A Fond Look Back, From Below, At America's Premier Ocean Liner

Robert Sturm, a 1956 U.S. Merchant Marine Academy graduate, spends every Thursday back on campus at Kings Point, N.Y.

- Bill Bleyer

It’s not nostalgia that draws the 82-year-old Long Island resident to make the hour drive. It’s the American Merchant Marine Museum located on the academy grounds — and specifically its collection of documents and photos of United States Lines vessels.

Sturm had a long career in the transportation industry, including two years as a junior engineer aboard the iconic ocean liner SS United States, the flagship of United States Lines. He recently published a book, SS United States: The View from Down Below, about the ship and his 44 transAtlantic voyages from 1957 to 1959.  

Most of his career — 44 years — was with the Long Island Rail Road, its parent Metropolitan Transportation Authority and an engineering consulting firm. He is currently writing a book on the railroad’s history after two volumes on New York rail history. But he takes a weekly break from writing to travel to the museum to serve as a volunteer archivist. His role is to organize and catalog boxes of documents and photographs the museum acquired when United States Lines sailed into oblivion in 1992.

The files of the most interest, naturally, are those about SS United States. “The ship is the epitome of American genius when it comes to naval architecture and marine engineering, both in design and construction and in operation,” he said with obvious affection. “It was truly a magnificent piece of work.”