I sailed on that fine ship several times, before the Boeing 707 era, as a little kid. My dad was a junior diplomat at the time and so he and his family traveled "cabin class". The classes were "first", "cabin", and "tourist".

It was four and a half days from New York to Southampton.

It was some kind of fun for an inquisitive 8-year-old boy. I think I drove my parents crazy by roaming all over the place, getting into every space I could. (The engine rooms weren't accessible, but the guy in the radio room was great.)

One crossing, eastbound, was in the dead of winter, late January. Me and my brothers were in bunks pretending to sleep in a cabin fairly near the water line (cabin class, right?) with one of those circular portholes. A crew member knocked on the door, and walked in with a steel plate and four big bolts. She proceeded to bolt the plate over the porthole. She said, "storm coming, boys" and moved on to the next cabin.

Now that was a storm. The kitchen was closed (no hot food) for a whole day. It felt like we were rolling 30 degrees. I'm sure it wasn't but it sure felt that way.

The ship only lost four hours off her schedule for that voyage; she had to head upwind for an hour or two in the worst of the storm. They don't make passenger ships like that any more. But the North Atlantic ocean in winter is still that dangerous.

Once the 707 was available, junior diplomats didn't get to travel by ship any more. Faster, but much less of an adventure.