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Driving up to the Port of Southampton’s Mayflower Terminal and catching first glimpse of the white-and-black hulled Queen Mary 2, the largest, longest, tallest, heaviest, and most expensive ship ever built, evoked considerable excitement and awe. Docked to port at a 50-degree, 54.25’ north latitude and 001-degree, 25.70’ west longitude and facing a 116.4-degree compass heading, the 17-decked leviathan, with a 1,132-foot length and 148-foot width, featured a gross weight of 151,400 tons and towered above the buildings with its balcony-lined façade, eclipsing it with its 236.2-foot height. Its draft extended 33.10 feet beneath the water line. The floating metropolis, complete with its staterooms, restaurants, shopping arcades, libraries, theaters, and planetariums, would bridge, in six days, the European and North American continents, the equivalent in hours to the duration of the aerial crossing by 747-400, itself then the world’s largest commercial airliner. But the oceanic crossing would yield civility, refinement, rejuvenation, emotional repair, and return to the slower, but more elegant era of steam ship travel—a journey, I would soon find out, would lead to a search for the maritime history of the past which had created the technology of the present.
Unlike the proliferation of modern cruise ships with their comparatively lower speeds and greater-volume, square-geometry hulls, the Queen Mary 2 had been designed as a next-generation successor to the 35-year-old Queen Elizabeth 2 and, as such, would have to offer the same year-round, passenger-carrying capabilities, predominately in the rough North Atlantic, with a design which sacrificed revenue-producing volume and lower construction costs of the traditional cruise ship for the required safety, speed, and stability of the ocean liner. Resultantly, it featured the same v-shaped hull configuration characteristic of the long line of its Cunard predecessors, constructed of thicker steel which carried a 40-percent greater cost than those of conventional cruise ships. Designed by Stephen Payne, whose inspirations for the bow had come from the Queen Elizabeth 2 and the brake wall from the Normandie, it was the first quadruple-screw North Atlantic ocean liner since the France of 1962. Payne himself, a naval architect born and raised in London, had been involved with the Carnival Holiday, Carnival Fantasy, and Rotterdam VI projects. The latter, incorporating a modified Statendam hull, had featured a less “boxy” hull shape than the traditional cruise ship, but had still been considerably removed a full liner design.
Intended for the primary Southampton-New York route, it incorporated dimensional restrictions dictated by the United States port, including a funnel height which cleared the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge by only ten feet and an overall length which exceeded the 1,100-foot pier of the Port of New York by 34 feet.
Constructed by Alstom Chantiers de l’Atlantique in St. Nazaire, France, which had also built the Normandie, and designated hull G32 by the shipyard, it had been the first Cunard liner ever constructed outside of the United Kingdom and, like Concorde, the world’s fastest and hitherto only supersonic airliner, became the second British-French collaborative transportation project intended for trans-Atlantic service, although via vastly different, if not opposite, modes.
Its interior offered unparalleled space and comfort. Of the 17 decks, the first four were for machinery, storage, and the 1,254-strong crew; 13 were for the 2,620 passengers; and eight contained balcony staterooms. Notable features included a Grand Lobby, the Royal Court Theatre, the Illuminations Theatre and Planetarium, the ConneXions Internet Center, the Queen’s Ballroom, a Winter Garden, nine major restaurants, 11 bars and lounges, an 8,000-volume library and bookstore, an Oxford University lecture program, performances by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, five swimming pools, sports venues, a Canyon Ranch Spa, a pavilion of shops, and a discotheque. These appointments would constitute my “home” for the next six days.
Symbolically reflected by its smaller QE2 predecessor berthed a considerable distance from its bow at the Queen Elizabeth 2 Terminal, the Queen Mary 2 represented a two-fold gross weight increase over its earlier-generation counterpart and, indeed, traced its lineage back to a long path of Cunard vessels which had spanned a 165-year period. I somehow sensed that the imminent crossing would not only be a journey of distance, but a return in time.
Gently vibrating at its spine, the behemoth laterally separated itself beneath from its berth below the metallic overcast at 1810, local time.
Unlike the conventional engine-propeller shaft technology of older-generation ships, the Queen Mary 2 was powered instead by four aft, hull underside-mounted Rolls Royce Mermaid electric-motor pods, each weighing 260 tons and containing four fixed-pitch, 9,900-pound, stainless steel blades, and collectively producing 115,328 horsepower. The forward, outboard pair was fixed and provided forward and astern propulsion, while the aft, inboard pair featured 360-degree azimuth capability and provided both propulsion and steering, obviating the need for the rudder. The advanced-technology system reduced both complexity and weight and increased internal hull volume by eliminating the traditional engine configuration’s associated equipment.
Three Rolls Royce variable-pitch, transverse-propeller bow thrusters, collectively producing 15,000 horsepower, provided port and starboard bow maneuvering capability at speeds of up to five knots. At eight knots, when their effectiveness had been exceeded, they were covered by 90-degree rotating, fluid-dynamic doors.
Led by dual water-sprout shooting tugboats, the behemoth oceanliner commenced its lumbering movement down the basin. Maintaining an 11.5-knot forward speed in the Solent, it commenced its starboard turn from 140 degrees at Calshots Reach at 1907, poised for the similar maneuver at Brambles.
Compressed into dark gray, the sun projected its glowing orange streaks outward through the thin, unobstructed strip on the western horizon. Assuming a 220-degree heading through the Thorn Channel, the Queen Mary 2 initiated its starboard turn to round the Isle of Wight.
The first dinner on board the elegant, maritime engineering triumph had been served in the 1,351-seat, three-story-high, dual-level Britannia Restaurant which had featured a grand, sweeping staircase, column supports, and a vaulted, back-lit, stained glass ceiling and was reminiscent of and inspired by the grand dining room salons of the 20th century French liners such as the Ile-de-France, the L’Atlantique, and the Normandie. The meal itself, served on Wedgwood bone china and in Waterford crystal, had included white zinfandel wine; cream of mixed mushroom soup with parmesan croutons; crusty rolls and butter; oak leaf and Boston salad with shaved carrots and sherry vinaigrette dressing; rack of pork with wild mushroom ragout, truffle mashed potatoes, morel sauce, and sauerkraut; warm apple strudel with brandy sauce; and coffee.
The thin line of orange lights outlining the coast traced itself behind the stern. Maintaining a 27-knot speed and a 250-degree heading, the rock-steady, 151,000-ton engineering mass plied the black channel and commenced its great circle course, from Bishop’s Rock in the Scilly Isles. Ahead lay the infinite Atlantic—and the path forged by every one of Cunard’s previous transatlantic liners. Tomorrow, I would begin tracing the historical one.
Day Two
Dawn greeted the lengthy liner as a tunnel of indistinguishable, moist gray. Encased between the morose cloud dome above and the navy sea slate below, which spat periodic white caps, the black-and-red funneled vessel penetrated the moisture-saturated morning, the rain-emitting sky and the swirling, eddying sea merging into seamless, wind-blustery, ship-bombarded drench.
Any undesired movement, however, was quickly, and invisibly, dampened by the two pairs of 15.63-square-meter Brown Bros/Rolls Royce fin stabilizers which were controlled by gyroscopic vertical reference instruments and extended as far as 15 feet from the hull to counteract ship roll.
Plunging into 348-meter-deep waters 98 nautical miles off of Ireland at noon, the Queen Mary 2 had traversed 418 miles since its departure from Southampton yesterday.
Current weather entailed intermittent, light rain with a clockwise movement to the west, predicted to drop to force 4. The present force-5, fresh breeze out of the south, coupled with an 11.2-degree Celsius air temperature, carried a 994-millibar pressure. The sea, with a moderate 4 state, maintained a 10-degree Celsius temperature.
Afternoon tea, held in the Queen’s Room, had been a British tradition and a delightful intermittence between lunch and dinner served on every Cunard crossing, the last personal one of which had been the 2002 eastbound journey on the Queen Elizabeth 2. The Queen’s Room itself, the largest ballroom at sea, featured an arched ceiling, twin crystal chandeliers, a velvet blue and gold curtain over the orchestra stage, a 1,225-square-foot dance floor, a live harpist, and small, round tables seating up to 562. Today’s presentation included egg, ham and cheese, cucumber, tomato, beef, and seafood finger-sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and strawberry cream tarts.
Afternoon tea at sea could trace its lineage back some 165 years. Einstein’s theory of relativity somehow seemed to apply. Suspended between continent, landmass, and population, the ship seemed caught within a void, an arrested warp in which history seemed captured and in which the vessel reconnected with its past, as it once again replayed it, a separation from the present on land and an approach to its past on the sea. It was to this suspension of time, distance, and place that the threads of Cunard’s past indeed led. One man, who had lived some 200 years ago, had made the journey of today possible.
The name of that man, of course, had been the same as that which had graced a long line of ever-advancing Atlantic ocean liners, Samuel Cunard. Born on November 21, 1787 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as the son of Abraham Cunard, himself a carpenter at Halifax’s Royal Naval Dockyard, he had forged a maritime link upon physical entry into the world. His initial venture had entailed a Royal Mail contract award to transport mail over the Boston-Halifax-St. John’s route after cessation of the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States, while he later became involved with the first steam-powered vessel project intended for Atlantic crossings. Named the Royal William, the 160-foot-long, 1,370-ton ship had been inaugurated into service in August of 1931 between Quebec and Halifax, requiring 6.5 days for the journey.
The venture which had sparked his ultimate fame, however, occurred at the end of the decade when the British government had announced its intention to subsidize steam-powered mail service between England and the United States. In a formal proposal to fulfill the requirement, submitted on February 11, 1839, Cunard outlined a bimonthly, steam-powered service between England and Halifax operated by 300-hp ships making 48 annual crossings. Awarded a contract by the Admiralty in June for four 206-foot-long, 400-hp, 1,120-ton vessels ultimately to be designated the Acadia, the Caledonia, the Columbia, and the Britannia, he finalized plans to serve the Liverpool-Halifax-Boston route.
