Download A Man and His Ship: America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the S.S. United States AudioBook Free
At the optimum of his electricity, in the 1940s and 1950s, William Francis Gibbs was considered America's best naval architect. His pursuit to build the best possible, fastest, most beautiful ocean liner of his time, the S.S. United States, was a topic of national fascination. When completed in 1952, the ship was hailed as a technological masterpiece at the same time when "made in America" meant the best. Gibbs was an American original, on par with John Roebling of the Brooklyn Bridge and Frank Lloyd Wright of Fallingwater. Pressured to drop out of Harvard following his family's abrupt financial mess up, he overcame debilitating shyness and lack of formal training to be the visionary originator of a few of the finest ships in history. He put in 40 years thinking of the ship that became the S.S. United States. William Francis Gibbs was powered, relentless, and focused on excellence. He liked his ship, the idea of it, and the realization from it, and he dedicated himself to which makes it the epitome of luxury travel during the triumphant post-World Battle II era. Biographer Steven Ujifusa brilliantly details just how Gibbs worked and how his vision changed an industry. A Man and His Dispatch is a tale of ingenuity and enterprise, of a really remarkable quest on land and sea.
