The iconic SS United States was scheduled to leave Philadelphia today in route to Mobile, Alabama where it will become an artificial reef twenty miles south of the port city. She was the fastest and largest passenger ship ever built by the United States. I imagine back in the day it was a huge symbol of American technology, industry, technology, might, etc. It is not only the final trip for the ship, it is the passing of an era long gone in American history/culture. Story
When a child I saw S.S. United States berthed at her Manhattan pier and saw her underway in all her graceful majesty in the Hudson River, so this news is, for me, awfully sad.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful ship American men could build, interesting to see how she’ll be scuttled upright…
ReplyDeleteI built (well, put together) a model of the United States in my youth. It only included the ship from the waterline up because the keel of the ship was a "trade secret" due to its hydrodynamic properties. Was still a cool model and looked very nice when I was finished.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding read....thanks....
ReplyDeleteStill holds the transatlantic speed record and did it using only two thirds of its power. Wonder what it could have been using full power.
ReplyDeleteYep. The last Blue Ribband holder.
DeleteIt's tragic to see something that could have been but to better use destroyed by greed. The US sat at the same pier for 30 years because the owner and the pier owner were colluding for profits and tax purposes. The pier owner with an inflated and unreal 'rent' he never intended to collect but the default on which was used to write down real profits, and the ship owner with extortionate fund raising to 'save' a ship which merely paid him and his cronies without ever doing any restoration or saving. It was kidnapping and blackmail.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the Navy, the ship was tied up at the piers south of the naval base in Norfolk. There were times I stood watches on both Courtney and Sylvania wondering if I could get aboard to look around. My father wanted to take it back to the states when he had finished his second tour in Germany, but the ship had already been taken out of service. Many a troop rode that ship home.
DeleteOne of a kind, never to be duplicated or rivalled. American technology at it's height, and a tribute to the innovative spirit of her builders (and especially William Francis Gibbs).
ReplyDeleteI marvelled at her design when I first became aware of liners and their development at age four. She always represented the finest aspirations, the end result of two hundred years of constant refinement.
This is a sad end, and perhaps a sign of things to come. God I hope not.
Mike in Canada
The USSUS has been in service for almost as long as most boomer democrats.
ReplyDeleteJefferey, how deep are they gonna sink her, if you know?
ReplyDeleteI may have missed it, but I don't recall seeing a depth, but the ship will be towed 20 nautical miles before sinking it. The trick is the ship must rest on the ocean floor upright. Why? I am not sure. Another article I found mentioned it will be an attraction for sport divers so I'd imagine the depth will be less than 300 ft probably more like "ess than a 100'.
DeleteI did see elsewhere it will be diverted accessible so can’t be to deep
DeleteDiver
DeleteI live down the street from where she was built. I've worked 34 years come June for the company that designed her, and this is a sad day for us. I walk past a model of her every day I work, and many artifacts are distributed throughout Tidewater.
ReplyDeleteI found a book about her in a thrift store today, and bought it. Weird coincidence.
Thanks for the thought on America's Flagship...
Large ships are very difficult to dismantle for the steel and other materials. Very dangerous, time consuming and difficult.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was driving for a living, I bet I saw that ship, almost daily, rusting away for 25 + years. You couldn't miss it driving up and down I-95 by the Walt Whitman Bridge. To me, it always reminded me of the fastest race horse, that was not allowed to race or the fastest dragster retired undefeated.
ReplyDeleteIt will be renamed SS Joe Buyden just before it gets blown up.
ReplyDeleteIn 1959 I was a 2 1/2 year old passenger on this ship. No memory but have a few pics. My dad, mom and I escaping communism via this ship. Sad they are scuttling it. Hybo
ReplyDeleteIn the mid fifties, I experienced first class passage to England on this ship. The “royal treatment” was memorable. On the return trip 3 years later, first class service had noticeably deteriorated but still the experience of a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI only saw that ship one time, but it was magnificent. In April of 1960, I was traveling from NYC to Bremerhaven, West Germany aboard the Gen. Wm. O. Darby, a US military troopship. We steamed out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and started turning south toward the site of the Verrazzano Bridge, still under construction. The weather was overcast and gloomy, but the sun came out and highlighted the most beautiful ship I had ever seen, coming under that bridge, headed north up the Hudson River. I was just a kid from Oklahoma, but I knew what ship it was. It wasn't like all the other liners from pre-war and post war construction. It was sleek and streamlined and it radiated the possibilities for the future. I made a pledge to myself that some day, I would travel on that beauty. Unfortunately, like the Concorde in later years, that trip never happened. But, I still have a color snapshot of that ship in my mind to carry me home.
ReplyDeleteUsed to visit that ship every time I went to the Ikea store in Philly
ReplyDeleteThe USS United States was the epitome of a functionally extinct species, the ocean liner . ( The QM2 may well be the final ship of the type, ever . )
ReplyDeletePeople, in general, don't want to spend the better part of a week crossing the Atlantic - they'd rather fly in some econobus with wings and get there in a few hours .
And, people in general like sailing on boats that are floating apartment block bulk human carriers, so long as they have lots of bars, waterslides, and 24 hour Golden Corral level buffets .
And that's why we can't have nice things .
Memory time.
ReplyDeleteAs a young boy on summer holiday with my mother and father at Southsea (near Portsmouth and Southampton, England) the USS United States was leaving harbour and we went out on a small cruiser to watch the ship leave.
The speed and grace of the ship was amazing and the swell that hit the small boat we were in was something else.
Wonderful experience i'd almost forgotten but now recall thanks to this post.
I was probably 8 to 10 years old so call it 1965 give or take a couple years either way.
I sailed on her from Le Havre, France to New York in July of 1962 as a ten year old boy. We were returning home after my father finished a four year deployment to Germany. The ocean was like glass the entire voyage, which only took five days. The wake was visible all the way to the horizon. Quite an experience for a youngster. We were cabin class, so none of the pomp of first class. Still good treatment. The ship had a swimming pool on one of the lower decks. It was filled with ocean water. Cold and uncomfortable. Nothing like modern cruise ships.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the "USS" United States, it's the "SS" United States. "USS" is a designation for military ships of the US Navy. This is a civilian ship so it's the "SS United States".
ReplyDeleteTrue - an error on my part . Interestingly, the SS United States was built in the same drydock as the uncompleted and cancelled aircraft carrier, USS United States .
DeleteYou aren't the only one who made that mistake; it's likely that most people would. Also, I didn't know that about the cancelled aircraft carrier.
DeleteSad to see the Old Girl get retired to the bottom, I think all of you that travelled in her or got to see her were very fortunate. What a way to travel, back then!
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