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#1
05-09-2012, 01:59 PM
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If you could help save a piece of American history...
... would you?
She is history. She is art. She is our past. She is the last of her kind and if we let her go we have nothing left. Her name is the SS United States and, to this day, she holds the record for being the fastest ocean liner ever to cross the Atlantic as well as the largest one built in our country. She is living history or rather now? She is dying history. When my grandfather was 8 he was left behind, in Sicily, and told to come to America when he saved up enough to sail over alone and find the rest of the family. They had to leave someone behind so they left him, with no one, and sailed to the new world in steerage, of course. For anyone who thinks it looked bad in movies remember everything else aside, there was hardly any ventilation, hardly any food, the bunks were iron and four high and comically narrow, the mortality rate was pretty damned high so awful and crowded as it can look it was probably much much worse. Meanwhile my grandfather who once had a knife put on his throat because he accidentally saw some mob murder (they really did say "you didn't see nothing" and then let him go) got a job as an apprentice and when he was 11he sailed over alone. My other grandfather, also Italian, was named America. That pretty much sums up how strongly my ancestors felt about the chance to come here. While the SS United States didn't yet exist they all came over by ship as I'm sure a lot of yours did. Ocean liners have such a rich and important history in many of our lives whether we realize or appreciate it or not. Cunard sister ships the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth and later on ships like the Independence and the Constitution... the SS France with her beautiful smokestacks... Just about all of them are gone. Scrapped. Last time I looked there were about 32 Ocean liners left in the world and about a third of these in some form of decay or awaiting final excecution. If horses go to glue factories? Old ships become razor blades as they say. The last American liner except for the United States was the Independence and she left San Francisco for Dubai about three years ago after being out of commission for an eternity. She left for her new home. Something happened though... some turn of events... and the plans changed and she is gone. No chance of saving her. Poof - she doesn't exist. Kinda like Cutlass Bay or other random horses going over there. They get there and some are just not the same ond others are not heard from again. We have a chance to save the last one... the last one here, the last piece of American history. The SS United States has a chance and the conservancy can explain her history much better than I so please if you are so inclined take a look and consider a very small donation. I know there are more important things in the world. I know there are all kinds of problems and people who go without and it might seem a frivolous thing, a ridiculous attempt but but but this is a tangible and historic icon. This is who we were are are. You built something? Well we can do it better, bigger and faster. You know what I'm saying? It defines us. Living history, a floating musuem. I don't know, I think it's important anyway. Last thing I want to say is of course I don't live out that way and so am not sure what the people think who have to look at her sad remains on a daily basis but kindly remember... the the Eiffel Tower was protested by the most famous architects and artists of the day who issued this statement... "We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal" The remains of the Titanic are being ruined by too many vessles going down there. Tourists in submarines landing on it, crushing it. As Robert Ballard (who found the remains) said they are "loving it to death". The newest Queen Elizabeth is a monstrous floating thing with no grace or history, deck after deck after deck... the most hideous ship with no line to her and sure - we have the Queen Mary but the United States is ours and hell can't we manage to save another since none like her kind exists or will be built again? I hope she can be saved and not end up as scrap like so many of the White Star, French Lines, Cunard, Holland America, etc. ocean liners have been. A very short tribute video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW-lV-SkzQU For more information or to donate... http://www.ssunitedstatesconservancy.org/ (Was debating giving this the title yes Cardus I even talk about dying ships, but...) Seriously... S.O.S. 
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#3
05-09-2012, 04:25 PM
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The constitution
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#4
05-09-2012, 07:30 PM
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Quote:
 Quote:
In a final and gallant act of resistance she sank while being towed to be ripped apart. Kinda sad but then it's nicer to think of the ship in its entirity (although I can't remember if it was this one that washed ashore somewhere broken in two). I shall always choose to believe it was a final act of civil disobedience.  Back to what you probably meant though okay sure post what single piece of America you would save if you so desire. That's fine. Probably boring to a lot of you anyway as it's not my usual se(a)men thread.  
