International travel was a far different experience several decades past, when travelers boarded ships and journeyed for days over the same distances airliners cover in just hours today. In 1952, crossing the Atlantic by jet was still six years away, and speed across the water was still important for oceanliners. One of the greatest ocean liners became the pride of America and the fastest liner to cross the Atlantic when it entered service. The SS United States was a majestic symbol of design innovation and she proved her might by sailing across the Atlantic in three days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes. It’s a record she still holds today, decades after her retirement. Now, efforts to preserve her have reached their end. Next week, the SS United States will embark on her final voyage, where she’ll be towed to Florida to become an artificial reef.
Ocean liners are a dying breed. From the end of the Industrial Revolution to the dawn of the jet age, the most common way to cross vast expanses of ocean was to board a ship. These weren’t like today’s leisure-oriented cruise ships, but designed primarily to transport people between ports. Some historians place the birth of the true transatlantic ocean liner in the 19th century, when ships like the SS Great Western took to the seas. The Great Western entered service in 1838 and was a paddle-wheel steamer with auxiliary sails, a far cry from marvels like the SS United States, but planted the seeds for the future.
The SS Great Western took 14 days to cross the Atlantic at a maximum speed of 8.5 knots. Over time, transatlantic ocean liners grew in size, power, and speed. If you were lucky enough to be wealthy, you got to experience an environment no aircraft could replicate today. Ships became celebrities in their own right, from the lavish SS Normandie to the futuristic SS Europa. For over 100 years, ocean liners were the premier way to travel.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, the ocean liner is largely irrelevant in the modern day. The ocean liner couldn’t compete with the speed and the wonder of the jet airliner. The vast majority of ocean liners have been erased from existence, scrapped once their useful lives were over. Just a handful of ocean liners remain with perhaps the most famous being the Queen Mary, which is currently a museum ship with its own struggles in staying afloat. Some ships, like the Queen Elizabeth 2, made it to the 21st Century before retirement. Today, the only purpose-built ocean liner still in service is the Queen Mary 2, and she’s fulfilling more of a cruise ship role now.
Next week, another great ocean liner will disappear below the waves.
After a long and expensive battle to keep the SS United States around came to an unfortunate end, the SS United States Conservatory sold its namesake ocean liner to Okaloosa County in Florida’s Panhandle for $10 million. Next week, the ship will leave her nearly three-decade-long berth in Philadelphia and towed offshore of the Destin-Fort Walton Beach, where she will be sunk to become the world’s largest artificial reef. But it’s not all bad news.
America’s Flagship
You may wonder why so much of the Internet cares about a rusting hulk of metal right now. As I said before, ocean liners haven’t been relevant in decades. But the SS United States was more than just any ocean liner.
The best resource for history on this marvel of a ship is none other than its now former caretaker, the SS United States Conservancy. The organization says the story of the ship begins with her architect, William Francis Gibbs. He was born in 1886 and had no formal training in designing ships. In fact, Gibbs was about as far from an architect as you could get, as he was a real estate attorney.
However, ships were in Gibbs’ blood. At Harvard College, he learned some science and engineering while poring over plans for British battleships. This didn’t go anywhere, but even as an attorney, Gibbs had a dream. He wanted to build the fastest ship the world had ever seen. Gibbs quit law in 1916 to devote all of his time to making this dream come true. The Conservancy says few thought he’d actually achieve it.
Gibbs got his first shot at his dream when J.P. Morgan, Jr., one director of the International Mercantile Marine (IMM), believed Gibbs and his brother Frederic could deliver. Unfortunately for Gibbs, America would enter World War I and IMM would ultimately bail on financing the project. But not all would be lost because, due to some clever document writing, Gibbs was able to put himself and his Gibbs Brothers firm in charge of the restoration of the requisitioned German liner Vaterland, where he got to put his work on what would become the largest American-flagged ship in the Atlantic. This ship would go on to become the Leviathan and sailed for the United States Lines.
The Gibbs Brothers firm, later renamed Gibbs & Cox, went on to design innovative ships for the United States Lines. Some of these ships became famous, like the SS America. Gibbs was also obsessed with lacing his ships with the latest in technology and studying what others were doing. But his dream of the world’s fastest ship was still unfulfilled, and Gibbs would have to wait through another world war before he would be able to take another crack at it. Reportedly, Gibbs & Cox was responsible for over 70 percent of the ships America used in the war, including the iconic Liberty ships.
Before we continue, the SS America is another United States Lines ship to meet an unfortunate end.
