SHIPS OF THE U.S. MERCHANT MARINE 



ON THE morning of December 7, 1941, the Lurline was homeward 

 bound from Honolulu on her regular run. News of the Japanese 

 attack was handed to the Captain by the wireless operator at 10:15 ship's 

 time. 



The Lurline was immediately diverted from her course, her speed in- 

 creased- to full ahead, and her crew instructed to secure her for water- 

 tightness below, and for the necessary blackout. Naval and military offi- 

 cers aboard gathered together and formed a staff to enforce wartime 

 safety measures. At 17:00 the passengers were called to the ship's lounge, 

 and the Captain briefly explained the nature of the emergency and re- 

 quested the cooperation of all in maintaining the blackout. 



The tense race for safety will be remembered always by those aboard — 

 the great white ship shining in the bright moonlight, racing for home at 

 her full 22 knots, while her passengers in life jackets scanned the horizon, 

 hoping for a protective blanket of fog or a heavy rainstorm. 



At 02:00 on the morning of December 10, the Lurline slipped under 

 the Golden Gate Bridge, just as the air-raid sirens plunged the city into 

 darkness for the second time that night. 



Immediately an unavoidable devastation of her luxurious fittings was 

 begun. The great liner was to be transformed quickly into a troop trans- 

 port. The sumpmous furnishings of staterooms and public rooms were 

 all removed; exquisite mother-of-pearl inlays and beautiful wood panel- 

 ing were boarded over, though murals and other large decorations were 

 necessarily left exposed to the ravages of crowded wartime use. Tiers of 

 bunks were installed, and the efficient plain equipment of fighting craft ; 

 the gleaming hull was covered with coats of admiralty gray. 



Today the Lurline and her sister ships, the Monterey and the Mariposa, 

 are completely renovated for peacetime use. In rebuilding the trio, 500 

 miles of wiring were removed and replaced by fifty carloads of new elec- 

 tric cable; 310,000 square feet of rubber tile and 90,000 lineal feet of tile 

 trimming were laid as an interior covering for the steel decks, at an ap- 



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