service  just a few years. (The ship was taken out of service in 1969). The S.S. United State is 100 feet longer than the Titanic was, and really is a work of art with its sleek almost battleship like lines. They still sell posters of it.

The media is now covering the ship’s owners battle to preserve it as if the media as a whole is preparing the nation for the ship’s demise. I suppose the S.S.T Concorde and the S.S. United States are victims to the new personal corporate jets. Those corporate jets now take the 21st century "Princes" of the world wherever they want to go, whenever they want to go, quickly, privately and in high style. The site of a huge ocean liner entering a harbor with the tugs and all the fanfare is dying. Watching the Space Shuttles being retired recently only serves as an example of great technological achievements becoming obsolete.

Yet watching the Concordes, the Space Shuttles, and, yes, the venerable S.S. United States demise, is like watching old good friends dying a slow death.