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48 Responses to The S. S. Lurline
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I’ve never been on one, but I’ve always had a soft spot for old steamships. If you have the time–a big if–it seems a much more pleasant way to get somewhere than being strapped to a too-small seat in an aluminum tube hurtling through the troposphere at 500 MPH.
I half-expected the SS Lurline to come equipped with Hee Haw themed dining rooms and Buck Owens handling the entertainment.
I’d sail on ‘er.
While it’s spelled a bit differently than the former governor’s name, it would have been nice had the S.S. Lurline made her way to Alabama for retirement.
I see images of Bug Bunny throwing leis and streamers and saying “Arivaderchi!”, “Bon voyagee!” and waving at Elmer Fudd on the dock as the ship pulls away.
Despite their incessant attempts to separate me from all my money, the one cruise I’ve taken I enjoyed, but the modern glitzy schmaltz that passes for entertainment aboard is definitely not my style. I’d prefer Canasta or trapshooting.
What a beautiful ship.
Trapshooting, strange though it seems, is actually a very traditional shipboard activity. It’s done on the afterdeck or fantail of the ship, with the target launched over the stern, so shots are fired away from the ship.
. . .with the target launched over the stern, so shots are fired away from the ship. . .
in theory
We took several day trips out of Nawiliwili harbor where the cruise liners dock in Kauai. They look much too big in that little harbor.
A more impressive site is to see the ships dock in Honolulu at the cruise terminal at Aloha Tower. As you gain site of the dock it appears that a large office tower is pulling up to the dock. A striking sight indeed.
As much as I’d like to cruise the islands, it’s so much more time effective to be on land than to spend days at sea. They currently have a 17 night cruise from the islands to Australia, but there again, as charming as shipboard life can be, I’d rather pack in as much time as I could in Australia, then spend time aboard the ship looking at the ocean…
That brochure and the invoices are a delight. Such a find! Pass along my thanks to your kind patron.
That’s a mighty small bar tab.
This just looks like it was so much fun. And I guarantee that one simply never encountered a fellow passenger in a velour track suit, or souvenir T-shirt.
I was born about 40 years too late.
Wow, I see that same font that was used for “Matson Lines” and “Hawaii” often for all things Hawaii even now.
My grandparents took the Lurline to Hawaii in 1962 or thereabouts. We thought they must be gods, to have such adventures.
I thought for a minute that this was an addendum to the “Follow the Sun” comic book. Because they looked like freelancers, they did.
Is that the bar tab, or did Mr. Austin treat himself to the luxury of barbershop shaves?
And rug rental refers to steamer rugs–not quite the same as a floor covering.
steamer rug
n.
A warm blanket used especially by shipboard passengers while sitting in deck chairs.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
The wife and I cruised from New York to Bermuda back in ’92 (see cover photo on my website), and you betcha I went for the skeet shooting off the fantail as soon as it was offered. You paid $1 a shot, with a Norwegian officer in charge and one of the crew tossing the clay pigeons with a hand-held launcher. Obviously there were lots of New Yorkers who’d never held a shotgun in their lives, and they had a great time blasting away. I remember one guy who could have been a cabbie out of a classic noir that hit 8 of 10, and he claimed never to have fired a shot previously.
To me, that was a “must-do” on the cruise. I later considered hitting some golf balls over the side, but the deck railing was just a bit higher than the tee mat, and I figured if ever I would hit a one-inch piece of steel rail with a drive from 10 feet away, that would be the time. The image of a golf ball careening about the sports deck was too vivid, and I passed.
I, too, eschewed the fancy entertainment for the pleasure of drinks on the deck in the fresh sea air. My bar bill was a lot more than $2.30 for the trip as well; about two orders of magnitude more.
Cruisin’ is great, the phrase that caught it best “carefree hours”. Really, you can cram a lot in, or sit back and relax. Some of the entertainment is great, some of it you might want to go play canasta instead. The first cruise I went on had trapshooting, but I haven’t done it. They also have golf driving, and have special biodegradable golf balls you can hit into the ocean. Or some have a big net, not as much fun.
I’m heading out for the Carribean next month, and do a bit of cramming in and relaxing…scuba diving in Cozumel and Belize, with plenty of rest in between.
I remember seeing my grandma off on a world tour, back around 1964 or so. They left NYC on an ocean liner, and went everywhere–Europe, the Middle East/Egypt, India, China, Japan, etc, etc. (Spending my inheritance the whole way….)
I was very young, but I remember that we went on board the ship, and visited their cabin, which was filled with flowers from wellwishers. Then the steam whistle blew, and the announcement came: “All ashore that’s going ashore!”
