Forgotten History: The SS United States

[Music] basically it was a two-leg Crossing uh and the SS United States made that Crossing faster than anybody uh I I want to say I don't have the actual Crossing time with me here [Music] um boy I for to to note that down but it was somewhere in the order of I believe it was 3 days 10 hours and 43 minutes if I remember correctly um the interesting thing is that no Cruise liner since then has surpassed the SS United States speed it says on my bullet there at the bottom three other ships won the award from 1969 onward but with a question mark after it I put um those NE none of those three ships was uh considered an actual active passenger carrying Cruise liner uh although uh the United States lines at the time uh because it was 1969 actually it was later than 69 I think it was like an 8 well somewhere 69 was the first of those three uh the United States lines did not uh contest the award of the Blue Ribbon to those three ships uh that said uh I think most people who know the cruise industry will tell you that the Blue Ribbon really still resides with the SS United States okay now we're going to start looking at the ship because this is where we start looking at some of the interesting innards and start talking about um some of the classified interior and capabilities of this ship which made it the fastest Cruise liner on the Atlantic uh and uh an incredible strategic uh tool for the United States military and United States St government uh this is and here's where we start seeing a lot of my interior photos uh this is just a passageway that takes you into uh engine room compartments uh this ship uh as much as it was Glitz and glamour in in the passenger on the passenger decks uh down below this was a working piece of Machinery this was basically a factory uh with multiple engines uh all kinds of control rooms and piping everywhere you could see um I would imagine by today's standards that this was probably a pretty dangerous place to work for the crew all right you can see some of the uh some of the valves that uh were moving fluids around gases around uh you know through the ship uh you'll see these kinds of images all over the place these are deep dark recesses of the ship uh you can see where those there are some pipes along along the right side of the photo that bend toward and underneath those uh those valves this is we are down probably 10 11 decks below the top of the ship uh which was 12 decks high from the bottom all the way up to the uh to the bridge deck this is the uh the low press turbine uh next to it to the right which you can't see because it's in another compartment uh was a high- press turbine uh these this this this engines these propellers were driven by by turbin uh to give them extra speed uh which helped make this uh one of the fastest ships on the high seas uh this was uh considered at the time of its of its uh uh runs across the Atlantic the flagship of the United States government uh it speed as I said was classified until 1977 uh it was it was classifi well it was used uh was to be used in emergency per circumstances as a Troop Carrier uh in the event of War Europe which would have been World War II uh it was going to be capable of carrying 15,000 troops uh across the ocean if needed uh for war okay one of the things that I that I think was was an interesting thing part of my research on this is that uh one of the things you don't notice is that most models of this ship portray the ship as having a a reasonably shallow draft and a flat bottom uh as most cruise ships have uh this cruise ship though had a draft of 30 ft from the water line down uh while it was being constructed and after while it was in service there it would it was forbidden to take photographs of of the ship from the waterline down it was forbidden to take photographs of the ship if it was ever in dry uh that was because its lower end uh below the surface was considered part of its classified design uh the 30 foot um draft helped uh stabilize the ship and uh helped it maintain its speed uh in the high oceans uh and all of that was considered top secret uh by the Department of Defense uh as it as it operated the engines there were four Westinghouse double induction engines uh with geared steam turbines uh in the ship uh this was one of those turbines uh uh which led to each engine leading to one of the four propeller shafts uh those propeller shafts were were interesting as well uh there were two four bladed manganese bronze propellers uh that were located on the outside of the ship and forward of the stern and two five bladed mang Andes bronze propellers located at the stern so they had two propellers at the end and two propellers on each side or one propeller on each side forward of those rear propellers uh which which gave it uh uh its power and its speed uh that design and how it was configured was all considered top secret until 1977 when it was Declassified all right more uh views of the Interior engine room uh you'll see all these workings there's a lot of rust here uh which leads one to wonder is there any chance that this ship could be uh repurposed recommissioned uh based on discussions I've had with people uh familiar with the ship uh I don't know if this is all feasible working engine room machinery