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A Transatlantic Crossing with the Queen Mary 2

Day One

Driving up to the port of Southampton's Mayflower Terminal and catch the first flashes of white and black hulled Queen Mary 2, the largest, longest, highest, heaviest and most expensive ship ever built, evoked considerable excitement and awe. Docked in the port at 50 degrees, 54.25 'north latitude and 001-degree, 25.70' west longitude and is facing a 116.4 degrees compass heading, 17-adorned Leviathan, with a 1,132-foot length and 148-foot width, featured a mass of 151,400 tons and towered over the buildings with its balcony-lined façade displace the with his 236.2 feet altitude. Its draft extended 33.10 meters below the waterline. The floating metropolis, complete with its state rooms, restaurants, shopping centers, libraries, theaters, and planetariums, would bridge six days, the European and North American continent, which is equivalent in hours for the duration of the aerial crossing by 747-400, even as the world's largest commercial aircraft. But oceanic passage would give courtesy, refinement, rejuvenation, emotional repair, and return to the slower but more elegant era steamship travel, a journey I would soon find out, would lead to a search of the maritime history of the past, which had created the technology of the current.

In contrast to the proliferation of modern cruise ships with their relatively lower speed and larger volume, square geometry hull, Queen Mary 2 was designed as a next-generation successor to 35-year-old Queen Elizabeth 2 and as such will be offered the same year, passenger capacity, mainly in the rough North Atlantic, with a design that sacrificed revenue volume and lower construction costs of the traditional cruise ship for the required security, speed and stability ocean steamer. Resultantly, it did the same v-shaped hull configuration characteristic of the wide range of its Cunard predecessors, constructed of thicker steel, which carried a 40-percent higher costs than conventional cruise ships. Designed by Stephen Payne, whose inspiration for the Arch came from Queen Elizabeth 2 and the brake wall from Normandy it was the first quadruple screw North Atlantic liner when France 1962nd Payne himself, a naval architect born and raised in London, had been involved in Carnival Holiday, Carnival Fantasy, and Rotterdam VI projects. The latter, which includes a modified Statendam hull, had bid on a minor "Square" hull form than the traditional cruise ship, but still had significantly removed a full liner design.

Designed for primary Southampton-New York route, has been included dimensional constraints dictated by the U.S. port, including a funnel height, which paved the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge of only ten meters and a total length which exceeded 1,100-foot pier of the port of New York with 34 meters.

Built by Alstom Chantiers de l'Atlantique in St. Nazaire, France, which had also built Normandie and designated G32 hull of the yard, had it been the first Cunard liner ever built outside the United Kingdom and, like Concorde, the world's fastest and so far only supersonic passenger jet, became the second British-French cooperation in transportation project designed to trans-Atlantic service, even through very different if not opposite modes.

Its interior offers unparalleled space and comfort. Of the 17 decks, the first four were for machinery, storage, and 1,254-strong crew, 13 were for 2,620 passengers and eight contained balcony staterooms. Notable features a Grand Lobby, Royal Court Theatre, Illuminations Theatre and Planetarium, the Internet Connexions Centre, Queen's Ballroom, a Winter Garden, nine great restaurants, 11 bars and lounges, a 8,000 volume library and bookstore, an Oxford University lecture program, performances by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, five swimming pools, sports facilities, a Canyon Ranch Spa, a pavilion of shops and a disco. These appointments would be my "home" for the next six days.

Symbolic expression of its smaller predecessor QE2 berthed a considerable distance from his bow at the Queen Elizabeth 2 Terminal, Queen Mary 2 represented a double gross weight increase over its previous generation counterpart and even traced his genealogy back to a long road Cunard vessels had stretched a 165-year period. I somehow sensed that the impending passage would not only be a transport distance, but a return on time.

Gently vibrating on his back, the monster laterally separated himself from his bunk in the metallic overcast in 1810, local time.

Unlike the conventional engine propeller shaft technology mature generation ship Queen Mary 2 was driven site with four aft, the hull underside mounted Rolls Royce Mermaid electric motor pods, each weighing 260 tons and contains four fixed-pitch, 9,900-pound, stainless steel knives, and collectively produce 115,328 horsepower. Forward position, outboard motors pair was determined and provided forward and reverse momentum, while the rear inboard pair featured 360-degree azimuth capability and provided both propulsion and steering is no need for rudders. The advanced technology system reduces both the complexity and weight and increasing internal hull volume by eliminating the traditional engine's associated equipment.

Three Rolls Royce variable pitch, transverse propeller bow thrusters, collectively produce 15,000 horsepower, provided the port and starboard bow maneuvering capability at speeds up to five knots. At eight knots when their effectiveness was exceeded, they were covered by 90-degree rotating, fluid-dynamic doors.

Led by double water-sprout shooting tugboats, the monster large passenger began his clumsy movements into the pool. Maintaining a 11.5-knot forward speed in the Solent, it began its starboard turn from 140 degrees at Calshot reach in 1907, ready for a similar maneuver at Brambles.

Compressed in dark gray, the sun is expected its glowing orange streaks outward through the thin, smooth strip on the western horizon. Based on a 220-degree position through Thorn Channel, Queen Mary 2 began its starboard turn to round the Isle of Wight.

The first dinner on board the elegant, maritime engineering triumph had been served in 1351-seat, three-storey high, double-level Britannia Restaurant, which had bid at a grand, sweeping staircase, column supports and a curved, backlit, stained glass ceiling and was reminiscent of and inspired by the great dining salons of the 20th century French liners like the Ile-de-France, L'Atlantique, and Normandy. The meal itself, served on Wedgwood bone china and Waterford Crystal, had included white Zinfandel wine and cream of mushroom soup mixed with parmesan croutons, crispy rolls and butter, oak leaf and Boston lettuces with shaved carrots and sherry vinaigrette dressing, rack of pork with wild mushroom ragout, truffle mashed potatoes, morel sauce and sauerkraut, hot apple strudel with brandy sauce and coffee.

The thin line of orange lights outlining the coast traced behind the stern. Maintaining a 27-knot speed and a 250-degree position, rock-steady, 151,000-tonne engineering mass plied the black channel and began his great circle course from Bishop's Rock in the Scilly Isles. Ahead to the endless Atlantic Ocean and the path forged by every one of Cunard's former transatlantic liners. Tomorrow, I begin to trace historical one.

