The SS United States was the pride of American shipbuilding.

 

I have casually followed her demise for decades, and now it seems the story is coming to an end.  

 

She’s best known for crushing the Transatlantic speed record on her maiden voyage in 1952 averaging a speed of 35.59 knots, that’s 40.96 mph!  - Pretty impressive performance for a 990 footer!  

 

The record was formerly held by the HMS Queen Mary, and it still stands today, some 73 years later.

 

Built by Newport News Shipbuilding  -she was Launched and Commissioned on June 23rd, 1951.

 

If you lived in Newport News during the early 1950s, you or someone in your family or friend group likely worked on this incredible ship, and her emotional ties to this area are still strong.  

 

The old timers still speak of her with tremendous pride. 

Maybe they worked on her, or maybe they just watched her sail out of Hampton Roads for those initial sea trials.  

 

She means just as much to the folks in New York that watched her depart for that record breaking transatlantic voyage, and to every passenger with the good fortune to have sailed aboard her.

 

She was in service from 1952-1969, crossing the Atlantic over 400 times, carrying over 1,000,000 passengers, including 4 US Presidents and countless celebrities. 

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She’s quite a bit smaller than the bloated, floating, all you can eat buffet cruise ships of today  -and quite a bit sexier, and more elegant - and way faster!  

 

Her lines are sleek and gorgeous, the twin red, white and blue funnels set to a slight rearward cant are impressive and unmistakeable, her glossy black hull only adding to the overall beauty - this vessel was built for speed, and looked the part.

 

She was capable of 38.32 knots (44 MPH), info that was actually  classified for many years.

 

Perhaps even more impressive - she was good for 20 knots in reverse!  That means she could just about outrun one of those Disney themed floating buffets going backwards!

 

Power was delivered by four massive steam turbine engines, each producing some 60,000 horsepower, each turning its own propellor - two big ones on the outside combined with two smaller props between. 

 

Like the top speed, her propulsion system and hull design were kept classified until sometime in the 1980s.

 

One of those huge props is on permanent display at the Newport News Mariner’s Museum, still mounted on the original shaft.

 

The Mariner’s Museum has many of the ship’s artifacts, and is a great way to spend an afternoon in Hampton Roads.

 

All of her furniture, fixtures and art were made of aluminum both to save weight and to reduce the risk of an at sea fire.

  

There literally was no wood on the ship, with the exception of the cook’s butcher block and the grand piano, which was made of fire resistant mahogany. 

 

Fire resistant material in shipbuilding for most of the 20th century meant asbestos - it was a great insulator of both temperature and sound with excellent heat/fire resistance, and the SS United States was full of it.

 

What is asbestos? A natural silicate fibrous mineral, once heavily mined for its insulation and fire retardant qualities, it is now known to be directly related to lung disease including various cancers, asbestosis, and mesothelioma  - which kills thousands of people around the world each year.  

 

When touched or bumped into, it can release tiny fibers that when breathed can build up in the lungs.

 

The effects of asbestos can take decades to show, and the rate of asbestosis in the Hampton Roads area is reportedly 7 times higher than the national average, primarily due to the shipbuilding industry.  

 

Asbestos was also widely used in housing materials and in the automotive industry from the 1930s-70s, with EPA restrictions beginning in the 1970s.

 

Back to our ship, so, what happened?  

 

Amongst other things  - The rising cost of fuel, the emergence of the commercial airline industry, changes in the way Americans traveled and vacationed, a larger US Navy, and asbestos - and the overwhelming cost of removal.  

She was a very expensive vessel to run and maintain in a rapidly changing world. 

 

During my entire childhood she was docked and deteriorating at Norfolk’s International Marine Terminal, Pier 2.  

 

She was there from 1970 to 1989 - we saw her every time we ventured out in to Hampton Roads Harbor, I remember pulling up right alongside her, looking up from the mahogany bench of our little 11 foot Boston Whaler at the majestic, but paint-peeling and rusting hull.  I had heard so many stories, but it seemed she still had more to tell.

