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.
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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
11 comments:
Well, at least the Queen Mary has been preserved in Long Beach .
I can't imagine that any of the current "mega cruise ships " , or as I call them, "bulk carriers", are worth preserving .
Just stopping by to add my 2 cents. I never heard of the SS United States until a few years ago. Maybe that was part of the problem, no one really knew she was there or her importance.
But in reference to preserved ships the USS Olympia is still at Penn's Landing. They do a great job keeping her afloat. Spread the word and visit her if you're in Philly.
https://www.phillyseaport.org/cruiser-olympia/
I had the pleasure of being a passenger on 2 occasions: 1965 to LeHavre and back to NYC September 1969 ! Wonderful experience.
I remember the other United States and Constellation and the Ranger and Saratoga and Intrepid and the rest. I am glad we saved the Midway though. It's a nice save and a nice place to visit if you're in San Diego.
Ships and boats tend not to last. The Pacific Princess (of Love Boat fame) - Scrap. The Mighty USS Enterprise - Scrap. The Calypso - Sunk, recovered, and burned - rotting away. The US Presidents yacht - Sold by Jimmy Carter, dry docked, rotting away. The yacht Natalie Wood was on was found abandoned and scrapped. The Lexington down in Corpus is actually sitting on the bottom.
Still pissed that they failed to preserve USS Enterprise CV-6, since it's one of the most decorated warships we had and was the only surviving example of the Yorktown class, to say nothing of its record at Midway.
I think I saw it back in the 80s. One story they told about that record setting passage was that the passengers complained about going on deck because of the wind speed, so once the record was set they throttled it back a little on subsequent trips.
I've been working for the company that designed that ship for 34 years; and I knew people who knew William Francis Gibbs. This is a big deal to me, and I wish there was a better fate for this vessel...
I worked all around her from 2009-2012 and on-and-off since. She was stripped and robbed, and in a bad way and the Ol' Yeller treatment is probably the most respectful and dignified ending for her.
I saw photos of my first ship, the ship I spent 10 years on as OS, AB and bosun... well, half of her, in the mud, at the breakers' yard. I would see the SS United States spared that indignity.
"The advent of jet transport aircraft doomed the transatlantic passenger shipping market..."
And yet more people book cruises annually now than ever did when passenger liners were transportation, rather than the destination itself.
Passenger liners didn't understand how their business model had changed.
Seeing what air travel has devolved to, if they'd had a better grasp, they'd be part of the cruising boom. Not least of which because unruly passengers are much more easily dealt with aboard ship than they are on an airline flight.
The loss of United States is a minor regret.
I've seen firsthand what's happened to the Queen Mary.
Even as a parked dockside hotel and museum, they can barely stay ahead of the rust and keep the lights on.
The lack of interest in such ships from the general population is bottomless. And the box office is never wrong.
Looks like our president (?) Joe Biden has missed an opportunity to score some green points. He could have issued an EO to convert the ship to battery power, which surely would have made her competitive to the existing super-hippo-sized monster cruise ships. That sleight-of-hand has worked well for automobiles.
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