On 10/01/04 6:10, in article , "randee"
wrote:

Seems to me I read the S.S. United States could do the crossing in
something like 3.5-4 days; although I assume the new owners will put it
into cruise service.


As I remember it was only marginally faster than the 31 or so knots on
the SS France. The France is a 5 day trip but I think the fuel consumption
was a ton and hour, dropping the speed to 25 reduced the consumption but
that stretched the trip to 6 days.

The economics were poor, the French government subsidized the boat and
the passengers were paying only 50% of the real cost. The boat
was all French by union regulation (CGT) and they would not compromise
on this. On the last crossing in 1974, the union shut down the boat
before docking, I had a friend whose car was stuck aboard for over a
month. The strikers let the people off but not much else.

The new Queen has a British primary crew but most of the help, cabins
and restaurant are Asians. All the cruise ships run this way, economics
dictates it.

I would find it disconcerting not having a French waiter on a French boat!

The SS United States is back in the news:

Earlier this year (April 2003) Norwegian
Cruise Line (NCL) purchased the SS UNITED STATES. From
the NCL 4/14/2003: "Norwegian Cruise Line States, one of the country's
most venerable ships.

NCL "intends to convert the vessel to a state-of-the art, modern
cruise ship and to add her to NCL's planned US flagged
fleet," as stated in the NCL release.