The latter ship, the Britannia, had actually been the first to be completed. The 207-foot-long, 34-foot-wide hybrid power ship, constructed of African oak and yellow pine at Robert Duncan’s Shipyard on the River Clyde in Scotland, had featured a clipper bow, three masts with square yards, and two mid-ship-located, black-and-gold paddle boxes which extended almost 12 feet from either side and contained 9-foot-wide, 28-foot-diameter paddles turning at 16 revolutions per minute and operating off of a 403-hp, two-cylinder, side-lever steam engine which burned 40 tons of coal per day exhausted through a single, aft smoke stack. The engine, requiring 70 feet of hull for installation, drew coal from a 640-ton bunker.
Of the four decks, the upper, or main deck, featured the captain and chief officer cabins, the pantry, the galley, the officers’ mess, the crew cabins, the raised, exposed bridge, and the dining saloon, which, at 36 feet long and 14 feet wide, had been the largest enclosed room on the ship. Two aft, circular staircases linked the dining hall with the second deck, which housed the gentlemen's and ladies’ cabins, each with two bunk beds, a wash basin, a mirror, a day sofa, and a port hole or an oil lamp, with shared toilet facilities, equaling a 124-person capacity, of which 24 had been female. The cargo holds, located on either side of the engine yet another deck lower and capable of accommodating 225 tons, accompanied the sail locker, the mail room, the stores, the steward quarters, and the wine cellar in the stern. Coal had been stored on the fourth, or lowest, deck.
The 1,154-ton Britannia, inaugurated into scheduled service on July 4, 1840 from Liverpool to Boston with an intermediate stop in Halifax, operated the world’s first transatlantic steam ship service, carrying 63 passengers and taking 12 days, ten hours for the 2,534-nautical-mile crossing at an 8.5-knot speed, one third of the journey undertaken by pure-sail. After an eight-hour port suspension in Halifax, it continued to Boston in another 46 hours.
By January 5, 1841, all four Cunard ships had entered the fleet.
The Britannia itself made 40 round-trips before being sold to the Prussian Navy, which had converted it to a pure-sailing ship used for target purposes and renamed it Barbarossa. It was ultimately sunk in 1880. Nevertheless, it paved the way for a long line of Cunard liners to come.
Biting into the angry, dark-blue, white cap-spitting North Atlantic on a 272-degree heading at 1545 with its protruding, bulbous bow, the mighty Queen Mary 2 engineering triumph pitched on its axis at a 23.4-knot speed, the sun’s rays having been powerful enough to tear the singular cloud fabric into a puffy, white mosaic of aerial islands. The ship had reached a 50-degree, 12.036’ north latitude and 14-degree, 26.312’ west longitude coordinate.
That night’s dinner, served in the Britannia Restaurant, had included Merlot wine; smoked halibut mousse and jumbo shrimp on Russian salad; Lollo Rosso and apple salad with caramelized walnuts and cider vinaigrette; filet mignon and lobster tail with young roasted potatoes, polenta cake, and asparagus in hollandaise sauce; chocolate banana tart with mango sauce; coffee; and petit fours.
The Britannia, as a ship design, had been only the beginning, and would pale in comparison to the leviathan Cunard vessels produced in the 20th century.
Day Three
Continually bowled significant sea swells, the Queen Mary 2 had pitched through the dark blue, star-glittering night at its center of gravity like a seesaw, its bow pounding the mountainous wave troughs and projecting avalanche-white reactions at 45 degrees from its centerline.
Breakfast, eaten in the King’s Court with its multiple stations, had included a ham and pepper omelet, bacon, hashbrowned potatoes, a grilled tomato, white toast, and cranberry juice.
Negotiating 25- to 30-foot seas over the mid-Atlantic ridge, which covers the Continental Divide, the ship had sailed 590 nautical miles in the 24-hour period since 1200 noon yesterday, now pursuing a 263-degree heading, with 2,075 miles remaining to the New York Pilot’s Station.
Light rain showers were forecast to dissipate, with gradual clearing. The force-5 wind, out of the northwest, had produced 9-degree Celsius temperatures, with a 996.5-millibar pressure. The sea, whose moderate state had been registered a “4,” maintained a 12-degree temperature.
Gazing out toward the Atlantic’s infinity, I could not help but think that somewhere out there, if not in physical space, then in historical time, had been the first of the “huge” Cunard Atlantic liners which assuredly had passed this way during the beginning of the 20th century.
The design, the Lusitania, had had its origins as early as 1902 when J.P. Morgan had attempted to create a steamship conglomerate called the International Mercantile Marine by buying several existing companies, including the White Star Line. In order to ensure Cunard’s continued autonomy and dissuade its absorption into the ever-expanding corporation, the British Parliament had granted it a 20-year contract and subsidy to build two of the world’s then largest and fastest liners and, in the process, regain the speed record the Germans had captured with three of their twin-screw vessels.
Cunard, seeking tenders for the two ships from four shipyards, specified a 750-foot length, a 76-foot width, and a 59,000-hp capability attained by reciprocating engines driving triple screws. The contract, awarded to John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland, resulted in a 790-foott length and an 88-foot width, eclipsing the 30,000-ton gross weight by 2,500 tons for the first time, and employing turbine engine technology, also for the first time, with a 68,000-hp combined capability, exhausted, in an effort to emulate the Germans, through four funnels.
Construction, commencing in the fall of 1904, produced two of the largest, fastest, and most powerful Atlantic liners ever built with long, sleek designs; straight sterns; rounded bridges; and four raked funnels sporting 787-foot lengths, 87-foot widths, and 31,550-ton gross weights propelled by steam turbines geared to quadruple screws.
Accommodating 563 first class passengers amidships, 464 aft second class passengers, and 1,138 third, or steerage, class passengers in the forward portion of the hull, the first of the two new liners featured opulent appointments. A Georgian-style lounge sported light green colors, a marble fireplace, stained glass panes, and a 20-foot-high dome. The Veranda Café had latticed wall patterns and rattan furniture. The dining room, of dual-deck configuration, had been the first of its kind on a Cunard ship. The main lounge had been decorated with mahogany paneling, while the smoking room featured dark Italian walnut. The second class dining saloon also sported Georgian appointments and the drawing room had been decorated in the Louis XVI style. Featuring electricity for the first time, the Lusitania provided modern conveniences to its passengers, including two elevators.
On its second westbound crossing, the liner beat all speed records, averaging 23.993 knots and covering a 617-mile, single-day distance, although it ultimately broke the 26-knot mark, reaching New York in four days, 20 hours.
Its fate, however, was not to remain so successful. Departing England on its 202nd voyage on May 1, 1915 with 1,257 passengers, 702 crew members, and three stowaways, the ship had approached Great Britain, sailing ten miles off of Old Head of Kinsale when it had been broadsided by a German torpedo, listing forward and to starboard. Slipping oceanward at a 45-degree, bow-first angle, it hit bottom 18 minutes later, exploding and killing 1,201 on board, the result of a deliberate act of war.
Because not an outcrop of land is sighted during the six-day Atlantic crossing, the Queen Mary 2 seemed suspended in a void between two continents, the journey about course, speed, weather, sea state, distance, and interior life, the temporary, although ever-moving civilization atop the sea.
Soldiering on, the ship burned 3.1 tons of heavy fuel oil per hour at a 100-percent load to operate its diesel engines, or 261 tons per day at a 29-knot steam speed, while it used 6 tons of marine gas oil per hour to run its gas turbines, or 237 tons per day, drawing off of a 1,412,977-US gallon tank for the former and a 966,553-gallon tank for the latter.
Its fresh water supply, produced from seawater by 3 Alfa Laval Multi Effect Plate Evaporators, replenished itself at the rate of 630 tons per day, satisfying its 1,100-ton daily consumption. The potable water tank capacity equaled 1,011,779 US gallons.
A German-themed lunch, served in the King’s Court, had included bratwurst, bacon sauerkraut, cheese spaetzel, roasted potatoes, schnitzel, and black forest cake.
Maintaining a 261-degree heading and a 23.1-knot steam speed, the city at sea had reached a 49-degree, 43.705’ north latitude and 28-degree, 25.458’ west longitude position by 1500.
The Queen Mary 2’s Winter Garden, designed after the skylighted verandah cafes of the Mauretania, had featured a 60-by-25-foot trompe l’oeil ceiling depicting a lush, verdant gardens, paneled walls which looked through cast iron gates to rolling hills, and wicker furniture, and had been created to counteract the cold, gray, turbulent winter of the North Atlantic.
The Mauretania itself, the ship which had provided the Winter Garden’s inspiration, had been the second of the two early-20th century Cunard designs after the Lusitania. The nine-decked liner, accommodating 563 first class passengers in 253 cabins, 464 second class passengers in 133 cabins, and 1,138 third class passengers in 278 cabins, had featured its own opulent appointments. The first class smoking room, for example, located in the stern, had featured polished wood wall panels and plaster friezes. The lounge, located on the Boat Deck and measuring 80 by 53 feet, had been adorned with mahogany wall panels, gold moldings, long ceiling beams, gilt bronze, and crystal chandeliers. The library, featuring bay windows, had been decorated with sycamore paneling. The first class dining room, seating 330, had been configured with long, white clothed tables and revolving chairs, and was decorated with polished ash, teak-molded paneling, and arched windows, while the second class dining room, with parquet floors, featured Georgian oak paneling and carved cornices. A grand staircase, installed between the second and third funnels, connected five decks with the public rooms.
Entering service on November 16, 1907 between Liverpool and New York, the Mauretania had been retrofitted with four-bladed propellers two years later, in 1909, at which time it could attain maximum speeds of 26.6 knots. It had been only the first of several modifications. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, for instance, it had been repainted gray and briefly served as a troop ship, reliveried and returned to commercial service five years later in 1919, at which time it operated in company with the Aquitania and Berengaria, offering weekly east- and westbound service on the Southampton-New York route. It remained the fastest of the three.