and piping uh I believe most most people who know what they're talking about will'll tell you that a lot of that would have to be completely removed and completely rebuilt to to set the ship back to se again that said I'm not a marine architect I'm a photographer so I got a nice picture of the Machinery don't know if it'll work probably not though uh nice picture of one of the control panels in the engine room uh this was your classic analog there were no computers running anything here you looked at your dials looked at your gauges read your numbers you on your gauges up above and then turned on and off and adjusted uh engine workings by hand there's your propellers that's one of the five bladed propellers uh that is sitting uh on the stern uh at the back of the SS United States there's another one to the right of it across the ship on the other side those that propeller was literally right below it and under the water line uh in terms of where it sat uh design wise uh but that is one of those four propellers that was considered top top secret uh technology uh as of the time of its construction in 1950 52 until he classified in 77 that's just a view of one of my companions that uh assisted me when when I went up uh and did the photography work here uh give you a sense for uh the just the the the height of the decks and and and getting from the top of you know from one one deck to the next uh he's two decks above me uh and that's quite a walk up those stairs uh that is only two of 12 decks this ship goes down all the way down 30 almost 30 ft below the surface in terms of decks uh and more I think about a 100 feet above from the surface up now here's a little bit in terms of design of uh the plan of those those decks you can see the on the above graphic uh just sort of the the the layout of the ship uh both from a plan planner side view and an above uh view looking down on the ship uh it was amaz it's amazing how big this ship is and how long it takes to go from literally the bow all the way to the stern um which is actually not easy you can't do it in one filled walk you've got to climb up and down stairs to go all the way across uh from front to back the uh the lower uh schematic you can see is more of a design uh with colors associated with I believe that is let me get that right there the different classes uh and their compartments the yellow sorry for looking into the screen there the yellow uh color was is the uh is where all of the first class uh cabins and dining rooms and loung es were located uh tourist class was the the second class of service which was located whoops more or less in the purple and then the blue was uh basically the uh tourist class I think is Not Tourist class but uh third class you can see there are a lot of a lot a lot of decks here there are 12 Decks that start all the way up at the bridge and work their way all the way down to the bottom compartments which are uh working compartments for the crew in terms of engine rooms Etc there are some that you can see here uh oh I his cabin class was the third class uh you'll see a photograph in a few minutes of this little uh in the back of the the back of the uh the ship there's the swimming pool um we went down and uh actually got all the way down into there and Beyond in the ship uh but you can see that is one of the only things in this ship that uh was common to all three classes and was for passengers um the lighter highlighting where it says engine room below was all crew compartments uh where passengers were not permitted to uh wer the ship did have elevators up and down uh obviously we not working uh I believe they were all taken out when we were in there um but you could see the uh the the staircases that cascaded up and down especially the center uh staircase underneath that second Smoke Stack uh is quite an amazing place all right now I'm going to talk about return to service repurpose or remembering the ship the question the question the uh that one of our attendees had a little while ago was am I going to talk about this and the answer is yes this is one of the big questions facing uh the ship and facing its current owners uh I will say this I've had discussions in prep in preparing this presentation uh with uh an organization called the SS United States Conservancy uh if you want to look at their web website it's ssus c.org uh they are an organization a nonprofit organization that in I believe in 2008 uh purchased the SS United States 2011 I think started I want to say managing it and took uh ownership of it uh uh they are the organization that is attempting to do something with with the ship in terms of returning it to service repurposing it remembering it building you know a mon a museum to it Etc uh there are a lot of options that have been discussed over time uh it's anybody guess what's going to happen now although there is one that has come up that is actually uh fairly interesting uh discussion uh in terms of the the ship itself and I'm going to go through a few photographs as I talk here uh this is the navigation bridge uh where the captain of the ship managed um the uh the navigation and operation of the ship the biggest challenge to to returning the ship to service if that's what you want to do is actually having it somewhere long enough