Chota Peg: A Small Drink of Water on The Big Ship

Along with the thousands of passengers who traveled aboard the SS United States during her years of service, there was a very special crew member that delighted all who knew him: Chota Peg. A lovely cockerspaniel, Chota lived his entire life aboard the various ships on which Captain Anderson worked.Chota Peg, which is Hindustani for "small drink," was bought as a 4 month old from a Manhattan pet shop to live with the Andersons. He eventually ended up becoming the Captain's most faithful companion at sea.Chota Peg's maritime career began in 1943 aboard the troop transport John Ericsson. After the war, he managed to stowaway on the SS Washington. By this time the pooch had become an "old salty dog," however stormy seas still made him nervous.After his tour aboard the SS Washington, Chota Peg managed to sneak aboard the SS America in 1949. Later, in 1952, he first sailed on the then-new SS United States. Although he wasn't officially recognized as a canine crew member, he became well known by the world's great statesmen and celebrities who were entertained by the Captain.Chota Peg logged a happy 2,000,000 nautical miles accrued over his more than 14 years of life. He died peacefully on July 1, 1958 aboard the SS United States in the master's stateroom while the ship was at sea approaching Southampton. Captain Alexanderson, the master during that crossing, later reported that the ship's doctors worked hard to save Chota. He radioed Commodore Anderson saying that his friend had passed away and was buried at sea with full honors.Sources:

• SS United States the story of America's greatest ocean liner by William H. Miller, 1991.
• SS United States fastest ship in the world by Frank O. Brynard and Robert Hudson Westover, 2002.
• The Naples Record, Naples, NY. 1956.

SS UNITED STATES: SOUL OF A NATION, PT. 3

By: Peter PaulShe had gone to one final auction and had caught the attention of a major cruise line, which won the bid and intended to refit the ship to its former glory if at all possible. Years after the auction, we find ourselves back at square one, the cost of retrofitting-to-cruising condition having fallen victim to costs. Such a vessel would have to command premium prices from its customers, a huge gamble.The great debate over her fate: cruise ship, stationary museum, powered floating restaurant, gambling haven, what to do with her? Her lines were built for speed, her engines hugely expensive to replace and operate. Would it even be worthwhile to pretend that all this time had not passed, or would it make better sense to let her rest in peace somehow?None of the passenger configurations were up to date: no balconies, no wide promenades, no cliff-walking attractions, no aquariums, nothing which the modern "cruise passenger" demanded. Certainly, her clean up, the toxic material aboard, POL abatement, all the rest of the modern standards that would come to bear, spelled enormous expenditures, which, for a vessel that was not designed to have the carrying capacity of our highly touted "barge-ships", would mean sky high ticket prices. Where was the public demand for that kind of cruise?To this date, some 57 years after her launch, this fine lady of the seas is kept in limbo, her future uncertain. She is the only ocean liner in US maritime history that has had such a tortuous, almost living, death. To say that there is a crime here, a crime against a ship, our history and our heritage, against art and all things right, well, it may be overstated. But it feels that way.That sorrowful ending, scrap, would hurt anyone with a love of the sea and ships, but there is an end to her that we all, I think, could live with, should all else fail. It wouldn’t cost much money, it would end her life with grace and dignity and it would, quite appropriately, keep her alive in the same sense that others before her have had: reefing.Anyone who has followed a similar story in the disposition of the James River Ghost Fleet, a fleet of retired WW2 vessels at anchor in Virginia's James River, knows what I mean. Those ships have mostly been sold due to the rise of scrap metal prices and despite the efforts made to use them as a National Maritime Reef. Money won out, the environment lost. Hardly news.We were once balanced between scuttling her and allowing new life to grow from her sunken hull, or trying a smaller scale retrofit as a floating something-or-other. Rebuilding her to her former glory is largely, sadly, a dead issue. I'm not sure which is better, honestly. The notion of using her hull for a national marine sanctuary, provides a lot of us who are getting up in years, with a sad, yet still satisfying feeling that she will be with us for a long, long, time to come.As a SCUBA diver, I can say his without reservation: I have mixed feelings here. Either a reef or a museum, anything, would be better than sale for scrap. If she does go down to the depths to her final glory for lack of funds to keep her above water, I will  be onboard her one last time, if God grants me strength and a few more years. I'll make it a point to find my old guardrail, stand tall, look over the edge and remember. It would give me peace of mind - the SS United States and I, together again, after all these years.

SS UNITED STATES - SOUL OF A NATION, PT. 2

By: Peter PaulThus, the "Big U" plied the waters of the Atlantic, ferrying the wealthy and gaining fame thus, but paying her way with the more modest fares drawn from the rest of us. Below decks, small and cramped, cabins were a sort of commercial "steerage", yet by my "standards" then, more than adequate. These crossings signaled what was thought to be the start of a long history for her, but the times, as they say, were a-changing. They changed more quickly than anyone ever imagined.People's ever-faster lifestyles spelled the doom of the SS United States (and others of her kind) and her removal from active service. Impatience "to get there", (as opposed to appreciating the journey), coupled with the price of travel, the advent of the commercial jet liner and the expense of keeping her massive machinery running, eventually became too much for the shipping line. Her last voyage, taken just seventeen years later, in 1969, ended with her decommissioning at a berth at the Newport News Shipyards, Virginia, which had built her. There she stayed, tied up, a former greyhound of the seas, leashed to the dock, for all the years until 1996, when she was moved to Philadelphia, which is where she still lies in wait.This ignominious ending was only the beginning of another phase of her "life", a time of slow decay, a ransacking of her interior and utter neglect due to zero maintenance. Anyone who has ever seen a fine ship turned derelict knows whereof I speak: there is a sadness to the sight that sinks to the heart of those of us who love ships. It sometimes seems as if some small piece of ourselves, our soul if you will, has died too.  It may be overstated, but the sight makes you want to cry.Slowly though, over time, the public, perhaps not quite willing to say goodbye just quite yet, showed an interested in saving her. The SS United States Conservancy was organized to save her, with the express mission of returning the ship to her former glory. Small at first, the Conservancy eventually commanded thousands of members and attracted the attention of the media. This attention came in the form of newscasts, feature articles and TV specials and a full length documentary narrated by no less an icon than Walter Cronkite, a newscaster who once held the unquestioned title of "the most trusted man in America" - an honorarium bestowed on very few people in my lifetime. The internet, now of age, publicized her fate. Along the way, the ship had been purchased by several private investors for salvage value. They had high hopes, big dreams and in the end, less money. It was obvious to anyone with a knowledge of ships, especially one this size, that restoration to modern standards would come at a steep price. Estimates vary, but $500 million could not be ruled out. Efforts were made to interest the same Defense establishment that helped build the ship, to help secure her future by granting her status as an Historical Landmark and perhaps share in her rebuilding, but the love of ships and history proved unpersuasive.Funds are always short, even in this time of stimulus money and memory is even shorter. Her benefactors inside the Congress were largely gone; her official "fanbase" among our politicians could not hold sway, or better said, showed no interest at all. She wound up becoming a Registered Historical Landmark, but sans the funds to do anything with her. A halfway measure, if there ever was one. The spirit, this time, could not be roused.She had gone to one final auction and had caught the attention of a major cruise line, which won the bid and intended to refit the ship to its former glory if at all possible.Check back for the next installment of "SS United States: Soul of a Nation."