"First Cruise Together - Ocean Monarch - July 1958" by seagoingJLW

Does anyone remember the old Ocean Monarch of the Bermuda Line?

We were on our Honeymoon. Although we were married on June 30, we did not set sail until July 14. It was a two week cruise with stops at San Juan, Puerto Rico; Havana, Cuba; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI; and Nassau, Bahamas.

I had my reservations for this cruise made long before I even met Irwin. We just changed the single reservation to a double. That's how we were able to do this cruise.

Havana was a bit frightening. Castro was in the hills and we didn't know whether or not we would make this call or not until the last minute. The streets were lined with gun toting soldiers of Batista's army.

We did get to go to the Tropicana and to some other interesting clubs.

You have to remember that in those days only the public rooms on board ship were air conditioned. The cabins were ovens.

The tables in the dining room had raised edges so that the dishes wouldn't slide off. I guess they didn't have stabilizers back then.

Here is our waiter, called "Yorkie" because he was a Yorkshireman.