The Blue Riband Lives

I HAVE JUST READ “THE THRALL OF the Blue Riband,” by Robert C. Post (Winter 1996). Your readers might be interested to know that the Blue Riband, which the United States won on her maiden voyage in 1952, is now in foreign hands. The Sea Cat , a tri-hulled car ferry built for the England-to-France channel trade, eclipsed the United States ’s record in 1990 by a mere two hours and forty-six minutes. But this was a 243-foot aluminum-hulled boat carrying no passengers and only basic crew. In 1992 the Italians took the Riband with a light yacht that averaged sixty miles per hour and crossed in fifty-eight hours and thirty-four minutes.

Nevertheless, the last true ocean liner to win the Blue Riband was, and always will be, the SS United States .

Frank E. Wrenick
Cleveland Heights, Ohio