Day Two

Dawn greeted the long lines as a tunnel of distinction, damp gray. Coated between grumpy cloud dome above and navy marine shale below, which spat periodic white caps, the black-and-red distribution vessel penetrated the moisture-saturated tomorrow rain luminous sky and swirling, eddying ocean merge into seamless, blustery wind, ships bombarded through soft.

Any unwanted movement However, quickly and invisibly, dampened by the two pairs of 15.63 square meters Brown Bros. / Rolls Royce fin stabilizers, which was controlled by Gyroscopic vertical reference instruments and stretched as far as 15 meters from the hull to counteract the ship's roll.

Throws into 348-meter-deep waters 98 nautical miles off of Ireland at midday, Queen Mary 2 had traversed 418 miles since leaving from Southampton yesterday.

Current weather caused intermittent, light rain with a clockwise motion to the west, expected to fall to force 4th This force, 5, fresh breeze from the south, combined with a 11.2-degree Celsius ambient temperature, completed a 994-millibar pressure. Sea with a moderate 4 state maintained a 10-degree Celsius temperature.

Afternoon tea is held in the Queen's Room, had been a British tradition and a wonderful intermittence between lunch and dinner served on all Cunard passage, the last personal one of which had been in 2002 eastbound trip at Queen Elizabeth the 2nd Queen's Room itself, the largest ballroom at sea, featured an arched ceiling, twin crystal chandeliers, a velvet blue and gold drapes over the orchestra stage, a 1,225-square-foot dance floor, a live harpist, and small round tables with room for the 562nd Today's presentation covered the eggs, ham and cheese, cucumber, tomato, beef, seafood and finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and strawberry cream pies.

Afternoon tea at sea could trace his genealogy back some 165 years. Einstein's relativity somehow seemed to apply. Suspended between the continental land mass and population, the ship seemed caught in a vacuum, an arrest warp when history seemed caught and where ship reconnected with his past when it once again replayed it a separation from the present shore and an approach to its past at sea. It was to this suspension of time, distance and place, the threads of Cunard's past actually led. A man who had lived around 200 years ago, had made the journey today is possible.

Name the man had obviously been the same as that which had adorned a large number of still promoting Atlantic liners, Samuel Cunard. Born on November 21, 1787 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the son of Abraham Cunard, himself a carpenter at Halifax's Royal Naval Dockyard, he had created a maritime link with physical into the world. His first venture was constituted a Royal Mail contract award to transport mail to Boston-Halifax-St. John's route after the cessation of war in 1812 between Britain and the U.S., while he later became involved in the first steam-powered ship project is intended for Atlantic crossings. Named Royal William, the 160-foot-long, 1,370-ton ship had been inaugurated into service in August 1931 between Quebec and Halifax, which require 6.5 days for the journey.

Enterprises that had triggered his ultimate fame, but occurred at the end of this decade when the British Government had announced its intention to support steam mail service between England and America. In a formal proposal to meet the requirement, which was submitted on 11 February 1839, outlined the Cunard one every other month, steam-powered service between England and Halifax powered by 300 hp ships 48 annual crossings. awarded a contract by the Admiralty in June for four 206-foot-long, 400-hp, 1,120-ton vessels to ultimately be designated by Acadia, the Caledonia, Columbia and Britannia, he finalized plans to earn Liverpool-Halifax-Boston route.

The latter ship, Britannia, had actually been the first to be completed. The 207-foot-long, 34-foot-wide hybrid power vessel built by African oak and yellow pine of Robert Duncan's Shipyard on the River Clyde in Scotland, had bid on a rock arc, three masts with square yards, and two in the middle of the ship, lying, black-and-gold paddle boxes, which extends almost 12 feet from both sides and contained 9-foot-wide, 28-foot-diameter paddles turning at 16 revolutions per minute and runs off a 403-hp two-cylinder, side lever steam engine that burned 40 tons coal per day exhausted through a single aft cabin smoke stack. The engine that requires 70 feet of the hull for installation, pulled coal from a 640-tonne bunker.

Of the four tires, tires the upper or important featured captain and the chief officer cabins, galley, galley, the officers' mess, crew cabins, they traveled, stayed bridge, and dining saloon, which at 36 feet long and 14 meters wide, was the largest enclosed spaces in the ship. Two plans, circular staircases chain dining room with the second deck, which housed the gentlemen's and ladies cottages, each with two bunk beds, a washbasin, a mirror, one day bed, and a port hole or an oil lamp, with shared toilet facilities, representing a 124-person capacity of whom 24 were female. holds that are on each side of the engine yet a lower deck, which can accommodate 225 tons, accompanied sailed closet, the mailroom, the shops, the stewards quarters, wine cellar and at the stern. Coal had been stored in the fourth, or lowest, tires.

The 1,154-tonne Britannia, which Inaugurated in the plan service on July 4, 1840 from Liverpool to Boston with a stopover in Halifax, operated by the world's first transatlantic steamship, which caused 63 passengers and 12 days, ten hours for 2,534-nautical mil passage of a 8.5-knot speed third of the journey, as pure-sail. After eight hours of suspension in Halifax harbor, it continued to Boston for another 46 hours.

By January 5, 1841, all four Cunard ships had entered the fleet.

The Britannia itself made 40 round trips before they are sold to the Prussian Navy, which had converted it into a clean-sailing ship used for target purposes and renamed the Barbarossa. It was eventually sunk in 1880. Nevertheless, it paved the way for a wide range of Cunard liners to come.

Bite into the angry, dark-blue, white cap, spit the North Atlantic on a 272-degree position in 1545 with its protruding, bulbous bow, the mighty Queen Mary 2 engineering triumph put on its axis at a 23.4-knot speed sun's rays are strong enough to tear singular cloud substance in a puffy, white mosaic aerial islands. The ship had reached a 50-degree 12.036 'north latitude and 14 degree, 26.312 'west longitude coordinate.

That night's dinner, served in the Britannia Restaurant, had included Merlot wine, smoked halibut mousse and jumbo shrimp on Russian salad, Lollo Rosso and apple salad with caramelized walnuts and cider vinaigrette, filet mignon and lobster tail with young roasted potatoes, polenta cake and asparagus in hollandaise sauce, chocolate banana tart with mango sauce, coffee and petit fours.

