Disruptive Technology in the News

Cruise Line to Restore Relic Ship

Today’s New York Times reports today that Norwegian Cruise Lines has purchased the largest, fastest ocean liner ever built in this country, the SS United States. More than a hundred feet longer than the Titanic, the United States set the transatlantic speed record (3 1/2 days) more than fifty years ago.

When I was a boy, my family sailed to France on the United States. Because another passenger changed his mind at the last minute, we got bumped into First Class with fellow travelers Burt Lancaster and Rossano Brazzi. The dining room introduced me to caviar and squab under glass. Despite a mighty storm which left many passengers heaving in their staterooms, we made it from New York to France in four days.

Just shy of her 18th birthday, the SS United States was decommissioned and has spent the last three decades rusting in Philadelphia Harbor. Why? The jumbo jet.

In a classic case of “disruptive technology,” ocean liners lost their market to customers who valued time more than comfort.

Posted by Jay Cross at April 15, 2003 01:56 PM | TrackBack