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A Man and His Ship: America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the S.S. United States, by Steven Ujifusa
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Review
“A terrific book! By entertaining, informing and ultimately inspiring, A Man and His Ship transforms its readers into passengers traveling across an ocean and through time. A skilled verbal navigator, Steven Ujifusa has charted an efficient and yet immensely satisfying course through a sea of facts, images and stories.” (David Macaulay, best-selling author of Cathedral, Castle, and The Way Things Work)Steven Ujifusa has done something remarkable in his book, A Man and His Ship: he has brought back an era of American dominance in shipbuilding through the life of one of its giants: William Francis Gibbs. In some ways, Gibbs was the Steve Jobs of his era – a perfectionist with few people skills who nevertheless was single-handedly able to change his industry by the power of his vision and overwhelming professional competence. We need more public historians like Ujifusa working in business history. Using the highest research standards, he has written a great book that tells great story. (G. Richard Shell, Thomas Gerrity Professor, The Wharton School of Business and author of Bargaining for Advantage)“Few of man's creations possess even half the romance of the passenger ships that once steamed across the world's oceans, especially the North Atlantic. That is why Steven Ujifusa's A Man and His Ship is such a compelling work.” (John Steele Gordon The Wall Street Journal (best nonfiction of 2012))Much of Ujifusa’s book is a portrait in determination, as Gibbs’s plans for his big ship are continually tossed about in political, economic and personal squalls. A less single-minded man may have given up at numerous times. (Stephen Heyman The New York Times Style Magazine)"In his debut, Ujifusa harks back to a time when men were men, and transatlantic ships were serious business...Written with passion and thoroughness, this is a love letter to a bygone time and the ships that once ruled the seas." (Publishers Weekly starred review)"Ujifusa describes the construction of the ship in engrossing detail and provides informative digressions on the golden age of ocean travel, when liners carried millionaires, celebrities, and desperate refugees." (Booklist)“The sea inspires obsessions in determined men, from Captain Ahab to Admiral Rickover. Steven Ujifusa introduces us to another – the naval architect William Francis Gibbs. His ingenious design of mass-producible Liberty ships helped win World War II, but Gibbs’ obsession was to build the world’s fastest, safest and most elegant Atlantic liner. He ultimately succeeded, but in a decade his masterpiece was obsolete and unprofitable. Ujifusa narrates this tragedy well, in all its technical, political and human dimensions.” (Admiral Dennis C. Blair, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Former Director of National Intelligence)“Few of man's creations possess even half the romance of the passenger ships that once steamed across the world's oceans, especially the North Atlantic. That is why Steven Ujifusa's ‘A Man and His Ship’ is such a compelling work.” (The Wall Street Journal)“A fascinating historical account…A snapshot of the American Dream culminating with this country's mid-century greatness.” (The Wall Street Journal)“A marvelous narrative of America’s premier naval architect.” —Barrett Tillman, author of Enterprise
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About the Author
Steven Ujifusa serves on the Advisory Council of the S.S. United States Conservancy. He received his master’s degree in historic preservation and real estate from the University of Pennsylvania and his B.A. in history from Harvard University.
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Product details
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First American Edition edition (July 10, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1451645074
ISBN-13: 978-1451645071
Product Dimensions:
6.2 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.8 out of 5 stars
129 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#638,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I was expecting a book on the Unites States solely but was pleasantly surprised! The first half of the book goes into depth the creation and lure of trans Atlantic crossings and Gibbs himself. I had no idea Gibbs accomplished so much. You see his work all the time in documentaries but his name is rarely mentioned.The Author does a superb job with his writing and telling of history. He has a gift for writing and was enjoyable to read.The cruise ship industry will never be the same. Yes there are a few boutique cruises which attempt to change current trends, most are these bloated top heavy ugly ships catering to shopping and all you can eat and hitting these ports catering to 100% tourism for the 1 hour stop over.The SS United States represents the end of an era and the pride a country can have.Thank you Steven Ujifusa for writing this great book and preserving the legacy of Willie Gibbs and the SS United States. I hope in my lifetime I get to tour the ship before she is scrapped.
I have been a fan of S.S. United States ever since first seeing her docked on the west side of Manhattan in her prime, and more recently, as a rusting hulk on the Philadelphia waterfront. This was a magnificent vessel created by a man who wanted to create a technological icon to the country. At a time of international maritime rivalry to establish the fastest passenger liner across the Atlantic, the United States shattered all previous records, and has yet to be beaten by any large passenger ship. Her demise, as well as those of her competing magnificent vessels (such as Queen Mary), can be attributed to economics and jet aircraft. Queen May is a hotel/museum in Long Beach California; United States sits rusting at a Philadelphia wharf, uncertain of her future.The creator of this magnificent vessel was prominent American marine architect, William Francis Gibbs. The ship was a dream of his some thirty years before her completion. Gibbs was as much of a story as the ship itself and the author weaves an interesting story intertwining the two. The story of the man, and the planning, politics, construction and retirement of this ship is the subject of this well-researched book.It is as much a history of the times as it is a story of "A Man and His Ship". The title says it all, you can't address one without the other.