Yet another modification, necessitated by fire, resulted in conversion to oil-burning engine technology and cabin reconfiguration, reducing both the second and third class passenger capacities.
In its 27 years of operation, during 22 of which it had held the North Atlantic speed record until it had been recaptured by the Bremen in 1929, the Mauretania had sailed some 2.1 million miles in transatlantic, Mediterranean, and Caribbean service before being usurped by two larger, more advanced Cunard liners. Making its last crossing on September 26, 1934, it was scraped the following year in Scotland.
That evening’s dinner, served in the Queen Mary 2’s Britannia Restaurant, had featured white zinfandel wine; baby shrimp thermidor on walnut brioche; cob salad with smoked chicken and bleu cheese dressing; roasted seabass with Mediterranean vegetables and olive tapenade; banana foster flambee with rum raisin ice cream and whipped cream; and coffee.
The Lusitania and Mauretania replacements, although larger, would prove a motley pair: although one had been the third in the series, it had been slower, while the other had been transferred from the fleet of the enemy, the Germans.
Day Four
Suspended in the middle of the Atlantic, the black-hulled leviathan pursed its Great Circle course on a 249-degree heading, eating the gray and foamy-white ocean with its bow with a 21.7-knot appetite. Four hundred seventy miles off the coast of Newfoundland, the ship negotiated 3,549-meter-deep waters, having covered 607 nautical miles in the 24-hour period since yesterday, now 1,615 miles from Southampton. At a current 47-degree, 34.066’ north latitude and 042-degree, 00.754’ west longitude position, it was 1,468 miles from its destination.
External conditions were mild: the air temperature, at 14 degrees Celsius, had been coupled with a force-4 moderate breeze out of the southwest and low level cloud, with a 989-millibar air pressure. The sea, whose state had been slight, had a 12.7-degree Celsius temperature.
If the triplet of early 20th-century Cunard liners could have sailed past the Queen Mary 2 in chronological order, the Aquitania would have trailed both the Lusitania and the Mauretania, the third of the long, sleek, quad-funneled vessels constructed by John, Brown and Company of Clydebank.
The 45,647-ton ship, with a 901-foot length and a 97-foot width, had been both larger and heavier than its two predecessors, resulting in a 3,200-passenger capacity. Launched on April 21, 1913, it had commenced trial runs 13 months later, achieving a 24-knot maximum speed, and entered commercial service on May 30, 1914 on the Liverpool-New York route.
Opulently appointed, it featured a long gallery which connected the main lounge with the smoking room decorated with a series of garden lounges; a carpeted, Louis XVI-style first class restaurant; a columned Palladian lounge, which spanned two decks; and the first pool ever installed on a Cunard ship.
Late to the North Atlantic, the Aquitania had sailed on the fringes of World War I and had been requisitioned by the government for military service as an armed merchant cruiser in August of 1914; but, because of its excessive size, had been recommissioned as a troop ship the following year. Reconfigured for ocean liner service after the war, the ship resumed its civil role in August of 1920, amending its capacity six years later, in 1916, when a major reconfiguration decreased the first class passenger complement from 618 to 610, increased the second class capacity from 614 to 950, and dramatically decreased the third class complement by some three-forths, from 1,998 to 640, in order to more accurately match passenger class demand.
Once again reconfigured to a 7,724-person troop ship during World War II, the Aquitania provided eight years of military service during which it had sailed 500,000 miles and carried more than 300,000 troops.
Arriving in Southampton on December 1, 1949, the multiple-role vessel ended 35 years of service, having sailed some 3 million miles on 443 voyages. It had been Cunard’s last quad-funneled design.
Lunch, back in the present on the Queen Mary 2, had been served in The Carvery, itself one of the King’s Court stations, and had included beef tikka masala, white rice, cauliflower in cheese sauce, and double chocolate fudge cake.
Although the Aquitania’s very long, mulitple-role, and fruitful career had ended in 1949, it had, for the most part, continued to operate in tandem, as originally conceived, with two other Cunard transatlantic liners, despite the fact that the Lusitania had been destroyed almost immediately after entering service. The third ship, however, emanated not from a Cunard blueprint given life by a ship builder on the Clyde, but instead by the very enemy which had necessitated its replacement.
Endeavoring to compete with the Cunard and White Star Line designs which now regularly plied the Atlantic, the Hamburg-America Line had laid the keel of a new breed of transatlantic liners on June 18, 1910, intended to be the largest-capacity, highest gross weight passenger ship ever built. The specifications were, for the time, staggering: measuring 919 feet long and 98 feet wide, the elongated, tri-funneled, 52,117-ton ship, designated the Imperator, had been powered by steam engines geared to four-bladed propellers feeding off of 8,500-tons of coal nourishing two 69- and 95-foot-long engine rooms, respectively. Accommodating 908 first class, 972 second class, 942 third class, and 1,772 steerage class passengers, the behemoth, steered by a 90-ton rudder, was christened on May 23, 1912 and entered commercial service 13 months later, on June 10, from Cuxhaven to New York with an intermediate stop in Southampton.
The Imperator featured a First Class winter garden with potted palm trees and a dual-deck indoor swimming pool.
Because initial service had demonstrated top-heavy conditions, its three funnels were shortened by nine feet during an autumn retrofit.
Ultimately banned from sailing because of World War I German atrocities, the ship had been moored in Hamburg for four years until a war reparation agreement resulted in its transfer to Cunard in 1919 as compensation for the German-sunk Lusitania. Rebased in Southampton two years later, in April of 1921, it had been subjected to an initial retrofit during which its coal-burning engine technology had been replaced with oil and it had been reconfigured with 972, 630, 606, and 515 first, second, third, and tourist passengers, respectively. Redesignated Berengaria, the ship joined the Mauretania and Aquitania, operating Cunard’s weekly transatlantic service. Although it had been originally planned to continue operating it until 1940, its antiquated wiring system, which resulted in persistent on-board fires, had precluded its anticipated service longevity, temporarily leaving only the Mauretania and Aquitania until a new breed of Cunard liners, to offer double the tonnage of the existing designs, could enter service. That ship, of course, bore the name of the current one: Queen Mary.
Dinner, served in La Piazza Restaurant on board the (present-day) Queen Mary 2, had included a mixed green salad with ranch dressing; artichoke hearts; vegetable moussaka; pasta with onions, mushrooms, black olives, garlic, and red tomato sauce; tiramisu; and coffee.
Dusk could be more accurately gauged by looking beyond the wooden deck with its Queen Mary I-reminiscent line of deck chairs and down toward the sea, rather than up toward the sky. The former, a reflection of the latter, had appeared a deep blue, mirroring the temporary brightness of the sky during the early-evening when the mountainous white cumulous formations had parted, creating a blue rift. It then rapidly metamorphosed into a dark blue and, momentarily, a cold, morose, winter gray, the prevalent environmental conditions of so many earlier transatlantic crossings, as the dark, billowing clouds reassembled into a tight, cohesive quilt, hindering even a momentary glimpse of the sun. Merging dimensionally with the ocean, the amorphous, referenceless void cacooned the floating city until visibility extended no further than ten feet from either of its sides. Two souls, well dressed, braved the fierce, blustering wind as they attempted, buttressed by the force, to circle the deck. Thus was life on a transatlantic crossing.
As the day bordered the midnight demarcation line, the ship crossed from the Newfoundland Basin to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and, effectively, reached the North American continent. Two days of steaming remained before it arrived at its terminus, the Port of New York.
Day Five
Wrestling the fierce currents of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland at 0800, the elongated titan thundered over the barreling gray surface, its peaks so high and frequent that they appeared white, snow-covered mountain crests. The pitch was tumultuous and unrelenting. Propelled at 24 knots, the vessel moved between troughs, pivoting on its center of gravity and pinnacling each crest with surmounting triumph, before exploding into its next valley with gravity-induced momentum, its axis of rotation sliding down the mountain of sea in partial aerial suspension at which time even the stabilizers failed to dampen its descending, momentarily sea-detached profile.
Speed perception was a function of distance: the lower one descended in the ship relative to the water line, the more rapidly did the gray surface seem to move by outside, its cascades of white froth and mist exploding directly on to the windows and portholes.
Death on the high seas, although at this writing still beyond conception, had briefly reduced my crossing to an Agatha Christie murder mystery. Before having retired to my cabin the previous evening, a passenger, whose name I have momentarily forgotten, had been continually paged, both in the theater and throughout the ship, with an increasing degree of urgency. During the early-morning hours, the liner, for a then unexplainable reason, had turned round, pursuing a heading which would have taken it back to the United Kingdom. It was later revealed that a man from Germany, who had been traveling with a group, had for some time been unlocatable, and his wife, who had not undertaken the journey with him, had been contacted in Germany where she ultimately discovered a suicide note. The man, who had been elderly and very ill, had apparently make the crossing for the purpose of taking his own life, and the ship had circled the area of suicide until a time beyond which he would have succumbed to hypothermia, even if he had survived the ocean plunge.
The incident, immediately transcending that initial hesitation between two strangers, had been the talk of the formal breakfast served in the Britannia Restaurant that morning.
The chosen area, along the Great Circle route in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, could not have been more hazardous and every predecessor Cunard liner had traced its path through it.
Glaciers descending the mountains on Greenland’s west coast calved with thunderous roars in to the Davis Strait, forming icebergs which are carried southward by the Labrador current, some 400 of which, rising 150 feet above the water line and weighing in excess of 100,000 tons, move as far south as the shipping lanes off of Newfoundland. During the April-to-July period, the area off of St. John’s is known as “iceberg alley.” Because of the size of the smaller bergs and their associated field ice, they are particularly difficult to spot, posing a significant hazard to any ship undertaking a transatlantic crossing during this time and justly earning the area the title of “North Atlantic graveyard.”
