SS United States Arrives in Mobile, Alabama

March 3, 2025 5:55pm

The SS United States arrived in Mobile, Alabama today concluding her 13 day tow from Philadelphia. At the docks of Modern American Recycling Services, Coleen Marine will ready the ship for her final destination; the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico about 20 nautical miles south of the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area of the Florida Panhandle.

The most visually obvious preparation for sinking this great passenger vessel will be the removal of her two oversized red, white, and blue smokestack funnels. That's necessary because those funnels are 65 feet tall. Depending on the exact location where she'll be sunk, the Coast Guard will require that the entirety of the ship be at least 50 - 80 feet below the surface, so it won’t pose a hazard to navigation. If the ship was sunk with the funnels intact, that would put the top deck at a depth of at least 115 feet - too deep for recreational diving.

The tops of those funnels featured aft horizontal fins that created lift to help deflect engine exhaust up and away from the decks. The result was nearly smoke-free passenger decks; something that was revolutionary at the time. Those funnels, by the way, remain to this day the tallest funnels ever installed on a ship.

Built at Newport News Shipbuilding in 1950 & 1951, the 990 foot SS United States is the largest passenger vessel ever built in America. At the time of her construction, she was the sleekest, most graceful, and most powerful vessel in the world. She was initially owned by United States Lines, which used her for trans-Atlantic crossings to and from both England and France. With powerful steam turbines delivering 247,785 horsepower to her propellers, she was the world's fastest ocean liner.

On her maiden voyage from July 3rd to 7th 1952, she crossed the Atlantic eastbound from New York Harbor to Cornwall, England in 3 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes. That shattered by more than ten hours the previous record the Queen Mary had held for 14 years. That speed record stands to this day. Although she was capable of doing 44 mph (38.23 knots), she set that speed record while operating at only two-thirds power and averaging a speed of 40.96 mph (35.59 knots). On her return voyage, she broke the westbound-transatlantic speed record, which had also been held by the Queen Mary, by crossing the ocean in 3 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes at an average speed of 39.71 mph (34.51 knots).

Her engines and propellers were so powerful that the SS United States could go 23 mph (20 knots) in reverse. That's almost as fast as the RMS Titanic could travel going forward. An interesting - and at the time secret - fact about her four 18-foot diameter propellers was that the two inboard propellers had five blades, while the two outboard propellers had four. I can't explain the physics of why that allowed the ship to go faster, but it did.

What else made her so fast was that aluminum was used to build her superstructure. That aluminum construction made her 41% lighter than the all-steel ships of the day. She was also designed to be fireproof. With the exception of the grand pianos in the ballrooms and the butcher’s blocks in the galleys, no wood was used in any of the ship’s public rooms, accommodations, or crew quarters. The carpets, fabrics, and textiles were specially treated to be non-flammable. There was extensive use of asbestos throughout the ship. That was, of course, long before we knew asbestos caused mesothelioma cancers.

The ship had 395 staterooms plus 14 first class suites. Her interior colors were predominantly red, white, & blue plus green and gold which contrasted beautifully with the deep black flooring in the passageways. Artwork throughout the ship boasted patriotic themes of her namesake nation. Her first class dining room featured sculptures representing the four freedoms, and the observation lounge displayed murals of ocean currents and depictions of constellations. Although privately owned, the SS United States was built in conjunction with the Pentagon as a ship that could be quickly converted into a troop carrier able to transport 14,000 military service members for 12,000 miles without refueling. She was never used for that purpose, however.

The SS United States sailed the Atlantic from 1952 to 1969. She carried over a million passengers during those 18 years, including famous celebrities from movie stars to presidents. Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, and Gary Cooper were among the guests. So were Walt Disney, Salvador Dali, Walter Cronkite, Coco Chanel, and Duke Ellington. Prince Rainier of Monaco, Grace Kelly, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor all walked her decks at sea. The ship also carried four US presidents: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Clinton. Bill Clinton sailed her to England in October 1968 on his way to study at University College Oxford. When Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece "Mona Lisa" came to America for special exhibitions, the painting traveled here via that magnificent vessel.

On October 25, 1969, upon returning from her 400th round-trip voyage, the SS United States was ordered by its owner to sail to Newport News, Virginia to begin her annual maintenance. The next month, she was abruptly and permanently withdrawn from service. Because she was a reserve ship for the U.S. Navy, she was put into mothballs at her berth to preserve her machinery and interior. And there she remained until 1978 when the Navy decided the ship was no longer needed as part of the reserve fleet.

From 1978 to 2009, she was sold to various entities whose plans ranged from seagoing time-share condominiums to full-time service as a cruise ship. A would-be owner hoped to dock the ship in Atlantic City as a floating hotel and casino, but the plan never materialized. In 1984, the ship's interior fittings and decorations were auctioned off to satisfy creditors. In 1992 she was towed to Turkey and later to Ukraine to have hazardous materials removed. In 1996, she was towed to Philadelphia. Norwegian Cruise Line owned her for a while (2003 - 2010), but they never renovated her or put her to sea.

When NCL announced the ship would be sold for scrap, the SS United States Conservancy launched its "Save Our Ship" Campaign, which hoped to raise enough money to purchase and restore her. In July of 2010, the Conservancy purchased the ship. But the cost of restoration proved to be too much for the Conservancy to afford. She sat at Pier 82 in Philadelphia, loved but neglected. And her dock fees mounted. She was finally purchased by Okaloosa County, Florida which plans to send her to the bottom of the sea as an artificial reef.

She remained docked at the Port of Philadelphia's Pier 82 until February 14, 2025 when she began her journey to Alabama. But she didn't move far that day. Tugs nudged her to Pier 80 where she took up a five day residency until February 19, 2025 when the tugboat "Vinik No. 6” began towing her to Mobile, Alabama where she will be prepped for sinking off Okaloosa County, Florida sometime in 2026.

In her lifetime, the SS United States steamed 2,772,840 nautical miles (3,190,930 statute miles) and carried 1,025,691 passengers. She is now destined for a watery grave off the Florida Panhandle. But that watery grave will be teeming with life. As an artificial reef, she'll attract barnacles, coral, anemones, fish, turtles, lobsters, octopus, eels, rays, and more. Scuba divers and anglers will visit her regularly.

Upon sinking, the SS United States will become the world's largest intentionally-sunk artificial reef. She'll be 79 feet longer than the nearby 911 foot USS Oriskany aircraft carrier, which is currently the largest. The Oriskany was intentionally sunk 25 miles off the coast of Pensacola in 2006. I've dived the Oriskany twice.

So it wouldn't pose a hazard to navigation or be moved by strong, hurricane-driven currents, the Oriskany was sunk in 212 feet of water. That put the top of its island at a depth of 70 feet with the flight deck at 135 feet below the surface. Recreational divers can typically descend to no more than 130 feet deep. Technical divers can reach 300 feet or more.

But over time, the Oriskany has sunk ten feet into the sand at the bottom of the Gulf. The top of her island is now 80 feet deep, and the flight deck is at 145 feet. That may not sound like much, but the result is significantly less bottom time. NOTE TO NON-DIVERS: The deeper you dive, the less time you can spend at depth because the deeper you dive, the faster you consume air, and the more time you need for the trip back to the surface (which often requires decompression stops to safely off-gas the nitrogen the high atmospheric pressure has dissolved into the bloodstream).

Okaloosa County bought the SS United States for $1 million and is expecting to pay $9.1 million more between now and when she is scuttled. About $1 million of that will fund construction of an on-land SS United States Museum. I look forward to diving this magnificent ship.