• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Do We Need Ships Of This Size

Share this page

Hey Tom do you remember Mohawk Airlines?
i flew on this airline once as a kid.
 
Thanks Paul. That brings back memories.
 
I agree with Randy - the SS United States was another of those great - and beautiful - liners of our past:

View attachment 42526

Elliot - do you remember Colonial Air Lines (of the '40s and '50s)?
 
Never heard of Colonial Tom. I'll check them out on the net.
 
Basil said:
A good friend and former co-worker (now deceased) took his wife on a >> Windjammer Cruise! He said it was the experience of a lifetime. He came back with some amazing pictures and tales !
Click to expand...

We did one of these through the Windward Islands in 1981 aboard the windjammer "Yankee Clipper". Won the trip on a local PBS auction for $400! My wife was carrying our first child at the time and morning sickness and sea sickness didn't go too well. But overall it was a great trip with only 60 passengers aboard. The Clipper was built as the personal yacht of the Krupp family and taken as a war prize by the US at the end of WWII. It later was owned by the Vanderbilt family.

yankee-clipper-139.jpg
 
The Delta Queen used to occasionally tie up across the street from my very cool attic apartment on the Mississippi, steam calliope announcing the fanfare.
It's no longer allowed to carry it's 180 passengers overnight as it did for 80+ years, something about a wood steam boat being a fire hazard.
20150414090008-DQ_on_River-fall.jpg
 
sail said:
The Delta Queen used to occasionally tie up across the street from my very cool attic apartment on the Mississippi, steam calliope announcing the fanfare.
It's no longer allowed to carry it's 180 passengers overnight as it did for 80+ years, something about a wood steam boat being a fire hazard.
Click to expand...


I remember being on the Delta Queen (it was just sitting, not moving) when I was a teen. It was docked in Louisville.
 
sail said:
The Delta Queen used to occasionally tie up across the street from my very cool attic apartment on the Mississippi, steam calliope announcing the fanfare.
It's no longer allowed to carry it's 180 passengers overnight as it did for 80+ years, something about a wood steam boat being a fire hazard.
20150414090008-DQ_on_River-fall.jpg
Click to expand...

The wife and I went for a river ride on the Delta Queen about 10 years ago, quite nice.

In 1865, an explosion on one caused the deaths of over 1500 Union soldiers on the Mississippi when returning home after surviving the war. PJ
 
CaptRandy said:
Paul, don't forget the SS United States.
Click to expand...

I was never on the USS United States, but saw her tied up in Philly just rusting away and waiting for a buyer. Heard someone wanted her for a floating hotel, don't know if that ever happened. Toured the QE-2 when tied up in LA about 10/12 years ago, quite luxurious to say the least. PJ
 
Riverboat Twilight goes from LeClaire to Dubuque, IA, about 50 miles. Overnight in hotel and return next day.
DSC_9268.JPG

There is a similar boat now in LaCrosse, the Julia Belle Swain that John Hartford used to Pilot.
 
Having both a professional and personal interest in systems failure analysis, I make make a habit of watching shows like Engineering Disasters on The Discovery Network. In one of the shows they had an interview with a marvelous gentleman, a shipboard entertainer, who was (un)lucky enough to have been on two ill-fated cruise ships.

In one of the incidents, when things were looking really bad weather wise, the Captain ordered all passengers and non-essential personnel to assemble and await further instructions. Then the crew abandoned ship.

While everybody was waiting around, getting more and more worried, wondering what was going on, our entertainer took the initiative to go up to the bridge on behalf of the crowd and ask. At which point he found the bridge deserted.

So he called the Coast Guard himself. They of course immediately started emergency procedures and while coordinating with him asked "are you the Captain?" To which he responded "uh, no, I'm the guitar player." Boy, I'd love to have seen the look on their faces in the command center.

As always, the Coast Guard went about their duties with extreme efficiency and thankfully got everybody evacuated safely. The guitar player worked with the Coast Guard all the way through the ordeal and was the last person evacuated from the ship. (As appropriate for the "highest ranking crewman aboard.")

(The Captain and crew were picked up in their life boats at some point. Not sure how they were handled, other than having a lot of explaining to do.)

Having been through two cruise ship evacuations, they asked the guitar player if he'd ever step foot on a cruise ship again. He cheerfully replied that he loved being a cruise ship entertainer and went straight back to work on another ship.
 
PC said:
(The Captain and crew were picked up in their life boats at some point. Not sure how they were handled, other than having a lot of explaining to do.)
Click to expand...

They should have been shot!
 
Back
Top