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)
Transmission 5: Alex Keisch
It fell on the cadets to draw the weather map each day. We worked at least an hour transposing the coded numbers into interlacing weather systems on a grid of the North Atlantic. It was all black pen on a white paper background, with one great splash of color: a red, white, and blue stack with a dot placed carefully and precisely on the leading edge. The importance of this red stack can’t be overstated since it marked our new position each day, proudly demonstrating the expanse of ocean we had traversed in the last twenty-four hours. It was the captain’s habit to check this creation of ours each morning -- we all thought he was more critical of the care taken in coloring the stack than of the actual information the map revealed.I was twenty-one years old then, and thought the Big U would always be like it was then. I also thought I would stay twenty-one forever. I was wrong on both counts!-- Alex Keisch, Cadet, SS United States (May 18, 1966-May 31, 1966), Kings Point Class of 1967
Transmission #4: Kiernan Meaghan
After closing the scullery, we would venture into the First Class galley and pick up a couple of filet mignons, some French bread, a number 10 can of draft beer, and take them back to the aft crew deck below the main deck and watch the seas roll by. Talk about the good life! At night we would gather in ‘Times Square,’ the crossroads of the crew quarters, and shoot the breeze. I remember listening to Sandy Saddler, the ship’s athletic director, who was always dressed to the nines, eagerly recounting his epic bouts with Willie Pep. Meeting and getting to know the enormously varied individuals who made up the crew was an eye-opening experience for a kid fresh from high school. When I was returning to the ship for a departure from NYC, I always stood on the street at Pier 86 for a moment, just looking directly at the bow of the ship. I don’t think I ever saw a more beautiful manufactured object, a perfect blend of art, engineering, function, and grandeur.-- Kiernan Meaghan, waiter in the Engineering Officers’ mess (1962) and Cabin Class scullery (1963)