The Historic S.S. ‘United States,’ the Fastest Liner to Cross the Atlantic, Is Heading to a Watery Grave
Officials plan to purposefully sink the passenger ship off the coast of Florida, where it will become the world’s largest artificial reef
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The S.S. United States, the fastest liner ever to cross the Atlantic, has been moored in Philadelphia for nearly three decades. Eventually, officials plan to deliberately sink the vessel off the coast of Florida, where it will become the world’s largest artificial reef—a fate that’s been delayed once again.
“This is a large project and requires multiple steps to ensure a safe move,” as Nick Tomecek, a public information officer for Florida’s Okaloosa County (which purchased the liner) tells CNN’s Danny Freeman. “Okaloosa County is working in collaboration with federal, state and local agencies to ensure a safe move of the ship that includes requests from the Coast Guard.”
The S.S. United States is a nearly 1,000-foot-long passenger liner completed in 1951. Made mostly of lightweight aluminum, she was built for speed. The ship’s maiden voyage from New York to Cornwall, England, in 1952 broke the record for the fastest transatlantic round trip ever sailed—a title the vessel holds to this day.
“You can’t set her on fire, you can’t sink her and you can’t catch her,” as William Francis Gibbs, the ship’s designer, once said, according to the S.S. United States Conservancy, a nonprofit that previously owned the ship.
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The liner’s reduced weight and powerful engines allowed it to go “almost as fast in reverse as the Titanic could go forward,” writes the conservancy. The Titanic’s demise actually informed Gibbs’ plans for the S.S. United States: He double-lined its hull and included a second engine room.
The S.S. United States cost $78 million to build, and the American government footed two-thirds of that bill, ensuring the ship could be commandeered by the military and used to transport up to 14,000 troops at once, per CNN’s Christopher Ross.
On its many transatlantic voyages, the S.S. United States hosted four American presidents (Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton) and countless celebrities (including Salvador Dali, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando).
Dororthy Colburn, 86, remembers boarding the S.S. United States when she was around 10. Her father worked for the U.S. Navy, and he brought her to visit the vessel as it was being built, as Colburn told the Delaware News Journal’s Shannon Marvel McNaught in December.
“It was really big, walking beside it to get to the little bridge that went in, but inside it was enormous, bigger than my whole world,” she said. “Everything was shiny metal. We were told that the only wood on the entire ship was the chef’s cutting block.”
Aiming to make a fireproof ship, Gibbs had insisted the S.S. United States be free of wood. The exceptions apparently included cutting boards and the ship’s Steinway grand pianos, which were made from “fire-resistant mahogany,” per the conservancy.
Rose Thacker traveled to France aboard the S.S. United States in 1966, when she was 10, per the Delaware News Journal. She described the boat’s movie theater, swimming pool and banquet hall. Everyone dressed up for dinner, and the captain sat among passengers.
“It was quite an experience,” Thacker told the Delaware News Journal. “It was like a floating city.”
But as commercial airplane travel became more accessible in the ’60s, ocean liners became obsolete. In 1969, the S.S. United States was retired from active service, and it’s been in storage in Philadelphia since 1996. Last year, following a court dispute over rent, the ship was evicted, per CNN. Okaloosa County purchased it, planning to pull it to the Florida Panhandle, but concerns from the U.S. Coast Guard have delayed the ship’s departure.
According to a Coast Guard order sent to Okaloosa County, the S.S. United States “may not have suitable stability for the intended transit and presents a hazardous condition to the port and waterway.” The ship may have “a potentially compromised tank” and a “large amount of oily residue.” However, the Coast Guard recently told CNN that “progress has been made” toward preparing the ship to move.
Susan Gibbs, the granddaughter of the ship’s designer, serves as president of the S.S. United States Conservancy. The nonprofit wished to preserve or repurpose the liner, but its eviction from the Philadelphia docks forced them to sell it. Gibbs tells CNN that she’s pleased the ship isn’t being scrapped.
“It will be challenging to see the S.S. United States leave this pier and embark on a new adventure,” she adds. “But I will summon the strength to bid her farewell and accompany her on her next voyage.”