We retired to the dock, and waved to the passengers as their ship pulled away.
Those days are gone forever, my friends.
Oh, and they came back with a real Fez from Morocco, and a hapi coat (from Japan) that I wore through college. I always felt a little like Hawkeye Pierce when I wore that thing….
That must have been one barn-burner of a trip. Wish I could get in the Wayback, and stow away.
My family (Mom, Dad & 6 kids) traveled on the Lurline in 1966 when my Dad was transferred to Hawaii…I was too young to remember, but that trip provided fodder for many family stories over the years. I have that deck plan that shows the Smoking Room-Bar-Smoking room as well; I found it in an antique store in Hilo. Alas, my sibs could not remember where our cabins were…
JerseyHubby and I went on a Caribbean cruise about a year and a half ago. It was quite lovely, and we really enjoyed the cruise experience. The room we had was a fraction of the size of the suites in this brochure, but we anticipated that. Good food, lots of activities onboard, and it was fun waking up to a different island almost everyday and going scuba diving, or taking some sort of tour. We definitely want to go again when JerseyBaby is old enough to appreciate it.
Our only issue was the other passengers. Clearly they had all been cruising since the maiden voyage of the SS Lurline and had plenty of nits to pick about every little thing. Actual quote I heard: “I hate this ship! I’m going back to Norwegian! Why do they come around with the salt and pepper grinders instead of leaving shakers on the tables? They say it’s to prevent norovirus but I think they’re looking out for the bottom line!” Because, you know, when our household needs to save a little money the first corner I cut is seasoning my food. It was like all the parents, uncles, etc., from the cast of Seinfeld boarded a ship. Guess next time we find a line with a younger demographic.
The only trophy I ever won was trapshooting from the deck of the old Flavia plying the Bermuda route from Miami. I heard they no longer allow the spraying of lead or steel shot while at sea. Cruising to the Islands in the 50′s, what a way to travel.
Is that Rita Hayworth playing shuffle board?!
Methinks Mr. Lileks is getting ready to tee-off, big time, on Judge SotomaYOR and her warm empathy for the New York Times versus freelancers, parasites on the body politic who suck the life blood off of major media executives so they can jet off to Hawaii (or Hawai’i) to live their extravagant, jacket-slinging lifestyle.
1954—-Consider for a moment that almost all of those men were veterans of either WWII or Korea, many were going back to the Hawaii that they’d passed thought earlier.
Yeah, my dad stopped in Hawaii on his way back from the occupation of Japan. He said he went ashore with a couple buddies. They only had a few hours. They had only a quarter in “real money” (the rest was army scrip), so the only food they could find to buy was a donut, which they divided in three pieces.
He talked the rest of his life about going back to the islands, but never made it.
My dad was stationed on various islands and was on the way to Japan when the big ones were dropped. Mostly he talked about the #$@ stinking Diamond Head and never wanted to go back. He did admit that the water there was a tad nicer for swimming than Ely Lake.
“Lurline.”
I do believe that was the first name of Alabama governor, George Wallace’s wife.
She succeeded him as governor after the shooting that left him paralyzed.
Happy thoughts . . .
Matson Line ships play a small role in what is likely the finest American novel of the Twentieth Century, James Jones’s ‘From Here To Eternity.’
Cheap, swift air travel was the death knell of the great ocean liners. For an while, in a vain attempt to keep its business afloat, the Matson Line, in cooperation with airlines keen to supplant passenger ships, offered one-way cruises to, or from Hawaii, then the other way by air. (For a splendid look at early 50′s air travel – on one of those old but majestic reciprocating-engined, propeller-driven airliners, see William Wellman’s film ‘The High And The Mighty’ – the prototypical air disaster movie and still the best of them all.)
Actually Lurleen Wallace was governor years before George Wallace was shot. She ran for governor since Alabama had a law forbidding consecutive terms as gov, so George finished his term…and essentially stay in power. Sadly she died of cancer after less than 18 months in office.
Can you imagine Carnival or Disney lines converting a troop ship into a luxury liner now? Is it even possible? I don’t know if those modern water elephants can handle a Pacific or North Atlantic crossing.
I’m trying very hard to not make a joke about the gay gaiety of gayness that once encounters while sailing from San Francisco about this vessel. You’re welcome.
And the one on the sofa looks like a young Roz Russell.
Matson still runs freight to Hawaii; you see their containers everywhere.
What’s with all the Hawaii all of a sudden? You going, James? If you get to Maui, let me know.