Further exacerbating the conditions had been substreams of differential-temperature waters which originate along the continental edge of South America, near the equator, where tradewinds propel them toward the channel between Cuba and the Florida Keys. Accelerating, they follow the 30- to 50-mile-wide eastern seaboard at 2- to 6-mph speeds toward the North Carolina coast where the actual substreams form, flowing toward Nova Scotia at a 150-million-cubic-meter-per-second rate.
It is on the Great Circle route, east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, that the collision between the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador current takes place, producing divergent temperatures which themselves create rain, gales, squalls, mist, tumultuous waves, winter hurricanes, and cyclones. Off of the southeastern tip of Newfoundland, at Cape Race, summer sea fog, sometimes lasting weeks, shrouds icebergs from visual perception.
Oblivious to these conditions, the 151,400-ton Queen Mary 2 negotiated its course by means of its pods and bow thrusters, whose electricity had been supplied by a common, high voltage main switchboard, which produced an 11,000-volt, 60-hertz, 3-phase current. The current itself had been supplied by four Wartsila W46 V1646C, 16.8-Mw diesel generators and two 25.0-Mw General Electric LM2500+ gas turbines.
The morning’s intrigue, once digested and discussed, enabled greater focus on the abundant breakfast served in the Britannia Restaurant, which had included grapefruit juice, poached eggs, crisp bacon, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, sautéed potatoes, white toast, croissants, French bread, butter, coffee, and peach pastries.
By late-morning, the long, majestic, red-and-black-funneled liner, of 165-year lineage to the vessel which had lent its name to the massive restaurant, carved its trench beneath bright, blue skies in the equally-reflected deep blue sea, leaving a snow-white wake behind its stern, which itself stretched back to the countless crossings of all the Cunard liners which had preceded it.
If the Berengaria had been “huge,” no adjective could describe the size of its replacement, which emanated from an original blueprint and not from an existing hull. The ship, which had been a pure and original Cunard design, had not only launched a new breed of liners, but an altogether new period known as the “era of the four queens.” The design, of course, had been the first to bear the name of the current ship, the Queen Mary.
Incorporating the technological advancements of 86 years of Cunard maritime design, the new flagship, whose origins can be traced to 1926 when a replacement for the Mauretania had first been envisaged, had been intended as the first of two 1,000-foot-long liners which would be fast enough to permit five-day crossing schedules and hence obviate the need for the Lusitania/Berengaria-Mauretania-Aquitania trio. Although the keel had first been laid on January 31, 1931 for a ship then designated hull 534 in the John Brown and Company Shipyard on the Clyde, the depression halted its construction a year later, on April 3, 1934, intermittently permitting the Normandie to take the title as both the first 1,000-footer and the first 60,000-ton+ liner which, as the current fastest to cross the Atlantic, earned it the Blue Ribband. During December of the previous year, it had been announced that Cunard would merge with the White Star Line, forming Cunard White Star Limited, the former having designated all of its ships with the “ia” ending and the latter having used the “ic” ending, such as in “Titanic.” The name “Queen Mary” would be the first to eliminate both.
Launched on September 26, 1934, the sleek, elongated, three-funneled ocean liner, with a 1,018-foot length and 118-foot width, had featured an 80,774-ton gross weight and had been powered by four quadruple-expansion steam turbines connected, via propeller shafts, to four external, 35-ton, manganese bronze, four-bladed propellers grouped in pairs.
The elegant interior appointments featured more than 50 varieties of wood, such as English yew, bird’s eye maple, ivory white sycamore, Pacific myrtle, African cherry, and pearwood. The ship’s Sun Deck, sporting an open promenade with access to all 24 lifeboats, ended at the small, intimate Verandah Grill, which offered an alternative, a-la-carte menu dining experience with views overlooking the stern. The enclosed Promenade Deck, located immediately below, featured the main public rooms, including a forward, 21 window paned Observation Lounge and Cocktail Bar directly under the bridge; a studio, lecture room, writing room, and library on the port side; and a drawing room, a second writing room, and the children’s playroom on the starboard side. The main entrance hall, located behind, spanned the width of the ship and was accessed by glass doors on either side from the promenade and configured with a shopping arcade.
The travel bureau and the suites were located one deck below, on Main Deck, while A through H Decks were set even lower in the hull, and accessed by Empire wood-paneled corridors.
The dining salon, measuring 160-feet-long and 118-feet-wide and seating 800, was located on C Deck and featured a high ceiling, colonnades, and a 24-by-13-foot mural of the Atlantic Ocean with a crystal glass, electronically-operated model of the Queen Mary to indicate its position during transatlantic crossings. The cabin class swimming pool, located on D Deck, had featured golden quartzite, and a walking alleyway led to the crew accommodations, workshops, and storerooms.
Inaugurated into service on May 27, 1936 on the Southampton-Cherbourg-New York route, the Queen Mary recaptured the Blue Ribband from the Normandie three months later on a westerly crossing, attaining a 30.63-knot speed between Bishop’s Rock and Ambrose Light, becoming the fastest, largest, and heaviest superclass liner until the title had been overtaken by its transatlantic counterpart, the Queen Elizabeth. Although it had carried 56,895 passengers during its first year of service, the storm clouds of World War II thwarted its continued civil operation, the last of which, from Southampton, had occurred on August 30, 1939.
Repainted, the now drab, military version, unofficially dubbed the “Gray Ghost,” sailed from New York to Australia in order to assume its role as a troop ship, maintaining transatlantic ferry service by 1943, in July of which it carried a record 16,683 troops on a single crossing.
Decommissioned from military service on September 27, 1946 and returned to Cunard, the ship had been reconfigured as a passenger liner with accommodation for 711 first, 707 cabin, and 577 tourist class guests, resuming weekly scheduled transatlantic service on July 31, 1947 between Southampton and New York, with the Queen Elizabeth.
Usurped not by a newer or more advanced nautical design, but by an aeronautical one instead, the Queen Mary, recording ever-decreasing passenger loads and plummeting revenues, operated its last scheduled service from New York on September 22, 1967, having made 1,001 crossings, during which time it had sailed 3.7 million miles, had carried 2.1 million passengers, and had earned $600 million in revenues.
Its last-ever operation occurred later that year, on October 31, when it embarked on a 39-day repositioning journey from Southampton with 1,040 passengers round the southern tip of South America to its new, permanent Long Beach, California, mooring where it assumed its role as a hotel and tourist attraction.
Sailing 140 nautical miles into the Grand Banks of Newfoundland by 1200 noon, the present Queen Mary 2, pursuing a 250-degree heading and a 24-knot steam speed, had been positioned 115 miles south/southeast of Cape Race, having covered a paltry 431 miles since yesterday’s position report because of the morning’s attempted rescue. Negotiating rough seas with moderate swells amid cold, 3-degree Celsius temperatures, the ship had traversed 2,046 miles since its departure, with 1,040 remaining to the New York Pilot’s Station.
The Queen Elizabeth, the second of the two designs intended for Cunard’s weekly, bi-directional transatlantic service, completed the world’s most famous pair of ocean liners, but, contrary to initial belief, had not been an identical sister to the Queen Mary, but an entirely separate design, sporting, for example, only two versus four funnels and 12 as opposed to 24 boilers. Its keel, first laid on December 4, 1936 in Clydebank, resulted in an almost two-year construction period, leading to initial launch and naming on September 27, 1938. Weighing only 40,000 tons at the time, the 1,031-foot-long, 118-foot-wide ship, with a 38-foot draft, had been moved to its fitting out pier. However, the Queen Elizabeth, like her sister, immediately fell victim to the war and, upon order by Winston Churchill, had been dispatched to New York, departing on February 6, 1940 and berthing, still unfitted and with only essential plumbing, next to the Queen Mary one month later.
After an eight-month mooring, during which time it had been converted into a military ship, the Queen Elizabeth had sailed to Singapore and ultimately operated weekly transatlantic troop transfers between New York and Gourack, Scotland, carrying as many as 15,000 servicemen who slept in tiered, canvas bunks during two daily shifts.
Returning to Southampton on June 16, 1946, the 83,673-ton troop ship had been reconverted into a luxury liner, accommodating 823 first, 662 cabin, and 798 tourist class passengers, and operated its first civilian scheduled service four months later, on October 16. Although the Queen Elizabeth had been almost as popular as its Queen Mary counterpart, with most passengers crossing on one in one direction and on the other in the other direction, the traffic pendulum had begun to swing toward the British and the US transatlantic jetliners, with the first monetary losses being recorded in the early-1960s until economic reality could no longer support their continued service. Operating its last crossing in October of 1968, the Queen Elizabeth had briefly served as a hotel and a museum in Port Everglades, Florida, but neglect and financial burden quickly terminated the venture, leading to its sale to C Y Tung, a Taiwanese shipping tycoon, who invested $6 million in its conversion into a floating university. Fires, whose origins could not be pinpointed, erupted on January 9 and 10, 1972, while the ship had been in Hong Kong Harbor and excessive water applications only resulted in its capsize and ultimate demise.
Nevertheless, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth would remain the most famous Cunard liners to have ever sailed.
Dinner had been served in the Queen Mary 2’s Todd English Restaurant, a small, 156-seat, reservations-only venue located in the stern which harked back to the days of the original Queen Mary’s Verandah Grill. The Mediterranean-inspired cuisine had included Riesling white wine; lobster and baby corn chowder with whipped parsnip, black truffles, and potatoes; asparagus tart with caramelized onions, Fontana cheese, brown butter, and morel vinaigrette; rack of lamb with confit of shank crepenette, assorted salads of roasted red pepper, chickpea, cucumber and yogurt, and rouille with black olive sauce; hot, molten chocolate cake surrounded by raspberry sauce and cold vanilla ice cream; and coffee.