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#5
05-09-2012, 07:51 PM
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i love ships. if anyone is ever in/near houston or beaumont, go to the san jacinto monument. near the battlefield sits the u.s.s texas, a dreadnought class battleship from 1898. she is our only ship in existence to serve in both world wars. ships today are painted 'haze gray' but in her day, the new york class battleship was painted a dark bluish-grey. we built her and the new york as a bit of oneupsmanship. european countries, japan, and who knows who else went on a mad dash to have the best warships along with building their armies. japan built new ships with 13" guns, england answered with ships such as the hms dreadnought with 13.5" guns. the new york and texas both got 14" main guns, along with countless guns up and down both sides. the texas also had torpedo tubes! in all her engagements, she actually only lost one crewman when the helmsman was killed when a bomb made a direct hit to the wheelhouse.
she bombarded the beaches of normandy on d-day, and later steamed to the pacific, helping in the battles of iwo jima and okinawa. she served as the flagship for the fleet during ww2. a great tour. those near mobile, go see the uss alabama and the other ships available for tours. also has a great display of airplanes, including my favorite-the sr-71 blackbird. charleston sc also has a great set of ships to tour. but of all the ones i've seen, i think i enjoyed the texas most since she has been around so long.
__________________
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all. Abraham Lincoln
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#6
05-09-2012, 08:49 PM
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If you could help save a piece of American history...
Interesting thread. My father was born in Naples, Italy and came over nearly a century ago to settle first in Chicago, then in Brooklyn, NY. A professional musician (sax/clarinet), he took a gig to play in the ship's band on the USS Independence in the early 50's when I was a youngster. I remember him showing us his ID card (I believe it was issued by the Merchant Marines), and I remember seeing him off at the Hudson River pier. As it happened, the United States was in port adjacent to the American Export Lines pier, and I still remember the beauty and size of that liner which was fresh from having set a transatlantic speed record.
Dad got to visit his ancestral home in Naples, and made money doing it, but I believe that was his last trip on ocean liners. Probably got seasick, for all I know, but stuck to playing club dates after that stateside!
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#7
05-11-2012, 05:14 PM
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Quote:
(The other half of my family is from Naples as well.)
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#8
05-30-2012, 10:17 PM
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http://www.forbesgalleries.com/comingsoon.shtml
http://www.maritime-executive.com/pr...-united-states
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#9
05-31-2012, 07:12 AM
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Quote:
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#10
05-31-2012, 07:32 AM
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I dragged Tina by the United States when I picked her up at Philly Airport in April.
__________________
All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind. ~ Joseph Conrad A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right. ~ Thomas Paine Don't let anyone tell you that your dreams can't come true. They are only afraid that theirs won't and yours will. ~ Robert Evans The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. ~ George Orwell, 1984.
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#11
11-10-2012, 10:06 PM
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"Organize and remove"? That's like bringing Curlin to the slaughterhouse.
Not one of the greatest old ladies but still, a modernday Queen. Sucks. http://www.etravelblackboardasia.com...fate-uncertain Idiot fucl<tards in Dubai... Cunard should get her back and turn her into a museum.
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#12
05-29-2013, 06:16 PM
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Her name is the SS Nomadic and she is quite old.
Her keel was laid down a few days before Christmas in 1910 and in 1911 she was delivered, along with the RMS Olympic, to the White Star Line. She tendered both the Olympic and Titanic on their maiden voyages (for anyone who doesn't know this means she ferried people, luggage, etc. for the liners if they were too big to dock) and was used as a troopship during WWI. After the war she became a tender for Cunard. In 1928 she survived a collision with the Orinoco (Hamburg America Line) and, as if that wasn't bad enough, was a victim to progress... the harbor at Cherbourg was updated and widened and so she was deemed no longer necessary. After being drydocked for quite a few years she once again served during a war, ferrying troops. and then, like so many of them, was set to be scrapped. The harbor at Cherbourg had been heavily damaged by the Germans and suddenly she was needed once again. From the 1950's to the 90s she was bought and sold a few times and used as everything from a tender for the great liners like the Queen Mary and Elizabeth to a restaurant. Inevitably she was put aside by whichever millionaire owned her as her hull was in disarray. From 1999 to 2006 several groups were formed and made attempts to raise funds to save her. Northern Ireland's Dept. for Social Development set up a charitable trust on her behalf and after all these years she will open to the public on June 1st. Figured anyone who cared even a little about the United States would be happy to see that another one has been saved and restored. 4 minute vid with some great pictures and footage... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGzmuEgjFhU The SS Nomadic on her way out to RMS Olympic...  http://www.nomadicbelfast.com/
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#13
08-01-2014, 11:06 AM
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Front page of the Washington Post yesterday...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...m_medium=email
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#14
08-01-2014, 11:15 AM
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donald mckay built clipper ships in east boston that were masterpieces.
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