Twelve Desperate Miles by Tim Brady Page A

Ruth in
The Babe Ruth Story
and star as Chester Riley in television’s
The Life of Riley
, met and became a close friend of Captain John on the
Contessa
. So, too, did the British actor Leo G. Carroll, who appeared in a whole slew of movies, among them
North by Northwest
,
The Desert Fox
, and
Strangers on a Train
. Like Bendix, he starred in his own 1950s television series,
Topper
.
    Along with a touch of glamour, Standard Fruit liked to promote the possibility of using its steamers for honeymoon cruises and was happy to publicize the fact that Captain John’s own daughter, Peggy, the LSU belle, and her new husband, Louis Koerner, enjoyed the comforts of the
Contessa
immediately after their May 1940 marriage.An article in the
New Orleans Times-Picayune
tells of their twelve-day voyage to Havana, Cristobal, Puerto Cabezas, and La Ceiba. According to the story, “surprise shore parties arranged by Captain John” awaited the couple at each stop, and for the bride “the whole idea was perfect. She could think of no better way to start a happy marriage than under a tropical moon with her father steering the course.” The groom was said to be happy with thecircumstances too (in fact, John’s grandson, Louis Koerner, wasprobably conceived on the cruise).
    The
Contessa
had a sister ship in the Standard Fruit fleet, the
Cefalu
, which John had captained in 1931 during the Nicaraguan crisis. It was about the same size, was christened the same year (1930), and cost the same amount: $999,250. They became the pride of the Standard Fleet when they arrived in New Orleans that year and were nicknamed the “Million Dollar Twins” in company promotional materials. Each had two decks above, two decks below, and three storage decks for carrying bananas.
    On the
Contessa
, there were ten staterooms on the promenade deck, along with a lounge on the foredeck and a smoking room and bar to the aft. The saloon deck, directly beneath, held an additional twenty cabins, along with the dining room. Passenger fares in the early thirties ranged from a minimum of $190 for a nine-day cruise to $580 for the two largest staterooms on the promenade.
    Two masts, front and rear, rose from the deck, along with a forty-one-foot-long forecastle, 135-foot-long bridge decks, and thirty-six-foot-long poop decks. Bananas were loaded by the stem into four refrigerated holds. Upwards of fifty thousand stems could be contained in these insulated areas, refrigerated to forty-eight to fifty-two degrees by a carbon dioxide gas system, with blowers working constantly to circulate the air.The holds were partitioned by portable walls that allowed the bananas to be loaded and hung.
    The smell of fruit would waft up to passengers lounging in mahogany furniture on a highly polished wooden deck made of fir or splashing in the swimming pool, which, truth be told, was only about the size of a modern-day hotel whirlpool—about twelve by twelve and filled with seawater rather than fresh. But still very popular with vacationers. The
Contessa
usually carried a trio or quartet of musicians as well.
    Meals were prepared and served by the steward’s department and could be elaborate affairs. The Sunday dinner after Captain John’s daughter’s wedding included hors d’oeuvres like pickled walnuts and crabmeatcocktails, turtle soup, fillets of trout and sliced cucumber, sautéed kidney, chicken liver and shrimp à la Newburg, and, for entrees, stuffed Vermont turkey and prime rib. These were followed by salad, cheeses, fruits, nuts, raisins, and a plum pudding in brandy sauce.

    All of this was history by the time the
Contessa
sailed from Brooklyn’s Bush Terminal a little more than a month after its arrival.Stripped of its swimming pool and its mahogany; the rattan furniture and built-in berths gone; the cabins partitioned into jam-packed sleeping quarters with pipe-framed beds for the troops crammed aboard; and the gleaming white paint and the distinctive “V” on its