She served the United States Lines and the United States Navy from 1940 to 1964. After, the ship would be passed from owner to owner, eventually getting taken out of service entirely. Her fate was unknown before she was saved by an owner wanting to restore the SS America into a hotel ship. She was renamed the SS American Star and an attempt was made to tow the ship to Thailand. Tow lines snapped during a thunderstorm and the ship ended up wrecked at Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. Over the course of about two decades, the wreck rusted and eroded away into the sea.
The SS United States will at least be able to go out with some form of dignity. The Conservancy continues with her construction:
With the end of the war, Gibbs’ plans for the “Big Ship” were revived. The economic, political and technological conditions were finally aligned. The United States Lines needed a running mate for the America, finally starting its intended career as a trans-Atlantic liner. The U.S. government also realized the value of having luxury liners that could be converted into troop ships, as the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth had done during the war. When the military conflict in Korea escalated in the late 1940s, the US government agreed to subsidize a large part of the new liner’s cost and operating expenses, with the understanding that it could be requisitioned for military purposes.
The ship’s keel was laid on February 8th, 1950 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, one of the most well respected shipyards on the East Coast, with a long history of contracts with the U.S. Navy. The ship that would become known as the SS United States became the first major liner to be built in a dry dock, which both simplified the construction process and facilitated William Francis Gibbs’ obsession with secrecy.
Dry dock construction was not Gibbs’ only introduction of new shipbuilding techniques for the United States. The design incorporated the most rigid U.S. Navy standards, including strict compartmentalization to combat flooding, and dual engine rooms to provide power in case one was immobilized. The low and graceful superstructure was built entirely in aluminum, which gave the ship a dead weight of 45,400 long tons, compared to the 77,000 long tons for the similarly sized Cunard Queens. Her lighter weight allowed her to take full advantage of the astonishing 247,785 horsepower produced by her turbines. Unusually, all of her engine spaces were complete on her launch, thanks both to being built in a dry dock and Gibbs’ introduction of modular construction, which cut down the construction time to sixteen months. Over 3,100 shipyard workers took the project from keel laying to delivery date in an astounding two years and three months.
The Conservancy continues that because of the ship’s dual purposes, it wasn’t like a typical ocean liner. Gibbs was obsessed with ensuring the SS United States was fireproof. He demanded that the ship couldn’t have the presence of wood anywhere. He almost got his wish, too. The only wooden items in the ship were the Steinway grand pianos and the butcher blocks used by the ship’s chefs, and they had to insist on these wooden items. The ship was also lined in asbestos while other items were made out of aluminum.
Gibbs’ obsession with fire safety also expanded to decor and furniture. Dorothy Marckwald of Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald was challenged with filling 23 public rooms, 395 staterooms, and 14 first-class suites with world-class decor while making sure all of it used textiles that were non-flammable.
Marckwald designed an interior featuring bold colors contrasted with white walls and black floors. Artwork was made out of glass, and unsurprisingly, the ship was proudly American in its theming. Red, white, and blue were common colors in addition to the ship containing patriotic art. Marckwald even got to prove that her artwork was just as fireproof as it was beautiful – Gibbs set fire to a mock-up of a room and none of the cabin fittings burned.
When finished, the SS United States stretched 990 feet, weighed 53,330 tons, and was powered by a quartet of Westinghouse double-reduction geared steam turbines good for 240,000 shaft horsepower. She was basically a small town, housing up to 1,984 passengers and up to 1,444 crew within her 12 decks. As a troop carrier, she’d be able to transport 14,000 soldiers and house 400 hospital beds. The U.S. Department of Transportation also notes that she had watertight doors up to the “A” deck, helpful for staying afloat even after taking on damage in a potential battle situation.
The Conservancy continues that the ship wasn’t just a thing of beauty, but the fastest ocean liner to sail the Atlantic:
Upon her delivery to the United States Lines, the SS United States was most graceful, modern, powerful and sleek vessel in the world. With her two oversize red, white, and blue funnels, she projected a powerful and romantic image of maritime travel, one that recalled the first great record-breaking liners of the twentieth century.
[…]
Advance publicity for the SS United States had primed the American public for a record-breaking vessel. Secrecy was tight during the builder’s trials in June of 1952, but it was later learned that the vessel exceeded 38 knots, or 44 miles per hour. She traveled 20 knots in reverse. On July 3rd, 1952, the SS United States set forth on her much-anticipated maiden voyage, timed to coincide with the national Forth of July celebrations. Her commander, Commodore Harry Manning—a celebrity in his own right, who had been a co-pilot of Amelia Earhart—carefully avoided any promises of a record-breaking run, especially when the ship encountered a fog bank during the first day out. Once clear of the hazard, Commodore Manning, with typical bravado, ordered the ship’s engines to be increased to full power. The ship’s speed, combined with the gale force winds and heavy seas, created on-deck conditions that kept most passengers inside—or at least in the enclosed promenades. So strong was the wind speed that the adventurous few who did venture out onto the open decks likened facing forward to being punched in the face. Miraculously, the dreaded vibration expected on high-speed liners was virtually absent, even when the ship attained her highest-ever service speed of 36 knots.