Britannia, a ship design that was only beginning and will pale in comparison to Leviathan Cunard vessels constructed in the 20th century.

Day three

Current bowled significant sea swells, Queen Mary 2 had penetrated the dark blue, star-glittering night at its center of gravity as a tilt, its bow pounding the mountainous wave troughs and design avalanche-white reactions at 45 degrees from its center line.

Breakfast, eaten at King's Court with its many stations had included a ham and pepper omelet, bacon, hashbrowned potatoes a grilled tomato, white toast, and cranberry juice.

Negotiating directives 25 – to 30-foot seas over the mid-Atlantic ridge, which covers the Continental Divide, the ship had sailed 590 nautical miles in 24-hour period since 1200, at yesterday, is now pursuing a 263-degree position, with 2075 miles remaining to the New York Pilot's Station.

Light rain showers were expected to spread with gradual clearing. The force-5 wind out of the northwest, had produced 9-degree Celsius temperatures, with a 996.5-millibar pressure. Sea, whose moderate condition had registered a "4," insisted a 12-degree temperature.

Gazing out toward the Atlantic's infinity, I could not help thinking, that somewhere out there, if not in physical space, so in historical times had been the first of the "big" Cunard Atlantic liners which would certainly have passed this way in the early 20th century.

Construction, Lusitania, had its origin as early as 1902 when JP Morgan had tried to create a steamship conglomerate called International Mercantile Marine by buying more existing companies, including White Star Line. To ensure Cunard's continued independence and hold its inclusion in the ever growing company, the British Parliament had given it a 20-year contract and grants to build two of the world's then largest and fastest liners, and in the process, recycle speed record Germans had captured three of their twin-screw vessels.

Cunard, seeking tenders for the two ships from the four shipyards indicated a 750-foot length, a 76-foot width and a 59,000-horsepower capacity achieved by reciprocating engines driving triple screws. The contract, awarded to John Brown and Company in Clydebank, Scotland, resulted in a 790-foot length and a 88-foot width, supplant the 30,000-tonne gross vehicle weight of 2,500 tonnes for the first time, and employs turbine engine technology also for the first time, with a 68,000-horsepower combined capacity exhausted, in an attempt to imitate the Germans, through four chimneys.

Construction beginning in autumn 1904, produced two of the biggest, fastest and most powerful Atlantic liners ever built, with long, slim design just Sterns, rounded bridges and four raked funnels sporting 787-foot lengths, 87-foot widths, and 31,550-tonne gross weight, powered by steam turbines geared to quadruple screw.

Welcoming 563 prime passengers amidships, aft 464 second class passengers and 1138 thirds or Skansen, Class passengers in the front part of the hull, the first of the two new liners featured lavish appointments. A Georgian-style lounge sported bright green color, a marble fireplace, stained glass, and a 20-foot tall dome. The Veranda Cafe had stained wall patterns and rattan furniture. dining room, double deck configuration, was the first of its kind on a Cunard ship. main lounge was decorated with mahogany panels, while smoking rooms featured dark Italian walnut. The second class dining saloon also sported Georgian appointments and the room was decorated in the Louis XVI style. With electricity for the first time Lusitania provided modern amenities to its passengers, including two elevators.

On her second westbound crossing, lining showed all speed record, averaging 23.993 knots and covering a 617-mile, single-day distance, although it ultimately broke the 26-knot mark, when New York in four days 20 hours.

Its fate was not to be so successful. Retiring England at its 202nd travel 1 May 1915 with 1,257 passengers and 702 crew members and three stowaways, the ship had approached Britain, sailing ten miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, where it had been broadsided by a German torpedo, trading ahead and starboard. slip oceanward on a 45-degree bow-first angle it hit the bottom 18 minutes later, exploding and killing 1,201 on board as the result of an intentional action of war.

Since it is an outcrop of land have been observed during six days Atlantic crossing, Queen Mary 2 was suspended in a void between two continents journey on the course, speed, weather, sea state, distance, and home life, the temporary but still moving civilization on top of the sea.

Soldiering that the ship was burning 3.1 tonnes of heavy fuel oil per hour on a 100-percent load to run its diesel engines, or 261 tons per day on a 29-knot speed steam, while it used 6 tonnes of marine diesel fuel per hour to run its gas turbines, or 237 tons per day, drawing out of a 1,412,977-US gallon tank for the former and a 966,553-gallon tank for the latter.

Its fresh water produced by seawater with 3 Alfa Laval Multi Power Plate Evaporators, refill itself with a rate of 630 tons per day, fulfilling its 1,100-ton daily consumption. The water tank capacity was 1,011,779 U.S. gallons.

A German-themed lunch, served in the King's Court, had been included bratwurst, sauerkraut bacon, cheese spaetzel, roasted potatoes, schnitzel, and black forest cake.

Maintaining a 261-degree position and a 23.1-knot speed steam, the city had the sea reached a 49-degree, 43.705 'north latitude and 28 degree 25.458' west longitude position at the 1500th

The Queen Mary 2's Winter Garden, designed after skylighted verandah cafes in Mauritania, had bid on a 60-by-25-foot trompe l'oeil ceiling depicts a lush, green gardens, walls peeping through the iron gates to the rolling hills, and wicker furniture, and was created to counteract the cold, gray, troubled winter North Atlantic.

The Mauritania itself, the ship that made Winter Garden's inspiration had been the second of two early 20th Cunard century designs after Lusitania. The nine decorated liner, accommodating 563 first class passengers in 253 cabins, 464 seconds class passengers in 133 cabins and 1,138 third class passengers in 278 cabins, had characterized his own opulent appointments. The first class smoking room, for example, located at the stern, had characterized the polished wood wall panels and plaster friezes. The lounge, located on Boat Deck and measuring 80 by 53 feet, had been decorated with mahogany paneling, gold profiles, Long ceiling beams, gilded bronze, and crystal chandeliers. The library, featuring bay windows had been decorated with maple panels. The first class dining room with seating for 330, had been configured with long white robes tables and revolving chairs, and was decorated with polished ash, teak-shaped panels, and arched windows, while the second class dining room with parquet floors, featured Georgian oak paneling and carved cornices. A grand staircase, installed between the second and third channels connected five decks of public spaces.

