Lives of the liners: The "s" in stockholm

[Doc Vernon]

Capture Liners.JPG

It was removed during the rebuilding of the bow of the Stockholm in the summer & fall of 1956 at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard at 56th St in Brooklyn. It was the metallic "S" from the name Stockholm on the otherwise badly crushed bow of the Swedish liner that rammed and sank the Andrea Doria.

That very heavy "S" eventually found it's way into the collection of Frank Braynard, the late maritime historian, author & collector, out at Sea Cliff, New York. But after he died (in 2007), it changed hands several times, but now we hear it has been sold to a collector in Sweden, in fact in Gothenburg, Sweden, and so it has gone home.

That collector's uncle and grandfather were actually aboard the little liner the night of the fateful collision. The Stockholm was, after all, built in Gothenburg (in 1948) and was operated by the Swedish American Line for twelve years, mostly on the Gothenburg-Copenhagen-New York route.

[Captain Kong]

That Collision lost me my job on the old Franconia,



my fault, I should have been up in the crows nest on look out, fog so thick I couldnt even see my own ship, I went down for a quick pint and when the Mayday came through I was not in the nest. so the Master at Arms dragged me out of the Pig and onto the Bridge to face Captain Donald Murdo McClean. RNR DSO.
Thanks for the memory
Cheers
Brian