There could be no possibility of my missing one of two excruciating deaths. If the tug’s propellers didn’t turn me into mincemeat, my drowned corpse would eventually float to the surface after the floating crane had passed over me. Even if the tug stopped, the momentum of the barge would merely spare me the chop from the stilled propellers.
The MV Britannic was the largest motor vessel ever built when she was launched in 1930. She was the last liner to carry the livery of the White Star line until her final voyage to the scrapyard in 1960. She was also why I fell in love with ocean travel and the great liners of the 1930s.
Their courage is a byword, especially as few pilots, if any, are athletic or young. Some pilots are getting on in years and can be portly. Nevertheless, their job often entailed living and sleeping for long shifts on a wind and rain-swept pilot transit boat.
Finally, Cunard Line’s MAURETANIA and QUEEN MARY. At Pier 92, Cunard’s BRITANNIC, which had arrived days earlier, completed the remarkable scene. Together, these six liners carried approximately 9,400 passengers to New York in unparalleled mid-century luxury.
In what way could a winged sardine compare to ocean travel by superliner? Several generations of great ships on which one could live a lifestyle previously reserved for the super-rich and Hollywood’s greatest movie stars.
One by one, down the gangway she led them out of the ship.
When merchant ships reached the Persian Gulf, Japan and the Far East, the North and South Americas and Australia and New Zealand, ship crews eagerly waited for the shipping agent to bring on board the mail posted many weeks before in the United Kingdom.
Unsurprisingly, the officer of the watch came through the wheelhouse door like Batman on steroids. With the glazed-eye look of an unhinged madman, his eyes rolling and soundlessly mouthing, Michael gathered he was saying something along the lines of, ‘What the frigging hell have you done, you half-witted bastard.’
Michael Walsh Stories and Books 
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