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The SS United States is bigger than the Titanic, as long as a skyscraper and holds the record for the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic. But after nearly three decades of sitting dormant and rusted in a Philadelphia pier, it is now headed to its final home—the bottom of the ocean.

PHILADELPHIA -- Whoever 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 the world's largest 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.


https://cruiseradio.net/iconic-ss-united-states-faces-delay-in-final-journey-to-florida-reef-site/


"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.

What went wrong?​

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-use 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.

Sinking an icon​

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.

RELATED: Ship sinking expert explains how the SS United States will be prepped for its underwater grave
 

Naval Officer Accidentally Discovers First World War Submarine Hidden Beneath a Town Park​

Story by Mahalekshmi P

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...&cvid=4ec34173d1e9431b800da7e8d7611627&ei=113

Naval Officer Accidentally Discovers First World War Submarine Hidden Beneath a Town Park​

Treasures of the great wars were in surplus and hidden across regions, which included precious artifacts, paintings, and colonial loots. Along with these antiquities, there was a surplus of machinery and transportation that had been stored in Britain. According to Royal Navy News, Britain had a surplus of ships and submarines, not just of her own but also vessels that were seized from the defeated Germans. Many of these vehicles were driven ashore, left on the banks of creeks, and anchored to shores. As they decayed over decades, they were generally forgotten about. An example was the two German destroyers on Whale Island in Portsmouth that were forgotten until historians formally identified them.

Dartmouth was home to Royal Navy officer training for more than 150 years and was convinced that there was a wreck of a submarine buried under the town's park. A Royal Navy officer believed that he was one step closer to unraveling this nautical mystery. Lieutenant Tom Kemp, an officer from Britannia Royal Naval College, taught navigation to future generations of naval leaders, as per Forces News. The officer looked over contemporary documents and photographs and thought he had identified the submarine. It was unceremoniously buried along with landfill materials and rubble beneath the Coronation Park, which overlooked the River Dart. The five-acre park was occupied by the Naval College and used to be mud flats.

Knewz.com noted that the hidden vessel was identified as HMS E52, and the University of Winchester found an outline of what was thought to be the vessel with a radar scan. The vague outline visible on the radar scans identified a second object that could be a German torpedo boat, longer but more narrow. The findings were made by Dr Simon Roffey and Dr David Ashby after they thoroughly studied the research of naval officer Lieutenant Tom Kemp. The officer reported that the park covered an area of about 20,000 square meters, which was roughly the size of three football pitches and 80 times the size of the submarine, as per BBC. With the radar, the team concluded that E52 "probably lies in the northeast corner of the park."

The British E-Class submarine was deployed during the 1917 Great War and was known to have sunk the German submarine UC-63 while it was laying mines off the coast of Kent, according to the Dartmouth Chronicle. It was also assumed that the submarine likely retained very 'little resemblance' to its initial design after 80 years underground. “It’s been my hobbyhorse for the better part of the past year. Confirming the final resting place of one of His Majesty’s Submarines – and a pretty successful one at that – would serve to remind and reiterate that our naval heritage is all around us and can often be clawed back from obscurity. Our time and energy could scarcely be better spent,” Lieutenant Kemp stated.

The ground penetrating radar sent sound pulses through concrete and Tarmac, and the resultant concentrations of red on the scans suggested that large metallic objects lay one meter beneath the surface, as per MailOnline. The positions of the two 'finds' were compared to a contemporary aerial photo of Dartmouth in the 1920s, which showed the submarine and another craft sitting on the mudflats. Coombe Mud and the neighboring Sandquay in Dartmouth were also treated as breakers' yards for unwanted warships, which could include at least two submarines. The site was purchased by the local authority in the late 1920s and created the park, which opened in 1937 at the time of the coronation of George VI.
 

Experts Unraveled the Mystery of a Lost WWII Submarine - and Its 80 Vanished Crew Members​

 
 
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