SS United States to Become an Artificial Reef

The SS United States is a historic ocean liner that is known for ferrying the actress Marilyn Monroe, the late President John F. Kennedy, and Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece Mona Lisa across the Atlantic Ocean. The ship also broke the record as the fastest-moving ship in the 1950s, earning the name, “speed queen of the seas.” After sitting at a port in Philadelphia, PA, for several decades, it is being relocated to undergo major cleaning and modifications that will make it safe to become the world’s largest artificial reef off the Florida coast.

How Life Started for the SS United States

The ocean liner was built in 1950 and 1951 by American naval architect William Francis Gibbs. The ship was in service from 1952 to 1969, when commercial air travel became the more convenient form of transportation. The massive 53,000-ton ship doubled as a luxury ocean liner and a military transport ship, carrying up to 14,000 troops if needed. SS United States carried important people and items across the Atlantic Ocean. In its more than 800 trips across the sea, the ship helped many immigrants land in the country as well as transported some of the most rich and famous people of the time.

On its maiden voyage in 1952, the vessel made its way across the Atlantic in three days, ten hours, and 40 minutes, faster than any other ship before or after it. The last ship to hold the record was the RMS Queen Mary in 1938, and SS United States holds the record to this day as the fastest-moving ship. It was equipped with a propulsion engine that was powerful enough to move it in reverse faster than the Titanic could move forward.

Unfortunately, the vessel’s glory days are over, though its new owners wish to give it fresh life. After resting in a Pennsylvania port since 1996, the ship will be relocated to Mobile, AL, and then to its destination at the bottom of the sea off the coast of Destin, FL.

SS United States to Become the World’s Largest Artificial Reef

SS United States is leaving its 29-year home in Delaware Bay in Philadelphia, destined for Alabama. A dispute about the ship’s lengthy time spent at the Philadelphia pier forced a federal judge to order that it be removed from its long-time resting place.

Last October, the ocean liner was sold to Okaloosa County in Florida for $1 million, though the deal could potentially rise to $10 million. On Feb. 20, the ship took to the sea again, eventually headed for its forever home. President of the SS United States Conservancy Susan Gibbs honored the liner as it departed: “The ship will forever symbolize our nation’s strength, innovation, and resilience. We wish her ‘fair winds and following seas’ on her historic journey to her new home.”

The ship’s 70-plus-year-old engines no longer operate, so four tugboats are pulling the massive 1,000-foot vessel across the ocean. The trip is expected to take two weeks.

Once it arrives on the shores of Alabama, it will undergo an extensive clean-up job to remove all contaminants such as paint, fuel, oil, and electrical components that could be environmentally harmful. This process is scheduled to take about a year and will make the structure safe to become an artificial reef on the ocean floor.

Okaloosa County plans to sink the liner about 20 nautical miles from the Florida Panhandle, in the Gulf of America. This is not the first ship to be made into an artificial reef. Okaloosa County has already sunk more than 30 ships off the coast of Florida. The idea is to avoid the destruction of the historic liners and to give them new life. At the same time, fishermen, divers, and aquatic life can utilize and enjoy the artificial reefs. Previous sunken ships are doing well and attracting an abundance of marine life as well as human activity (diving and fishing).

1. The SS United States, built in the 1950s, still holds the record as the fastest ship.
2. In its lifetime, the ship performed as a luxury ocean liner and a military transport, able to carry 14,000 troops.
3. Now the ship will be cleaned and sunk off the coast of Florida, to become an artificial reef, to attract marine life and fishers and divers.