where you could do something uh and rebuild it never mind the cost of that uh and that challenge is really the challenge that the United States conserv faces right now which is it costs them about $60,000 per month just to maintain the USS or the SS United States at its birth at Pier 92 in Philadelphia the uh the fundraising to to raise $660,000 a month has to be an incredibly taxing and stressful uh Endeavor um that's literally just to keep it where it is now that seems to be moving along okay at this point I will say um the Conservancy got the ship uh I'm sorry let me correct myself in 2011 they they took ownership of the ship the various options uh for repurposing this ship uh have come and gone uh and are I think all at the same time still alive as options some more than others uh some more emotional than than others uh the SS United States Conservancy ideally I believe would like to repurpose this ship to put it back to see that would happen more in a perfect world uh the estimated cost to repurpose the ship to rebuild it to refit it and to send it back to sea as a classic Cruise liner uh at today's standards uh has been estimated to to be uh approximately $1 billion in effort uh whether or not there is anybody that would like to to tackle that project and take on the refitting of ship is anybody's guess uh I believe Norwegian Cruise Lines for a period of time was looking at that uh decided not to go uh go further with with the exploration of that idea uh but that doesn't mean it's a dead idea uh it has resurfaced at times um doesn't seem to be the most most feasible uh uh effort at this time doesn't mean it won't happen but doesn't seem to be the most feasible uh in 2015 when I first saw the ship uh the idea of scrapping the ship became another option uh which I believe would bring in a fair amount of of funding uh but really gets gets to doing gets to the heart of of the SS United States conserv is all about which is preserving presing the history of the ship to preserve the ship itself as uh if at all possible so scrapping it is really not an option uh that I believe when I first became uh uh introduced to the ship was a possible option um because there was a lot of trouble trying to make up the uh the monthly fees to uh to pay for the birthing of the ship in Philadelphia uh and scrapping it for for steel and its aluminum um was was financially viable emotionally not at all viable uh but that was one thing that was one of the options the other option at that time that uh that I came into contact with with uh the ship for was the idea of creating an artificial Reef in Florida off the coast of Florida with the SS United States um I was asked by a third party artificial reefs International is the company uh to come in uh and look at doing uh 360 degree uh photography virtual reality uh and an underwater virtual reality of this ship as a dive attraction as a dive scuba diving training facility uh and an artificial Reef allinone uh as a another possible uh option for the disposal of the ship um this was obviously a secondary um secondary objective or possible option for the Conservancy um but it was a financially believed to be by some to be a financially viable option uh as the cost for for I guess decommissioning the ship cleaning the ship uh uh so that it could be sunk safely and environmentally safely uh was between 20 and $25 million as I recall at the time in 2015 the economic return on the ship uh which would have come to the State of Florida and any other uh uh uh tourist entities in in Florida that would benefited was estimated to be somewhere between 900 million and a billion dollars over several decades of time so it would have made up a lot of money and uh for the economy of Florida uh would have meant a lot to the dive industry would have meant a lot to to the tourist industry in Florida uh would have preserved the ship as an artificial Reef uh in terms of uh it being alive and and environmentally providing shelter for fish uh and and marine life which uh artificial reefs have been shown to to do uh but again to go back to the emotional aspects of refitting the ship it does not re does not get to the heart of restoring preserving The History of the asss United States as the flagship of the United States so those options have I would like uh I think it's fair to say have kind of uh gone to the back burner uh there is an option that did uh uh did surface uh earlier uh in 2018 I believe the idea uh was being explored to to look at uh turning the SS United States into a Waterside commercial uh uh development of some sort much like the Queen Mary I believe it is in Long Beach California uh basically refitting some or all of the passenger compartments of the ship with office suites with uh with shops with hotels with a hotel or hotels uh possibly with multiple restaurants uh to make this basically a water side allpurpose you know Shopping Center Mall uh Museum Visitor Center uh office complex uh that effort is still ongoing right now and my understanding is is that um there is a firm that has decided uh that has studied this and decides that it is feasible to do and right now what we're looking at uh what they're looking at is trying to encourage one of the major United States coastal cities uh Waterfront cities uh to uh to look at