“Can you imagine Carnival or Disney lines converting a troop ship into a luxury liner now? Is it even possible?”
_@_v – interestingly, matson line converted a pair of mariner-class freighters into the cruise ships monterey and mariposa in the late ’50s. sometime in the 1990s costa line did the same thing to a pair of containership hull. ships was built in 1969 as the ‘annie johnson’ and ‘axel johnson’, served as a containership’ till about 1986 when they were sold to the regent cruise line for conversion. that line went bankrupt and the costa line bought the hulls and finished them in italy as the costa allegra and costa marina.
incidentally the qe2 actually served as a troopship during the falklands war in the early 80s.
“I don’t know if those modern water elephants can handle a Pacific or North Atlantic crossing.”
_@_v – they don’t build ‘em in the caribbean so they had to have been able to survive the delivery voyage from the yards in norway that do much of the cruise ship building jobs these days…
not to mention that many cruise lines occasionally offer trans-atlantic/pacific trips when their ships make ‘positioning’ voyages to different cruise venues when transfering a ship. for example. from caribbean to mediterranean service.
Kathy,
What did your dad not like about Diamond Head?
grs Says:
May 27th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Kathy,
What did your dad not like about Diamond Head?
Not to talk out of turn, but if you’ve ever hiked up to Diamond head, you’ll discover it’s quite a journey. Tons of stairs, up through tunnels, and very steep. Our first trip up, we kept running into Japanese tourists, who, while they didn’t speak English, gave the universal word of exasperation when they would round a corner and see yet another steep hike up stairs and through narrow tunnels. I believe that word is “ooooohhhhhrrrrrggg”. Loosely translated to mean “Oh, c’mon!!!”
The Army and Army Air Corps used to station troops on Diamond Head, and had a radar station there as well. Tough duty just getting up to your post.
Thought I posted this earlier… since I’m from Alabama, just have to correct the misleading info. Lurleen Wallace was elected as Alabama governor after George Wallace’s first term. Alabama law then ruled no successive terms as governor. So what better way to stay in power than have your wife elected? Unfortunately, Lurleen had been battling cancer for several years and lost her battle mid 1968, a little over a year after being elected Alabama’s governor.
George was not shot until running for president in the 1972 election (I still remember that day in 5th grade when the teachers were crying in class).
“Smoking Room Bar Smoking Room”–well, that’s obviously a Jewish name, on the order of Gin Mill McLounge, or Bierstube Bierstubesohn. Unusual to see the name repeated–traditionally, it’s bad cess to give someone the name of a living relative… ; – ]
But, the “Lurline”? With your purser, Junior Samples. Egad. Just call it the “Lorelei”, so prospective customers don’t picture the dining room staffed by ragged, barefoot girls, bringing your coffee with their thumb in it up to the fourth knuckle(something my parents & maternal grandparents were treated to at a dive in the Ozarks in the early ’50s).
Wonderful, evocative stuff. Even the ad copy isn’t too bad. And the shuffleboard dame can use me for skeet shooting practice, if she wants. Hubba.
I’m with Garden Stater–born too late. I loathe the idea of taking the plunge on a cruise now and ending up surrounded by people dressed the same as they are in WalMart, at the store, in church, etc. Cheese-and-rice, people, have a sense of occasion.
Holy smokes! This show is so rich in “Star Trek” connections it’s unreal.
Gary Lockwood’s success in “Follow the Sun” got him the lead role in another show, “The Lieutenant,” created, written and produced by one… Gene Roddenberry. Lockwood’s character was William Tiberius Rice. Leonard Nimoy and Nichelle Nichols both guest starred.
Roddenberry used his success with “The Lieutenant” to pitch another show, “Star Trek.” From Wikipedia: “Shortly afterwards, Lockwood starred in another NBC television series called The Kraft Mystery Theater, also known as Crisis, in an episode titled “Connery’s Hands”. He was cast opposite Sally Kellerman, whom he would appear with again in a Star Trek episode called “Where No Man Has Gone Before” as Helmsman Gary Mitchell, and Kellerman as the ship’s psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, who both develop super powers after being jolted and knocked unconscious by an unknown electrical force.”
Wow. I think my head’s going to asplode.
In the page about “gaiety,” the fellow in the red jacket playing cards looks an awful lot like Paul Lynde.
Irritable Bear wonders why this was the third ship named SS Lurline, and what happened to the first two SS Lurlines. Did they name it Lurline because Titanic was already taken?
