Lives of the Liners: 1
by Published on 7th March 2018 03:08 AM
Lives of the Liners: February 2018 – Miss Cuddihy & the Independence & Constitution
To her, it was the trip of a lifetime. Miss Cuddihy, my 8th grade teacher at Wallace School in Hoboken, went to the Mediterranean in the summer of 1961. She crossed over on the Independence and then returned a month later on the Constitution. For months afterward, she told us, her students, of the adventure, the sights, the thrills of her first trip to Europe. Both the Independence and Constitution will appear in our new book The Last of the Blue Water Liners, due out in late summer from the UKbased The History Press.
The Independence as well as her sister, the Constitution, were two of the great trans-Atlantic ocean liners of the 1950s and ‘60s. While the Independence sat out most of the ‘70s in lay-up, she went on to become a very popular Hawaiian cruise ship beginning in 1980. Consequently, she saw more service under the Stars & Stripes than almost any other passenger liner and had the longest continuous liner service ever in Hawaii. I visited her often at her New York berth in her Atlantic liner days and was aboard for her third Hawaiian cruise in July 1980. In June 2001, I was aboard once again, this time for a
special occasion: the celebration of her 50 years of service. Pride, praises and congratulations filled that weeklong voyage. The 30,200-grt Independence was then run by American Hawaii Cruises, an arm of Florida-based American Classic Voyages, which also owned Delta Queen Steamboats, Delta Queen Coastal Voyages and a revived United States Lines. The latter company, formed in 2000 and using the name of the famed shipping company that closed down in 1986, ran a joint Hawaiian cruise service using the 33,900-grt Patriot, the former Nieuw Amsterdam of Holland America. At the time, the United States Lines was building twin 73,000-grt, 2,600-berth cruise ships, the first American built and flagged liners to be constructed since 1958. Expectedly, the 683-ft long Independence would soon finish her active, sea-going days. So, it was a last, sentimental chance for many of us to sail her. Over 100 members of the Steamship Historical Society of America were aboard for the celebratory trip and aptly proclaimed her their “Ship of the Year”. It was also something of a trip back to an earlier ocean liner style and ambience. “The Independence is not new and flashy, but older and seasoned,” said Mitchell Mart, a well-known seller of ocean liner memorabilia and a fellow passenger. “She is also like a reliable old friend, whose age you come to accept readily and easily.”
The twin-screw Independence was commissioned in January 1951, having been built at Bethlehem Steel’s Quincy, Massachusetts shipyard. Then the US Government was concerned about possible future war and felt, following considerable experience during the Second World War, that big liners must useful big troopships. In fact, the overall design of the 1,000-passenger Independence and her sister included easy convertibility to 10,000-capacity troop transports. In turn, Washington paid a portion of the $50 million construction fee for the 23-knot sisters. She and her twin sister, the Constitution, completed six months later, were two of the most outstanding ships of their day. The Independence, which recorded over 26 knots on her trials, actually ranked for over a year as the very fastest American merchant ship. The title went to the far larger, much more powerful United States in July 1952. The American Export pair were also certainly among the most innovative. They were superb symbols of Yankee technology and design, and boasted of some of the most modern and comfortable passenger quarters yet to put to sea. In fact, they were the very first fully air-conditioned luxury liners ever built while other amenities included two pools on deck, lido decks, a movie theater, spacious staterooms and even a Coca-Cola bar (an especially favorite attraction, it was reported, among the Italian passengers). The two sisters plied the mid-Atlantic route, sailing on 3-week round trip schedules between New York, Algeciras, Naples, Genoa and Cannes. They were the very finest ships to southern Europe until the first arrivals of Italy’s Andrea Doria and Cristoforo Colombo in 1953-54.
Lewis Gordon and his wife often crossed on the Constitution. He later recalled, “It was not unusual to see 5 and 10 carat diamond rings at dinner in first class. But when one woman wore a 47-carat diamond one evening, it was called ‘too vulgar’. There were always Greek shipping tycoons onboard. I especially remember Mrs Goulandris, who wore jewels from the best shops in Paris and, it seemed, all of them at the same time! She used to glow.
Onboard, there were some evening activities like dancing and horse-racing and films, but otherwise you sat on deck all day long with little to do. It was very relaxing, very comfortable. And in the 1950s, on shipboard, you dressed differently as well. Daytime clothes were today’s evening clothes.”
First class also often included many celebrities, both from the entertainment as well as the political worlds. Cary Grant, Gina Lollobrigida, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracey and Peter Ustinov were among those listed on American Export manifests. Like the great Cunard and French liners that crossed the Atlantic, American passenger ships were great favorites among celebrities. Many tales were also created from their voyages. When
former President Harry Truman & his wife Bess returned from a European vacation in 1956, they arrived in New York aboard the Constitution. He personally completed the Immigration forms and, in the category of occupation, he scribbled “retired”. For ex-First Lady Bess, he wrote quite simply “housewife”. When Greece’s Queen Frederika crossed to America on the United States in 1958, the ship’s hairdresser was on call three times a day to attend to Her Majesty in her Upper Deck suite. Also onboard the United States, noted as one of the most immaculate liners on all the seas, Joan Crawford, it seems, was never quite satisfied. She carried her own bathroom cleaner and always did a daily, second round of wiping & polishing.
To be Continued
Senior Site Moderator-Member and Friend of this Website
R697530