uh uh adopting the SS United States birthing her in in in their city and building that Waterfront commercial complex uh uh growing out of the United States into uh into that facility uh that uh and that's as of June of this year uh is the latest news that I've seen that this is moving forward and that they're trying to attract one of those cities uh the challenge we have right now is obviously the world is in a big pandemic and everybody's lock down or semick down and uh probably a little bit less inclined uh to to venture out financially to the extent needed to to make this happen uh but that doesn't mean it's not an option that won't take shape uh as the next few years uh uh come anyway the last two photographs you've seen this one included uh or pass were are uh photos of the one of the uh one of the passenger uh prominade decks uh that the passengers would would recreate and uh do some long walks as they were traveling across the Atlantic uh this was included with part of the sport the sport sun and sport deck uh you can see all the way back from here all the way back to the to the uh to the stern the two SM Stacks uh there were there were shuffleboard uh courts uh painted on on the uh on the um on the decks uh so that the passengers could recreate as they went uh this gives you a sense for how enormous this ship is that is the swimming pool which I believe as I said was down in in deck 10 uh two decks from from the very bottom of the ship U I'm not sure that would have been the most most enjoyable uh swim that that anybody's everever had uh I like swimming in pools outside with with nice open air above me you don't have that with the SS United States uh but this was an operating working pool I believe the depth of that pool at the far end and uh was was 10 ft might have been 12 uh and it was a little shallower up up uh at the front end here in the photograph um that is definitely deep dark and down in the in the bowels of the ship um we all had hel helmets with uh I believe we had lights on there I had a a couple handfuls of uh of small portable uh lights dive lights photo photographic lights that we had to turn on just to be able to see this because it was basically Pitch Black in there this is a nice little uh picture I like from the looking from the bow backwards toward the bridge uh there you see save the United states.org that's the ssus c.org which is the conserves uh website uh uh there a bunch of posters uh Down Below on the deck uh or banners of uh of uh donors and and uh people that are volunteered organizations that have helped the Conservancy gives you a sense again for how enormous this ship is uh this is the one of the uh lower decks at the stern of the ship uh which was uh um for rope stowage uh there cap stands all throughout there to uh to connect ropes those a lot of those ropes uh that which they had in in a deck on in the in the bow end of the ship as well were're there to tie the ship off as it was uh mored in Port wherever it happened to be uh so this is sort of one of the working end um images of of the ship that the passengers would never have seen when they when they were traveling in their uh luxury this little photo I like was uh on a small little shelf in one of the comp one of the passageways that we passed through another thing that was just sort of ignored while you were traveling around in luxury on the SS United States there were you know means for you to deal with emergencies these were emergency rations uh and drinking water uh approved by the United States Coast Guard uh for use on the ship um they have not been opened I presume that there's still water and something that might look like food on the inside of that square can um but those were the emergency rations you would have inside your uh your lifeboats if you were ever uh lowered down to the to the water and had to survive uh so there there are interesting things about all this uh this is a an image uh of a passageway with uh down low uh when we came into the ship uh gives you a sense for what the status of this ship is right now uh as I said the SS United States been sitting at Birth in Philadelphia since I believe 1994 uh since 69 when it was when it was uh taken out of service this ship has seen very little action uh very little activity uh almost no you know I think almost no passenger use whatsoever uh the ship's been sitting for 26 years in Philadelphia and Fighters have taken it over the cobwebs are everywhere uh it's really kind of sad to see it's sitting there uh that said everybody uh that has looked at it says it's structurally sound so can be repurposed uh the point here is it's got to really be uh uh it's got to really be some big expenditure to make this uh make this happen another image of uh some of those cobwebs and some of the light peering through in those in those uh Port holes uh really interesting this is when you get into the ship at this point and you realize that it's not been a working ship for 51 years uh you see almost every bit of the Interior that's been been dragged out of it uh been ripped out been cleaned out of it uh you realize that uh these ships are basically gigantic holes they're they're just Frameworks Frameworks within which you can put Humanity uh it's it's interesting it is scary it looks like if