I ate with the engineers and the deck officers. The Captain was feared by some but was really funny and said the darndest things. Stuff Captain Stubing would never say! The same with the Chief Engineer. I believe he was enamoured by one particular redhead guest who I thought was over proportioned and rather heavily painted. She apparently wanted to make his cruise memorable as well. We got a lengthy description of just exactly what he had planned to do on his private encounter, even working in the furniture and fixtures of his quarters. WE wished him the best and hoped that she had the gymnastic capabilities aerobic capacity to make for a pleasant evening. The raunchy toad! I even volunteered to run the Super 8 movie camera.

My cabin was on “Sub Lower E Deck”, I think. Freebie for sure but very much appreciated by me. I would joke that I had to “mind my crown jewels” hopping over the propeller shaft whilst entering my bunk. I was 30 feet into fish level for sure. I heard the noisy strut bearing all night long.

The crew was talking about an elderly couple having a horrible fight at night. The lady passed away from a stroke and had to be put in the freezer coffin made for such circumstance. However, both of the ship’s large A/C units broke down one morning in Kuai and there was a mad scramble to get at least one going. A series of huge starting resistors looking like giant heating grids blew out in a big shower of sparks. I put in my 2 cents worth and calculated resistance values for several other sets of these big resistors and made some jumper straps and down home rigging. We got the big A/C compressor back up and running and the lady stayed cool. So did the rest of the ship. The other A/C compressor was already apart for 6 months waiting on parts….very hard to find old parts.

Then the next morning I awoke to sewage stench in my cabin. Something else broke. I went to the engineering space where 2 guys were in the starboard engine room bilge removing an end cap off a 12″ sewage line. I was just there watching, being a looky loo like 10 other guys, and commented that it would be smart to leave 2 bolts in the flange loose and bang the cap with a hammer to free it. “And don’t stand in front of it, neither!” Well, I was about 30 feet away talking to the 3rd Engineer when I heard a gushing sound followed by cussing like I never could imagine. Both guys got flooded by sewage from head to toe when the poopey line broke free. I myself lost my breakfast into the bilge from the rife stench. There was some real snickering going on in the Officer’s Mess that evening.

I also had a secret admirer 2 cabins away. The room steward told me that the 21 year old girl was away from her home (Ohio?) for the first time and wanted the heat of Maritime Cruise Passion. I was freshly married and had to do everything short of welding her door shut to keep her from bothering me. The night before her cruise was over, she was pretty miffed that NONE of the cabin boys wanted her even though she threw herself at their feet. Thinking something was wrong with her, she said she wanted to jump off the little railed overlook on the main deck and drown. Apparently she didn’t know that the Room Stewards were all gay. She was astounded. For that matter, most of the cruise guests were elderly or were very young children. There were very few 20’s to 60’s in that crowd. She picked the wrong cruise on which to get lucky.

I loved the ship and it was a real treat to be on it. It was also nice to be paid to be there and to have free roam of it. I would imagine it would be a nightmare to restore. All of the pipes were asbestos insulated and everything was manually operated requiring a huge and expensive engineering crew. I hope it lives on.

The Constitution was her sister ship and carried Grace Kelly to her waiting Prince in Monaco.
Both ships are nostalgic and were the first ships to fly the American Flag in Hawaii.
I have many fond memories of working on the Indy and I’m sorry to see her go.

I have sailed on the Indy over 2 dozen times, she was my ship of choice, a grand lovely lady. I almost cried when I saw the photos of her sitting in SFO harbour. I agree that NCL deserves whatever comes their way. Eric, I was also on the 2000 cruise into Pearl, I videoed the ceremonies. Also I said on NCL “Pride” of Aloha in 2004 and must agree that it was the worst cruise I ever had taken. It wasn’t because it wasn’t the Indy, the service was bad, the food average and below average. We actually were basically training the waitstaff at our table.

I am pretty sure that the Indy is NOT in Alang. Who knows, maybe she will be back, miracles do happen.