I caught the end of that bygone era, the age of glamor. The passengers would wear different gowns and tuxedos every night. It wasn’t like today with gals wearing short shorts and flip flops to the lunch table. When the checkered cabs would pull up at Pier 86, they’d roll out the steamer trunks for the passengers that were coming on board. Sailing day was very high energy, you could feel it in the ship. The two days when energy would increase were always arrival and departure. When the ship would sail from Manhattan, the whistle would just reverberate and resonate under the West Side Highway, this steel structure, it was just an amazing sound. The cobblestones on the street would actually shake, vibrate, rather, from the frequency of the steam whistle.-- Joe Muchulsky, who held the positions of Assistant Linen Keeper, First Class Deck Steward, Tourist Class Waiter, Cabin Class Waiter, and First Class Waiter, in that order (1966-1969)