Entering service on November 16 1907 between Liverpool and New York, Mauritania had been rebuilt with four-bladed propellers two years later, in 1909, at which time it could achieve maximum speed of 26.6 knots. It had only been the first of a series of changes. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, for example, if it had been painted gray and maps served as a flock ship, appearance and returned to commercial service five years later in 1919, at which time it operated in the company of the Aquitania and Berengaria, offers weekly eastbound and westbound service on the Southampton-New York route. It was the fastest of the three.

Another change made necessary by fire, resulted in conversion to oil-burning engine technology and cabin staff reconfiguration, which reduces both the second and third class passengers capacity.

In his 27 years of operation, over 22 as it had held in the North Atlantic speed record until it was retaken by Bremen 1929, Mauritania had sailed around 2.1 million miles in the trans-Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean service before abused by two larger and more advanced Cunard liners. Making its last crossing of 26 September 1934, it was scraped in the following year in Scotland.

The evening's dinner, served in the Queen Mary 2's Britannia Restaurant, had characterized White Zinfandel wine, baby shrimp Thermidor on walnut brioche, Cob salad with smoked chicken and bleu cheese dressing, roasted sea bass with Mediterranean countries vegetables and olive tapenade, bananas foster with rum raisin FLAMBEE ice cream and whipped cream, and coffee.

The Lusitania and Mauritania replacements, although larger, would prove a mixed couple: although one had been the third in the series if it had been slower, while the other had been transferred from the fleet by the enemy Germans.

Day Four

Suspended in mid-Atlantic, the black-hulled Leviathan pricked his Great Circle course on a 249-degree positions, eating the gray and white foamy ocean with his bow with a 21.7-knot appetite. Four hundred seventy miles off the coast of Newfoundland, negotiated ship 3,549-meter-deep water, covered 607 nautical miles in 24-hour period since yesterday, now 1615 miles from Southampton. On a rolling 47-degree 34.066 'north latitude and 042-degree 00754' west longitude position, it was 1468 miles from its destination.

External conditions were mild: air temperature at 14 degrees Celsius, was combined with a force-4 moderate winds out of the southwest and low cloud, with a 989-millibar pressure. Sea, whose condition had been smaller, had a 12.7-degree Celsius temperature.

If triplet of the early 20th century Cunard liners could have sailed past the Queen Mary 2 in chronological order, Aquitania would have trailed both Lusitania and Mauritania, the third of the long, slim, quad-distributed craft built by John Brown and Company in Clydebank.

The 45,647-tonne ship, with a 901-foot length and a 97-foot width, had been both larger and heavier than its two predecessors, which resulted in a 3,200-passenger capacity. Launched on 21 April 1913, had begun test runs 13 months later, achieving a 24-knot maximum speed, and entered commercial service on 30 May 1914 Liverpool-New York route.

Opulently appointed, it featured a long gallery, which connected the main lounge with smoking decorated with a series of garden lounges, a carpeted, Louis XVI-style first class restaurant, a columned Palladian lounge, which lasted two decks and the first pool ever installed on a Cunard ship.

Late in the North Atlantic, Aquitania had sailed on the brink of World War I and was commissioned by the government for military service as an armed merchant cruiser in August 1914, but because of its large size, had been recommissioned as a flock ship the following year. reconfigured for the ocean steamer service after the war, the ship resumed his civilian role in August 1920, amending its capacity six years later, in 1916, when a major reconfiguration dropped the first class passengers to supplement 618 610 rose second class capacity from 614 to 950, and dramatically decreased the third class and added a three-Forth, from 1,998 to 640, for a more precise match passenger demand class.

Once again reconfigured to a 7,724-person crowd ship during World War II, Aquitania provided the eight years of military service where it had sailed 500000 miles and carried more than 300,000 troops.

Arriving at Southampton 1 December 1949, multi-role vessel ended 35 years of service, having sailed around 3 million miles on 443 voyages. It had been Cunard last quad-distributed design.

Lunch, back in the current at the Queen Mary 2, was served in The Carvery, even one of King's Court station, and had included beef tikka masala, white rice, cauliflower in cheese sauce, and double chocolate fudge cake.

Although Aquitania very long, mulitple-role and fruitful career had ended in 1949, had for the most part continue to operate in tandem, as originally conceived, with two other Cunard transatlantic liners, despite the fact that the Lusitania had been destroyed almost immediately after entering service. third ship however, came not from a Cunard blueprint given life by a ship builder at Clyde, but instead of the very enemy that had necessitated its replacement.

Endeavor themselves to compete with Cunard and White Star Line design, which now regularly plied the Atlantic, Hamburg-America Line had laid keel of a new breed of transatlantic liners the 18th June 1910, intended to be the largest capacity, highest gross weight passenger ship ever built. The specifications were for the time wavering: measuring 919 feet long and 98 meters wide, the oblong, tri-distributed, 52,117-tonne ship, named Imperator, was powered by steam engines geared for four-bladed propellers feeding out of 8,500-ton coal nutritious two 69 – and 95-foot long engine, respectively. Accommodating 908 first class, 972 seconds class, 942 third class and 1772 steerage class passengers, monster, driven by a 90-tonne rudder, was christened on 23 May 1912 and entered commercial service 13 months later, 10 June from Cuxhaven to New York with a stopover in Southampton.

The Imperator featured a FirstClass winter garden with potted plants, palms and a double-deck indoor swimming pool.

Because the initial service had proved top-heavy conditions, they were three chimneys shortened by nine feet during a fall after installation.

Ultimately sailing ban because of the First World War German atrocities had ship was moored in Hamburg for four years until a war compensation agreement resulted in the transfer to Cunard in 1919 as compensation for the German-sunken Lusitania. Southampton rebased two years later, in April 1921, had been subjected to an initial retrofitting during which its coal-burning engine technology had been replaced by oil, and it had been rebuilt with 972, 630, 606, and 515 first, second, third and tourists, respectively. Renamed Berengaria, the ship joined Mauritania and Aquitania, operates Cunard's weekly transatlantic service. Although it had been originally planned to continue operating it until 1940, his antiquated wiring system, which resulted in sustained on-board fires, had excluded the expected service life temporarily leaving only Mauritania and Aquitania until a new breed of Cunard liners, offering double the tonnage of the existing structures could be used. This ship, of course, bore the name of the current Queen Mary.

