The SS United States

When I was approximately 8 years old, my parents packed up all us kids and we headed off for France where they begin 15 months of language study. I can remember getting on the train in Grand Junction, Colorado and riding it all the way to New York City. Once there, we all boarded the SS United States for a cross Atlantic trip to France. I can remember bits and pieces of the voyage, most specifically getting very ill when we passed through the edge of a hurricane. The ship was pitching in every which direction with dishes and silverware sliding around the dining room tables and making the ride generally miserable for a few hours.

On a whim, I entered USS United States into YouTube and discovered a significant number of videos related to this ship. When it was built in the early 1950's she was the fasted ship on the seas. Apparently there is now an effort to restore some of her previous glory. Please visit the SS United States Conservancy  for some history and updates on that effort. I've included a couple of YouTube videos that I found interesting for those of you who might wish to learn more about what the ship was like.

SS United States





This blog post started out to be about our trip out to Houilles, where my folks ended up renting a house for our time in France, but I got side-tracked by these videos on the ship. Guess I'll have to save Houilles for another day!