Figure 49. The tourist-class dining room aboard United States, located in the forward section of the ship. The Mark Perry Collection.
Figure 50. A four-person cabin-class stateroom aboard United States, with one of the upper berths pulled down. The Mark Perry Collection.
Figure 51. Sculptress Gwen Lux installs Expressions of Freedom above United States’ first-class dining room buffet. The Mariners’ Museum.
Figure 52. Peter Ostuni paints the murals of the Navajo cocktail lounge aboard United States. The Mariners’ Museum.
Figure 53. Newport News shipyard workers leaving United States as she nears completion. More than three thousand people worked on the ship from February 1950 to June 1952. They included painters, riveters, welders, pipe fitters, electricians, upholsterers, and artists. William Francis Gibbs was constantly on-site, making sure that the ship was being built to his exacting specifications. The Mariners’ Museum.
Figure 54. William Francis Gibbs (sitting) and Frederic Gibbs atop the bridge as United States steams out of Newport News for her trial runs, May 14, 1952. The Frank O. Braynard Collection.
Figure 55. Lunch in the first-class dining room during the first trial run. From left to right: Vincent Astor, General John Franklin, J. B. Woodward Jr., Admiral Edward Cochrane, William Francis Gibbs, William Blewett Jr., and an unknown officer. The Frank O. Braynard Collection.
Figure 56. United States at speed during her May 14–15, 1952, trial runs, as viewed from the Coast Guard cutter Conifer. The Mariners’ Museum.
Figure 57. Maiden arrival of United States in New York, June 23, 1952. The Frank O. Braynard Collection.
Figure 58. Sailing day at Pier 86, at the foot of Forty-Sixth Street, New York. United States’ upper decks can be seen through the pier shed windows. Passengers boarded at separate gangways for first, cabin, and tourist classes. The baggage allowance consisted of all the baggage they could carry plus twenty-five cubic feet of steamer trunk space, per person. Passengers with pets checked them with the ship’s kennel master. The Mariners’ Museum.
Figure 59. A bartender mixes cocktails in the first-class ballroom. Courtesy of British Pathé.
Figure 60. Passengers reading in the first-class observation lounge during the maiden voyage. British Pathé.
Figure 61. Cabin-class passengers play deck tennis on the maiden voyage. British Pathé.
Figure 62. View from the port bridge wing as the ship tears through a vicious gale at more than 36 knots. British Pathé.
Figure 63. United States blasting past Bishop Rock, England, in the early morning of July 7, 1952, breaking Queen Mary’s fourteen-year record by ten hours. Crossing time: 3 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes, at an average speed of 35.59 knots. The Frank O. Braynard Collection.
Figure 64. Margaret Truman (daughter of President Truman) and Commodore Harry Manning shaking hands on the bridge of United States at 6:16 A.M., July 7, 1952, the moment the ship broke the eastbound transatlantic speed record. British Pathé.
Figure 65. William Francis Gibbs during an interview with the British press on July 8, 1952. “It’s a great pleasure to be here this morning, on this ship,” he told the world, “and it also gives me a feeling of humility in having the responsibility of the hopes and aspirations of my fellow citizens that have been embodied in this ship.” British Pathé.
Figure 66. Westbound maiden voyage log, from Southampton, England, to New York City. Steaming time of 3 days 12 hours, 12 minutes, average speed 34.51 knots. Courtesy of Bill Krudener.
Figure 67. Bell Captain Bill Krudener and entertainer Bob Hope at the entrance to the first-class dining room. Courtesy of Bill Krudener.
Figure 68. Vera Cravath Gibbs (right) and friend Eugenia McCrary dressed for an evening in first class. Vera took frequent trips aboard the “family rowboat” while her husband remained ashore. Courtesy of Susan L. Gibbs.
Figure 69. John Wayne chats with Commodore Anderson on the bridge during a blustery winter crossing in early 1956. Courtesy Joe Rota.
Figure 70. Cooks in Chef Bismarck’s galley. Courtesy of Joe Rota.
Figure 71. Actress Kim Novak poses next to the ship. Courtesy of Joe Rota.
Figure 72. Artist Salvador Dali (right) and his wife, Gala, in the first-class ballroom. Courtesy of Joe Rota.
Figure 73. United States arrives at Pier 86 in New York on a bitterly cold winter day. The ship’s hull is encrusted in ice following a stormy Atlantic crossing. The Frank O. Braynard Collection.
Figure 74. William Francis Gibbs watches his Big Ship come in. Marvin Koner/Corbis.
Figure 75. William Francis Gibbs in his seventies, contemplating New York harbor from the “Glass Menagerie.” Marvin Koner/Corbis.
Figure 76. United States in June 2011. Rusting, stripped, and faded in the city of William Francis Gibbs’s birth. Despite her rusted exterior and forty years of neglect, the ship remains in excellent structure condition, testament to the skill of her designer and builders. Author’s collection.
Figure 77. The gutted first-class ballroom, long ago the domain of the rich and famous. Only the dance floor and the band stage have survived the 1984 furniture auction in Newport News and 1992 asbestos removal in Ukraine. The rest of the interior has been stripped down to the bare bulkheads. Only traces remain: a stray bar stool, a telephone switchboard in the “Times Square” crew area, and a torn dinner menu found in a crew compartment. Author’s collection.