Pier 35 at San Francisco

Bill Miller has just sent this gorgeous text and image: «After dinner chat on the Crystal Serenity: "As a child and then a teenager, my grandparents were very generous. They would take my brother & I on sea voyages," remembered one of our West Coast guests. "The first was over to Honolulu from San Francisco on the Lurline. The year was 1960. I still have a few me menus & ship's programs. And I have the printed passenger list. We returned on the Matsonia. It all seemed very luxurious back then. These Matson ships carried about 700 passengers each but they seemed very big at the time. I also specially remember sailing day from San Francisco – a band on deck played, crowds lined the deck and more crowds on the pierside and, as the whistles sounded, we tossed paper streamers. Departure was a special event!”»

Ainda não fui a São Francisco, mas é um dos portos na lista de futuras escalas. Esta fotografia, com os paquetes MARIPOSA e LURLINE nas cores da Matson Lines faz-me ter saudades das minhas antigas sessões visuais de barcologia nas estações marítimas à beira-Tejo há já uns bons anos. Foi cá no Tejo que conheci este MARIPOSA, com as cores da Pacific Far East Line e o urso durado na chaminé azul, depois de a Matson o ter vendido juntamente com o gémeo MONTEREY. Foi ainda no Tejo (e também no Funchal) que fotografei e me fartei de ver o ELLINIS da Chandris Lines, ex-LURLINE da Matson. Tudo isto se passou no século XX, e nada resta para além de muitas memórias, que o meu amigo Bill Miller nos trás de volta de forma magistral...