PENSACOLA, Fla. — The SS United States, an ocean liner longer than the Titanic and once the fastest ship at sea, began its final journey Wednesday toward the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, where it is set to become the world’s largest artificial reef.
Under a cloudy sky off Florida’s Panhandle, the vessel remained mostly above water at dusk. Workers had spent hours flooding its hull in an effort to send the massive ship beneath the surface.
The controlled sinking was part of a long-planned, $13.5 million project designed to draw divers and anglers to the region while creating habitat for marine species including tuna, marlin and swordfish.
6abc Action News reporter John Paul is in Florida to document the final voyage of the historic liner.
The effort to sink the behemoth stretched from the afternoon into the evening, far longer than the less-than-one-hour timeline officials had expected once the hull was flooded. Smaller boats gathered nearby, with some moving alongside the liner.
The project is intended to preserve a vessel that was considered a technological marvel when it entered service in 1952, rather than allow it to be dismantled for scrap. The scuttling was broadcast live online.
During its career, the SS United States crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times, carrying Hollywood stars including Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor. Its passengers also included Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, as well as Britain’s former King Edward VIII. In 1968, a young Bill Clinton traveled aboard the liner on his way to Oxford University, decades before becoming president.
Passengers were served elaborate meals that featured dishes such as caviar, roast duckling, smoked ox tongue and Calf’s Head en Tortue.
Before the sinking, crews removed the ship’s 65-foot (20-meter) smokestacks. Organizers plan to use them as anchors for a new museum honoring the liner.
“We’re not destroying anything,” Tim Mullane, a Navy veteran and chief operating officer of Coleen Marine, the company overseeing the sinking, said in a video posted online by local officials. “It’s going to serve a second life.”
Explosives were prohibited
Federal environmental and explosives regulations barred Okaloosa County and its contractor from using explosives to scuttle the ship, county spokesperson Nick Tomecek said. Officials moved the operation up by one day because of concerns about worsening weather.
The liner is expected to settle in about 180 feet (55 meters) of water, with its upper deck roughly 60 feet (18 meters) below the surface. That depth will allow even inexperienced divers to explore it. The ship will rest about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Destin, between Panama City and Pensacola.
Longer than the Titanic, the liner set a speed record on its maiden voyage
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Honeypot Threat: How Spies Use Sex to Target America’s Elite
More than 3,000 workers built the SS United States in Virginia during 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 (66 kph) on that crossing, surpassing the speed record set by Britain’s RMS Queen Mary in 1938 by 4.5 mph (7.2 kph), according to the AP report.
It achieved the record despite finishing its journey in a powerful gale with winds reaching 69 mph (111 kph). The storm was “so strong it blew a ping pong table off the deck,” the AP reported.
Measuring 990 feet (302 meters), the SS United States is 108 feet (33 meters) longer than the ill-fated Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank during its first Atlantic crossing.
“She really embodies and expresses this country’s best,” said Susan Gibbs, the granddaughter of the ship’s designer. “She represents pride and resilience and strength and beauty.”
The ship will join a region filled with artificial reefs
More than 500 artificial reefs already lie in the waters near the SS United States’ future resting place.
The previous record-holder for the world’s largest artificial reef was the USS Oriskany, an aircraft carrier sunk in 2006 in the Gulf off Pensacola. The Oriskany is close enough to the new reef that an experienced diver could visit both sites in one day, Tomecek said. Launched in 1950, the carrier measured 911 feet (278 meters) long.
SEE ALSO | SS United States to be stripped, prepared for sinking off Florida’s Gulf coast
“We’re trying to be the best diving destination in the world,” Tomecek said.
The SS United States was decommissioned in 1969. Later efforts by a hotel magnate and Norwegian Cruise Lines to repurpose the ship never came to fruition. From 1996 until recently, it remained docked in Philadelphia.
Mullane described the ship’s enormous funnels, or smokestacks, as “works of art.” They were removed before the sinking and will help anchor the planned museum.
“I’m just so happy that we are able to save parts of her,” Gibbs said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.