you're if you've ever heard of the concept of urban exploration or herex this is this is an Urban explor Explorer uh dream is to go through this ship and see the past see the history that was here uh and also see the fact that it's sitting here unused for decades uh it is kind of sad uh from an emotional perspective uh to think that this ship was a top secret classified piece of of Technology uh that was also an ex at the same time the fastest Cruise liner one of the most glamorous and and and glitzy gr cruise liners uh that cruise the Atlantic Ocean uh with celebrity uh passengers all the time um this ship had a life of its own had had has a history uh and that is all sitting waiting for something to happen now at Birth in Philadelphia last image I'll leave you with is this image of the SS United States that I took from obviously from the pier uh looking back from the bow back um this is my favorite image of the ship uh gives you uh I think uh a perspective on the size of it looking up and looking down uh you get a sense for uh the wear and tear that this ship has been through uh in all of its years at Sea and sitting at Birth inactive uh um you can see the peeling paint and the rust um it is still there the SS United States is still uh a viable a viable ship in terms of its structure uh and it's waiting for something to happen it's waiting for somebody to do something with it uh and uh I hope that uh that somebody the that the USS Conservancy uh can can make something happen with this uh at this point uh concludes my remarks and I'd be more than happy to take any questions that anybody has um this has been rather marvelous Frank because almost everybody who is tuned in right now has some sort of relationship with this show and unfortunately some of them don't have a microphone on their computer so they can't share some of their memories but there are a few who are very anxious to speak so let me start with Arthur and he's hoping his microphone going to work and um if you would just mute yourself while people are speaking and that will make the sound um you know the ultimate Arthur are you with us yes I am do you hear me hear can you hear me yes okay Frank first of all I want to pay you a compliment and I have the proof I spent a earlier this year doing a complete search of all the records I could find online and thousands of photographs and the photographs you showed today are in a class Beyond any of the others and the reason I can say that had I seen these I would have contacted you months ago anyway to the point I am I'm calling you by the way from the building that was the very first Gibb's brother office which was an 11 Broadway before they moved on to one Broadway and then on to West Street um let's make today let's make today the start of part of the history of the United States you mentioned all the possible uses for the United States first of all the current proposal is DOA it was DOA before covid-19 it's completely dead now no municipality is going to put money into creating new host Hotel and Conference space when they're all going to be worried for the next 10 years about simply filling all the space major cities like New York and every other city has I believe sincerely that the single most imaginative the single most ambitious proposal possible is the one that can concede while no one may be thinking about it actively we need a powerful defining symbol in 2026 July 20 2026 for the biggest celebration in American Oran history which is the 250th anniversary of the United States I sincerely believe it can happen and should happen that on the morning of July 4th 2026 the United States under its own power sails in to New York Harbor and becomes the symbol of of America's past present and future not as a cruise ship but as a ship that basically travels the world and spends time in ports over the world representing the best that the United States represents it's past it's it's past in terms of the United States in presence in our ability to basically restore it to its original glory and basically sailing into the future yes it's A1 billion dollar project for sure but I think if particularly you Frank would seem like have a lot of connections if you're willing to embrace and not necessarily on this phone call embrace it we can start and we can create a national interest because I think there's so much logic to it and we're running out of time to begin that of course it's we're only talking about five years away that this ship can be fully restored to to its glory and its speeds in when it was originally had an inaugural Voyage in New York Harbor in 1952 we need such a symbol I don't think there's anything that compares I was responsible for bringing the great Charging Bull here to Bowling Green back in 1989 and I spoke to that great artist about for a while about creating we need a new sculpture that represents the 250th anniversary just as although the Statue of Liberty wasn't completed till after the 100th anniversary it was meant to be the symbol for the 100th anniversary I don't believe that any work of sculpture could possibly compete with restoring the United States create the kind of excitement and national identity as fully restoring the United St I think it's a unique opportunity in American history and I hope we can discuss