CNN Travel: SS United States- The mighty ship that broke all the records
CNN Travel: SS United States- The mighty ship that broke all the records
Christopher Ross, CNN - Updated 16th December 2020
(CNN) — At the age of 10, David Macaulay immigrated to America from England in 1957 with his mother, brother, and sister aboard the SS United States -- a massive, gleaming ocean liner that had been in operation for just five years, and would remain in service only another 12.
The family boarded in Southampton on England's southeast coast, where the passenger ship's six-story-tall funnels rose up over the docks like two huge fins, painted in blocks of red, white, and blue, their aerodynamic shape signaling the vessel's race-ready design.
The SS United States held -- and, incredibly, still holds today -- the fastest transatlantic speed record for a liner, and possessed a secret double identity. Two-thirds of its $78 million construction costs had been subsidized by the US government so that the liner could be requisitioned by the military and converted to a troop transport ship with the capacity to carry 14,000 soldiers.