Great Cruising Memories

[rkacruiser]

22 hours ago, CGTNORMANDIE said:

Way back in the 1980’s I was fortunate enough to sit with a merchant seaman who had made the Russian run to Murmansk three times!  His stories were hair raising but fascinating at the same time.  It was a miracle he was still alive.  The Murmansk run was the most dangerous for the American merchant seamen.  They never received proper recognition or reward until years later.  

 

My Father was in the Merchant Marine and was a part of those convoys to Russia.  My parents divorced when I was rather young; never got to know him; never learned of his experiences.  

 

23 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

I suspect that all of us reading this no longer have parents to ask questions of

 

My Brother and I "heard" much family history as we were growing up as well as when we were adults.  A huge percentage "went in one ear and out the other".  

 

I have had a genealogical study done which proved quite interesting.  No "Jack the Rippers", etc., which I initially feared might be found.  The most interesting one related to a maritime story was a 16 year old lad who, along with a friend, was invited to "visit" a sailing ship that was anchored in their Irish port.  They accepted the offer; were shanghaied but escaped when the ship reached Baltimore, Maryland.  He found his way to the state of New York and started a branch of my family.  

[rkacruiser]

On 4/18/2021 at 4:59 PM, Lowiepete said:

 

On an oil-fired steam ship, the trimmer keeps the fires supplied with fuel. The term is carried over from the coal-fired ships where trimmers had the job of seeing that the coal in the bunkers was properly distributed to keep the vessel on an even keel. (Hence "trimmers") 

 

Regards,

Steve

 

Thank you for your reply.  Does such a position exist on the ships today?  

[Lowiepete]

2 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Thank you for your reply.  Does such a position exist on the ships today?  

 

I very much doubt it. With computer-control of everything, including bathwater temperature, moving oil stocks and trimming the ship's ballast will probably be a breeze, even though the ship could be being tossed by heavy seas. It's not like the old-days where you couldn't rely upon pendulum clocks. Some engine rooms now operate with fewer than 20 ratings, for 24/7 coverage! 

 

Regards,

Steve

[Heidi13]

4 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Thank you for your reply.  Does such a position exist on the ships today?  

 

Negative, don't even recall them from my days on the steam ships in the 70's. These days, bunkers and ballast are transferred with pushing buttons. Mostly in the Engine Control Room, but also from the Bridge on some ships.

[shipgeeks]

18 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

 

I have had a genealogical study done which proved quite interesting.  No "Jack the Rippers", etc., which I initially feared might be found.  The most interesting one related to a maritime story was a 16 year old lad who, along with a friend, was invited to "visit" a sailing ship that was anchored in their Irish port.  They accepted the offer; were shanghaied but escaped when the ship reached Baltimore, Maryland.  He found his way to the state of New York and started a branch of my family.  

Interesting, especially to me, as Baltimore has been our most usual port to cruise from for many years. So much history there, and now I have one more.

[Lowiepete]

 

On 4/12/2021 at 2:13 AM, Heidi13 said:

As most of you know, my experience is British tonnage for the 70's, particularly the P&O ships.

 

The SS Canberra website has recently been updated, so thought I would pass on the link if anyone is interested.

 

http://www.sscanberra.com/index - no longer exists

 

...and just months later, there it was, gone!

 

As the webmaster for the Caronia Timeline I was a regular visitor too and just thrilled that there was so much "original" feedback of memories being freely shared. Really wonderful stuff, maybe the greater majority of it had been posted by former travellers no longer with us. That's what really emphasises the loss, it just disappeared, without warning. I too feature masses of information provided by both crew and passengers now in the great forever dry-dock.

 

I recently had an interesting face-to-face conversation, about websites which feature similar famous ships of that era, with someone who found the Timeline as valuable research for his work. You should have seen expression on his face when I told him that the same fate could befall the Timeline. His reaction, and belief, was that because it was an extensive site published on the Internet, it was there more or less as a resource forever, just like a reference work in a library.

 

I can't believe that it's now 20 years since I started the Caronia adventure, much less that I'm having to seriously try to ensure some longevity for it past my own demise. However, that's the reality. Each time I do a links-check on my Maritime Sites page, I dread to see what comes up next as another tremendous loss. The transience of Web content means that there is already a permanent loss of this value and it looks like this is set to continue.

 

With so many contributors to the Canberra site, does anyone know whether or not it could be re-instated at some point?

 

Regards,

Steve

Edited August 14, 2022 by Lowiepete

[Heidi13]

2 minutes ago, Lowiepete said:

  

...and just months later, there it was, gone!

 

As the webmaster for the Caronia Timeline I was a regular visitor too and just thrilled that there was so much "original" feedback of memories being freely shared. Really wonderful stuff, maybe the greater majority of it had been posted by former travellers no longer with us. That's what really emphasises the loss, it just disappeared, without warning. I too feature masses of information provided by both crew and passengers now in the great forever dry-dock.

 

I recently had an interesting face-to-face conversation, about websites which feature similar famous ships of that era, with someone who found the Timeline as valuable research for his work. You should have seen expression on his face when I told him that the same fate could befall the Timeline. His reaction, and belief, was that because it was an extensive site published on the Internet, it was there more or less as a resource forever, just like a library book.

