Some pictures of the family visiting the waterfront on various occasions between 1955 and 2012. I took all but one of these photographs. I think they convey a sense of the family's attachment to the sea and the ships that sail on it. Click on each picture for a larger view.
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| The picture that started it all. My grandparents, Robert Burns and Julia Murphy, aboard the American Export Lines' Independence at Pier 84 in New York on Monday morning, October 31, 1966, just prior to departing on their final transatlantic voyage. |
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| The next generation. The four children with their Mommy and Nana watch from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan as the Queen Elizabeth 2 proceeds to sea. |
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| Steven, Michael, James, and Miss Karen visit the schoolship State of Maine at the State Pier in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on July 1, 1999. |
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| Steven and Michael with the cable ship Global Mariner also at the State Pier in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on August 5, 2001. |
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| My three sons with the Cunard Line's Caronia at the Block Falcon Cruise Terminal in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 13, 2001. |
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| The three boys pose with the Dutch freighter Schippersgracht at the State Pier in Fall River, Massachusetts, on August 27, 2001. |
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| Underway aboard the ferry Governor Herbert H. Lehman, the boys watch the outbound tanker Falcon and the inbound container ship Zim Mediterranean pass each other off St. George, Staten Island, New York, on a hazy August 23, 2002. |
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| The next day, August 24, 2002, the three boys pose in the rain in front of the fabled United States at Pier 82 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
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| Before my time. My grandparents sailed from New York for Le Havre, France, aboard the United States on June 24, 1955. My father took this photograph of them with my mother and older brother on sailing day. |
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| Back to the younger generation. Michael and Steven stand on the stone beach at Orient Point, Long Island, New York, on a cold April 26, 2003. They have disembarked from the ferry Susan Anne after completing a voyage from New London, Connecticut. |
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| The million dollar view. Sunrise over Campobello Island, New Brunswick, seen from Eastport, Maine, on June 23, 2003. The children arose very cheerfully at 3:15am in order to see this. |
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| A wedding aboard ship. James poses in the Crow's Nest Lounge of the Holland America Line's Nieuw Amsterdam in Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sunday, February 5, 2012. Behind him the container ship Melbourne Strait is departing. |
