Lives of the liners: Meeting on a spring afternoon

[Doc Vernon]

Capture Artic;e.jpg

I wrote recently of two of the greatest and most skilful maritime painters, Stephen Card & Robert Lloyd. They are indeed brilliant masters of their craft. But then a call from Bill Muller, now 81 and living on Cape Cod and perhaps the resident dean, the crown prince, of maritime artists.
Bill has just completed a painting of New York's Lower Bay. It is May 1939. The Queen Mary is arriving, a late afternoon return from Southampton; the Normandie departed at 3pm from her berth at Pier 88 and sets off for Le Havre. So cleverly and accurately, Bill has created an atmospheric meeting of the two giant liners and added the likes of a Dalzell tug, a Staten Island ferry and the Lower Manhattan skyline.
The painting is, in my opinion, superb. But most of all, I note the great flurry of smoke from the Queen Mary. It is dramatic, even mysterious. It might be Bill's hint of the future -- in just four months, Europe will be at war and both the Normandie & Queen Mary laid-up in safety but also in uncertainty.

[Captain Kong]

It was always an impressive sight to see the Queens sailing up the Hudson to Pier 90 in the 50s to turn and then tie up opposite the Market Diner.
Many Celebs, Movie Stars, sat in there waiting to join her later. Always great excitement.
thanks for the memory.
Brian