Dinner, served at La Piazza Restaurant on board (today) Queen Mary 2, had included a mixed green salad with ranch dressing, artichoke hearts, vegetable moussaka, pasta with onions, mushrooms, black olives, garlic and red tomato sauce, tiramisu and coffee.

Dusk could be more accurately measured by looking beyond the wooden deck with his Queen Mary I recalls loungers line and down towards the sea, instead of up toward the sky. The former, a reflection of the latter had shown a deep blue, mirroring the temporary brightness in the sky during the early evening when the mountainous white cumulous formations were parted, creating a blue division. Then, quickly turned into a dark blue and for a moment, a cold, grumpy, gray winter, the prevailing environmental conditions of so many previous transatlantic crossings as the dark, billowing clouds gather in a tight, cohesive quilt prevent even a momentary glimpse of the sun. Merging dimensionally stable with the sea, the amorphous, less reference void cacooned the floating city until visibility extended longer than ten meters from one of the edges. Two souls, well-dressed, braved the fierce, thundering winds as they tried, supported by the force that the circle covered. Such was life on a transatlantic crossing.

As the day surrounded midnight demarcation line, crossed the ship from Newfoundland Basin to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and effectively reached the North American continent. Two days of steaming back before it arrived at the final station, the Port of New York.

Day Five

Wrestling the violent power of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in 0800, the elongated Titan thundered over the cylinder gray surface its peaks so high and frequent that they appeared white, snow-covered mountain ridges. The pitch was stormy and tireless. propelled at 24 knots, the vessel moved between trough is rotated about its center of gravity pinnacling each crest with overcoming triumph before exploding in the next valley with gravity-induced momentum, its rotation sliding down the mountain into the sea in partial aerial suspension at which time even stabilizers failed to dampen his declining sea momentarily disconnected profile.

Speed perception was a function of distance: the lower down in the ship in relation to the waterline, the faster the gray surface appears to move from external, its cascades of white foam and mist exploding directly on the windows and portholes.

Death on the high seas, but at this writing still no idea, had briefly reduced my passage to an Agatha Christie murder mystery. Before retreated to my cabin the previous night, a passenger whose name I have forgotten for a moment, had been constantly summoned both in the theater and throughout the ship, with an increasing degree of urgency. During the early morning hours, lines for a so inexplicably, had turned around, pursued a position that would have taken it back to the United Kingdom. It was later revealed that a man from Germany who had been traveling with a group that had no time been unlocatable, and his wife, who had not made the journey with him, had been contacted in Germany, where she eventually discovered a suicide note. The man who had been elderly and very ill, had apparently make the crossing to take his own life, and the ship had to circle the area of suicide until some point beyond which he would have succumbed to hypothermia, although he had survived the ocean plunge.

The incident immediately beyond this initial hesitation between two strangers, had been talk about the formal breakfast is served in the Britannia restaurant that morning.

The selected area along the Great Circle route in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland could not have been more dangerous and each predecessor Cunard liner had traced his way through it.

Glaciers down the mountain on Greenland's west coast calved with thunderous roar in the Davis Strait and forms icebergs carried south by the Labrador current, about 400, of which, rising 150 meters above the waterline and weighing over 100,000 tonnes Move as far south as sea routes out of Newfoundland. During the April-to-July period, the area off St. John's is known as "iceberg alley." Because the size of the minor's and their associated large cap, they are particularly difficult to spot, which represents a significant risk for any marine activity a transatlantic crossing during this time and rightly earning the area the title "North Atlantic graveyard."

Further worsening conditions was substreams of differential-temperature waters, which originate along the continental edge of South America, near the equator where the Trade Winds propel them towards the channel between Cuba and Florida Keys. Faster, follows the 30 – to 50-mile-wide east coast at 2 – to 6-km / h speeds on North Carolina coast, where the actual substreams, liquid v Nova Scotia on a 150-million-cubic-meter-per-second rate.

It is on the Great Circle route, east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland that the clash between the heat Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador current takes place, producing different temperatures by themselves create rain, storms, rain, fog, tumultuous waves, winter hurricanes and cyclones. Off the southeast tip of Newfoundland, at Cape Race, summer sea fog, sometimes lasting weeks, mittens icebergs from visual perception.

Oblivious these conditions, 151,400-tonne Queen Mary 2 negotiated its way through its pods and bow thruster whose electricity was supplied by a common high-voltage main switchboard, which produced a 11,000-volt, 60 hertz, 3 phase power. The present itself was supplied by four Wärtsilä W46 V1646C, 16.8 MW diesel generators and two 25.0-MW General Electric LM2500 + gas turbines.

This morning's intrigue, when digested and discussed, gave greater focus on the abundant breakfast is served in the Britannia restaurant, which had included grapefruit juice, poached eggs, crispy bacon, mushrooms, grilled tomato, sautéed potatoes, white toast, croissants, French bread, butter, coffee, and peach pastries.

By late morning, cut the long, majestic, red and black distribution lines, 165-year genealogy of the vessel which had lent its name to the massive restaurant, his trench under bright blue skies in the even-express deep blue sea, leaving a white wake behind the stern, which even stretching back to the countless crosses of all Cunard liners, which had preceded it.

If Berengaria had been "great" no adjective can describe the size of its replacement, which came from an original plan and not from an existing hull. The ship, which was a pure and original Cunard design had not only launched a new breed of liners, but a whole new period known as the "era of the four queens." The design, of course, had been the first to to bear the name of the current ship, Queen Mary.