it further and that you will show some interest in doing so if you have any reaction now I'd love to have it well the first reaction would be I would love that too uh and anything you would want from me in terms of photographing the ship uh to to help support that effort I'd be more than happy to do that uh unfortunately I don't have a billion dollar in my pocket to help but I will contribute how I can uh the reaction I had as you were speaking is was that it was kind of interesting I was brought into this project as I said by a third party that was a company expert in Sinking Ships as artificial reefs I've dived on some of those reefs that that that company sank um I was brought in to do underwater photography uh work on this uh sh should it happen and essentially I went in basically doing a reconnaissance trip just to get a sense for what this was all about and and I will tell you that even though from a divers perspective that would have been really uh interesting to me uh the history yes is just too dramatic and too Monumental to to allow to disappear beneath the waves uh I think it should be done too I agree with you Frank are you available at ffs photography is that your company FSS yeah yes that's me you can Frank FSS photography.com I also did four I've done four videos myself which I will send you the links to but thank you for what you did today and I and until proven otherwise I think it can happen it's it's it's incredibly ambitious but the the billion doll cost is not the showstopper here what the showstopper is generating enough interest in fact the official 250th anniversary committee does not have but should have a centerpiece project and if they can be reached if they can be convinced there's no doubt that the billion dollars can be raised and on the morning of July 4th this glorious ship looking exactly as it did in 1952 sailing into New York har will be one of the Great Moments in American history it would be it definitely would be thank you thank you for that lovely vision and and thought Arthur that that would be quite something thank you okay and now I am going to um hold on one second Richard would you like to speak I know you had a couple of thoughts and questions so can you hear me Frank yes can hear you okay so just a little bit of History um I was raised in Long Island New York City area and I remember the United States um my dad was enamored with the United States he actually built a revel model of the United States and it was a uh showcase piece that he had on a Manel and he actually drilled out some of the port holes and put a light bulb in the hall such it like it would be sailing at night I mean it he loved the thing um I mean it was an interesting time you know cruise ships today are built for holding people this was built for Speed I remember the competitions between United States and uh the France which became the Norwegian Cruise Line um ship to nor and things of that nature so I know my dad passed away in 1999 but he was always very disheartened when he ever saw the condition of the United States when it was sitting in Philadelphia I thought I remember a prince in Saudi Arabia that at one point was interested in purchasing it and either trying to refurbish it for um cruising or for Hotel I'm interested in the whole I'm a scuba diver myself and therefore even interested in you know the scuba side of it diving Rex is of interest in mine um but yeah it was it I really look forward to this talk this was one I was out cut my grass and sto to actually come in and and listen to your talk so thank you very much for taking the time and and um providing the the information well thank you for your comments as well Richard uh really is something else this ship and uh you just if you haven't been it in person uh you should try to get the opportunity to do that I think the Conservancy does tours occasionally they're kind of on hold right now because of the pandemic but it's just incredible to to to take in its enormity so yeah nice comments thank you okay John would you like to ask your questions okay I was just kind of interested in uh knowing whether there were tours of the uh the ship and as you just pointed out there are um I I will tell you that I did want to know if there were records related to passengers uh on this ship I cannot point you towards them s right now off the top of my head um but I have seen that there are P some passenger records available I think there probably a lot of them uh you know the the the cele just to give you an example the celebrity photos that I showed you U Back in the middle of the presentation uh was really a small a small uh part of the overall list that I found that was just sort of hey these people traveled on the SS United States uh and those celebrities were that was like 30 some oddd folks FKS and I think there were a lot more that traveled it that weren't even on that list okay but where did you find I think there are records out there okay and then you said that the fastest Crossing time was three days 10 hours and 40 something minutes 40 yeah 40 some odd minutes I may have gotten that wrong uh well that sounds about right write it down when I Was preparing my presentation I apologize but if you give me literally a couple of moments I'm getting on Wikipedia on my phone