A sad, but inevitable end to a great ship

 

The SS United States was the fastest ocean liner ever built.  She snatched the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage, both east-bound to Europe and west-bound to the USA, and never relinquished it to another passenger liner.

The advent of jet transport aircraft doomed the transatlantic passenger shipping market, and she was too expensive to operate on other routes or as a cruise liner.  For decades she's languished at moorings in Philadelphia while efforts were made to develop economically viable plans for her future.  Sadly, that process has now come to an end.

The SS United States and Penn Warehousing have officially settled their two-year-long dispute and the ship will now be turned into an artificial reef in accordance with a museum in Okaloosa County, Florida.

. . .

The statement continued by saying that since they couldn't save the ship in its current state and were under the time constraint of the court order, they had one of two options: scrap the boat or convert it into an artificial reef. The conservancy decided to go with the latter.

"This next chapter of the SS United States' story will bring tens of thousands of people annually from around the world to experience her," Gibbs said. "Okaloosa County has now allocated more than $10 million to reactivate the SS United States as the world's largest artificial reef in tandem with the conservancy's land-based museum and visitor center."

According to Gibbs, the conservancy is committed to creating a state-of-the-art museum infusing modern-day technology with original artifacts and artwork from the SS United States. They plan to incorporate one or both of the ship's funnels, radar mast and recreate areas on the ship using original materials. 

As for the next step, once the conservancy transfers the vessel's title over to Okaloosa County, the ship will leave Philadelphia's waters and head to Norfolk, Virginia, for extensive preparations for reefing over the next several months.

There's more at the link, and in the video report below.

It's sad that so few of the truly historical ships from the past have been preserved.  Britain has done moderately well with nineteenth-century vessels and a few from the twentieth, but in most other cases wars and catastrophes have destroyed famous ships and left few memories of them.  I suppose preserving the United States wasn't really an economical option, but I still regret her passing.  She was an icon of her age.

Author Stephen Ujifusa has written an excellent book about not only the ship and her designer, but of the entire transatlantic travel era that inspired her.

I have it in my library.  It's an entertaining and informative read for all those interested in ships and the sea.  Recommended.

Peter