I recall, not personally, a voyage aboard the Rex ca 1936/'37 which saw passengers killed by being thrown about.
One of my... favorite....aspects of my yearly voyage down to Bermuda in the first full night and day at sea. What the ads don't tell you, logically enough, is that there is NEVER calm water in that particular stretch of ocean. One trip Mike Poirier and I were prevented from returning to our cabin by as literal rainstorm of vomit that made the stair tower to our cabin impossible.
I persuaded one of my oldest friends to make Bermuda his first cruise. An excerpt form his email to me upon return follows, which somehow beautifully captures the glamor and romance of a sea voyage in rough weather:
"With the excitement of that over, we decided to retire to our cabin until dinner. When we were ready to leave our cabin we quickly realized a key fact about the elevator system. Yes, there were elevators. Yes, there were always people waiting in front of the elevators. However, for seven days we never actually saw the elevator doors open or anyone get in or out. Our room was on the Florida deck (#4) and there were twelve decks on the ship. That meant climbing 24 sets of stairs to get to the top each and every time.
When we walked into the dining room we were seated with a young couple whose names we never learned. She was a b!~~~ who kept his balls in her purse. As soon as the maitre d seated us she said, without dropping her voice, "Oh s~~~." We introduced ourselves and they tried to be as polite as possible without actually dry heaving. After two minutes of awkward silence, the b!~~~ rather badly explained that the "Oh s~~~" wasn't actually meant toward us and they were on the cruise with her parents and that they expected to be seated with them. We told them that we, under no circumstances, would mind switching. She went over to the table of eight where her parents were mistakenly seated and her husband began to regale us with the fact that he was relieved he wasn't sitting with her "f-cking parents" and that it was his goal to avoid them for the whole cruise. Well, in the end, he lost out, because two women traveling together agreed to switch with them. These two, our table companions for the remainder of the cruise, turned out to be the best part of the trip. One was a well off (through various misfortunes of others) New York housewife who looked exactly like Beverly D'Angelo and sounded like Gilda Radner. The other was her best friend of many years who turned down her boyfriend's engagement but kept the ring.
Between the complete circle jerk of actually getting to the pier, on the ship, etc. we were both exhausted and went to bed shortly after dinner.
Day 2 SUNDAY: We quickly realized that, being at the very back of the ship and on the bottom, we would feel and hear every turn and heave that the ship made. That first night was truly sickening, although I did not get sea sick but had the nice dizzy feeling you get when you try to read in the car. By morning, I was dying to get out of the claustrophobic cabin ( no clock and no window=no
way of actually knowing what time it was) and was greeted by some very lovely and unforgettable sights. As I made my way down the hall, the piles of fresh and old vomit were just so inviting. There was also vomit on the stairs and dripping from the stair railing. One of the crew was yelling at another for not cleaning it up quickly enough so that it could not be seen by any of the passengers. I climbed the twelve flights to get to the top deck for some air and was greeted by gusts of wind and rain. I sat on a lounge chair on the deck below (which was partially covered) and entertained myself and ignored my dizziness by watching people make their way from one end of the deck to the other stumbling and occasionally projectile vomiting into their towels. The breakfast buffet was even more interesting. Watching geriatrics have a walker race to the buffet line only to be pushed away as the ship heaved was classic. As well, idiots would pile the food on, eat it and then quickly just throw it back up.
A very hostile game of bingo in the afternoon and a ridiculously overpriced art auction later that evening. After another mediocre dinner, we went to bed. Fortunately, by that time, the ship had stopped rocking.
