Bill Miller “Mr. Ocean Liner” with a Rare Magazine “SS United States” Cover
Bill Miller “Mr. Ocean Liner” with a Rare Magazine “SS United States” Cover
SCRIBBLINGS
From Bill Miller
The Carinthia at Montreal
Sat Jun 21st At Home: Memories Soviet Style! Back in the mid 1960s, Graham Lees served aboard Cunard’s Carinthia and on the Liverpool-Montreal route. Our recent posting on the Alexandr Pushkin/Marco Polo prompted memories of that ship. “Whilst in Montreal on one of my scheduled 3 night stays each 3rd week of the Carinthia season, some of junior officers went on board the Pushkin [seen below at Sydney] to have a look around,” he wrote. “It was very basic in most of the accommodation – a lot of cabins not having a bathroom, merely a sink which had to be filled and emptied using a supplied pitcher from somewhere along the alleyway. Posh cabins were more appropriately supplied with bathrooms which, I seem to remember, had a bath but no shower. Some vodka was consumed! We invited some of the Russian officers back on board the Carinthia and they were impressed with the passenger and especially the officer accommodation.”
He added, “Some years later, a former student of mine served as electro-technical officer on board the Marco Polo and he was pleased to inform me that the ship was no longer in the condition it had formerly been. He enjoyed the years he spent there and I actually went to the pier head in Liverpool to see her. CMV used Liverpool as a turn-around port in those days.”
Above: The Marco Polo at St Petersburg in May 2015
Red, White & Blue! Richard Weiss wrote: “Sorting through some miscellaneous ship stuff the other day [Jun 5th], I came across this issue of Science Illustrated from May 1949. It shows the unmistakable profile of the United States and with a short article on the pros and cons of operating a big liner and comparing the statistics of passenger loads etc. of the new American liner vs the already successful Cunard Queens. The first page shows a picture of the new ship with William Francis Gibbs looking it over. What is odd is that in this model as well as the cover picture shows the funnels silver for the lower half and above that the traditional colors of United States Lines RW&B. Apparently a name for the new super liner had not been chosen at this time as the author suggested calling her the SS American Engineer due to Mr. Gibbs extraordinary record as a naval architect. This is the earliest publication I have ever seen on the ship and brings up the question of when exactly did she receive the name United States?”
