I built the original Revell model of Savannah back in 1961. I was turning 12 in '61, and our family had some of the early, early Super-duper supermarkets that sold everything under the sun, including food. We had a row of kids things, and a display of assorted models. Once a week I went into one of the stores near our house, and I inventoried, and then re-stocked the model display. This was my big task to get an allowance. My allowance was a model each week not to exceed 98cents. My thing was airliners, which I build to this day, only they aren’t 98cents anymore. We’d sailed to Hawaii on Matson’s “Lurline,” and that went well, so the following year we sailed from Southampton UK back to New York on the SS United States. That started an interest in passenger ships, which I feel they never really made many models of. I’d just built the Revell model of the SS United States, that was about $ 4.00, so I saved for it, then one week we got the N/S Savannah in, and I made sure to put it away for me. I built the model, but thought it lacked detail, and when finished, it just wasn’t interesting. I too went aboard the “real” ship near Charleston, SC back in the late '80’s. It was on display along with an Aircraft Carrier, and a Sub. The Savannah seemed hollow, and empty. A lot of blank spaces, and it was open to wander, so I did. I got lost, and didn’t enjoy that. The ship has now been moved to Baltimore, MD. It is a registered national treasure of some type, so it won’t get scrapped, but they don’t seem real sure where it’s going to end up.
It should be in the Museum of Failed Ideas. A nuclear powered ship carrying passengers and break-bulk cargo at the dawn of jet travel and containerization just didn’t work. Pretty though.
Like a really big floating Studebaker Avanti.
Great analogy! I always thought it represented those days when predictions of The Future! included flying cars and jet packs and robot butlers. Few, if anybody in 1960, predicted the internet.
The cargo ship of the future as predicted in 1960:
As it turned out:
My father and I went on board her once while she was at Charleston. I got about the same impression that wattaguy did. She somehow seemed empty and dead. And the most interesting part - the reactor room - was only visible to visitors through a small sheet of extra-thick glass.
A beautiful ship in her way, but a financial dud.
Unfortunately, her listing as a National Historic Landmark does not guarantee that she’ll be saved from the scrappers. She’s owned, as I understand it, by MARAD, which would like to see her turned permanently into a museum ship. But that won’t happen unless somebody can be found who’s prepared to invest an enormous amount of money in her. So far, as I understand it, that hasn’t happened.
Steel doesn’t last forever. (The caretakers of various WWII-vintage preserved warships are finding that out the hard way even as we speak.) There’s a real danger that, even if the scrappers don’t get them, ships like the Savannah and the United States may simply fall apart eventually. Unless somebody is prepared to pour several billion dollars into the surviving fleet of historic steel ships, and to continue spending millions per year on them in the future, our maritime heritage from the steel hull era won’t survive a whole lot longer.
I went aboard during the time she was laid up in Galveston in the late 60s. I was impressed by the polarized glass portholes. If you rotated the inner part, it gradually shaded the light coming in. The crew that was maintaining the ship had a great slot-car set up! Remember slot-cars? What a racket they had.
Hey !
The top one sure is prettier on the eyes though . I don’t think she would’ve broken or lost her load in a rough sea either .
You Know :
I have never been aboard her or the United States .I do think though , we , as a nation have a great lack of respect for maritime history not related to the art of War . To me , Proff . And I mean this sincerely , Why do we have a hotel / convention center in Long Beach , Ca. that’s a British Ship ?
The States was in better shape when all that happened and the most " Fire resistant " ship afloat . The Savannah was really grounded by the constant fight for operational territory between the NRC and the maritime Labor folks . Plus, she was expensive to run and some ports wouldn’t allow her entry , the Nuclear Thing ".
We would rather see half or three quarter scale models though , in some " Theme Park " That do something to get the bored kids attention . Sorry , didn’t mean to rant . Made a good living at sea for Matson and Shell as well as P and O lines . Great times , Great ports and greater ships .
I have read that the USS Olympia is supposed to be in a similar situation.
The Olympia is indeed in grave danger - and has been for many years. I have the impression that the intense efforts of a handful of dedicated volunteers are all that are keeping her afloat.
At the risk of entering dangerous territory, that’s one reason why I can’t support the efforts of the Philadelphia group that’s trying to build a replica of the frigate United States. It’s obvious that the city’s available resources for maritime-history-related charity are already strained to the absolute max.
Closer to home (for me), the USS North Carolina is undergoing major hull repairs, using cofferdams. There was talk for a while of towing her to a dry dock at Newport News, but that turned out to be far too expensive. (The cofferdam alternative that’s being used will cost millions. The dry docking scheme would have cost tens of millions.)
The Intrepid recently underwent a major hull repair job - at a cost of millions. If people want to keep old steel warships for future generations to see, those people will have to reconcile themselves to a lot more such projects in the near future.
NS Savannah was part of the atoms for peace initiative while Eisenhower was president. It had to meet a bunch of mandates, and was meant to be a technology demonstrator. She was fairly useless from the start. The cargo capacity is very small for a ship with her deadweight. The hull shape is inefficient for for cargo loading and unloading. It’s curved like a yacht. Not very straight. No body wants the ship. The Navy turned down an offer to take her, and no shipping line or passenger line wanted her. I’m surprised she is still around.
The big freighters with low revolution diesels beat out nuclear powered high pressure steam.