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A Man and His Ship Steven Ujifusa. 448 pp. Illus. Notes. Index. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012. $29.99.
Reviewed by Don Preul
When I was a child in 1964, our family drove to the heart of New York City to welcome my grandparents at the Norddeutscher Lloyd line pier along the Hudson River. They had sailed from Germany to attend my brother's high school graduation. I remember standing on the pier, awestruck by the sheer size of the gigantic luxury passenger liner Berlin. The dock bustled with excitement and cheering as people greeted those disembarking from the huge black-andwhite ocean liner. One of the master designers of these great ships was William Gibbs, the subject, along with the SS United States, of Steven Ujifusa's book A Man and His Ship.
Launched on 23 June 1951, she remains the fastest luxury passenger liner ever to cross the Atlantic in both directions. On her maiden voyage eastbound to England, she averaged 35.59 knots, and on her return sail she broke the westbound record by averaging 34.51 knots and thereby winning the Blue Riband trophy. This...