Speakers Bureau: The Hundred Year Race

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Join us online with Dan Wood, a docent at The Mariners’ Museum and Park, when he presents on the origins of USS United States which was built in 1950–51 in Newport News and considered a technological marvel of its day.

Viewers are welcome to send Dan comments or questions, which he will answer following the lecture. 

About the presentation: For over a century, steamship companies from Europe and North America competed for a much-coveted prize that never officially existed - the “Blue Riband.” It was an accolade for the fastest sea journey between two places for a passenger liner between New York and Southampton, specifically the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean. The list of title-holders is dominated by European ships, many of them truly legendary, but in the end the record remains with SS United States. Built in Newport News, this sprinting giant set a record that has not been beaten by another transatlantic passenger ship since its maiden voyage in 1952.