How fast was she? The SS United States sailed from the Ambrose lightship in New York Harbor to Bishop Rock in the UK in 3 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes. The record was previously held by the RMS Queen Mary for 14 years and the SS United States beat it by over 10 hours. Reportedly, the SS United States sailed so fast that the ship’s fresh hull paint wore off during the journey. Attaining the Hales Trophy and winning the Blue Riband secured the fame of the SS United States. The ship became a point of pride for America and quickly became known as the “America’s Flagship.”
Travelers from all over the world booked trips on the world’s fastest ocean liner. As with any famous ship, her passengers included celebrities, with the Conservancy listing out a handful including “Bob Hope, Princess Grace of Monaco, Salvadore Dali, Rita Hayworth, Harry Truman, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and Duke Ellington.” The SS United States even became the set of popular films of the day.
Decline
The SS United States Conservancy notes that the ship was so popular that she operated at capacity into the late 1950s even though travelers were increasingly boarding jet aircraft. Once the popularity of jet aircraft took off it wasn’t long before planes were carrying more people over oceans than ocean liners were.
The SS United States didn’t stay at capacity for long as the ship encountered rough seas in the 1960s. Even the ship’s fame couldn’t convince travelers to take the slow multi-day trip on water versus flying over it in mere hours. The United States Lines found itself in trouble.
Not only was it facing declining passenger volumes, but labor disputes and struggles with operating subsidies from the government meant the line was bleeding out. Those labor strikes also meant the cancellation of trips. If you bought a ticket you had no idea if you were actually going to sail or not. Then, the US Department of Commerce decided to stop sending troops on ships, too, as it was believed a ship could be a target for a Soviet bomber.
The line tried to stem the bleeding by running its liners as cruise ships and by selling the SS America in 1964. Nothing worked and the United States Lines was sold to a new owner in 1968. Sadly, the ship was costly to keep running and in 1969 she was withdrawn from service and laid up without warning. Thankfully, since the SS United States was a reserve ship for the US Navy, it was stored in an operational state, ready to sail if the military needed it. But that lasted for just a decade. The Conservancy notes what happened next:
In 1978, the US Navy decided the ship was no longer relevant to their needs, and the ship was listed for sale. She then passed from owner to owner, each with big plans for her future:
RICHARD HADLEY, of Seattle, planned to convert the vessel into seagoing time-share condominiums. After his financing collapsed, he had the ship’s interior fittings auctioned off in 1984.
FRED MAYER, who bought the ship in 1992, sought to create a running mate for Cunard’s QE2. He had the ship towed to Turkey and then Ukraine for hazardous material removal, and then towed back to Philadelphia in 1996, where she has remained since.
EDWARD CANTOR bought the ship with dreams of returning it to seagoing service. The ship was put up for sale after his death in 2002.
NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE purchased the vessel in 2003 and announced plans to rehabilitate the ship as part of its American-flagged cruise service. The global economic crisis caused these plans to founder, and the vessel was again listed for sale in 2009.
After NCL’s efforts to sell the ship were unsuccessful, NCL began accepting bids from scrappers. This announcement spurred the SS United States Conservancy to launch its “Save Our Ship” Campaign to build public support for the vessel, prevent her sale for scrap and raise funds for her purchase and restoration. In July of 2010, the Conservancy announced that it had received a leadership grant from Philadelphia philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest enabling the ship’s purchase as well as upkeep for 20 months. This marked the first time in the vessel’s history that a group concerned primarily with the vessel’s historical significance and preservation has owned her. While the Conservancy’s purchase of the SS United States granted it a crucial reprieve, she has not yet been “saved.” Funds must yet be raised for her restoration and redevelopment. The Conservancy envisions a future where the SS United States is a sustainable waterfront attraction, providing jobs and important public amenities, while educating and inspiring future generations.
The ship has remained an empty shell of its former self after the 1984 auction of the ship’s interior and after the asbestos removal procedures from the early 1990s.
The Future
Unfortunately, the Conservancy’s future is not one that will happen. The ship has been laid up in Philadelphia since 1996 and next week, she will be moved for the first time in nearly 30 years, but not to become a restored symbol of innovative engineering.