Night ordinarily draped its veil over day, diminishing and ultimately eradicating all light. With the persistent, unrelenting cloud deck of the North Atlantic winter, however, no light or color marked the daily transition. Instead, like a flipped light switch, the transformation was little more than a protracted denouement from gray to black, the external horizontal environment providing no reference for hue change. Like a falling curtain, the day seemed symbolic of the curtain which had definitively fallen on the Golden Era of transatlantic liners…
As the calendar day eclipsed another, the Queen Mary 2 assumed a 249-degree heating and a 25.6-knot steam speed, now southeast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
Day Six
Shrouded in fog throughout the night and continually piercing the engulfing darkness with its forlorn horn, the mighty liner, internally configured as a city at sea with its almost 4,000 inhabitants, penetrated the void of mist in which neither light nor external reference could be glimpsed. The 150,000-ton behemoth, swallowed by the elements, had paradoxically been reduced to but an infinitesimal speck as it inched closer to the North American continent.
Maintaining a 250-degree heading in a slight sea 210 nautical miles east of Cape Cod and a 26-knot steam speed at 1200 noon, the Queen Mary 2 had sailed 648 miles since its position report 24 hours ago, now 2,694 miles from Southampton with a 388-mile gap remaining to the New York Pilot’s Station.
Lunch, served in the Lotus Restaurant station of the King’s Court, had included chicken, scallion, and vegetables; basmati rice; soba noodles with scallions and light peanut satay; egg fried rice; and chocolate, graham cracker crust squares.
By 1500, the cold front had, in ernest, passed. The skies, unraveling into remarkably bright blue ones, left not a cloud vapor and 11-degree temperatures. The sea, a brilliant, deep blue, barreled at the apartment-lined ship from the starboard side, inducing a rhythmic roll which even the extended stabilizers could not fully dampen. Pursuing a 253-degree course and a 24-knot speed, the ship, now in the outer perimeter of the Gulf of Maine, had reached a 40-degree, 44.853’ north latitude and 068-degree, 11.27’ west longitude position, the latter having unwound, like a clock, from its 001-degree Southampton coordinate. Only a few degrees of longitude remained before the ship reached Ambrose Light.
With the vessel now due east of Connecticut, the transatlantic crossing, the suspension between continents, and the return to the opulent and elegant Golden Age of transatlantic liner lifestyle, was rapidly ending.
The speed and technological advancement of more modern ocean liners, such as the France, the United States, and the Rotterdam, coupled with changing travel patterns, ultimately usurped the most famous pair of Queens ever to ply the seas, prompting both a Cunard replacement and serious consideration over whether a replacement should be designed at all.
Their successor, a modernized version of the Queen Elizabeth designated the Q3, featured a 990-foot length, able to accommodate 2,270 passengers, and a 75,000-ton gross weight, as detailed by June 1, 1960 design plans. Its engines, largely based upon those of the original Queen Elizabeth and generating between 85,000 and 95,000 shaft horsepower to permit 28.5-knot speeds, had been configured with two six-bladed, 31.75-ton, 19-foot-diameter propellers, each driven by an independent set of turbines, while two sets of double reduction geared turbines were supplied with steam from three 278-ton high-pressure water tube boilers producing 850 pounds-per-square-inch of pressure with 1,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures.
An examination of trans Atlantic passenger load factors, however, seriously questioned the economic viability of such a design. During 1957, for instance, the ratio of set-to-air traffic had been 50:50, while eight years later, in 1965, only 14 out of every 100 passengers actually crossed by sea. Unable, therefore, to justify the size and expense of the original version, a scaled-down design, designated the Q4, had been announced on October 19, 1961. Featuring a reduced, 55,000-ton gross weight, the ship, small enough to negotiate all existing waterways, inclusive of the Panama and Suez Canals, and versatile enough to assume the dual role of Atlantic liner and cruise ship, had been intended as a floating resort, a destination in and of itself, thus introducing a new concept of sea travel. The contract, awarded to John Brown and Company of Clydebank because of low construction cost and early delivery date, had been signed on December 30, 1964.
Its keel had first been laid the following year, on July 2, in the same berth which had incubated the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth and the ship, named the Queen Elizabeth 2, or QE2, had been launched on September 20, 1967. Because of the fate which had befallen its predecessors—namely, the sublimation of the Queen Mary into a hotel and a museum and the purchase of the France and the United States by Norwegian Cruise Line for operation as cruise ships—it had been then considered the last great transatlantic ocean liner to have been built.
Producing 50,000 hp less than the Queen Elizabeth it replaced and operating off of two versus four propellers, the QE2 nevertheless reached 29.5-knot speeds on its initial trails off the Scottish coast.
The 12-decked, 70,327-ton ship, constructed of 1 1/8-inch-thick steel and sporting a single funnel, stretched 963 feet in length and had been delivered to Cunard on April 20, 1969 at a 29 million pound cost. Inaugurated into scheduled, passenger-carrying service the following month, on May 2, between Southampton and New York with an intermediate port-of-call in Le Havre, the third of the eventual quartet of Queens completed its crossing in four days, 16 hours, 35 minutes at a 28.02-knot average speed, carrying 1,400 passengers.
Although the type enjoyed 17 years of successful service, its steam turbine engines, which had essentially been the same type to have powered the original Britannia of 1840, had burned some 200 tons of fuel per day and had become increasingly cost- and maintenance-intensive. Operating its last transatlantic crossing from New York on October 20, 1986, it was withdrawn from service for conversion to diesel engine technology.
A 180 million pound contract, signed with Lloyd Werft of Bremerhaven, Germany, entailed conversion of all public rooms, passenger cabins, and crew accommodations, and installation of nine 9-cylinder, MAN-B&W medium-speed, 220-ton diesel engines producing 10,625 kW or 14,242 hp of power at 400 revolutions per minute, four of which were installed in the forward engine room and five of which were installed in the aft engine room on anti-vibration mountings. Propulsion motors, each weighing 295 tons and producing 44 mw of power at 144 rpms, were connected, by 250-foot-long shafts, to two 22-foot, variable-pitch, five-bladed, outward-turning, 19-foot-diameter, 42-ton propellers which were controllable either from the bridge or from the engine room. Two four-bladed, variable-pitch, 6.55-foot-diameter bow thrusters, installed 18 feet apart in self-contained tunnels which passed laterally through the hull 18 feet below the water line, were driven by a 1,000-hp electric motor and recessed behind hydraulically-operated, hydrodynamic doors at idle power. Four 12-foot-long, 70-square-foot in area, aft-extending, hydraulically-operated stabilizers were stored behind dual-side hull recesses, while steering was accomplished with a single, 75-ton, semi-balanced rudder.
The Queen Elizabeth 2, requiring 179 days for the conversion, had been re-delivered to Cunard on April 25, 1987 and continues to ply the world’s oceans 36 years after it had first entered service, replaced on the transatlantic route only by the ship in which I presently sailed.
Indeed, the present Queen Mary 2 had been the culmination of maritime technical development which had commenced with the wooden-hulled sailing packets of the 19th century. These had later incorporated wooden paddle-wheeled, reciprocating steam engines. Iron, replacing wood as the primary hull construction material, had permitted increased strengths of considerable proportions, thereby paving the way to larger designs with higher gross weights and an increasing number of decks. Higher length-to-width ratios, coupled with propeller propulsion, reduced water resistance and enhanced steam speeds, while compound steam engines, dual screws, and steel construction material pinnacled ocean steamship technology in 1895. Turbine engines, computer-aided design, global positioning systems, azipods, and gas turbines all combined into a single design which could be collectively classified ship, transportation means, machine, edifice, and floating metropolis with interior appointments so opulent and facility offerings so extensive that any connection with the sea had been completely severed in a pleasant disorientation the moment one boarded the vessel.
Technological advancement, however, had not been arrested with maritime design, but had perpetuated throughout all other transportation forms: the transatlantic crossing, for instance, had required six days by sea, but only six hours by subsonic air and three by supersonic air. Speed had been proportionally increased, time had been reduced, and the earth had, in the process, been artificially shrunk. But civility had also been lost…
Only hours remained in which to enjoy it before the Port of New York loomed ahead.
The last dinner at sea, served in the Britannia Restaurant, had included Pinot Grigio white wine; smoked trout mousse, waldorff salad, and chive crème fraiche; roasted tomato soup with basil cream; roasted Vermont turkey, whipped root vegetables, and Madeira cranberry reduction; hazelnut amaretto pudding with sauce anglaise; and coffee.
Angled toward the ship from the forward, starboard side lay the lighted path, like a cracked glass threshold, across the ocean surface from the unobstructed, cylindrical sun, which had commenced its dusk-preemptive descent toward the western horizon, a path, perhaps, to night, the Port of New York, and the crossing’s termination—a sunset symbolic to the end of transatlantic liner passage which could now only be singularly relived aboard the Queen Mary 2. Settling toward the horizon, it emitted a pronounced orange glow and rendered the sea a reflective, icy-blue mirror. A slowly lumbering cargo ship, aged with rust, lurked off the right side, its speed an appalling attempt at dominance over that of the balcony-lined leviathan. The sun itself, a burning orange ball, dripped behind the Atlantic’s perimeter, leaving only an orange and chartreuse aftermath of energy.
Except for the arcing white smoke plume emanating rrom the charcoal and red funnel, no cloud condensation marred the night sky, its intense, velvet black pierced by periodic star glitter.
At midnight, the Queen Mary 2 passed south of Montauk Point, Long Island.
Day Seven
Entering New York Harbor off of Ambrose Light at 0330, the still-slumbering giant sailed under the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge one hour, 15 minutes later, pursuing a 006-degree heading at a lumbering, 9.3-knot cruise speed. First light, tinged with orange, appeared behind the jewel-glittering superstructures of Manhattan off the starboard side. At 0540, now maintaining a 33-degree heading, the ship skated over the blue sheet of reflective Hudson River glass at 3.6 knots, passing the needle-thin point of the Empire State Building.
