On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:06:52 -0400, Gogarty
wrote:

In article ,
says...

(Really big snip)


Another big snip.

We were on the Italian Line Michelangelo when she encountered a mid
Atlantic storm and a huge wave in the middle of the night. She just
slammed into that wave and the entire ship just rang like a gong. It was
uncanny. Of course, she was rigged for heavy weather and nothing broke
and nobody got hurt. She was, after all, an ocean liner, not a cruise
ship.

You are so right. Thank God, though, that they at least designed the
new Queen Mary to transAtlantic standards. Someone at Cunard most
have a bit of institutional memory. Interestingly Cunard absorbed the
White Star Line which had built the "Titantic." About five years ago
I was on the QE2 (westbound Southamtpn-NY). There was a lady aboard
who had survived the Titantic sinking. She was in her eighties and
had all of her wits. She delivered a couple of lectures aboard. She
was actually an infant when the Titantic went down. She and parents
were emmigrating to the U.S. in steerage. Her father perished but she
and her mother survived. They returned to England and I believe she
said that she was in her twenties before her mother ever told her
about having been aboard the Titantic. At the time I met her I
believe it was said that there were only two other survivors still
alive.

The "Michangelo!" God! I sailed both on it and on its sistership,
the "Leonardo da Vinci." Beautiful--both of them. Unfortunately they
were launched just as transAtlantic jet travel was cathcing on. A
couple of years prior to that I sailed on another Italian Line ship.
It was named something or other beginning with the letter "O." I can
not remember its name but I have a vivid recollection of it breaking
down in midAtlantic where we were adrift for 36 hours--fortunately in
a near perfect calm.

Well, in re your experiences in NY harbor. People do panic. I'll bet
most sailors in this NG have had guests at one time or another who
were scared out of their wits everytime the boat came about in more
than 15 kts. Hell, I've had guests get seasick sitting motionless at
the dock. I guess if you are not a sailor the noise in coming about
can be a bit disconcerting. But a tow coming too close. Heavens!

I have made a lot of passenger liner transAtlantic crossings in the
winter. I guess people were more stoic or more knowledgeable back
then because I don't remember a single instance when anyone was
panicked by bad weather. And you used to get some bad weather on the
winter crossing of the north Atlantic. Fortunately I have been immune
to seasickness all my life so I never missed a meal but I do remember
times when I would go to the dining room and only one or two other
passengers would be there--even the wait staff would be greatly
reduced. People didn't have a lot of choice. If you were going to
cross the Atlantic that was the only way you could do it.

But today! I would probably be scared ****less if I were ever caught
in a real blow on one of those floating hotels. They are simply not
designed to take it.