John Currin

John Grady – September 6, 2024 5:32 PM – Updated: September 7, 2024 12:43 AM

SS United States on May 23, 2023. USNI News Photo

The world’s fastest ocean liner’s days are numbered at the Philadelphia pier where it has been berthed for decades. Whether the nonprofit that owns SS United States can find a new location for the liner, launched with great fanfare in June 1951 into Virginia’s James River, by Sept. 12 is an open question.

Even the option of sinking the 900-foot-long liner – larger than Titanic – to turn it into the world’s largest fishing and diving reef off the Florida Gulf coast, is now in limbo. The Oskaloosa County Board of Commissioners delayed a vote on its budget Tuesday that would have met the court-set deadline for the ship to leave or pay Penn Warehousing’s higher rental fees, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The county would pay $9 million to buy, move and then sink the liner to become the reef off Fort Walton Beach-Destin, Fla. The ship no longer has a working propulsion system. Much of the expense would be put toward environmental cleaning to make the hull safe for the reef project.

United States, which was built to double as a high-speed troop transport, has not sailed the Atlantic since the late 1960s after jet travel sent the luxury passenger liner market into steep decline.

The newspaper quoted Nick Tomecek, Okaloosa County’s public information officer, saying the county is working with the SS United States Conservancy, and “until a deal is finalized it would be inappropriate to make any additional comment.”

The other option would be to sell SS United States for scrap.

Efforts by USNI News for further comments from the conservancy were unsuccessful.

The ship’s length makes finding another temporary berthing site difficult. Sites at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Maryland and Virginia already have been ruled out as not large enough.

The conservancy’s goal of converting the ship into a museum and hotel is also on hold.

“There are multiple discussions underway and many unresolved matters that make the outcome and timing uncertain at this point,” read a conservancy statement on Instagram last week.

The Florida-based Get the Coast online news site reported the conservancy is committed “to developing a land-based museum in conjunction with the artificial reef, which would serve to continue the iconic vessel’s legacy and provide non-divers the opportunity to learn about ‘America’s Flagship’ and its rich history.”

The county will provide up to $1 million for museum-related costs, including property purchase, construction or renovation of an existing building or property for the museum and its exhibits. The report added details of the museum project and terms of an agreement are to be separately developed and negotiated within 12 months of the ship’s purchase.

The county identified three locations for the reef site between 25 and 30 miles off the coast.

In 2016, the conservancy received 600 important artifacts of artwork, furniture, fittings and documents from the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News and Colonial Williamsburg for its collection and a future museum.

SS United States was christened on June 23, 1951, on a sweltering early summer day by Lucille Connally, wife of Texas Sen. Tom Connally. The traditional champagne bottle breaking took place at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. ”as more than 20,000 persons, waving small American flags, sent up a mighty cheer.” An additional 20,000-plus were gathered along the massive dry dock where the liner was built.

The Daily Press reported that shipyard officials said the crowd’s size was held down by the near 100-degree temperature and television broadcasting of the christening.

SS United States was built for the dual purpose of fast, safe, luxurious ocean travel across the Atlantic and for the fast transport of U.S. troops across any ocean. The commercial contractor was U.S. Lines and the original contract with Newport News was let in 1949 for more than $67 million. Design work at Gibbs & Cox on the “super liner” started three years earlier in partnership with the federal government.

“The U.S. Government worked in conjunction with the United States Lines to develop a ‘super ship’ to be part Cold War weapon and part luxury ocean liner. The top-secret Pentagon project produced the fastest, safest and most advanced vessel ever constructed,” reads a 2022 post from Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
“The ship could be quickly converted into a troop carrier able to transport 15,000 military service members for 10,000 miles without refueling, and do it faster than any other ship before or since. Due to its hidden military objective, the construction of the ship was shrouded in secrecy.”

The ship delivered in 1,215 days.

As The Daily Press editorialized the day the liner was christened:

“The unsinkable ship never has been built, but the United States has later and improved safety precautions built into her hull. She was designed to withstand some degree of enemy attack if the time should come when she must be a military transport.”

The editorial writers missed its wartime importance. The liner was capable of sustaining 35 knots for 12 days without refueling. Better yet, it would need only 48 hours to be converted to military service. It could carry 18,000 troops.

In contrast, the British troop transport and ocean liner Queen Mary carried 15,000 troops per crossing to Europe in World War II.

William Francis Gibbs, educated as a lawyer at Harvard and Columbia, designed SS United States. By the early 1950s, he was already world famous for his ship designs, and he and his brother’s firm are credited with providing three-quarters of the designs for the nation’s World War II ships.

If a new berthing site is not found, SS United States may no longer be able to claim the title “Most Famous Ship that Didn’t Sink.”