Commencing its laborious starboard turn by means of its rotating azipods, the behemoth moved into its Pier 88 berth facing a 118-degree heading, casting its post-dawn mooring lines at a 40-degree, 45.982’ north latitude and 073-degree, 59.917’ west longitude coordinate parallel to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum and its satellite barge paradoxically sporting the Concorde, registered G-BOAD, in British Airways livery, which, as the ultimate transatlantic crossing means, had represented the pinnacle of commercial aeronautical development begun with the subsonic, pure-jet airliners which had preceded it. They had been the singular reason for transoceanic sea travel’s demise. The cost-to-speed ratio had proven too high for Concorde and it, like the original Queen Mary, had been withdrawn from service and reduced to a museum exhibit. But the Queen Mary’s next-generation successor, the Queen Mary 2, had been alive, in active transatlantic service, and in high demand, leaving one to wonder if the ship had somehow not replaced the aircraft in an ultimate historical cycle. The Queen Mary 2 would depart in the evening on its eastbound crossing with fare-paying passengers. The Concorde would remain stationary, as an exhibit.
My journey had been both a physical and historical one, encompassing distance and time, forward motion and backward values, a time warp entry in to the Golden Age of transatlantic ocean liner travel replete with opulence, sophistication, elegance, and civility, an historical recapture, and hence re-experience, of early-era values and an examination, perhaps in vain, of the reason for their demise.
Although speed had reduced crossing times, facilitating increased activity and accomplishment, its perceived value increase could only be equated with monetary value, resulting in gains of earthly possessions, but compromises of the soul, the intrinsic, unearthly entity behind every body. This compromise had been the pivot point between a human being and a human doing. Seemingly ratios of the two, the soul and the body have wrestled with each other since the first human walked on the planet, forgoing spiritual fulfillments for bodily pleasures, in an inherent conflict between the worlds to which they belong—Heaven and earth. The more one immersed himself in the latter, the more he lost the former. So completely had entire societies attempted to do so, such as the Holy Roman Empire, that they had completely fallen, losing the very source which had created them.
Walking down the gangplank, I turned and looked at the giant ocean liner which had carried me 3,082 nautical miles across the Atlantic. Perhaps I will cross again someday, I thought...
About the Author
A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.
Most modern musicians take sheet music for granted. Sheet music abounds in printed form and can even be downloaded from the Internet. It's a far cry from the days of oral tradition. Centuries ago, there were few ways to pass on music other than to "hum a few bars" until the listener caught on.
The available manuscripts had to be painstakingly marked out by a transcriptionist and were limited in number. In fact, while many songs were known on a wide scale, they were likely spread about by travelling minstrels and troubadours. They were certainly not available in printed form at the local music shop.
Prior to the invention of the printing press in the mid 15th century, very few private citizens owned or had access to sheet music. The ones in existence were owned by a few wealthy noblemen. Because the only way to publish written music was to copy it by hand, it's little wonder that sheet music was scarce.
The process took long hours and careful copying skills, plus access to the right materials. Before the printing press, the only songs available in written score were sacred songs. Most of these were chants used in liturgical services. Virtually no secular music scores existed prior to the 15th century.
The invention of the printing press in 1439 changed the history of sheet music. This is in spite of the fact that the earliest methods of reproducing musical scores were almost as painstaking as copying music by hand. Italian printer Ottaviano Petrucci may be considered the "father of sheet music."
He developed the first method for reproducing sheet music. He was also granted an exclusive patent for his work, giving him an early monopoly on the business for several years. His method involved three stages. The paper was pressed three times. First, the staff was printed. On the second impression, the words were added. The final impression laid down the notes.
The downside to the process was that it was time-consuming and expensive. This made it relatively impractical for the average citizen to own sheet music. However, technology evolved over the years. Eventually, better and more efficient methods of printing were developed.
Most of the earliest music that was published was sacred music. In fact, the printing, distribution and publication of music were largely controlled by the church for several centuries. Eventually this changed, and soon music companies found themselves in the thriving business of music publishing. The retail distribution of sheet music took off in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This was in spite of the fact that there was no means for promoting particular songs or artists, like radio or television.
The popularity of sheet music prompted many governments around the world to examine the issue of copyright and pass their own laws in that regard. With copyright becoming a worldwide issue, the Berne Convention of 1886 established a universal principle regarding copyright. Today, approximately 76 countries around the world adhere to this standard.
Of course, technology continues to evolve. Radio, television and the Internet have posed new challenges to the ability of governments to enforce copyright laws. Sheet music can now be downloaded straight from the Internet, often illegally. Notwithstanding this, the annual sale of sheet music ranges in the tens of thousands today. Music-publishing software has brought the printing of music full circle from the days when stolid monks sat writing music with a quill by candlelight.
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"Advertising is so important to business as breathing is to life "
Only as a form of respiration is essential for the existence of life, so any advertisng is equally essential to the existence of a business. In fact, even before the existence, advertising is essential for the birth of such participation, then for their livelihoods and, ultimately, for their continued growth.
Maybe that's much worse than life! Very often there is still life in the most extreme, barely surviving, but a bad business simply crumble and disappear. Most likely due to a failure of its respiratory mechanism - advertising.
In the online business an important form of advertising is the text ad, probably the most common format, in line five 60cpl accepted by the Most electronic journals.
Here is a 3-point 'how to' that could help you write headlines and ad-ad-copy stand a better chance of helping a business instead of draining the budget announcement.
1. Buy and try!
The essential thing Ad - title and copy - is to get the viewer to believe what you wrote. This imposes the condition that you believe what you wrote. For most normal people to speak or in this case, to write convincingly claims that have used the product you want to sell, or have dealt with the opportunity or program you want to promote.
So the first 'how to' would be: Buy and try!
As far as possible, and try to buy what they want others must buy advertising. It's important. The notices posted by those who have purchased the product or tried the opportunity to make a credibility that comes with the purchase of emotional triggers the relevant market.
Of course you could use the publicity sent by the company but then it sounds like hundreds of thousands of others say it all same and few believe it.
2. Take advantage of Free Information:
The "Buy & Try 'method has its drawbacks.
Not everyone can describe the features and benefits of the product they've bought, Atleast not in terms that lead to other buying them. Few are gifted in this area of the marketing process and this is where you should actively seek to help those who are gifted.
In this case simply rely their experts. There are many experts who have written about all the different aspects of ad writing. From global strategy to in days to place your ad, all bases are covered. Almost any network marketing ezine contains articles on writing ad headlines and ad text. In fact, it is a
new info from an overdose of which brings us to the third point on "how to" of the great ad-writing.
3. Take advantage of Free Information BUT DO IT NOW!
Use as much ad-free writing articles to make your ads network marketing, but the process to raise the level of science through the application of a simple tactic of two parts - one part of which is imposed on himself and the other in the ad.
In the first part - trained to detect the core of the art ad-writing of an author describes in his article, is likely to be in bulleted or numbered lines list of points that describe the item.
In the second part - and this could be the most important part of the ad-writing - you disclipine to apply what read to your ad headline or ad text.
Here's why and how it NOW.
WHY: The practice usual reading articles, none of the articles is well, reading articles. If this reading, while one is doing something important following the usual practice is to make a mental note and keep that piece of information potentially useful in a highly fragmented disk called brain. Very often this information enters and is lost. Period. No FIFO! Simply No Info!
Another method is useless also save the article or electronic publication produced on the other disk also highly fragmented, the computer. The same story ... next day or the next day, even saved somewhere, electronic publishing and item is forgotten.
HOW: To prevent this from happening, to avoid wasting time and effort and disk space, and to help your business online get the results you should just do this: instantly apply any hint, tips, or tips that come across your ad. In detecting something that could apply to your ad - apply. Too simple way to do this would be to save your ad on the desktop in a notepad file. Now when you read something in any place that could improve the response of your ad, open the notebook and ... MAKE THE CHANGE!
So there you have:
1. Buy and try.
2. Take advantage of Information and Learning.
3. Do it now.
Salud!
Jerome D
Jerome has a series of ads selected writing articles on your site ads that sell "> WriteBetterAds.com. Start to work on crafting and unique new ads for your business by using this ad-writing free assistance. Who knows you may get to turn his head, called the attention, emotion-shot ads response generation!
About the Author
For more articles focussed on ad-writing take a look at: WriteBetterAds.com Use the free articles to craft your head-turning, attention-grabbing, emotional-triggering, response-generating ads.
For systems such as servers that are designed to be "always active, "security is an important issue. Web servers are the backbone of the Internet. They provide basic services and functionalities in billions Web sites worldwide and, therefore, act as a repository for personal data of everyone who visits them. Ensure that the servers are protected against attacks externalities are a fundamental issue for any organization that depend on them.
In the latest attacks against web servers years have increased significantly. As the map shows, it is irrelevant where in the world in which to base a web server: the malicious code does not respect borders. The threat is not only international, but now comes from organized criminal gangs looking to harvest passwords, financial data and other information, rather than teenage hackers who seek to cause damage. In most cases an attack occurs quietly, with servers and web sites corrupted with malware designed to infect as many users as possible.
Web servers are particularly vulnerable because they are "open" by nature, with users sending and receiving information from them. The HTTPD (demon HTTP server), database software and code behind a Web site can each be re-written by a criminal and altered its original function.
However, that does not mean that web servers can not be protected. They can, but requires an integrated approach to Web site administrators, programmers and designers alike with areas such as anti-virus software, operating systems (OS) and the access they require continuous monitoring.
This document explores many of the areas common leading to a compromised Web server and ways to prevent them.
2. Secure foundations
The first step in designing, build and manage a secure website, is to ensure that the server hosting is as safe as possible.
A web server is composed of layers that provide multiple attack vectors, as the diagram shows. Remember, each block is a possible target.
The basis of any server operating system is the secrecy to ensure that remains safe is simple: keep updated with the latest security patches. Doing so could not be easier with Microsoft [1], along with many flavors Linux, enabling organizations to apply the patch automatically or launch with a simple mouse click.
But remember that hackers also automate their own attempts to malware designed to jump from one server to another until it finds one that is unpatched. For this reason, it is important to ensure that the patches are current and correct, as any server running the previous patches will become a victim.
