The ocean liner S.S. United States--about which I have written many times, in this space--was scheduled to leave its decades-long berth on the Philadelphia waterfront this past week.
Yet the possibility of a "tropical disturbance" in the Gulf of Mexico,
during this week's planned start of the towing from Philadelphia to
its first destination, Alabama, caused a delay in the departure.
A new departure date for the ship has not, as of this writing, been announced.
The ship began carrying passengers in 1952, and was taken out of service in 1969. It has been docked at Philadelphia's Pier 82 since 1996.
Since 2011, it has been owned by the S.S. United States Conservancy, a group dedicated to its preservation, and to its history.
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| S.S. United States, on the Philadelphia waterfromt (Photo: copyright by Jenny Lynn) |
As I have previously written, there was a court decision concerning the ship this past June. The landlord of the ship's berth had raised, significantly, the monthly rental fee for the berth; the landlord was also seeking to have the ship removed from the waterfront.
A Federal judge ruled, in June, that the rental fee--due to the terms of the docking contract--should not have been increased. The judge also decided, however, that the landlord had the right to terminate the rental agreement.
As a result, the judge ordered the ship to vacate its berth by September 12th. Delays were later permitted, to allow the Conservancy additional time to work out a plan for the ship's departure.
In that the Conservancy was unable to find a new home for the ship, two options remained: the ship could be sold for scrap, or it could be sunk, creating an artificial reef (and not just any artificial reef--but the world's largest; the ship, indeed--as I have noted previously--is more than 100 feet longer than the Titanic).
The latter option--that of sinking the ship--will now take place.
The ship was recently purchased by Okaloosa County, in Florida, and the ship will ultimately be sunk in the Gulf of Mexico. It will first be towed to Mobile, Alabama, where it will be prepared for the sinking--which will include the removal of any materials on and within the ship that might prove environmentally harmful upon its sinking.
This is what was supposed to have taken place on Thursday, November 14th and Friday, November 15th:
On Thursday, tugboats would have turned the ship around, at high tide (late in the morning), moving it from Pier 82, on the Philadelphia waterfront, to Pier 80.
On Friday, tugboats were to begin towing the ship to Alabama. Because of the ship's height, and the need for it to pass safely underneath three area bridges--the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia, the Commodore Barry Bridge (in metropolitan Philadelphia), and the Delaware Memorial Bridge--the departure was to begin at low tide, just before 7:00 a.m. The bridges were to be shut down during this period, as a precaution.
One recent article (published before the departure delay was announced) noted the following:
[Okaloosa] County officials say the estimated journey [to Alabama] will be about two weeks. According to officials, preparing the ship for deployment [as a reef] will take about 12 months, but the exact location in the Gulf of Mexico has not been set. They added that the ship will likely be deployed about 20 miles south of the Florida panhandle region in the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area.
Since the 1970s, hundreds of artificial reefs have been established in the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area, which is part of Okaloosa County.
Okaloosa County has allocated $10.1 million for the S.S. United States project. $1 million of these funds, it has been reported, were designated for the purchase of the ship--and some $1 million will be set aside for the establishment of an S.S. United States museum in Okaloosa County, focusing upon the ship's history. The remaining funds will be spent on such matters as the lengthy preparatory process in Alabama, the transportation costs to move the ship first to Alabama, and then to Florida, and the logistical and engineering work necessary for the successful sinking of the ship.
It is indeed sad that the S.S. United States Conservancy was unable to find a new home for the ship--where it could have perhaps been refurbished, and repurposed (there had been hopes of turning the ship into a multi-use site--a hotel, shops, restaurants, a museum, etc.). Yet despite the ultimate outcome, the Conservancy should be applauded--mightily--for its many efforts through the years to save the ship.
It would have been especially sad had the ship been sold for scrap. And while turning the ship into an artificial reef--where it will serve, for example, as an exploratory destination site for divers--is perhaps not the optimal outcome for such an historic ocean liner, one can at least find a certain solace (and even, one might suggest, a certain poetry) in the sinking.
The sinking can be regarded, really, as a dignified burial at sea.
For those who will visit Okaloosa County, after the deployment, and who may visit the future museum devoted to the ship, I suspect there will be, for many, a compelling feeling--perhaps an interesting sense of mystery, as well--in knowing that the ship is buried nearby, deep beneath the surface of the Gulf waters.
