The SS United States holds a particular fascination for me, perhaps owing to the fact that externally, I find her to be one of the most beautiful liners ever built.  With her huge, rakish funnels and her long, elegant lines, she suggests power and speed even while sitting in her current decrepit state in Philadelphia.   Her oft maligned interiors, too, speak to me as the ultimate achievement in nautical design: form not just following function, but flattering it as well.  I have often said that if time travel is ever a viable vacation option, I would grab a Bell & Howell 16mm camera and jet back to July 3, 1952 to travel first class aboard the record-breaking maiden voyage, making darn sure I snagged an invite to the Conga Line of revelers who danced their way from the ballroom to the bridge during the wee hours of the morning she took the Blue Riband from the venerable RMS Queen Mary.  Our girls are faster, indeed!  As a nation, we may have been late to the transatlantic party, but with the SS United States, we were certainly the belle of the ball.  This may be the primary reason she is perhaps my favorite ship to collect, almost as if I'm trying to reassemble her one piece at a time in my home!When my dining table is set with SS United States linens, glassware, china and silver, along with my bud vases, magnificent mid-century deco table lamps, and the perpetual table number "4", you can almost feel the room vibrating beneath your feet with the awesome power of her machinery.  The five cabin class dining chairs in their original 1960s upholstery are not only arrestingly attractive, but comfortable and sturdy -- much like the ship herself -- as well.  I also love sitting down to have breakfast in one of her green vinyl tourist class stateroom chairs encircling a round first class dining room table, whose metal "fiddler racks" still work to help prevent dishes from spilling over in heavy seas, or, in my case, perhaps an earthquake!   I've also always been struck by the irony of her career, having been touted in the early '50s as "the fastest way to and from all Europe," to the less hurried slogan adopted during her twilight years, "Sail with the unrushables." 

Passengers toss streamers and wave Bon Voyage!

There you'll find ways to contribute both financially and in other ways, and can read about our various exciting projects including an upcoming documentary film and our new Archive Projects.  Check it out!  Another fun feature from the old West Coast Chapter site is our interactive cutaway of the ship.  If you scroll your cursor over the names of the rooms, a red dot will appear on the cutaway showing the room's location.  If you then click, a pop up window will appear with a photo of the space as it appeared in the ship's heyday, with descriptive text from vintage United States Lines' brochures, followed by potential uses for the space aboard a revitalized Big U.  To access the cutaway, click on the life ring directly below. Note: You may need to allow pop-ups.  This page was created by the talented artists at Artemysia Design, and you should check out their website as well!

Still, throughout her 17-year service career, she managed to remain the epitome of modern -- as evidenced by Vogue fashion shoots done in both 1952 and 1968, which book-ended her life span.  Check out one of the "stylish girls" on this page if you want to see more.  Because of my love for the SS United States, and my desire to see her saved and revitalized in some fashion, I joined the SS United States Foundation and signed on to launch the West Coast Chapter in July of 2002, after attending the 50th Anniversary of the Maiden Voyage festivities hosted by the Foundation aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach.  Partnering with fellow Big U enthusiast and 1950s cultural aficionado extraordinaire, Bill Martinez, we had the biggest chapter launch in Foundation history, with an event held at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro, California.  The West Coast Chapter's award-winning website opened with a two-part Flash animation "commercial," which I have brought back online.  Click the photo at right to see it, but please ignore the "enter" link at the end!   The site helped bring awareness to the ship and to the work of the Foundation.  After Norwegian Cruise Lines purchased the SS United States with the intention of bringing her back to service as a modern American-flagged cruise vessel, things took a dicey turn within the ranks of the SS United States Foundation.  At the annual meeting in May of 2004, it became glaringly apparent that a philosophical schism had developed between the members of the Foundation's board in terms of how to work with the ship's new owner to achieve our goals of historic preservation.  In the wake of this dispute, a handful of us respectfully resigned from that organization to form the new SS United States Conservancy, a non-profit 501(c)3 group with a more measured and realistic approach to seeing this fabled ship revitalized and preserved for future generations.  If you haven't visited the Conservancy's website, I hope you'll take a moment to drop in by clicking on the logo:

                  
 

There has been so much skepticism about the NCL purchase of the United States, with many vocal and vociferous detractors going so far as to suggest it is somehow a scam to circumnavigate the Jones Act, but I believe, at least in theory, that NCL is genuinely interested in achieving their stated goal.  Why else court a potential PR disaster by going public with such an announcement?  I guess I'm cautiously optimistic where the future of our ship is concerned.  She's survived this many years since her lay-up in 1969, and though stripped and gutted and fading in the daily sunlight, she remains an awe-inspiring sight, pulling against her mooring lines like
 

a thoroughbred race horse anxious to shake free of her reigns and set back out to sea.  I pledge to continue working with the Conservancy to see this amazing vessel retrieve her rightful place in history, all the while being treated with the dignity and respect she deserves.  As a nation, we seem to only remember and memorialize the tragedies.  Why not start celebrating the triumphs as well?  After all, we'd never let this happen to the Statue of Liberty, and to my mind, the SS United States deserves to be treated with the same regard.  Long may she live!

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