You also have to remember update any software component running on a web server. Everything that is not essential, such as DNS servers and remote management tools such as VNC or Remote Desktop should be disabled or removed. If remote administration tools is essential, however, then avoid the use of default passwords or thing that can be easily guessed [14]. This not only applies to remote access tools, but user accounts, such as switches and routers.
The next area to consider is the anti-virus software. This is a must for any web server - either Windows or Unix - and, combined with a flexible firewall is a of stronger forms of protection against security breaches. When a web server is directed the attack was trying to load malware hacking tools or immediately, order to exploit the security breach before it is fixed. Without a good anti-virus package, a breach in security can go unnoticed for a considerable time.
When defense is a multi-layered approach is best. In the first line are the firewall and operating system, while in the trenches is the anti-virus, prepared running to fill the gaps that arise.
In summary:
• Do not install software components is not necessary. Each component is a risk, the there are, the greater the risk
• Keep your operating system and applications patched with the latest security updates.
• Use anti-virus, turn on automatic updates and regularly check that these are installed correctly.
Some of these tasks may seem burdensome, but do not forget that only one security hole is sufficient for an attacker. Potential risks include stolen data and bandwidth, server, IP blacklists, the negative impact on the reputation of an organization and the possibility that your site can become unstable.
The next most important piece of software is HTTPD itself with the ISS two most popular alternatives are and Apache.
2.1 Services Internet Information Server (IIS)
ISS is part of Microsoft Windows and is a popular and commonly used web server, since it requires very little configuration.
When your application however, it is worth remembering the following:
• Turn off default services such as FTP and SMTP unless you need them. Disable navigation directory unless it is required, allowing visitors to see what files are running on your system.
• Disable Extensions FrontPage server not being used.
You should also keep the ISS fully updated, that can be done simply to allow the update automatic feature found in the Windows Control Panel.
Apache HTTP Server 2.2
Apache is a highly configurable and well-maintained open source web server. It requires detailed setup to successfully implement, but provides more control on a web server. Most Apache servers on Linux / BSD, but you can also run on Windows.
Due to the Apache configuration is complex, no room in this article to detail the whole procedure. However, the following tips [2,3,4] are worth considering:
• Deny access resources by default and only allow the functionality of resources to their liking.
• Among all web requests and help to identify activities suspicious.
• Subscribe to the mailing list for announcements of Apache you can send updates, patches and security fixes.
Pages Site functionality requiring a more complicated at times increase with an interpreter HTTPD server side using CGI (Common Gateway Interface). The two most popular are PHP and ASP.
2.3 PHP and MySQL
PHP is one of the most common scripting languages server side. You have a functional code base very large, simple syntax, Adaptive code and, above all, interacting with a large number of database formats. MySQL is a database of the most popular choices for use in conjunction with PHP, since it is fast, feature-rich, easy to configure and use.
PHP has often been accused of neglecting safety in recent years as many exploitable bugs have been found inside. However, it has grown steadily and the majority of errors tend to be avoided, whether the installation settings correctly and / or write secure code.
These are some configuration tips (Writing secure code is covered in a following section) that relate to the variables in the php.ini "file:
• Establish "Register_globals off '
• Set''in safe_mode
• Establish open_basedir 'for the root directory Web Page
display_errors • Set "of
• Establish log_errors' in
allow_url_fopen • Set'' off
For more information about the configuration directives are important and why, please refer to [6,7,10].
When MySQL installed by default creates a "test" database and following an "open" account that is password free. The root account is automatically Free access to all other databases on the server so it is important
• Change the root password immediately.
• Create new to MySQL and give minimum privileges.
• Remove test database and test users.
Server Pages 2.4 Activities (ASP)
ASP is an add-on Microsoft that is supported by IIS, although there is also an implementation of Apache. ASP is built into IIS and so usually requires little or no configuration.
Security 2.5
Anti-virus is usually the last line of defense against an attack as web servers, especially those associated with dynamically generated content, you must have on-access scanning enabled at all times. The table below shows, no web server is safe from malware. No matter how secure you think your web server is, there is always a chance that it get hacked. On-access scanning significantly reduces the likelihood of malicious code running on the system because it can scan both "reading" and "on write 'modes, and then can give an immediate notification as soon as any piece of malware try to own store on the server.
While scanning in access can affect server performance slightly, but the added security benefits outweigh any possible performance problem. There are also areas of the system such as HTTPD log folder, which can be excluded from the scan, which further reduces impact on the system.
The attacks on servers web in general can be classified into two main types: local and global.
• The local attacks usually attempt to steal information or take control of a server specific site.
• World attacks are generally aimed at multiple sites and the goal of infecting anyone who visits them.
Although Linux and BSD are considered by some as safer than Windows, certainly not free of organized crime. It can - and should - have anti-virus software installed. Even if malware can not run on the host server, as it is protected with anti-virus software, you can still serve as valid content to the website users and that some hackers up in PHP or ASP, therefore redundant wrenching the web server operating system.
It is also possible for servers to be infected through a local network. Fujacks family of worms, for example, infect HTML, PHP and ASP to share files across drives and network shares.
3. External Web Hosting
Most organizations do not have the hardware or the stability of bandwidth to host your own web server that the use of outside suppliers. There are three alternatives that are suitable for small and large organizations:
• Sharing dedicated hosting.
• Virtual dedicated hosting.
• Dedicated hosting.
3.1 Shared dedicated hosting
This is possibly the most used and abused in all forms of web hosting including dedicated server hosting several websites. It is one of the cheapest forms of accommodation and therefore one of the most dangerous because it can take only one infected user to infect everyone else using the server.
An excellent real life example of the problems inherent in shared accommodation can be found in the following SophosLabs blog posting:
Virtual dedicated servers - sometimes referred to as elastic servers - are created using virtualization software to run a series of independent, autonomous virtual servers on one machine. This is appropriate for any organization growing, because each user has access to your own operating system and server software.
dedicated hosting 3.3
Dedicated servers reserved for a user. Normally there are two forms available: managed and unmanaged.
• managed servers have staff to care for the management rights as local security issues and troubleshooting.
• Servers do not run out of control and if a little cheaper to operate, and any assistance would have to be bought in.
Of the three options presented here, virtual dedicated hosting seems to be the most efficient, being generally cheaper than dedicated hosting, but it retains the flexibility and security.
4. You design safer
No matter what you do and no matter how small your site, will be attacked. The design is intrinsic to the safety because it can reduce the damage caused by viruses, spyware and other malware.
Try to put yourself in the attacker and use common sense to plug the obvious holes. Some Website errors are so common - For beginners and veterans alike - it's worth going over them here.
4.1 Cookies
One of the main problems encountered in designing a web application is that each application for a new page is dealt with independently of the request above. Order a web application to "remember me" is therefore more difficult than it is in normal.
There are two methods web applications used to remind visitors and which are supported by most browsers: cookies and session cookies.
• A cookie is a small file that is created by the browser and is stored in the user's computer. It can include almost anything, but is usually a name, an expiration date and an arbitrary amount data such as: "Count = 100" or "members =" false.
• A session cookie is a cookie similar to normal, except that it allows web applications to store data in memory.
The difference between the two is that a cookie is stored directly on the user's computer stays resident unless manually deleted. A session cookie, meanwhile, only saved the time a computer is on, and thus automatically lose as soon as you close your browser. They have something in common: both can be manipulated.
Developers often rely on data retrieved from the cookies, simply because they have developed the code and therefore must be good, right? Incorrect. Hackers can easily modify a cookie (and in some cases live data of the meeting) to mislead a website to give them access to a restricted page.
When designing your system never trust user input, whether it comes directly from visitors, or indirectly through cookies. Try to limit the amount of data that are stored in cookies, especially if it is data should not be made available to the public. A good rule is to treat all data that is stored in an end user's machine as a suspect.
MySpace.com was attacked by a trojan (JS / SpaceStalk-A) earlier this year, who stole the information stored in cookies and transmitted to a remote server. This information theoretically could contain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and Internet preferences.
4.2 Authentication
If your site contains areas that are only intended for certain customers or subscribers, you need a way for visitors to identify before access [8].
There are several ways to authenticate users: basic authentication, digest authentication and HTTPS.
• The Basic authentication allows a user name and password to be visible within the Web application. Even if the content is not particularly restricted secret this is better avoid, because a user could use the same password in many places. A Sophos survey showed that 41% of users use the same password for all online activity, whether it is a banking site or a local community forum [15]. Try to protect your users from this error by using an authentication method safer.
• Digest authentication - all popular servers and browsers support - encrypt the username and password is secure in the request. Stored user names and passwords, which creates a better impression on the user and reduces the chances of your server being mistreated.
• HTTPS encrypts all data transferred between the browser and the server, only the username and password. You must use HTTPS (which is based on a security system called Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL) whenever you are asking users to provide personal or private data, such as your address, credit card or bank details.
When choosing an authentication system, it is good practice to choose the best available. Anything less will care aware of the customer security and possibly expose them to unnecessary risks.
4.3 Components, libraries and Accessories
Many web developers do not have time to reinvent the wheel. When asked to add a feature that is common in other parts of the easiest way is source of a package that already contains the necessary component and customize it. Outsourcing is mainly with complex, feature-rich applications such as micro- blogs, forums and content management systems (CMS).
The reason for using pre-built and customizable systems are obvious: it saves time and money.
Like all pieces of software, however, supplements may contain errors and so it is wise to keep an eye on the packages that are in use and update them regularly. The popularity of some of these packages they can instill a sense of confidence to mislead the public and many of the popular products have been found to be operating, even when apparently installed and configured correctly.
Popular server applications that have had problems in the past critical exploitable bugs are:
• WordPress (blogging software).
• phpBB (forum software).
• CMS Made Simple (Software CMS).
• PHPNuke (CMS Software).
• bBlog (blogging software).
Many of the above (and similar) add-ons are widely used, making them attractive targets for hackers, because they increase greatly the number of victims as possible. Since most of the operating system and HTTPD software can automatically update many developers set and forget "certain characteristics, but forget to update the various supplements: a dangerous mistake.
