Philadelphia
CNN
—
Who ever said moving a historic floating skyscraper would be easy?
America’s flagship — the magnificent SS United States — was poised to set sail at the end of last year on her final voyage from Philadelphia to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to become an artificial reef.
The goodbye celebrations were planned for the ocean liner that broke the transatlantic speed record on her maiden voyage from New York to Cornwall, England, in 1952.
People arrived in the City of Brotherly Love to mourn the majestic ship that’s nearly as long as the Chrysler Building. But Coast Guard concerns and some “oily residue” has complicated the trip south.
“This is a large project and requires multiple steps to ensure a safe move,” said Nick Tomecek, public information officer for Okaloosa County, which recently purchased the long-decaying SS United States to sink off its Gulf of Mexico shores in the Florida Panhandle.
“Okaloosa County is working in collaboration with federal, state and local agencies to ensure a safe move of the ship that includes requests from the Coast Guard,” Tomecek told CNN.
But no new date has been set for the ship’s move from Philadelphia to Mobile, Alabama, where it is set to be prepped for sinking.
The primary barrier for the ocean liner came in the form of a “Captain of the Port Order” sent from the US Coast Guard to the ship’s Florida county owners in late November.
According to a copy of the Port Order obtained by CNN, the SS United States could not move because it “may not have suitable stability for the intended transit and presents a hazardous condition to the port and waterway.”
The ship has sat dormant in its Philadelphia pier for more than two decades as conservationists have struggled to map out a new life for the vessel.
The Coast Guard also flagged “a potentially compromised tank” and a “large amount of oily residue present.”
The Coast Guard said that to start moving the ship south, the county needed to restore the ship’s structural integrity and demonstrate it could withstand the expected harsh journey.
But there have been hopeful signs.
On Friday, Okaloosa County told CNN it had hired a “naval architect/engineer to conduct stability tests which are now complete.”
According to Tomecek, the tests were accepted by the Coast Guard on January 8, and the next steps include establishing a “tow plan,” while factoring in tidal conditions.
The Coast Guard told CNN this week that “positive progress has been made” toward getting her ready to move.
The eviction, the plan and the fine
For more than 70 years, the SS United States has captivated the hearts and minds of Americans for her distinguished beauty, her 1952 transatlantic speed record and for carrying some of the world’s most precious cargo, including multiple US presidents and Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” She was withdrawn from service in 1969. The admiration never ceased.
But the massive ocean liner, which is bigger than the Titanic, had a massive problem.
After a flurry of legal battles, last year the SS United States was evicted from the pier where she’s sat since 1996.
“We were on a kind of furious search for an alternate parking spot,” explained Susan Gibbs, president of the SS United States Conservancy, the nonprofit that has owned the ship in recent decades. Gibbs is the granddaughter of the ship’s designer, William Francis Gibbs.
For years, the conservancy was hoping to have the ship preserved or repurposed in some way, at times trying to pitch it as a “mixed-used development in an urban waterfront setting,” for example.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to secure another spot for her partly because what makes her so amazing — she’s so big, it makes it challenging to dock,” said Gibbs. But the eviction brought a time crunch, and then an unlikely buyer came up with a different plan.
In fall 2024, Florida’s Okaloosa County bought the ship to sink her and create the “world’s largest artificial reef.”
“I don’t think of it as purchasing to sink it, I think of it as welcoming it into our family,” said Jennifer Adams with the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Department.
The plan is to tug the SS United States along the East Coast and ultimately to Mobile, Alabama, to be stripped and prepped to be sunk.
Then the ship’s final home will be under about 180 feet (55 meters) of water 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the coast of Destin, Florida.
The move was scheduled to happen in mid-November, but then weather in the Gulf of Mexico delayed the departure.
A week later, the order from the Coast Guard further stalled the journey.
Because the ship didn’t move by December 14, 2024, Okaloosa County had to pay a one-time penalty of $100,000, the county confirmed.
While there is still no clear timeline for the ship’s exit from Philadelphia, Tomecek said they expect the ship to be finally sunk in the Gulf of Mexico by the end of this year or early 2026.
Okaloosa County hopes the ship will become a destination for scuba divers and attract fish and other wildlife as a reef. It won’t be the only shipwreck habitat they have.
“In the past four years, we’ve sunk 14 vessels,” Adams told CNN.
“It helps our fisheries thrive, people come not just to sit on the beach — they dive — and it helps the local economy,” said Adams.
While the historic ship took years to build, it will only take 10 to 30 minutes to sink.
“You pull the plugs and open up and then it’s slow, and once it gets to the very top, the air goes to the top, it goes down quite quick,” Adams told CNN.
Then a team of marine biologists and divers employed by the county will make sure the ship settles into its permanent resting place.
“Usually you start to see creatures and plants and growth and coral about a week later,” said Adams.
Sinking the ship was not at all what Gibbs and the conservancy wanted, but after the eviction, they viewed it as the best available option.
“We prevented her from being scrapped,” explained Gibbs, who also noted the county plans to build an accompanying museum in tandem with the conservancy honoring the ship’s legacy.
“It will be challenging to see the SS United States leave this pier and embark on a new adventure,” Gibbs said before the latest Coast Guard delays. “But I will summon the strength to bid her farewell and accompany her on her next voyage.”
As the news of the eviction and impending sinking spread, people from across the country came to Philadelphia to visit and remember the work of art before its final trip.
“I’m heartbroken,” said John Sabatos, who recently took a day trip from New York to see the ship with his mother.
“It would have been really great to see her in the New York City skyline again,” he told CNN, referring to the SS United States’ earlier life in New York. “But you know, it’s still here, so we have a little bit of time for today, and we’ll see what the future holds.”
In November, the conservancy held a private boat tour for supporters of the ship and some who crossed the Atlantic on her decades ago.
“(It’s) heartbreaking to see it go,” said Kelly Micca, who spent several weeks painting a picture of the SS United States on an electrical pole across from the pier. “It’s such a perfect landmark.”
Along lines of fencing surrounding the ship, posters had gone up bidding the ship farewell with handwritten messages:
“Thank you for bringing my family to the USA!”
“Thank you for your service to us, you will be mourned for lifetimes.”
“An American icon, enjoy your last voyage.”
Just when that last voyage will start remains to be seen.