right now and I'll be able to tell you okay and do you know when that was I believe that was on its maiden voyage which was 1952 July 3rd 1952 was when it left I think it left ports UK or Southampton or Portsmouth uh where's the crossing [Music] speed okay so that was from Southampton or to Southampton uh yeah but the recck of the the Blue Ribbon is is for both Crossings so it's an average speed of two and had to have passengers on board as well okay I don't want I don't want to like sit here and look at my phone for half an hour and not find it for you it's there somewhere on Wikipedia SS United States uh and you can find the records uh for the exact uh number I apologize that for whatever reason that just sort of went right out of out of my mind uh but it's uh it's definitely a fast speed and nobody had had uh equaled that until I think it was the 1969 effort that was a small I think it was a a carrying transatlantic ferry from Britain that that broke the I I think it was one way record so okay well that was written I was looking uh what the speed was from laav to New York yeah I don't I don't know that speed to be honest with you all right I I appreciate your uh information welcome okay we have another comment from Chong and let me just unmute okay Chong you're on thank you very much U thank you Frank for the extremely informative presentation I'm a in my spare time I'm a dosent at the Marshall George C Marshall um House museum in lesburg so I'm very interested in Cold War history and I at the beginning of your presentation you mentioned this ship was built uh for Cold War uh to transport soldiers do you have any additional background information about why this ship was commissioned uh and uh how long it took to build a ship of this size thank you uh I'll see if I can go backwards there how long it took was easy because the construction started in 1950 ended in 1952 it was approximately two years long in terms of construction so it took a while uh although for a ship that size I'm not sure that was all that long so it was about two years uh not a whole lot of information available about uh the envisioned Cold War use for the ship uh if you look what I would suggest is looking at the United States Maritime administration's website uh that is the organization I I kind of mentioned some of its its pre uh predecessor organizations but uh because the maritime commission was the the organization that actually commissioned the SS United States uh that organization was preceded by the United States shipping board all the shipping board the commission and the maritime Administration all oversee and the administration still oversees uh Merchant Marine uh and Maritime Affairs in the United States uh the maritime Administration website has a a nice history uh uh section on its website which will give you a lot of insight into uh what they do in terms of National Security uh the SS United States was one of many efforts um the maritime commission which operated mostly during World War II was involved in the victory ship and the Liberty ship programs uh follow on to those were I believe beginning of World I was the uh the SS America uh as a flagship the United States followed in after World War II in the 50s uh there were other programs as well um there was the nuclear ship Savannah which I think was built in 1959 operated until about 1970 was the first and only nuclear powerered uh Oceanic cargo ship that was ever built uh which is sitting in Baltimore now and is toured a couple of times a year um there are an entire range of of those things that are that are highlighted on that website uh in terms of History uh and I've researched all that and and and gone beyond their website to find information on a lot of these different programs uh as far as the United States goes in Cold War there isn't a whole lot as I said about it being used as a troop carrying ship because it never was used as a Troop Carrier uh it was literally an emergency plan just in case and put a heck of a lot of effort into it uh and as I said the plans the engine designs the propeller designs the design of the hull um the below the surface below the water Hull uh portion of the hull uh was all classified until 1977 uh that was really all because I think the Department of Defense didn't want uh the Soviet Block in the Communist world to find out how we built the fastest ship in the world and how it was going to get troops everywhere we needed so thank you very much def look it up an intriguing tidbit but not a whole lot of detail because nothing was ever done with it yeah thank you so much very informative Kathy you had a lot of interesting memories about traveling on the ship I think you said you took six voyages on it uh would you like to share some of those I can unmute you and just uh let's see on Kath okay you were actually incorrect about six voyages six voyages on different ships the first voyage was on this ship I would have been three years old um our family um uh was on the ship at the time when the uh movie bonvoyage was filmed and we actually appeared uh very very very briefly behind the um lead characters Fred McMurray and Dane Wyman in that um now you're Pres um I missed most of this I had trouble getting in but um unfortunately I'm I hope there'll be an opportunity to