Anyone with doubts about America's future should read this book. It's not political tract, but an enthralling story about teamwork, ingenuity, persistence, and one of those quirky American individuals, William Francis Gibbs, who built the S.S. United States, the fastest and most beautiful ocean liner in the world. Along the way, Gibbs also designed and organized production of 70 percent of the U.S. naval ships in World War II. This is a true story and it happened not too long ago.William Francis Gibbs was an introverted boy from a newly rich Philadelphia family that lost most of its wealth in the first decade of the last century. Young Willy fell in love with ships at age eight when he stood on the banks of the Delaware River and saw the gleaming new steamship, St.Louis. He is a protagonist you admire and care about. Among his more endearing qualities is that he became a Harvard drop-out. Gibbs would lock himself in his room to study engineering drawings of ships, ignoring his coursework and not mingling with his rich, more social classmates.Throughout his life Gibbs remained an oddball, but became a central figure in the American achievement in the first half of the 20th century (his picture was on the cover of TIME in 1942). Ujifusa's book is worth reading simply for its portrait of that period. There are priceless vignettes. Gibbs and his brother, both in their late 20s, meeting with J.P. Morgan Jr. in his Wall Street office to show him their drawings and get money for the ships they wanted to build. A young army captain from Kansas, Dwight D. Eisenhower, sipping tea in a fancy New York apartment, lobbying the head of the U.S. shipping commission for space on a converted ocean liner in order to get his tank battalion over to the European front. Gibbs hauled before a Congressional committee during World War II, accused of war profiteering and, with complete vindication, getting the committee to back down.Ujifusa wonderfully captures not just Gibbs and his place in history, but the ship itself. He rightfully calls the S.S. United States a masterpiece, and describes in lucid, beautifully-written detail all that went into it. To this day, it stands as a tribute not just to the genius of Gibbs, but to American technology, organization and competitive will. Early in his career, Gibbs had come to believe in the superiority of the smaller, higher speed turbines developed by GE and Westinghouse. He had applied American mass-production techniques, including a wide range of off-site suppliers, to quickly and inexpensively churn out cargo ships in World War II. The S.S. United States could only have been produced in America. Ujifusa's account of the ship's maiden voyage in 1952, when it shattered the Queen Mary's trans-Atlantic record by 10 hours (in a three and a half day voyage), is one of the most thrilling in the annals of competition.As in the best of stories, A Man and His Ship is about more than inevitable triumph. There is the financial failure of Gibb's father. Going to sea has always involved risk, and often tragedy. Mr. Ujifusa's narrative includes the impact of the Titanic disaster, and he describes the horrific fire on the ocean liner Morro Castle off the New Jersey coast in 1934 that killed 136 people. Commerce and shipbuilding went into decline during the Great Depression. Gibbs had fierce battles with Washington throughout his career.He was a difficult personality. In the late 1990s I had the privilege--and pain--of working with Steve Jobs. In reading Ujifusa's portrait of William Francis Gibbs, I thought, "He's like Steve." Gibbs hired a talented team of New York designers for the elegant interior of the S.S. United States, but he insisted on okaying "every piece of furniture, bolt of drapery and square foot of carpet." He would go to the New Jersey Meadowlands with a tuning fork to make sure he had just the right pitch for the ship's whistles. Thank goodness America produces people like that and provides them freedom and resources to do great things.
I grew up in NY City at the end of the era of the great ocean liners. Whenever I drove down the West Side Highway I would search for the beautiful ships that docked there, most especially the "Big U," SS United States. The very first book I bought, in 1953, was about this ship. Ujifusa has created a memorable portrait of this phenomenal technological achievement, and of the enigmatic and driven man who designed and built her, William Francis Gibbs. It is at once historically accurate and emotionally compelling, a literary effeort to be proud of. Perhaps no one but a man like Gibbs could have built the greatest ocean liner of them all, and had he not lived, it never would have happened. The Big U is the apical achievment not only of the 1950's, but in terms of marine architecture, of all time. Nothing has surpassed her, and nothing ever will. That she is sitting at her moorings in Philadelphia today, rusting away, is not only a crime but an insult to the memory of her designer and the thousands of people who built her. Ujifusa has done a great service to America by writing the story in such a readable and entertaining, moving way.
Very well written, the book completely engaged me in its portrait of an unusually driven man from an era now gone. There is a certain lingering sadness to the tale, which chronicles the search for perfection in a system, and a culture, which was about to be swept away by new technology after only seventeen years of service. But the book is all about the excitement of that chase for perfection and in portraying that the book succeeds very well.
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