Two Journeys to America

Forty years ago, a young German woman, Irmgard Hofmann, sailed into New York on the M.S. Berlin. Her one-way ticket from Bremerhaven cost about $200. To commemorate her first trip to New York and sail into New York Harbor in style, the now-retired airline passenger agent treated herself to a birthday present by booking passage on the Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship in the world. This time her ticket cost $2,250, which was a discount because she booked it a year and a half ago. I was told the ship would arrive at 6:30 a.m. on Friday and for some strange reason, I had this naive notion that I'd be able to see the passengers disembark, so I arose at 4:30 and took the 6 a.m. ferry from Staten Island. As my taxi headed toward the terminal on 12th Avenue, I noticed a large white building on the north side of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. The huge edifice turned out to be the Queen Mary 2, which had just sailed into port minutes earlier. Note to anyone planning to meet the QM2: It will take forever to unload the more than 2,000 passengers, so go back to sleep for a few extra hours or you'll be waiting for hours. Note also that security is tight and there is no way to find out who is traveling on the ship because no one in the terminal has a manifest available. I had no way of confirming if Ms. Hofmann had boarded the ship in Southampton, as she had planned, and after running around in circles trying to extract any information from the Cunard staff, I gave up and settled in for the long wait. Three NYPD officers in SWAT gear stood around in different areas, their machine guns at the ready. A tall, helmeted officer politely answered my questions and explained he was in the Emergency Services Unit of the NYPD and they arrive in convoys at various locations. While he was talking, his eyes were scanning the entire area for any signs of nefarious activity by would-be terrorists. Of course, there is heightened security around the city these days, and it was reassuring to see these men taking their jobs so seriously. I sat on a rickety row of seats and chatted with others waiting patiently. One young family was waiting with sleepy toddlers for the grandparents to arrive when another man came and told them that due to security it would probably be hours before the boat was emptied of passengers. No matter, everybody said, we'll wait. It's amazing how patiently one accepts the tightened security measures since September 11. Shortly after 10 a.m., my interview came through the double doors, and the first thing I asked was if the trip was worth it. "Not the ship, "she answered, "but coming into the harbor again definitely was worth every penny." Later on, after the weariness of the transatlantic crossing had passed, Ms. Hofmann pulled out a diary she wrote 40 years ago and read me some of its excerpts. In 1964, she had awakened at 6 a.m. full of excitement and noted the light of the harbor in the distance. She hurriedly ate a bite of breakfast and then went outside for her first glimpse of America. "The Statue of Liberty took my breath away," she wrote and went on to describe Manhattan's famed skyline. She was full of happiness and excitement. She had seen it all before in the movies, but to see it in reality was "indescribable." She had come to America and had only intended to spend a year. She wanted to see for herself whether New York was like all those Doris Day movies she had seen in Germany. It was, and in 1980, Ms. Hofmann became an American citizen. The process took only six months. I'll have a hard time explaining this to my friend from El Salvador, who waited 12 years. What was the QM2 like, I asked? The trip took six nights and after a few nights, Ms. Hofmann was frankly bored. The evenings are quite formal and she's more of a windbreaker type of dresser. Her room was well appointed but it didn't have any windows. As for the meals, she wasn't impressed by the service. Lunches were served cafeteria style and it was often difficult to find seating. When she finally found a spot, there was no cutlery on the table. The weather was too cool to take advantage of the many swimming pools on board. But the ship was her only means of re-enacting the transatlantic crossing, which she was determined to do. Her only other choice was a freighter, which would have taken longer. As the Queen Mary 2 entered New York harbor, Irmgard Hofmann choked up, viewing the Statue of Liberty standing there in the misty morning. "Oh yes, it was all worth it," she said. She had a bottle of champagne and drank a toast to the magnificent skyline she had first seen 40 years earlier - a skyline that did not have twin towers either.