Once again, the golden rule here is as before if you need it, get rid of it! If your hosting provider supplies such features By default, disable. If you can not disable them, then you should think about finding a new supplier.
4.4 Log Files
The server logs are a very important matter in the management of a website. Most HTTP servers can be configured to store access logs and error logs, and this should be enabled at all times, as it may be important when conducting a review.
Also should be reviewed periodically as they can provide a better understanding of the threats that face web sites. Log files give an idea of any possible infringement recording, in great detail, each access of a single success or tried a site.
5. Breaking the code
Writing secure code is not always as easy as it sounds. Not only is an advanced programmer, but also one who is knowledgeable about security issues purposes [9]. There are whole books dedicated to writing secure code and therefore only cover the basics here [13].
• Always enable global variables that can be initialized by a purpose GET or POST request false.
• Turn off error reporting and to ensure that log to submit the application in place, as this information can help the attackers cause a similar problem and then work to expose vulnerabilities.
• Do not trust any user data and always use filter functions to be removed SQL special characters and escape sequences.
5.2 SQL injection
SQL injection can be used to attack websites that interact with databases. Occurs when the input unfiltered designated by the user is used in an SQL query.
SQL queries can be used to query a database, inserting data into a database or modify / Delete data in a database. A lot of modern web sites use scripting and SQL to dynamically generate page content. user input is often used in SQL queries, and this can be dangerous, hackers can try to integrate invalid SQL code within the input data. Unattended This malicious SQL can be run successfully on the server.
Take the following PHP code:
$ Firstname = $ _POST ["Name"];
mysql_query ("SELECT * FROM users WHERE name name = 'Name $'");
After submitting your name to the form of the material, the SQL query will return a list of users who have their first name. If I put my name "Chris" in the form, the SQL query would be:
"SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = name 'Chris'"
This is a valid claim and work as you would expect, but what would happen if instead of my name, put me in something like "', DROP TABLE, #"? Subsequently, the balance would be:
"SELECT * FROM users WHERE first_name last_name =''; DROP TABLE users; # '"
The semicolon allows multiple commands to be executed, one after another. Suddenly, the simple assertion is now a complex three-part statement:
SELECT * FROM users WHERE name surname ='';
DROP TABLE users;
# '
The original statement is useless, and can be ignored. The second statement tells the database to drop (delete) the entire table and the third uses the character '#' which tells MySQL to ignore the rest of the line.
This is particularly dangerous and can be used to display sensitive data fields to update or delete / remove the information. Some database servers data can still be used to execute system commands through SQL.
Fortunately this type of vulnerability is easily avoided by validating of user input. In PHP there is a special function for spoiling possible SQL injection code named "mysql_real_escape_string." This function be used to filter the data that is passed to an SQL statement.
5.3 XSS (cross-site scripting)
This type of attack focuses on websites that display the data provided by the user. Instead of trying to control the database with malicious input, the attacker tries to attack code own web site with malicious output.
Many disposal sites usernames of each visitor in a database so they can show a specific name when the user logged in. For an attacker is a simple thing to create a false account, but rather malicious code into the username field instead of a name. These attacks are usually made with malicious scripts Javascript then loads the content from another website. The database stores what you think is the username, but it is actually code malicious. Later, when the site tries to display the username in the top of the page, the malicious code is executed without notice. Because the code could, depending on the circumstances, do just about anything, this is a very real concern, and often overlooked by developers. In recent history many high-profile web sites have been subjected to cross-site scripting attacks, such as MySpace, Facebook and Google Mail.
Take the following PHP code:
first name = $ _POST ['Name'];
echo "Your name is $ name";
After submitting your name to the web, the site website will display on the page. If I put my name "Chris" on the way, the message said, "Your name is Chris."
What if we decide to use "<script> alert (" You just got hacked !");</ script> "instead of my name?
Unfortunately, XSS attacks can sometimes be difficult to defend against because they depend on correct input filtering and output, then the validation of each field can only be modified by a user. This includes data retrieved from GET and POST requests and queries that have been returned from the database.
If you use PHP is a number of packages that can help filter out easily, an example is CodeIgniter [5]. On the other hand, is not a native PHP function called "htmlspecialchars" that can be used to filter the output.
6. A study of how easy it is
While researching this paper I decided to see how easy it would be to find examples of data leakage and so searched Google the name of the default log file to a common FTP client. I found thousands of websites that were showing publicly (and unknowingly, indexing) this FTP record file seemingly unimportant. Each was a shining example of data leakage.
99.07.16 08:53 A x: xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx home.html -> <hostname> / xx / www / xxxxxx-xxx / xxxxhome.html
From this I learned several interesting things:
• The <site name> gave me the name of the web.
• The <name if the user name in Linux / BSD.
• The host> <name supplied the server name.
This tells me the following about the host:
• The name and web server IP.
• The path remote copy.
• The local path that was copied.
This information is gold dust to any criminal, as you know the name host and user name that he or she may try to access administrator. They could also simply find the web hosting company number phone or email and try to get the password through social engineering.
The latter is usually easier to attack your own web server as many hosting companies carrying out minimum safety checks before delivery of security credentials. This may be due they often are contacted by individual web contractors who are building a site on behalf of a third, and so too are used to receive calls requesting credentials account or password reset.
I have done this several times - legitimately of course - and only one of the four companies asked required the original business to give permission.
Yes, it really is as easy as that.
About the Author
This article was provided by Sophos and is reproduced here with their full permission. Sophos provides full data protection services including: security software, encryption software, antivirus, and malware.
Google I/O 2009 - Implement Your Own Visualization Datasource
A new customer made a comment out of hand today. He wondered why almost every writer gets strong urges not writing. "Suddenly, the plants need watering, the dog needs petting, clothing, should double in the same time." She laughed sheepishly. "I think at times that fall in my hands and announce that they could be used to write, I suddenly possessed by an irresistible urge to clean closets, skim milk in Internet to conceal any fact, or, finally, finish reading the book that started last month. It's worse than craving chocolate, and just as stupefying! "
The writers have it tough. The thing I most want to do, we do not. My ex-husband, who was a journalist at the time, dragged home a snippet of a quote. "Nobody likes to write, but everyone likes to have written." I'm not sure who owns the award, but I'd bet it is a professional writer. I am not inclined to write unless there is an imminent deadline. Maybe that's why so few authors actually published. Finishing a proposal or the first draft of a work of fiction is so usually a self-imposed deadline.
I used to think that was the fear of criticism or rejection that kept most of the script writers. But now having been a writer all my life, and work with thousands of them as an agent, I think it is just the tip of the, well, pool cue tip, to avoid cliché. My father a legendary pool player and former only in his own mind, remember the people who were nervous about taking the shot that continually chalk his cue. It's the same with us, Right? Clutter and distract us and complain they do not have the time or appropriate circumstances for writing. As for me, if I am not alone in a cabin in Big Bear with a plate hot chocolate biscuit (or in a hurry, oatmeal raisin), compared with Fieldstone fireplace with snow falling outside in my favorite shoes imitation leopard skin, How could I expect to leave any value in prose? Simply, I can not write unless conditions are perfect. That's what I'm saying. That's what my writers I am told.
The question in my mind is always "Why are the writers not only forced to do so?" I gave a seminar a few years ago, when I was naive. I taught a class of eight professional speakers. I charged exorbitant fees to force through a process of creating the proposal in just three days. It was lame when we finished. I sent them home edited and complete, with only a sample chapter to finish. Six of them had chapters the sample is at the event - that had published them in the hotel. All I had to do was incorporate these changes! Five years later, I have yet to be a comprehensive proposal for any of them. What's worse is that I've learned that no other agent or editor has seen his work whether in all this time!
A deep introspection and a cup of mint tea, I decided once and for all that writers do not write the reason is because they simply know that language can not begin to communicate accurately the words in our hearts, minds and spirits. Like the Inuit who allegedly have hundreds of words to describe snow, or the ancient Greeks had six words for love, we are constrained by our limited language immediately. The first words I wrote at once disappoint us, because it can not efficiently transmit directly to the heart and mind of another, exact word you want to send.
And this is total failure. And complete success. It is the failure of all obvious ways, but how is the success is worth consideration. Because in our inability to manage our message perfectly, we're going to flayed open exposed to any interpretation of the reader. Each reader sees at work, precisely what he or she should take it. They get what they wanted, neither more nor less. The critical given a book gets another paycheck next month to be succinct and laconic. The reader who only touches the first chapters and fully carries a message different from that required for that message to check their own biased opinion in favor or against. If fifty people read our work, there will be fifty performances of the same work.
We should have learned this in college English classes, the same is the beauty of the craftsmanship and the release of the "delay writer's "malaise. Each person sees something different in the book, even the author to read it later. We are perfectly met by words, because words mean something different for each of us. Themselves are only symbols of meanings, and meanings are wholly subjective. In California, the traffic lights yellow means "hurry up!" In Chicago, that is, "Slow down!" The words that come to see us in his own austere beauty, is adhere to our vision of what you want and need from the text that we are consuming.
The next time you set your fingertips on the keyboard, or pen to parchment, remember that your efforts to convey a clear message just sublime and efforts. A whole world of possible interpretations that exists behind each phrase in turn, each image word picture. They are willing to allow all those who choose to enjoy having in their writing what they prefer, as a rich banquet table. Then released to write what is true and has meaning for you, what is real in the best language they are able to use. With clarity, logic and accuracy, you are free to the flow of words onto the page. Those who will occupy his only work of its own myopia. His work is complete when the words have been spent and are there, self-satisfied and lift on the page.
(C) 2007, Keller Media, Inc. Want to use this article in your publication? Articles welcome as long as article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links made live.
About the Author
Wendy Keller is Senior Agent at Keller Media, Inc. She's been selling books for other writers since 1989 and meanwhile has had 29 of her own books published under 8 pseudonyms. She helps successful people become famous authors and writers through her Fame Finders programs at http://www.famefinders.com. For more information about Wendy and her company visit http://www.KellerMedia.com.
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