To England, and Back Aboard the QEII

by M'Ellen Rowland Earlier this scribe told you that she and her husband Jerry were flying to England on April 15 and would return on the IV Century Cruise of the Queen Elizabeth II commemorating Billy Penn’s landing in Philadelphia 300 years ago. For us it was the trip of a lifetime. Short of landing on the moon, we can think of nothing more exciting. It got off to a dreary start. The 747 was two hours late taking off. The four-hour wait at the airport wasn’t too bad. We knew 'lots of fellow passengers and we were all on a high. The flight was a different matter — sardines never had it so cramped. You couldn’t bat

greatly in the ten years since we’ve seen it. Many more Orientals, Polynesians and especially Arabs. .The unemployment has risen to 338,000 in London alone. We were.most aware of this at the British Museum where many of the guides had difficulty understanding English (or our use of it). Margaret Thatcher has her problems too, Mr. President. Inflation was beyond belief, we paid almost $35 for postcards, not counting postage. SOME THINGS, happily, remain the same. Impeccable manner of British strangers, cheerful and humourous remarks of Bobbies, little graffitti, inexpensive theater, old landmarks and those

them we took a boat trip on the Thames and saw Hampton Court where Henry VIII and Cardinal Woolsey once lived. FINALLY THE great day arrived! We boarded QE II (renamed the Welcome for this voyage only). As expected we were awed by its size, beauty and the welcoming signs and bunting aboard. The first two people we saw were Ruth Seltzer; the indefatigable Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, interviewing James Humes, the noted author and speechwriter for four presidents. Jamie vastly admires Winston Churchill, whom he knew, and gave two talks on and impressions of the great man during the

when it was discovered. But can you imagine traveling for five days with a bevy of the East Coast’s best dressed with one outfit? We understand these passengers were each given an allowance to buy clothes but how would you have liked to have been the gal who spent months selecting the perfect dresses to wear to dinner at the Art’s Club and the Captain’s cocktail party? . There were so many telebrities aboard there isn't space to mention them all, but among the 1,450 passengers were Mr. & Mrs. George Pew in the Queen Mary Suite, Mrs. Harry Ortlieb in the Queen Anne, and Mr. & Mrs. Henry McNeil in the Queen Elizabeth. It’s the only

One person died and nine others were injured.

the bridge games continued uninterrupted...

an eyelash without ruining someone’s coiffeur, or light a cigarette without bruising a seatmate. We had been promised two complimentary drinks and they ran out of liquor after the first was served. Sleep was absolutely impossible and breakfast was to nauseating to look at, let alone eat. BY THE TIME we got the luggage on board the bus to our respective hotels we were four hours off schedule. We stayed in the Bristol Hotel at Piccadilly and Berkeley Square. This is one top-drawer establishment! Lovely spacious rooms and closets, luxurious decor, excellent service and the best food in London, we thought. The city has changed

PHILADELPHIA - The ever-present Andrea Lippi was, of course, on hand to meet the Queen Elizabeth 2 when the queen of the Cunard line sailed up the Delaware last week in the historic retracing of William Penn’s voyage here 300 years earlier. Cpt Lippi, a longtime publicist-poet and traveler, recently returned to Cape May County to reestablish roots further inland from his former Jersey Cape base of operations at Cape May Point. He and his wife now live in Goshen. AS THE QUEEN was docking here April 25, Lippi was at his vantage point atop the Quality Inn on a trans-Atlantic telephone hookup to the BBC (and later to UPI in London) providing British radio listeners with a first-person report of the QE2 docking Following a cocktail party for members of the

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•CPT.’ TO CAPTAIN. Andrea Lippi presents his latest poem to QE2 skipper Alexander Hutchinson.

roomy cabs with helpful drivers. We spent one day in the midlands with dear friends getting there by England’s wonderful suburban fast speed line. The roadbeds are so smooth we could write all our postals and making speeds up to 125 m.p.h. The countryside was delightful — with emerald green fields peppered with flowering trees, wild daffodils, periwinkle and domestic animals, mostly sheep' While there, we saw Nottingham Castle with its many caves, reputedly dug by escapees. Not a sign of Robin Hood or the Sheriff however. Another day we spent "with our British cousins who so loved Stone Harbor last year. With

press, travel agents and dignitaries, Lippi was off to Packer Ave. Terminal for a presentation to Cpt. Alexander Hutchinson, skipper of the famous ship. Aboard the luxury liner, Lippi presented Cpt. Hutchinson with Philadelphia la Proud (To welcome the Welcome QE2), a 15-line poem commemorating the historic docking and the history behind the voyage. AND THERE WAS even more history to come, as Lippi noted earlier this week when he made copies of his poem available to the local media: Just a few days after the Queen sailed out of the Delaware on her return voyage to England, the liner was pressed into service by the British government for troop transport in the Falkland Island crisis. For Lippi, the captain-without-a-ship, being steeped in history is nothing new. He Hgs been in the right place at the right time for more than two decades. Locally, he provided a Cape May County newspaper with front row coverage of the June 1967 meeting at Hollybrush, Glassboro, of Soviet Premier Kosygin and President Johnson. And when Cape May-Lewes Ferry service was inaugurated in July 1964, Lippi was in the first car aboard the first bay liner to cross Delaware Bay the first time.

