The Advocate-Messenger: "Personal Effects" featuring the SS United States
Photo courtesy of Klaus Albes
We're delighted to share this little nugget of SS United States history with you-- this is a question-and-answer column from the Advocate-Messenger in Danville, Kentucky.
The questioner came across a dining menu from America's Flagship dating back to 1969, and Jerry Sampson, who runs the "Personal Effects" column at the paper, was quite excited as a result:
"The S.S. United States, commissioned in 1952, was the last of the great ocean liners. She was the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic Ocean in either direction, a distinction that she still holds — or held.
A fact that I found interesting, was that in 1942, after the floundering the GREAT French liner, S.S. Normandie, after a devastating fire and the retaining of millions of gallons of water in her hull, the U.S. government adopted the U.S. Navy Standards, a very strict guideline to make water craft fire repellent.
The S.S. United States engineers took this to the maximum degree. The designers of the S.S. United States used no wood in its framing, accessories, decorations or interior surfaces, though there was a butchers block in the galley. Even the furniture and the upholstery was custom made in glass, metal and spun glass fiber to adhere to these guidelines."
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