Extensive technological advances in 86 years Cunard maritime designs, the new flagship, if origin can be traced to 1926 when a successor of Mauritania had first been planned, was intended as the first of two 1,000-foot longliners which would be fast enough to allow five days crossing schedules and thus eliminate the need for Lusitania / Berengaria, Mauritania, Aquitania trio. Even if the keel was first once again been put on 31 January 1931 for a ship's hull then designated 534 in John Brown and Company Shipyard of Clyde, the depression halted its construction a year later, on 3rd April 1934, intermittent allows Normandie to take the title as the first 1000-footer and the first 60,000 tonne + lines, as the current fastest to to cross the Atlantic, earned the blue Ribband. During December of the previous year, it had been announced that Cunard would merge with White Star Line, Cunard White Star Limited, the former designated all its ships with "ia" ending and the latter has used the "ic" ending, like in "Titanic." The name "Queen Mary" would be the first to eliminate both.

Launched on 26th September 1934, the sleek, elongated, three distributed ocean liner, with a 1,018-foot length and 118-foot width, had contained a 80,774-tonnes and was powered by four quadruple expansion steam turbines connected via the propeller shafts, to four external, 35-ton, manganese bronze, four-bladed propellers are grouped in pairs.

The elegant interior appointments featured more than 50 varieties of wood, such as English yew, bird's eye maple, ivory white maple, Pacific Myrtle, African cherry and pearwood. The ship's sun deck, sporting an open promenade with access to all 24 lifeboats, ended up on the small, intimate verandah Grill, which offered an alternative, a-la-carte dining experience overlooking the stern. The enclosed Promenade Deck, which is located immediately below, featured the main public rooms, including a forward, 21 paned window Observation Lounge and Cocktail Bar directly below the bridge, a student lecture hall, writing room and library on the port side and a drawing room, another writing room, and children's playroom on the starboard side. The main entrance hall behind, covered the breadth of the ship and opened the glass doors on both sides of the promenade and configured with a shopping arcade.

Travel agency and suites were placed together decks below the Main Deck while A through H Tires were set even lower in the hull, and access to Empire wood-paneled corridors.

Eat Shop, measuring 160-meter-long and 118-meter-wide and seats 800, was located on C Deck and feature high ceilings, colonnades, and a 24-by-13 foot mural in the Atlantic with a crystal glass, electrically operated model of Queen Mary to indicate its position during transatlantic crossings. The cabin class swimming pool, located at D Deck was featured golden quartzite, and a walking alley leading to crew accommodation, workshops and storerooms.

Inaugurated in use, 27 May 1936 at Southampton-Cherbourg-New York route, Queen Mary retook the blue Ribband from Normandy three months later in a westerly passage reach a 30.63-knot speed between Bishop's Rock and Ambrose Light, will be the fastest, largest and heaviest super class lines until the title had been overtaken by its transatlantic counterpart, Queen Elizabeth. Although it had carried 56,895 passengers in its first year of service, the storm clouds of World War II thwarted his continued civilian operation the last of which, from Southampton, which occurred on 30 August 1939.

Painted, it is now sad, military version, unofficially dubbed the "Gray Ghost", sailed from New York to Australia to play its role as a bunch of ship maintenance transatlantic ferry in 1943, in July, as it carried a record 16,683 troops in a single passage.

Removed from military service on 27 September 1946 and returned to Cunard, the ship had been converted to passenger ship with room for 711 first, 707 cabins and 577 economy class customers, resume weekly scheduled transatlantic service 31 July 1947 between Southampton and New York, with Queen Elizabeth.

Not usurped by a newer or more sophisticated nautical design, but of an aeronautical themselves instead, the Queen Mary, admission is still declining passenger loads and decreasing revenue, operated its last flight from New York, 22 September 1967, having made 1,001 crossings, during which time it had sailed 3.7 million miles, was completed 2.1 million passengers and had earned $ 600 million in revenue.

Its last ever surgery took place later that year, 31 October when it began a 39-day repositioning voyage from Southampton with 1,040 passengers around the southern tip of South America to its permanent new Long Beach, California, mooring, where it assumed its role as a hotel and tourist attraction.

Sailing 140 nautical miles of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland by 1200 noon on the current Queen Mary 2, pursue a 250-degree position and a 24-knot speed steam, was located 115 miles south-southeast of Cape Race, which covered a measly 431 miles since yesterday's position report on Because of this morning's attempted rescue. Negotiating directives rough seas with moderate swell mid cold, 3-degree Celsius temperatures, the ship had traversed 2046 miles since sailing; with 1,040 remaining to New York Pilot's Station.

The Queen Elizabeth, the second of the two designs for Cunard's weekly, bi-directional transatlantic service, completed the world's most famous couple ocean liners, but contrary to initial belief, had not been an identical sister of Queen Mary, but an entirely separate design, sports, for example, only two versus four chimneys and 12 in contrast to 24 boilers. Its cool, first to the 4th December 1936 in Clydebank, resulted in a nearly two-year construction period, leading to the launch and naming September 27, 1938. Weighing only 40,000 tonnes at the time the 1,031-foot-long, 118 feet across ship with a 38-foot draft, was moved to his outfit finger. But Queen Elizabeth, as her sister, declined immediate victim of the war and after the order by Winston Churchill, had been dispatched to New York, departing on 6 February 1940 and calls may still unfit and with only essential plumbing, beside the Queen Mary one month later.

After eight months mooring, during which time it had been transformed into a military ship, Queen Elizabeth had sailed to Singapore and eventually run weekly transatlantic troop movements between New York and Gourack, Scotland, carrying as many as 15,000 servicemen who fell asleep in differentiated, canvas bunks in two daily shifts.

Returning to Southampton on 16 June 1946, had 83,673-ton troop ship was converted to a luxury liner, accommodating 823 first, 662 cabin and 798 tourist class passengers, and operated its first scheduled civil service four months later, 16 October. Although Queen Elizabeth had become almost as popular as his Queen Mary counterpart, with most passengers who cross the one in one direction and the other in the other direction, had traffic pendulum started to swing against the British and American transatlantic Jetline, the first monetary losses recorded in the early 1960s until the economic reality could no longer support their continued operation. Operating its final passage in October 1968, Queen Elizabeth had briefly served as a hotel and a museum in Port Everglades, Florida, but neglect and financial burden quickly closed the venture, which has led to sales to CY Tung, a Taiwanese shipping tycoon, who has invested 6 million U.S. dollars in its conversion into a floating university. Fires, whose origin was not identified, broke out on 9 January 10th 1972 while the ship had been in Hong Kong Harbor and too much water applications only resulted in its capsize and ultimate downfall.

