Take a tour of Philadelphia on Google Earth's satellite photos and you can see the United States and the USS Olympia (which is also in dire straits financially) on the Delaware waterfront plus a bunch of carriers and other warships in the Navy Yard near the airport.

GGREGG;
The USS United States Won the Blue Riband, mainly because the ship was made entirely out of Aluminum.
Dan

Only the superstructure is aluminum. The hull is entirely out of steel. But that aluminum superstructure helped keep weight down, but you can also credit the aircraft carrier based engines and the super secret propeller design and the relatively fineness of the ship (narrow beam) In other words, it was built to go FAST and it still could go FAST with a whole lot of maintenance and fuel.
Mark D.

I don't care if it was wood. My point is that it is one of the last large ocean liners left in the entire world. There are only a very few left. The Queen Mary being the only really large one. To my knowledge, there is the Neuw Amsterdam being restored in Holland, an earlier version of the Andrea Doria (used to be the Italian Line Columbus) that is a restaurant in China, The Oriana, which is also a restaurant in China and was nearly sunk by a storm so it may have been scrapped, the QE2 which I'm not sure what is going on with since Cunard took her out of service actually I think it's in Dubai, and that's about it although I'm sure there are a handful of other ones around. Seeing the Blue Lady (ex Norway, ex France) being broken up at Alang last year broke my heart.

It would be great to see the United States restored and maintained like the Queen Mary. The OE2 is being used as a convention center I believe and is being maintained. Those two ships are probably the most beautiful ocean liners ever built, except for the Normandie, which was in a class all by itself.

Such a sad ending for one of the most asthetically beautiful liners ever built, the Normandy. Tragic.
ggregg, the Neuw Amsterdam was scrapped back a few decades ago in Japan. I believe the ship you are thinking of is the Rotterdam. Not sure on this, been racking my ageing brain since yesterday and am still not certain, but I think that is the one. And no, not the new Rotterdam that operates today.
Anyway, I beleve most of the restoration work is completed and it is open to the public, last I heard.

Here is a link to a good site for basic information on the old classic ships, new builds, and what's happening with the current cruise boat fleet that's in service. They have it all. Right now, lots of information on the American Queen, a steam powered stern-wheeler riverboat that was taken out of service some years ago, but has been ressurected and is returning to service on the Mississippi River.
http://maritimematters.com/category/shipping-news/

Mark you very well may be right. My old brain jams up sometimes. This one was taken out of service in the late 60's or early 70's I believe. There is video on the restoration, don't remember where though. Very nice looking ship and they are doing a great job fixing her up.

Yeah, the Normandie really was the most beautiful liner ever built. The fact that we wrecked it, has always kept the story kind of quiet. For those that don't know, we requesitioned (sp, I know!) the ship when France fell in WW2, changing her name to the USS Lafayette. While being converted into a troop ship in NYC, a fire broke out and the entire ship was gutted. The fire department sprayed so much water in her that she became top heavy and tipped over. She was scrapped when the war was over. The good thing was many of her furnishings survived as they were removed when the conversion started. This ship was bigger than the Queen Mary but just slightly smaller than the Queen Elizabeth. The British made sure of that as the QE1 was completed after the Normandie. She looked 20 years newer than she really was having started service in 1936 or so. French design at it's absolute finest and she was even more beautiful inside. I believe, in the second photo, she is next the RMS Aquitania, one of the largest British ships at the time. You can see the difference in size.

My own personal experience on a ship, when they were still used as passenger transportation. When my family migrated to the US, from Holland back in 1962:



Its not one of those grand liners, mentioned prior, but then I was all of 3 years old at the time. Owned by the Dutch government, but operated by Holland-America. I still have one of the old suitcases, which has a Holland-America sticker on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groote_Beer

Thanks for all the fantastic photos everyone, love this thread!!!

Lynn