Like a dignified dowager being escorted into a drawing room, the glistening white ship moved up New York's harbor last week. A Navy blimp, helicopters, patrol boats, tugs and water-tossing fireboats hovered around her. A "home-longing pennant"—42 meters long for the 42 months she was abuilding—fluttered from her aftermast. Other liners roared their welcomes to the Swedish American Line's Kungsholm* newest addition to the North Atlantic fleet and a big sister to the Gripsholm.
Far from the fastest (19 knots) or biggest (22,071 tons) member of that fleet, the Kungsholm justified...