The Titanic is a famous ship that most people have heard of, likely due to the commercially successful film highlighting the dramatic story of its sinking. But there’s an even bigger ship that has a bittersweet tale to tell – it’s the retired SS United States.
The SS United States has important claims to fame. Not only is she the largest ocean liner ever to be constructed in our country, but she is also the fastest one to cross the Atlantic in both directions, a record still held today. The SS United States proudly holds the Blue Riband from Great Britain for having the highest average speed since her maiden voyage in 1952 – even beating out the RMS Queen Mary! The ship crossed the Atlantic in just 3 days and 10 hours and 40 minutes, maintaining 36 knots or 41 mph.
Built in the early 1950s, and designed by renowned American naval architect William Francis Gibbs, the SS United States was considered advanced in her day. Thus, construction was shrouded in secrecy. Despite the confidential nature of production, her reveal was big! In July of 1952, just days before her maiden voyage, 70,000 people came out to see her. Per SSUSC.org, this was, “…more than a sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium! The line stretched for fourteen blocks.”
The passenger ship boasted a famous roster over time to include four U.S. Presidents (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Clinton) plus scores of famous Hollywood stars like Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, Walt Disney, Charlton Heston, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor and more! Other famous passengers included Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and even the Mona Lisa. Yes, indeed! In 1963, Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous masterpiece traveled aboard the SS United States from its home in Paris’ famous Louvre for rounds on the east coast USA.
The ship has undeniably remarkable features to include its power, large and dramatic size, and combination of its speed and magnitude. The 900-foot-long stem-to-stern ship is over 100 feet longer than the Titanic. Just for perspective, the SS United States earned bragging rights for being taller than the New York’s Chrysler Building. Now that’s something! The ship also had the potential for being converted into a troopship if required by the Navy.
The SS United States was built with fireproof capabilities in mind and featured other innovations such as steam propulsion, hull form, and more. However, as air travel increased in popularity, the ocean liner faced passenger declines by the mid-1960s. The financial collapse of the United States Lines caused her to suddenly be withdrawn from service. Not only was a new paint job on the funnels left half-finished, but travel was abruptly canceled.
The ownership of the vessel bounced around. The SS United States was handed over to the US Maritime Administration and was laid up at Norfolk International Terminals for some time. She was sold to different owners since the 1970s. After failed attempts to restore the ship, the interior mid-century modern furnishings were auctioned off. In the early 1990s, the SS United States was towed across the Atlantic to a shipyard in the Ukraine for asbestos removal. When completed, the empty hull was returned to the US to a port in Philadelphia. That is now where she sits in decay, sadly deteriorating for upwards of 25 years.
The vessel has become an historic fixture and part of the South Philadelphia scenery. From the cafeteria windows of the IKEA across the street, folks peer out to see the iconic ship and take selfies with it in the background. Even young children are in awe, pushing aside their plates of Swedish meatballs to stare outside. Despite its timeworn presence in Philly, the SS United States has a new future waiting, one as an ocean reef. Officials in Okaloosa County, Florida, approved a $10.1 million plan to relocate the ship. The goal is to clean it up and sink it off the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach. Additionally, a museum and visitor center will be built to commemorate the ship.
The story doesn’t stop there, the current plan to move it this month was sadly scrapped due to low tide, weather disturbances in the Gulf of Mexico, and other “logistical details.” This has put the ship’s new life as the world’s largest artificial reef on hold. What does this mean? Only time will tell. But, for now, folks in the City of Brotherly Love will continue to enjoy the sentimental decaying ship they’ve come to know and love.
Too bad there wasn’t a way to keep it around like the USS Constitution as a floating museum.
Our children are not only no longer taught to respect, admire, and honor our past, they are no longer even taught ABOUT our past (our history), and so, aside from the few who investigate it on their own, our children know nothing about our nation’s past. Fifty or sixty years ago, saving an important part of our history like this magnificent ship would not even have been a question; whatever funds, materials, and facilities would have been required to preserve it and turn it into a floating museum would have been made available. Nowadays, there is no respect or concern for the past, and anything ‘old,’ including people, are cast aside as useless and worthless. It is all so sad.
I have an Ideal why not load the ship up with illegals and Democrats throw in some RINOS take her out to sea and sink her.
Its a shame it can not be resurrected and reused as its original intent.
Too bad it can’t be refurbished for the US Marines. I read an article yesterday stating their having problems getting Marines and equipment moved around in the Pacific because the Navy has over a dozen of the ships used to do so mothballed. I think the ship being large and fast would be an asset for them.
The steel should be recycled so that we don’t have to purchase foreign steel. Recycling steel conserves far more energy than mining raw ore.
Thanks for this story. My mother worked for United States Lines located at Number 1 Broadway, New York, New York. She told me that she was the secretary and building manager for the Executive Vice President, Mr. Campbell during the 1940’s. We have lots of pictures of the America and the SS United States,
Interesting history. Too bad it was left unused, it would be a fun ride, even today, although probably cost prohibitive.
Dignified ending for such a majestic vessel. RIP SS UNITED STATES!
Ideal reuse as Reef for marine life
So sad to see that part of history disappear. Ocean travel was relaxing and refreshing. My father was the quartermaster on the SS United States for many, many years, and I took a trip back from France on her in 1968. I have some very fond memories of her that I will never forget.
I could see it from my desk at work, across the Delaware River in Camden, NJ. I was hoping it could be refurbished. I understand that the City of Philadelphia was eager to stop mooring it free.
My folks and paternal grandfather took the SS United States to England sometime in 1953. My grandfather also returned home on the ship while my folks flew back since my two older sisters and I were awaiting their return. I recall my father talking about the fact that the trip across the Atlantic was not very long but long enough for them to thoroughly enjoy the luxurious experience they had onboard the ship. It must have been quite an awesome time.
It is a shame that once proud monuments of America’s past, are laid to waste when their usefulness is done, as scrap or a relocation as a sunken reef. The US Navy is doing this to the ship I was there to help commission, and served aboard for most of my four years in the Navy ….. The USS Juneau LPD-10 which was in 2024, supposed to endure the same fate as this historic ship. Discarded like the elderly, to rust in the depths, forgotten …. to everyone except the few her served aboard her, crewed her, or as in the SS United States merely sailed aboard her. Who after they get old, and likewise discarded will die and take with them the very existence of the craft.