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原文传递 Relic of the past should be dead in the water

题名：	Relic of the past should be dead in the water
正文语种：	eng
作者：	Patrick Burnson
摘要：	It's easy to be nostalgic about the "golden age" of passenger ocean liners now, especially when one considers how the vulgar mega-cruise vessels driving global tourism in the 21st century have replaced them.The U.S. West Coast was once home to a fleet of Matson Line legends that operated scheduled voyages up until the early 1970s, and a few old timers may even recall when cargo tramps booked passage for travelers who had the luxury of sailing on inducement calls to exotic Pacific Rim ports. Meanwhile, on the East Coast the storied Queen Mary made regular Atlantic transits to The Continent until she was sent to Long Beach to anchor as a hotel and venue for special events. Since then, alas, the vessel has passed through multiple organizations, resulting in decades or disappointment, bankruptcies, and failure.Now the Long Beach City Council is considering the transfer of Pier H, which includes the ill-fated Queen, to the Long Beach Harbor Department. John McLaurin, president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, is among the chief critics of this idea."Instead of debating whether to transfer responsibility of the Queen Mary from the city to the Port of Long Beach, there should be an honest discussion about the viability of the vessel as a hotel and tourist attraction," he says. "The preceding decades of failure should guide the discussions."According to McLaurin, The Disney Corporation "smartly walked away" from the Queen Mary in the early 1990s. A news account on the structural problems of the vessel had the following quote from former Mayor Kell following the departure of Disney: "The ship is a tombstone in a cemetery no one wants to visit." McLaurin maintains that this statement is still valid 30 years later.
出版年：	2021
期刊名称：	Logistics Management
卷：	60
期：	8