voyage. He gives these impressions worldwide and is in constant demand as a speaker. Jamie is a man of impressive size and boarded the Queen clutching an enormous stuffed white bear. The bear, won by the Count and Countess de Chene at a royal wedding ball and named the Viscount de Chene, was a gift for Jamie and Dianne's daughter, Rachel. OTHER SPEAKERS included Clement E. Conger, formerly a Philadelphian, and now curator of the White House and chairman of the Fine Arts Committee of the State Department. He gave a slide show of the rooms at the State Department and makes no bones about the way he cons or chprms generous people into^ donating precious antiques so visitors to this country become aware Americans too had a great reverance for the early artisans. Our favorite television actor, Jack Klugman, also a former Philadelphian, wore 8n Old Original Bookbinder's T-shirt when he made his first appearance. Klugman, the star of Quincy and the Odd Couple, was suffering from a bad cold but stilfmanaged to be amusing and shot back rapid answers to questions from his audience concerning everything from politics to forensic medicine. WHEN QUESTIONED about his feeling about Ronald Reagan as President, he replied, "Excellent question, next please?" Board Chairman of 0.0. Bookbinder’s, John Taxin and his wife Jean were on the cruise. Entertainment was constant: sports, speeches both informative and funny, gambling, dancing, even a hypnotist. We almost ran from one spot to another to sample a little of everything to say nothing of private parties. We ran into old friends unexpectedly — the gal who gave me my first volunteer job at Children's Hospital, when I was 16; the lawyer for whom I worked for ten years, and a friend from school days; whose brother was best man at our wedding. NOT EVERYTHING was a plus for everyone. A group from Temple University got aboard but their luggage didn’t. The ship’s drugstores and chothes shops were opened to accommodate them

way to travel, really! STATISTICALLY, the floating palace is one-fifth of a mile long, give an inch or two, 13 stories high, has 900 rooms, 4 restaurants, 2 nightclubs. 6 bars, gambling casino, ballroom and a discotheque. Technically, she was designed with just enough beam to get through the Panama Canal, at full speed her engines generate 110,000. horsepower allowing her to travel at 30 knots (34 m.p.h.) and it costs $100,000 a day to fuel her, to say nothing of the cost of personnel. She has two propellers forward which move her laterally so she can be docked without tugs. The food is great, superb if cooked to order which passengers are.urgeti to request. The chef caters to the most esoteric tastes, anything from Vicar’s Folly (lemon sherbet with ginsoaked currants) to Shark’s Fin Soup. Some 20 pounds of caviar is served nightly, the ship buys onefifth of the world’s supply annually. We were forced to change course because of hurricane-force winds and iceberg sightings, but at all times it was like walking on a billiard table. The change did cause a 4-hour delay in docking however. THE LAST DAY was the gayest, most sentimental, most exciting ^and, ultimately, the most exhausting of all. Everyone appeared in the dining rooms as soon as they opened. Most of the gals wore red, white and/or blue. All passengers staked out their favorite seats on various decks or strode aljout constantly. v Little boats, looking like water beatles at a distance, started coming out to meet us until we were surrounded by a veritable armada. Aircraft quickly arrived on , the scene to greet us by wig-wagging or coming so close we could see them wave. This became a little scary and later we learned our fears were well founded. The Coast Guard arrived to warn the small boats away and I do mean ^mall. Among the hundreds of boats escorting ib were motor yachts, sailing yachts, outboards, a kayak and even a canoe. WE ESTABLISHED squatter’s rights to seats directly above the rope boarding ladder and nervously watch river pilots, the news media and

If It’s Historic, That Must be Lippi

card printed in Great Britain. At 37 ft. shy of l.OOflft. in length, she still has a service speed of some 30 knots.

Custom’s people come up the ladder (not pnviously, I might add). Sitting with us were Mary and Frank Fannelli of Bryn Mawr and Stone Harbor. Peggy and Cornelius O’Brien of Haverford and Long Port and - Dick Haggarty of Avalon. t As the boats, filled with people waving flags and cheering converged on us, Peggy O'Brien called out ‘‘Well girls, we’re all Queens for a day today’" and so it secnyA to all of

us.

We marveled at the thousands of people and cars lined up to watch the majestic Queen pass and felt we could have touched the sightseers in cars crawling over the Delaware Memorial and Commodore. Barry bridges as we passed under them. OUR . FEARS were realized when we heard that a small plane had crashed but relieved to learn that both pilot and passenger had been saved. People also came running from the port side saying that a 30-ft. boat had exploded alongside the ship and people were tossed out like rag dolls and pulled from the water by other boaters. There’s no happy ending to this tale, One person died and none others were injured. Amidst all the excrtement, and it was

at fever pitch, the birdge games continued uninter rupted in the card room . Watching the Queen turn ed 180 degrees and pushed by tiny tugs, seemingly without effort, were the final happy moments aboard. We got our coats , and carry-off luggage Having Men thru Customs who had come aboard at Lewes with Jhe press and the pilots, we invisioned a speedy disembarkation. Not so. We sat dismally (some of us were furious) for 4 and 1/2 hours until we were permitted to leave, without food or drink (bathroom facilities were, available to the last, thank Allah). IF YOU CAN imagine 1,450 tired, irate people going thru Customs for the second time, finding their luggage and then locating their trasnportaiton home in the dark, you’ve got the picture, it was utter chaos and totally devasting to the moral. But for the help of the 2,000 Philadelphia policemeh who did yeomen service, it might have spoiled an historic occa-

sion.

However that also passed, and we are left with unforgettable happy memories which will never

fade.

Editors note—M'Ellen Rowland's 7Mile Beach Notes column will resume next week.

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