see some more of the pictures but I did come in when your presenter was talking about the pool and saying very negative things about the pool and I must say that the pool is my fondest memory I possibly can flate several of the different ships we were also on the SS America we were on the SS France but the um but the pool was a marvelous experience for a child um the the way I I remember very much that room um the exactly the way the room was laid out and uh the way the pool would shift I guess this is nothing new for anyone who's been on a cruise but because of course the water stayed level when the ship tilted you had the sense that you were everyone would swim uphill and then swim downhill and this was very very exciting for a child so um don't dgate the pool um I wish I'd been able to see more pictures um I remember how tall the the ship was they give you balloons and you would drop the balloons off and it would just seem like they fell down forever into the wake of the ship so uh and then I remember the gala dinner uh at the end um which would um and and throwing streamers and things like that that's pretty much all I have to say but I I just uh um it it's very cool to see some I wish I could see the rest of your pictures I hope there's another opportunity perhaps for that uh I believe thank you for your comments Kathy the uh I believe the the Pres presentation is going to be has been recorded Lorraine correct uh I think she only recorded part um there was a little problem in the beginning of it but most of it will be recorded so we might have missed one or two pictures in the beginning wonderful thanks for doing this I send your email send your email address to Lorraine uh we'll see what we can do thanks so much and yeah I'm sorry about my comments about the pool as well uh my only experience was going down into the deepest dark black bowel of the ship and uh finding the pool all the way at the back and uh this well if I'm still on I can tell you that in a I think it was a later trip when we had seen a flipper episode where someone had gotten stung by a jellyfish and we spent one whole trip where I was terrified to go in the pool at all because I thought jellyfish might be able to come in through the filter and I spent the entire time my parents thought I would use up all of the water all of the fresh water on the ship just staying spending all my time in the showers so that's a little bit more personal story but well we're glad jellyfish didn't get you on that ship thank you so much have interesting experiences on ships yes thank you thank you um there's someone else who traveled quite a bit on the the ship and has a lot of memories and she said that one night um it was the captain's dinner and it coincided with her sister's sixth birthday and she thought all the fuss was about her birthday and the crew just went along with it so I thought that was a really nice uh little comment that is yeah there are some people who just don't have a microphone and can't share their comments unfortunately but thank you so much Frank this was just uh just so interesting and you've done a series of these programs on these relics and you know parts of history that people may have forgotten and it's just marvelous to bring that you're doing this that you're reminding people of these great parts of our past history so thank you very much and thank you all for attending I'm going to type my email address right here if you would like to reach Frank or if you have any comments about the program please don't hesitate to contact me Frank would you like to share your email address as well yeah can I type that in or should I just uh or just tell me and I'll type it right now okay FSS photography.com all right thank you all so much and I will put the recording on the event calendar on our website as soon as it's ready in a day or two bye bye now okay Frank and if you'll just hold on one second yep I meant to ask you actually to go over a little bit the difference between the SS and the USS you know I I did get one question about that that I thought was interesting yeah I'm know the presentation is over but SS uh traditionally has meant steam ship yeah oh I looked it up and it said sailing ship on wikip coulding ship could in in the modern ER it's steam ship because there are no not as many sailing ships as well um so yeah youve a whole series of abbreviations USS I think means United States ship which generally speaking means a US military vessel um you have other was uh you have F FV it's fishing vessel r/v is a research vessel um a variety of those kinds of designations for the front of of all kinds of ships and boats yeah that's cool but you know there's a lot of people just take that for granted they've heard forever SS USS but all of a sudden they sit down say why why do they get those designations yeah all those ships I talked about at Malo Bay were all SS's they were all steam ships but they literally were running on Steam they had steam engines that were running their Motors although United States have steam as as well as the yes uh I mean they had fuel that they Ed that they burned to to run the steam turbines yeah which then turned the propell all right okay I'm gonna end the program hold on just a second thanks again to everyone for [Music] joining