 

I can't believe that it's now 20 years since I started the Caronia adventure, much less that I'm having to seriously try to ensure some longevity for it past my own demise. However, that's the reality. Each time I do a links-check on my Maritime Sites page, I dread to see what comes up next as another tremendous loss. The transience of Web content means that there is already a permanent loss of this value and it looks like this is set to continue

 

So true, it was a sad day when the SS Canberra website shut down.

[rkacruiser]

2 hours ago, Lowiepete said:

I started the Caronia adventure, much less that I'm having to seriously try to ensure some longevity for it past my own demise. However, that's the reality

 

There was once a web site for the Andrea Doria that was started and operated by a gentleman who had sailed on the ship as a child.  It contained quite a bit of information and, if I recall correctly, included memories of other former passengers and crew.  The gentleman passed.  A member of his family indicated that there were plans to keep the site alive.  A few scattered attempts were made, but eventually the web site disappeared.  

 

Thankfully, there are some maritime historical organizations that are able to preserve some of the ships' history.  

 

2 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

So true, it was a sad day when the SS Canberra website shut down.

 

FYI Heidi13, the current issue of Power Ships (the journal of the Steamship Society of America) has an article on P&O with a nice over photo of the Canberra at dock in New York.  My issue arrived on Saturday so I have not yet read it, but, I think it is the first of two parts about P&O.  

[Lowiepete]

1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

 

There was once a web site for the Andrea Doria that was started and operated by a gentleman who had sailed on the ship as a child.  It contained quite a bit of information and, if I recall correctly, included memories of other former passengers and crew.  The gentleman passed.  A member of his family indicated that there were plans to keep the site alive.  A few scattered attempts were made, but eventually the web site disappeared.  

 

Thankfully, there are some maritime historical organizations that are able to preserve some of the ships' history.  

...however, the point I'm trying to make is that there is nothing better than the recollections of 1st-hand experience. Whether it is books or websites, observations from 3rd parties simply do not convey the realities and their impacts upon real people, even if some of those are seen or related through "rose-tinted" spectacles.

 

The loss of the SS Canberra site should not be underestimated! It is a severe blow to anyone who may want to do some "proper" research about that ship in the future. The recollections of so many people about what life was _really_ like on board such a vessel is beyond priceless. Bear in mind one of its principal functions was to carry people, not only to the other side of the World, but also to a life of infinite new discoveries, quite unlike travellers enjoying their brief sojourns aboard Caronia.  The description of a 1st-hand impact of any event, by the person who experienced it, goes way beyond any other kind of story-telling.

 

The recording of history is already under attack from people who want to erase it as something incidental, or even as part of a rewriting agenda. The problem comes from the same way that photography is going. How many of today's "selfies" are going to end up in grandad's "album" to be looked at in 20, 30 or even 40 years time? I would hazard: not many!

 

Probably, it'll be in inverse proportion to how easy it was to take the photos in the first place. This because no-one prints their photos to hard-copy these days and if they do, the paper it was printed on will have totally disintegrated because of the chemicals detrimental to keeping anything long-term. I know for a fact that I could never have attempted to build the TL without such a solid foundation of ephemera as a starting point.

 

Regards,

Steve

[rkacruiser]

2 hours ago, Lowiepete said:

  The description of a 1st-hand impact of any event, by the person who experienced it, goes way beyond any other kind of story-telling.

 

The recording of history is already under attack from people who want to erase it as something incidental, or even as part of a rewriting agenda.

 

Do not disagree.  

 

2 hours ago, Lowiepete said:

the point I'm trying to make is that there is nothing better than the recollections of 1st-hand experience. Whether it is books or websites, observations from 3rd parties simply do not convey the realities and their impacts upon real people,

 

The various first hand accounts concerning the Titanic tragedy in books as well as first person accounts published by the Titanic Historical Society make for fascinating reading.  The accounts of guests rescued from the Prinsendam in the Gulf of Alaska make for riveting reading and consideration.  

[NVa Cruisers]

On 8/14/2022 at 3:34 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

There was once a web site for the Andrea Doria that was started and operated by a gentleman who had sailed on the ship as a child.  It contained quite a bit of information and, if I recall correctly, included memories of other former passengers and crew.  The gentleman passed.  A member of his family indicated that there were plans to keep the site alive.  A few scattered attempts were made, but eventually the web site disappeared.  

 

Thankfully, there are some maritime historical organizations that are able to preserve some of the ships' history.  

 

I traveled to Europe on the Andrea Doria in Feb 1956 with my family, and we had our return trip booked on the ship for July 1956. Fortunately for us we changed our booking to return on the Ile de France instead of the Andrea Doria, as we would have been on the ill-fated voyage. Our cabin was on the lowest deck of the ship, and we never knew the fate of the people who were in our cabin. The Ill de France arrived in NYC 3 days before the Andrea Doria sunk. One thing I remember from our crossing in February was that the different classes of passengers were segregated and there were locked doors preventing someone from a lower class to trespass into a higher class area. We were in the lowest class (tourist class) and we could only move around on the lower decks but not above the open weather deck. I wonder if during the collision whether the doors were unlocked to allow access to upper decks as the lower decks became flooded. I have memorabilia from the Andrea Doria, including pictures and several dining room menus, which I've kept for all these years as historical artifacts of that doomed ship.

[lenquixote66]

My father sailed on the Carmania from England to the US in July 1913