 

In 1984, in an old warehouse at the International Terminals, just adjacent to the ship, an auction was held, in which her entire contents were sold off to satisfy the creditors of her most recent owner.  

 

The auction went on for two weeks, and thousands of items were sold from SS United States embossed silverware, serving trays and wine glasses to orange life vests with SS United States stenciled in black, the aluminum deck chairs, bed spreads, light fixtures, artwork, navigation equipment, even the lifeboats  - you name it - all sold off.

 

The highest bid cast was for the ship’s brass bell, which sold to a local physician for $30,000.

 

These items occasionally show up today in local yard sales, on eBay and other auction sites.

 

Later, in 1989 she was moved to the CSX Coal Docks on the James River, where those 65 foot iconic stacks could be easily seen by all crossing the “new” Monitor Merrimac Bridge Tunnel, a third crossing designed to alleviate traffic congestion from Virginia’s Hampton Roads’ Southside to the Peninsula, which opened in the early ‘90s.

 

Once again sold, she left the coal piers in 1992, this time for the Sevastopol Shipyard in Southern Ukraine to undergo the removal of all that asbestos - in preparation for what we all hoped would be a new life on the seas.  

 

The watercolor painting in this photo was of the SS United States leaving the coal piers for Ukraine.  

 

The painting is my father’s work, he was maritime artist, and native of Newport News.  Like so many, he shared a great affection for the SS United States.  He is where my interest in this ship and just about everything else in this life was generated. 

 

We shot the reference material from the family Grady White, as we watched the tugs take her away.  

 

The Sevastopol Shipyard was taken over by Russia when they illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.  It has been a hotpoint in the ongoing Ukrainian war.  

 

The SS United States was originally built in secret conjunction with the US Navy, to military spec, with much of the 79 million dollar price tag picked up by the Department of Defense.  

 

The design allowing for a quick conversion from luxury liner to high speed troop transport, capable of carrying 14,000 troops, and traveling 10,000 miles between refueling.

 

She just narrowly avoided such conscription during the Korean War.

 

Four years after leaving the coal piers for Ukraine, an ocean going tug towed her back across the Atlantic, to the Delaware River in Philadelphia, where she has continued her downward spiral.

 

Over the past 30 years, if your flight pattern was right, you could see those iconic stacks on your approach to the Philadelphia International Airport - It always felt good to see her again!

 

Every imaginable attempt has been made during the past 5 decades to bring her back  - as an ocean liner, a modern Caribbean cruise ship, a military vessel, a hospital ship, a floating museum, floating condos, floating casino, etc, etc  - all failed.   Many millions of dollars have been invested by many different well intentioned people and organizations.  

 

It is now time for this storied and proud part of American maritime history to be allowed her final rest.  

 

It is to be in the Gulf of Mexico, where her beautiful, mid-century lines will form the world’s largest artificial reef, providing habitat to marine life for many years to come. 

 

It is sad, but also good.

 

Under the assistance of tugs, she’s scheduled to leave the Philadelphia piers on November 14th and 15th, passing under the bridges that span the Delaware River at low tide, allowing additional clearance for those beautiful, but faded, red, white and blue stacks.

 

She’ll enter the Atlantic, staying as close to the shoreline as possible, wrapping around Florida and eventually reaching Mobile, Alabama  -a 12 month staging ground, as she’s prepared for her final, brief tow into the Gulf.  

 

While in Mobile, those iconic 65 foot tall Red White and Blue aluminum funnels will be removed, eventually to be displayed at the SS United States Conservancy’s future museum and visitors center.

 

Purchased with Okaloosa County’s tourism generated tax revenue, she is expected to bring in divers from around the world.

 

She’ll be scuttled gently, upright in the clear blue waters some 20 miles off the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  

No explosions, torpedos or practice bombing runs, just the opening of through hulls and hatches.  

 

You can follow her two week voyage to Mobile via live GPS tracking at this link, provided by Okaloosa County.

   

https://www.destinfwb.com/explore/eco-tourism/ssus/ 

 

Weather and timing permitting, we plan to be there, as she passes Cape Henry and mouth of the Chesapeake Bay for our own final farewell. 

 

 

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