The most memorable part of the crossing was our near-forty knot speed, slicing through the Gulf Stream. Visiting the engine room was next: a quarter-million horsepower, spinning four long shafts from the power turbines to eighteen foot props; spotlessness everywhere, even in the engine room. The staff of SS United States were bright and efficient, a skilled team in complete harmony. They tended to our daughter’s needs and comforted my wife’s storm-illness.We had five days and nights of family time -- unusual during Cold War military service. One dinner came with a trout fish for my daughter under a silver dome in a swimming pose. But Juliann wouldn’t touch the “pretty fish.” However, I was pleased to do so.-- Harold Bingaman, former passenger and first lieutenant fighter pilot assigned to the Royal Air Force Station Shepherds Grove in Suffolk County (at the time of his voyage).
Transmission #2: Beverly Jackson
I joined forces with my parents for a going away party held in their stateroom for those who came to see you off. Until I entered my own room and saw flowers everywhere, I confess I was apprehensive that maybe no one would send me any, but all my beaus came through! Then came the time when the party must end: “All ashore who are going ashore!” blasted over the loud speaker and off the visitors went down the gang plank while the orchestra played.Farewell parties are no longer possible due to strict security measures, but whenever a Crystal Cruise ship leaves port, they play Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World” – I cannot hear that song anymore without relieving sailing out of places like Elba, Cartagena, Yokohama, Santorini, Shanghai, and best of all, Istanbul at midnight under a full moon.Back now to the United States about to set sail, steam billowing out of the two red funnels, everyone waving and shouting goodbyes you couldn’t hear, passengers throwing a veritable net of brightly colored paper serpentine streamers over the railing, linking us to those we were leaving behind. Then we heard the grinding of the anchor being hauled up, the churning of machinery deep within the ship in full action, and soon we were sailing past the Statue of Liberty with the skyline of New York City fading fast from our view.-- Beverly Jackson, author and former passenger
Transmission #1: Paul MacCarthy
It’s a very famous call sign. Whenever you were talking to someone from the ship, anywhere around the world, it was the first thing you would say: this is Superliner United States KJEH. If you were talking to somebody in Dubai, you’d say, "This is Kilo-Juliette-Echo-Hotel." If you were talking to somebody nearby, you’d say KJEH, because they’d know. It was the night before we arrived on one of the last trip coming across from the UK to New York; for dinner on the last night there were special menus and special music, all the guys would be wearing their best tuxedos, and the women in formal evening dress looking a like a million. A couple came in after dinner, they said to me, "We want to make a call to a very small town in New Jersey, Saddle River -- you’ve probably never heard of it." "Heard of it?" I said, "I live in Upper Saddle River." It’s a small world.-- Paul MacCarthy, radio operator on the SS United States (1957-1969)