Transmission 15: Charter Weeks

Our principal interest was documentary filmmaking, and in order to get hired to do this, we had to have a sample. So, we decided to film a day in the life of a tow boat in New York Harbor. Moran Towing agreed – honestly, we were hoping they’d give us some money! We spent about six or eight weeks shooting the material, then we put together the film. When we presented it to Moran, they came back to us and said: “Nah, we’re not really interested in spending money on this."

It was a terribly fun project. One interesting thing that happened was that we had rented a helicopter to film the sequence of maneuvering the SS United States into the harbor. Well, the guy who was in the helicopter accidentally tripped a switch that made the film run backward. What was should be half and hour of footage ended up as less than six minutes. We looked it at like, we have to incorporate this into the finished piece, so with editing, what we did was edit it so when the helicopter video zooms in, it segues into a zoom in along the engine room, then cuts to the coffee cups. That sequence of shots, it was a way to use the limited video we had. The ending, with the shot zooming in on the boat out on the river, that resulted from that complication, too.The film, what’s called a work print, was largely shot on color negative, which was superimposed on a color positive to create the edited version. You shot thousands of feet of film of which you only use a portion, a typical shooting ratio was about 20:1, meaning for every 20 feet you shot, you used 1. In those days, we cut film on a machine called a Moviola. We didn’t just piece together the film, but also the soundtrack. For Tow Boat, there were eight different tracks for music, voice over, effects, and so on. It took six weeks to cut a twelve-minute film.One of the ways you can transition from point to point in a film is with a wipe, when the image shifts from one side of the screen to the other. In Tow Boat, during the undocking, the Buena Ventura is pushed from the left to the right, then the footage immediately cuts to the SS United States, almost like a wipe. Moments like that, they’re visual treats.When we shot the footage, the intended purpose was to raise money! We hoped to get paid, which we did not, but we did get a product to use for future presentation so our company, Chicago Films, could get work. Over time, the project has matured in its connection to the world. I married Marie Harris, whose grandfather, Basil Harris, was the president of United States Lines. Now, I see the footage as a means of preserving the history of the ship in some small way.-- Charter Weeks, photographer and filmmaker, and restorer of the “Tow Boat” footage

Transmission 14: Mary Anne Cox

I loved watching the arrivals at ports of call – Le Havre, Cherbourg, Southampton – for all the excitement of entering the harbors with pilot boats and tugs guiding us in and out. Waving crowds and waiting friends added to excitement.I crossed from New York to Southampton, England on the SS United States in 1956, 1960, and 1965. Dinner and dancing every evening of the journey was a very glamorous environment for a 10-year-old "voyeur" and for a 19-year-old participant, too! The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were on one trip; they were on deck and at dinner frequently. On one crossing, there was a hurricane – velvet ropes were strung along gangways and hallways to steady passengers.One of my most vivid memories was that on the first day of the return trip, everyone at lunch ordered a hamburger. Most meals in England, even lunches, were elaborate affairs. A quick "American" meal was hard to come by, so a hamburger was the perfect first meal -- plain “home” cooking. During that lunch, the band played songs recognizing famous U.S. states and cities: "California, Here I Come," "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," "New York, New York," etcetera.-- Mary Anne Cox (née Barry), former passenger

Transmission 13: Drew Bello

When Uncle Art was supervising the installation of the propellers, he met William Francis Gibbs.  Art said to Gibbs, "Real fine lines – that’s a beauty!" to which Gibbs responded "That she is."He told me that the SS United States had special, secret trials runs where she ran on two engines that peaked at 200 RPM and two that reached 199 and 201 respectively. The ship ran at 1000/1000, meaning 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit with 1,000 pounds of steam pressure. When she went against two naval Destroyers in Cape Henry, Virginia, the Navy’s radar system recorded the 5-mile run -- the SS United States blew the Destroyers out of the water. Apparently the Navy then placed restrictive plates, steam chokes, on the engine to reduce the steam going in, thereby decreasing her RPMs. Originally her horsepower was 67,000, but the restrictive plates toned it down.Art was the second engineer, then eventually into moved to the boiler room. Following the maiden voyage, the SS United States ran on six boilers with thirteen burner total, six on the steam side, seven on the opposite side. When they were all roaring, he said the white heat flames resembled Hell.My brother passed away in a tragic clubhouse fire when he was just a child. One week later, my father and I were able to board the Big U with my uncle. At the time, I believe my father and I were the only civilians who saw the engine room. Since then, I’ve felt like the ship was my adoptive brother.-- Drew Bello, nephew of Arthur Bello, Second Engineer and Boiler Room Operator