Yet Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth will be the most famous Cunard liners to have ever sailed.

Dinner was served in the Queen Mary 2's Todd English Restaurant, a small, 156-seat, LAN-only venue located at the stern, which harked back to the days of the original Queen Mary's Verandah Grill. Mediterranean-inspired kitchen had included Riesling white wine, lobster and baby corn chowder with whipped parsnip, black truffles, and potatoes, asparagus tart with caramelized onions, Fontana cheese brown butter, and MOREL vinaigrette, rack of lamb with confit of shank crepenette, various salads of roasted red peppers, chickpeas, cucumber and yogurt, and rouille with black olive sauce, warm, molten chocolate cake surrounded by raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cold coffee.

Night usually draped her veil over the day, decreasing and eventually eliminating all light. With the ongoing, persistent cloud deck of the North Atlantic in winter, however, no light or color marked the day shift. instead as an inverted light switch, the conversion was a little more than a prolonged denouement from gray to black, the outer horizontal environment, which contains no references to the hue change. Like a falling curtain, the day seemed symbolic of the veil that had finally dropped on the golden era of transatlantic liners …

As the calendar overshadowed a second, Queen Mary 2 assumed a 249-degree heat and a 25.6-knot steam rate, now southeast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

Day Six

Shrouded in fog all night and continually piercing the glut darkness with his left horn, the powerful lines, internally configured as a city on the sea with its nearly 4,000 inhabitants, penetrated the void of fog, where neither light or external reference could discern. the 150,000-ton behemoth, intake of the elements had paradoxically been reduced to but a tiny spot, as it grew closer to the North American continent.

Maintaining a 250-degree position in a small lake 210 nautical miles east of Cape Cod and a 26-knot speed steam at 1200 noon, Queen Mary 2 had sailed 648 miles since its position report 24 hours ago, now 2694 miles from Southampton with a 388-mile gap remaining to New York Pilot's Station.

Lunch, served at the Lotus Restaurant station at King's Court, had included chicken, onions, vegetables and basmati rice, soba noodles with scallion and light peanut satay, egg fried rice and chocolate, Graham cracker crust squares.

By 1500, had the cold front in Ernest, passed. Airspace, unraveling in remarkably bright blue those that did not leave a cloud of steam and 11-degree temperatures. The sea, a brilliant, deep blue, barreled into the apartment-lined vessel from the starboard side leads a rhythmic roll, as even the enlarged stabilizers could not completely dampen. Continuing a 253-university education and a 24-knot speed, the ship, now in the outer perimeter Gulf of Maine, reaching a 40-degree 44.853 'north latitude and 068-degree, 11.27' west longitude position, the latter wound up like a clock from its 001-degree Southampton coordinate. Only a few degrees of longitude back before the ship reached the Ambrose Light.

With the ship now due east of the Connecticut, passing the Transatlantic suspension between continents, and a return to the opulent and elegant golden age of transatlantic liner lifestyle that was rapidly ending.

Speed and technological advances in more modern ocean liners, such as France, USA and Rotterdam, combined with changing travel patterns in the last end usurped most famous couples Queens ever cross the oceans, causing both a Cunard replacement and serious consideration to whether a replacement should be designed all.

Their successor, a modernized version of Queen Elizabeth appointed Q3, featured a 990-foot length, can accommodate 2,270 passengers and a 75,000-ton total weight, as specified by June 1, 1960 design plans. Its engines, mainly based on the original Queen Elizabeth and create between 85,000 and 95,000 shaft horsepower to allow 28.5 knots speed, had been configured with two six-blade, 31.75-ton, 19-foot-diameter propellers, each operated by an independent set of turbines, while two sets of double reduction geared turbines supplied with steam from three 278-ton high-pressure water tube boilers producing 850 pounds-per-square-inch of pressure with 1000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures.

A study of trans-Atlantic passenger load factors, however, seriously question the economic viability of such construction. During 1957, for example, the ratio of observed-to-air traffic was 50:50, while eight years later, in 1965, only 14 out of every 100 passengers who actually crossed by sea. Could justify the size and expense of the original version, a scaled-down design, designated Q4, was announced on 19 October 1961. With a reduced 55,000-ton total weight, the ship, small enough to negotiate all existing waterways, including the Panama and Suez Canals, and versatile enough to assume the dual role of the Atlantic lines and cruise ship that had been conceived as a floating resort, a destination in itself, by introducing a new concept for sea travel. The contract, awarded to John Brown and Company Clydebank because of low construction cost and delivery early on, had been signed on 30 December 1964.

Its keel was first submitted the following year, the 2nd July, at the same quay that had incubated Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth and ship named Queen Elizabeth 2 or QE2, was launched on 20 September 1967. Because of the fate suffered by his predecessors, namely to sublimate the Queen Mary in a hotel and a museum and purchase of France and the United States by Norwegian Cruise Line to operate as cruise ships, it was then considered the last great transatlantic ocean liner to have been built.

Produces 50,000 hp less than the Queen Elizabeth the replacement and operating off of two versus four propellers, the QE2 nevertheless reached 29.5 knots speeds of his original tracks off the Scottish coast.

The 12-ornate, 70,327-ton ship, built of 1 1/8-inch-thick steel and sporting a single channel, stretching 963 feet in length and was delivered to Cunard on 20 April 1969 a 29 million pound cost. inaugurated in the plan passenger service the following month, 2 May, between Southampton and New York with an intermediate port-of-call in Le Havre, the third of the final quartet of Queens ended its passage in four days, 16 hours, 35 minutes at a 28.02-knot average speed, carrying 1,400 passengers.

Although the type enjoyed 17 years of successful service the steam turbine engines, which had essentially been the same type as having driven the original Britannia of 1840, had burned about 200 tons of fuel per day and had become more and more cost effective and maintenance-intensive. Operating its last transatlantic voyage from New York on the 20th October 1986 it was withdrawn from service conversion to diesel engine technology.

