The historic SS United States, once the fastest passenger ship in the world, completed its final voyage Wednesday—beneath the sea.
The iconic ocean liner, longer than the Titanic and a veteran of more than 800 Atlantic crossings, was intentionally sunk in the Gulf of Mexico. There, the once-luxurious vessel will begin a new chapter as the world’s largest artificial reef.
Its farewell took far longer than expected.
As darkness settled over the Florida Panhandle, much of the massive ship remained visible in the murky offshore waters, hours after the controlled sinking began on a cloudy afternoon.
Organizers had initially estimated that the operation could be completed in as little as an hour.
At about 9 p.m., the vessel finally tipped onto its side before rapidly disappearing beneath the surface.
“She is an amazing lady who will not lay down without a fight,” Coleen O’Malley, president of Coleen Marine, the company overseeing the sinking, said before the ship vanished. “Much like the amazing nation she was named after.”
The $13.5 million project was designed to draw divers and anglers to the area while creating habitat for tuna, marlin, swordfish and other marine life.
The descent took longer in part because crews had to pump water into 128 fuel and lubricant tanks to ensure the ship settled evenly on the seafloor, said Nick Tomecek, a spokesperson for Okaloosa County, which helped coordinate the operation. The process, he said, “took longer than we thought.”
“She’s a big ship,” Tomecek said.
A massive vessel with a storied past
The reef project will preserve a former technological marvel that otherwise faced the prospect of being dismantled for scrap.
Among the ship’s famous passengers were Hollywood stars Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor.
Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy also traveled aboard, as did Britain’s former King Edward VIII. In 1968, a young Bill Clinton took the ship while heading to Oxford University, decades before becoming president.
Passengers were once served lavish meals featuring caviar, roast duckling, smoked ox tongue and calf’s head en tortue.
Before the sinking, crews removed the ship’s 65-foot smokestacks. The funnels are expected to become anchors for a new museum dedicated to the vessel.
Why explosives could not be used
Federal environmental and explosives regulations barred Okaloosa County and its contractor from using explosives to scuttle the ship, Tomecek said.
Officials moved the operation forward by a day after concerns about worsening weather.
The SS United States was equipped with pipes that drew seawater into tanks to cool its boilers, Tomecek said. Those tanks were removed so that opening the valves would allow water to flood the hull.
Crews also cut 10-foot-by-10-foot openings into the decks and removed more than 400 portholes.
The ship was expected to settle in roughly 180 feet of water, leaving its top deck about 60 feet beneath the surface—shallow enough for less-experienced divers to explore.
The wreck will rest approximately 25 miles southwest of Destin, between Panama City and Pensacola.
Bigger than the Titanic and record-setting from the start
More than 3,000 workers built the SS United States in Virginia in 1950 and 1951. Among the 1,700 people aboard its maiden voyage were an Associated Press reporter and Margaret Truman, the president’s daughter.
The ship averaged nearly 41 mph during that crossing, beating the speed record set by Britain’s RMS Queen Mary in 1938 by 4.5 mph, according to the AP’s report.
It achieved the mark despite finishing the journey in a powerful gale with winds reaching 69 mph—strong enough, the AP reported, to blow a pingpong table from the deck.
Measuring 990 feet, the SS United States is 108 feet longer than the ill-fated Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank during its maiden Atlantic voyage.
“She really embodies and expresses this country’s best,” said Susan Gibbs, granddaughter of the ship’s designer. “She represents pride and resilience and strength and beauty.”
A new landmark in a region filled with artificial reefs
More than 500 artificial reefs already lie in the waters near the SS United States’ new resting place.
Before the liner’s arrival, the region’s largest artificial reef was the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, which was sunk in the Gulf off Pensacola in 2006. The site is close enough to the SS United States that an experienced diver could visit both in a single day, Tomecek said. Launched in 1950, the Oriskany measures 911 feet.
“We’re trying to be the best diving destination in the world,” Tomecek said.
The SS United States was decommissioned in 1969. Plans by a hotel magnate and Norwegian Cruise Lines to repurpose the vessel never came to fruition, and from 1996 until recently, it remained docked in Philadelphia.
Mullane described the ship’s enormous funnels—the smokestacks removed to help anchor the planned museum—as “works of art.”
“I’m just so happy that we are able to save parts of her,” Gibbs said.