I traveled on the Lurline from LA to Honolulu with my family in July of 1965. It was one of the best vacations I can remember, although the Lurline was the least of reasons for my fond memories. We lived about two hours out of LA, so we arrived the day before, which allowed me to go see the Rolling Stones at the Hollywood Bowl. My surfboard had been stolen earlier that summer and I had ordered a new ten foot Weber Performer to take on the trip, which we picked up and put on the car. My dad had to drive me and my friend to the Bowl, and he took huge grief from the crowd (“Hang Ten, Pops,etc.) which made him none too happy. My father lost the keys to the car after we had arrived at the dock, with all of our luggage in the trunk. we solved that by asking all passengers (via an announcement) if anyone was driving a similar car. I believe it was a Pontiac Bonneville and apparently every fourth car manufactured had a matching key; at least that was what we were told. My brother and sister and I were extremely anxious to get to Hawaii and five days seemed like a lifetime. We had to dress for dinner-jackets and ties-which was never burgers and fries. We did trapshoot and hit golf balls off of the fantail, and they showed a new movie every afternoon. There was a small group of kids our age that we made friends with and collectively lamented our boring fate. We had no appreciation of the unique adventure we were privileged to share. It was a cruise in the traditional sense: a comfortable and highly civilized way to travel from one place to another, as opposed to today’s version, which seems to be a sort of floating Vegas with buffets and slots and brief forays to shop in contrived “authentic’ settings.
I see references to canasta and I think of the line from warren Zevon’s “Model Citizen”:
In the cool of the evening
When the sun goes down
My wife’s playing canasta
With everyone in town
Playing cards with Warren Zevon on a steamship…now that woulda been something.
Lurline does sound rather link some one from Sevier County, TN.
Bill
I work for Matson Navagation and see this kind of stuff all the time.
Wow…the Lurline. There’s a blast from the past.
I couldn’t find any documentation on the web today, but years ago someone told me that the Lurline was the ship shown in the shadows at the end of the episode of Gilligan’s Island where Ginger pretends to be a fortune teller. She tells Gilligan to “Look for the ship when the moooon is blue”.
My family travelled back from Hawaii on the Lurline in April of 1968 after my Dad’s tour of duty in Hawaii ended. I know my parents were thrilled to have some time on their own, as the ship had a children’s program that kept the five of us kids busy almost constantly with activities, games & rehearsing our musical/comedy program that we performed for the parents our last night on the ship. It was my very first time singing a solo with an orchestra behind me. After my song was over my Dad took a photo with the instamatic camera. When the flashbulb went off, I got quite a laugh when I said “Oh, Dad” right into the microphone. We arrived in San Francisco early in the morning, and I still remember running on deck with my sister in our pajamas just in time to see the Golden Gate Bridge as we came in to San Francisco Bay.
We have lots of great memories from that trip.
Somebody asks above if modern cruise ships could handle the North Atlantic. Considering a lot of the cruise ships move from the Caribbean trade to the Alaska routes in the Northern summer, they do have to be able to handle weather of the Alaska Coast. Granted, late summer off of Sitka is not the rough part, but if you watch these dangerous catch shows you see what the North Pacific can dish out. Even in August, I presume they can take it.
“I don’t know if those modern water elephants can handle a Pacific or North Atlantic crossing.”
Of course they can, and one ship (I think from Norwegian CL) was offering a trip around the tip of South America through the Straits of Magellan because it was too big to go through the Panama Canal. That would be a fun trip. They were moving it from Carribean cruses to Mexican Riviera and Alaska cruses. It’s amazing that these ships are constantly on the move, never a day off, maintenance on the fly.
The Lurline got another footnote in history when its radio operator claimed to have intercepted radio broadcasts from the Japanese Pearl Harbor strike force, implying that official US stations had to have done so, too. Alas for a good conspiratorial story, the force maintained radio silence and the direction of the intercepted messages pointed to the naval base at Kure, which was broadcasting deception material, rather than to the force.
“…it was too big to go through the Panama Canal”.
I hear they’re now in the process of widening it, so that may be one of the last chances to cruise that historic route(aside, probably, from some smaller “adventure vacation” line).
I hear they’re now in the process of widening it, so that may be one of the last chances to cruise that historic route(aside, probably, from some smaller “adventure vacation” line). – Ross
Yes they are, I was there last year and they have been cutting a new canal for the larger ships, of course, not just larger cruise ships, but the larger cargo ships. It costs a cargo ship $100K on average to go through the canal.
I remember the S.S. Lurline quite well. I sailed to Hawaii back in 1959 with my Mom and Grandmother. For an eight year old boy it was the best week of my life.
I still have lots of goodies from the trip; menus, goofy hats and tons of pics.