A 180 one million pound contract signed with Lloyd Werft in Bremerhaven, Germany, involved the conversion of all public spaces, passenger cabins, and crew accommodation and installation of nine 9-cylinder MAN B & W medium-speed, 220-ton diesel engines produce 10,625 kW or 14,242 hp of power at 400 revolutions per minute, four were installed in the forward engine room and five of them were installed in the rear engine on anti-vibration mountings. Propulsion engines, each weighing 295 tons and produces 44 MW of power at 144 rpms, was linked by 250-foot long shafts, two 22-foot, variable pitch, five-leaf, outward-turning, 19-foot-diameter, 42-ton propeller, which was controlled either from the bridge or engine room. Two four-bladed, variable pitch, 6.55-foot-diameter bow thrusters, installed 18 meters apart in self-contained tunnels which went laterally through the hull 18 meters below the waterline, was powered by a 1,000-horsepower electric motor and recessed behind hydraulically operated, hydrodynamic doors at idle power. Four 12-foot-long, 70 square meters in area, aft cabin extension, hydraulic stabilizers were hidden behind double-side hull recesses, while the steering was achieved with a single, 75-ton semi-balanced rudder.

The Queen Elizabeth 2, which requires 179 days for the conversion had been handed over to Cunard, 25 April 1987 and continues to cross oceans 36 years after it had first put into service, replaced on the transatlantic route only the ship in which I currently sail.

Actual current Queen Mary 2 had been the culmination of maritime technical developments which had begun with wooden hull sailing packets of the 19th century. These were later incorporated wooden paddle-wheel, piston engines, steam machines. Iron replaces wood as the primary hull material that had allowed increased strength significantly, thereby paving the way for larger designs with higher gross profit weight and an increasing number of tires. Increased length and width ratio, combined with propeller propulsion, reduced water resistance and increased vapor velocities, while the compound steam engines, two screws, and steel construction materials pinnacled ocean steamship technology in 1895. turbine engines, computer-aided design global positioning system Azipod and gas turbines all together into a single design that could be collectively classified ship, transport, machinery, building and floating metropolis with interior appointments so opulent and construction tenders so extensive that any connection with the sea was completely disrupted in a pleasant disorientation The minute you boarded ship.

Technological Progress, however, was not arrested by maritime design, but was immortalized in all other transport forms: the transatlantic crossing, for example, had required six days at sea, but only six hours by supersonic aircraft and three of supersonic aircraft. Speed had been proportionately increased, the time had been reduced and the soil was in the process, been artificially shrunk. But formation had also lost …

Only hours spent in enjoying it before the Port of New York loomed ahead.

The last dinner at sea, served in the Britannia Restaurant, had included Pinot Grigio white wine, smoked trout mousse, waldorf salad and chive creme fraiche, roasted tomato soup with basil cream, roasted Vermont turkey, whipped root vegetables and Madeira reduction cranberry hazelnut amaretto pudding with sauce anglaise and coffee.

Angular v ship from the forward, starboard side was lighted path as a cracked glass threshold above ocean surface from the smooth, cylindrical sun, which had opened its dusk-preventive descent towards the western horizon, a path, maybe tonight, the Port of New York, crossing notice, a sunset, symbolic of the end of the transatlantic liner crossing, which could now only singular relived aboard the Queen Mary 2nd part towards the horizon, it emitted a distinct orange glow and rendered an ocean reflective, icy blue mirror. A slow logging freighter age with rust, lurking out on the right side, its speed an appalling attempt at domination over the balcony-lined Leviathan. The sun itself, a burning orange ball trickled behind the Atlantic's perimeter, so only an orange and chartreuse aftermath of energy.

Apart from the arc white smoke plume resulting rrom the Charcoal and red funnel, no cloud condensation marred the night sky, its intense, black velvet pierced by periodic star glitter.

By midnight the Queen Mary 2 passed south of Montauk Point, Long Island.

Day Seven

Entering New York Harbor from Ambrose Light in 0330, the Still slumbering giant flying the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge one hour, 15 minutes later, pursuing a 006-degree position at a logging 9.3-knot cruise speed. First light colored in orange, seemed behind jewel-gleaming superstructures of Manhattan off the starboard side. By 0540, now maintain a 33-degree heading, the ship skated over the blue sheet of reflective Hudson River glass at 3.6 knots, passing the needle-thin section of the Empire State Building.

Beginner's troublesome starboard turn through its rotating Azipod, the monster moved into its Pier 88 berth over a 118-degree position, casting his post-dawn moorings at a 40 degree 45.982 'north latitude and 073-degrees, 59.917' west longitude coordinate parallel to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum and its satellite barge paradoxically sporting Concorde, registered as G-BOAD in British Airways livery, as the ultimate trans-Atlantic crossing, mean, had represented the pinnacle of commercial aeronautical development started with Subsonic, pure-jet aircraft that had preceded it. They had been the singular reason for transoceanic voyage's demise. Cost-to-speed ratio had been too high for Concorde, and, as in the original Queen Mary, had been withdrawn from service and reduced to a museum exhibit. But Queen Mary's next-generation successor, Queen Mary 2, had been alive, active in transatlantic service, and in high demand, while the second to wonder if the ship somehow had not replaced aircraft in an ultimate historical cycle. The Queen Mary 2 will depart this evening on eastbound intersection with paying passengers. Concorde would remain quiet, as an exhibition.

My trip had been both a physical and historical one, including distance and time, movement forward and backward values of a time warp travel in the golden age of transatlantic ocean steamer journey filled with wealth, sophistication, elegance and courtesy, a historical recapture and thereby relive, early-era values and a study, perhaps unsuccessfully, the reason for their death.

Although the speed had reduced crossing times, facilitating increased activity and accomplishment to its perceived value increases only assimilated with monetary value, resulting in gains of earthly possessions, but the compromises of the soul, the intrinsic, supernatural entity behind each body. This compromise had been fulcrum between a man and a human doing. Apparently ratios of the two, the soul and the body has fought with each other since the first man walked on the earth, renounce the spiritual fulfillment of bodily pleasure, in an inherent conflict between worlds, as they belong heaven and earth. The more one immersed himself in the latter, the more he lost earlier. So completely had the whole community tried to do so, such as the Holy Roman Empire that they had completely fallen, losing the very source that had created them.

Walking down the gangplank, I turned and looked at the giant ocean steamer that had carried me 3,082 nautical miles across the Atlantic. Maybe I will cross again one day, thought I …

About the Author

A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.

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