Preserved Memory Project:

QUEEN ANNA MARIA, Greek Line
by Diane Kolyer

QUEEN ANNA MARIA, photo Alan Zamchick collection

Diane Kolyer:
During an Atlantic storm in October 1966 westbound on QUEEN ANNA MARIA of the Greek Line, only two people regularly made it to dinner each night in the small first class dining room, myself and a ventriloquist by the name of Senor Wences. (He was immensely popular on TV at the time, particularly known for his appearances on the "Ed Sullivan Show." For those who may remember, he was the one who had a "face" in a small wooden box. He would open it during his act and ask in his Spanish-accented English, "Tsawright?" and the face would answer in a deep voice, "Tsawright.") Then he would snap the box shut again.

Senor Wences and I spent dinner hours watching our waiter, green around the gills, lurch about with his tray, cursing the day he had met us. Senor Wences was a talented cartoonist as well as a creative ventriloquist and drew pencil sketches of flying plates, our waiter with his tray askew, etc., on sketch pads, napkins, whatever was available, while he bemoaned his decision to sail to NY from Lisbon instead of fly.

The rest of my time I spent walking, grasping the ropes strung all over the place and moving about the ship constantly, and each day covering up and going outside on the fo'c'sle deck. I would hold on to a tall pole at the side of the deck, part of a crane that lifted cargo or trunks into and out of the forward holds. This pole was very thick and always very wet, since there was a driving rain and the ship was pitching and/or rolling constantly. It was so wide that I couldn't hold on by putting my arms all the way around it, but there were some handles, I guess for ropes, and I held on to those. I did this each day for only a few minutes, for fear of being swept away.

I wandered around the ship because one thing not romantic about being in a storm at sea is THERE IS NOTHING TO DO!!! The musicians were sick, the furniture was flying, you couldn't read a book because it would make you seasick if you weren't already! There was no casino in those days but even if there was it would have been closed. All over the ship, people were laid up -- passengers and crew both. What seemed like hundreds of Italian emigrants bound for Halifax spent nights and days sleeping and eating in the beautifully appointed main tourist class salon, fearful of going below to their cabins. The officers whose duty it was to entertain the first-class passengers were either sick or busy on the bridge or sleeping an exhausted sleep.

When we were nearing Newfoundland, the seas calmed a bit but now we had a terrible fog to deal with. For a couple of days, you couldn't see anything in front or to the sides of the ship and the constant ship's horn every 2 minutes around the clock was eerie.

This was a trip I'll always remember. It was a defining moment in my life. The night before we were to arrive in New York, we passed the FRANCE, like a jewel in the darkness, filled with the excitement of her passengers' first night at sea, headed out into that awful storm we had just passed through.

It was their time to have one of life's defining moments.
- Diane Kolyer

(Diane Kolyer passed away April 2002. Thank you Diane, for your contributions to liner lore, for your willingness to share with us. You were one of the earliest contributors to the "memory project" on Maritime Matters. Your story will remain here for all to enjoy - with fond memories of our internet chats and brief visit in Miami when I sailed on SS NORWAY - Martin Cox, Maritime Matters).

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