An alternative to keeping the SS United States afloat? Sink it

Wrangling continues over the future of the once-storied luxury cruise liner the SS United States, which has a little less than a month before a court-ordered eviction from its Philadelphia berth on the Delaware River.

Amid a flurry of court filings — including some from the ship’s landlord excoriating the vessel’s owner for what it said were delaying tactics — and another court hearing on Aug. 19 comes an alternative to trying to save it.

And that is, to sink it.

At least two Florida counties have expressed an interest in taking possession of the 990-foot vessel — which is best known for smashing a transatlantic speed record during its maiden voyage in 1952 — and sinking it to form an artificial reef that would be a boon to tourism and the diving community.

The counties, Okaloosa County in February, and more recently, Escambia County, which is the westernmost Florida county that borders Alabama, have explored the idea.

Escambia County’s Marine Advisory Committee met on Monday and though no concrete decisions were reached, interest remains high and steps are being taken to secure the vessel, Kerry Freeland, the chairman of the committee and the president of Dive Pros in Pensacola, Fla., said on Tuesday.

He said it would cost an estimated $8.6 million to acquire, transport and sink the SS United States, but that about half of that money had been secured through a variety of sources and he would be seeking monies from the county’s tourism advisory board.

A spokeswoman for the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Tourist Development Department said Okaloosa County had not given its final approvals to the project and she couldn’t provide additional information. 

Beyond the costs of securing ownership, other hurdles remain, including removing PCBs, fuel and the ship’s aluminum components, such as its rails.

Economic benefits cited

If the effort to bring the SS United States to Florida is successful, it would join another destination artificial reef, a decommissioned Essex Class attack aircraft carrier, the USS Oriskany, which was sunk off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., in 2006.

“At the time of the sinking, the Oriskany was the largest artificial reef structure ever deployed,” according to a 2021 University of Florida study.

The report found “significant economic activities and impacts were realized during the year immediately following the deployment of the Oriskany,” including roughly 4,200 chartered dive trips to the Oriskany during the first year after the sinking.

“Dive activities originating from Baldwin and Escambia Counties combined resulted in dive-trip-related expenditures of $2.2 million, with an economic impact of $3.6 million, the creation of 67 jobs, and the generation of $1.4 million in local incomes,” the report found.

Even as a technical dive with a minimal depth of 85 feet, the sinking of the Oriskany has proved to be wildly popular, Freeland said. “People are going out there in droves,” he said. “This ship keeps giving back.”

The plan for the SS United States would be to be make it even more accessible as a recreational dive, at a depth of 60 to 70 feet, Freeland said.

As for the tight timetable, Freeland was optimistic. “Impossible? Maybe. Maybe not,” he said.

He said the September deadline to oust the ship from its Philadelphia berth would mean moving it at the height of hurricane season. But if the court granted an extension, it would improve the project’s chances of success, he said.

Read more: SS United States faces being scrapped after losing berth battle in Philadelphia

Conservancy weighs in

The the SS United States Conservancy, which has owned the ship since 2011, and has been scrambling to find it a new home, said in a statement it was “open to exploring the prospect of reefing as a fallback scenario.”

“While converting the vessel into an underwater, artificial reef is clearly not our first choice for the future of America’s Flagship, it presents several advantages over scrapping the vessel, including the retention of her economic and tourism potential for those willing to invest in such a scenario,” it said.

Still, it said, it was “actively and aggressively pursuing all options” in pursuit of “locating a safe temporary or permanent location for the ship and ultimately her redevelopment as a dynamic stationary, mixed-use destination.”

In its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, the SS United States was as celebrated as much as other noteworthy cruise ships, like the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. The ship enjoyed a reputation for top-line amenities, including a theater, a first-class lounge with a stage and dance floor and an indoor pool.

Beyond its luxurious accommodations, the ship was remarkable for several design features, including propellers with a proprietary design by the U.S. Defense Department that allowed it to reach impressive speeds, and a reliance on more aluminum in its construction than any prior project in history to help reduce its weight, according to the conservancy.

All of that contributed to the SS United States making the transatlantic crossing in three days and 12 hours, cutting the travel time by nine hours and shattering the previous record held by the Queen Mary.

But the intervening decades have not been kind to the ship as ambitious plans for its redevelopment fell apart.

Today, what remains of its bygone era is a hulking, rusting ship, which since the 1990s has been berthed in Pier 82 in Philadelphia. And now, a federal court judge has ruled in favor of its landlord, that it’s time for it move — by Sept. 12.

Court motions filled with zingers

Penn Warehousing and Distribution, the landlord, insisted in a court filing dated Aug. 2 that its desire to remove the vessel from its pier is a matter of simple economics: It has a new tenant waiting to take up the pier spot, Hyundai Glovis, a large ocean freight carrier.

The company’s car carrier vessels would regularly deliver Hyundai vehicles about 100 times per year, which would increase by 50 percent in the following year, according to the filing.

For Penn Warehousing, that would translate to about $3 million in profits, money that would otherwise be lost if the SS United States remained in the pier. The company said it cannot seal a contract with Hyundai Glovis until the SS United States is removed and needed repairs to the site are completed.

In another filing, the plaintiffs excoriated what it described as the conservancy’s “initially laudable but progressively obsessive and harmful crusade to preserve the SS United States.”

The landlord essentially accused the conservancy of engaging in a quixotic effort to try to find a savior for the vessel while slow-walking the practical steps necessary to relocate it, such as securing approval from the U.S. Coast Guard for a tow plan, arranging for removal of silt around the vessel and other steps.

“However, the Conservancy offers no proof that it has lifted a finger to accomplish any of these pre-removal tasks in the 30 days since it received the final order — or the six months since trial or the two years of litigation before that,” the court papers said.

The plaintiff went on to complain that the conservancy has launched a campaign to raise $500,000 to “cover the cost of moving the SSUS to a new destination — a destination that does not exist.”

The Conservancy filed a motion with the court, requesting an extension to move the vessel to Dec. 5. A court hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. on Monday.