The ship is currently parked at Pier 82, owned by Penn Warehousing. In 2011, the Conservancy entered into an agreement with Penn Warehousing to pay $850 a day to stay at Pier 82. In August 2021, Penn Warehousing doubled the rent to $1,700 a day, citing maintenance costs as the reason for the increase.
The Conservancy continued to pay the original $850 a day rent. By March 2022, Penn Warehousing terminated the berthing agreement, taking the Conservancy to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where it sought the ship’s eviction and $160,000 in back rent.
Ultimately, as the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, the case went to a bench trial in January 2024. In June 2024, U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody ended the dispute by handing both parties a sort of partial win. Judge Brody pointed out how the 2011 berthing agreement didn’t have a provision for Penn Warehousing to change the “lay up dockage fee.” The Conservancy was found not to owe Penn Warehousing any back rent. However, the judge also noted that the berthing agreement was legally able to be terminated with enough notice, which the Court believed was provided.
The SS United States was given a deadline to leave the pier, forcing the Conservancy to scramble to secure a new berth somewhere else and the funding to make it happen. Susan Gibbs, conservancy president and granddaughter of William Francis Gibbs, pointed out that moving the SS United States isn’t going to be easy or cheap: “Relocating a ship the size of the SS United States (53,000 gross tons and 990 feet in length) is complex and costly. It requires funds for insurance, tugs, surveys, and dock preparations to ensure the ship’s safe passage to a new home.”
Unfortunately, while the Conservancy was able to buy some time, efforts to secure a new home in time have failed. The Conservancy’s last resort to prevent the ship from being scrapped was to sell it so it could become an artificial reef. This emergency scenario became a reality and last month, Okaloosa County purchased the ship in a deal expected to take around 1.5 years and around $10.1 million to complete. In it, the county will sink the ship to turn it into the world’s largest artificial reef, driving the local tourist economy. Some of the money will be used to create a museum run by the Conservancy which will contain artifacts and history.
On November 14, tugs will attach to the SS United States and tow her to Pier 80. Then, once low tide hits on November 15, the ship will be hauled out down the Delaware River. The low tide will allow the ship to clear numerous bridges with room to spare. From there, the tow is expected to take 14 days and the ship will end up at Mobile, Alabama, where it will be prepared to be scuttled. If you’re interested in tracking the ship’s final journey, click here to get a tracker once the ship is on the move.
Once the ship is sunk, Okaloosa expects an immediate burst of divers going down to explore the ship. Over time, ocean life will also find it as home. Gibbs says: “Converting the world’s fastest ship into the world’s largest artificial reef will write a new chapter for the SS United States as a world-class destination.”
On one hand, it seems that such a historic ship deserves a better fate than the cards it was dealt. The SS United State should stand proud as an example of beauty and engineering in metal. At the same time, the ship’s long story is another sad example that you cannot save everything, even if what you want to save used to be a symbol of pride for the nation. Thankfully, while the ship may sink, its memory and history will live on.
With the abomination that modern cruise ships have been becoming, nothing but grotesque ungainly behemoths, it’s so sad to see such a beautifully elegant masterpiece of floating architecture disappear.
It was my understanding that the fireproofing-obsessed Gibbs did commission an aluminum grand piano for the United States. I don’t know if it was actually fitted, but I do remember reading about it.
So, who has a favorite historic ocean liner? Mine is the Normandie, a masterpiece of marine architecture and Art Deco design. What happened to her is an absolute, grade-A tragedy.
I’ll miss staring at it while eating my meatballs from IKEA.
I haven’t had those in years, they were so good. Do they still have lingenberry sauce?
Yes!! And you can a veggie option meatball too.
I’m way overdue for an ikea cafeteria trip
The SS Great Britain, (the sister to the SS Great Western), is a better candidate for ‘1st ocean liner’, as she was the first all metal hull with a screw propeller.
After travelling all over the globe, she almost ended her days scuttled in the Falkland Islands (/Las Malvinas), but was rescued in 1970, towed back across the Atlantic, and returned to Bristol, 125 years after she’d been launched. She now sits in the same dock she was built in, with de-humidifiers preventing her iron hull from disintegrating.
I reckon every kid in the South West has been to see her on a school trip.
Mercedes’ usual great subject-choosing, research and storytelling.
Early in my relationship w/ my wife I booked dinner and a night on the Queen Mary, it seemed like a dopey idea but once we were there she was enthralled. They did a fantastic job of bringing forward the experience of being out on the sea in an ocean liner, her appreciation for it was one way I knew she was the gal for me.
However, with that I believe that sinking the SS United States, with all its hopes now over with, is just a loss to society of a whole bunch of steel that could go to better uses.