SS United States

A picture of her final voyage posted on social media:

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It's a great shame. I saw her on the horizon off Southsea (I think it was) when I was very young. Attracted a lot of attention.

 

A very good video of the move has appeared on YouTube:



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Very sad... an American icon, a ship with beautiful lines. I'm really surprised that no American with lots of money saved it and turned it into an attraction/hotel. They seem to preserve a lot of their naval vessels, many of which I've visited.

 

Selling off the interior then gutting it for asbestos removal left it as 45,000 tons of scrap metal. The cost of refitting it all would've been horrendous. Most other ships are preserved in as withdrawn condition.

 

Indeed... I was aware of that....

 

Some pictures have appeared on social media of SS United States back out at sea on her final voyage. They were taken by the captain of the tug boat towing her in what appear to be challenging conditions.
It must be quite a nerve-racking experience towing this mighty ship without any controls on the liner.

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What fabulous shots... a must have for hanging in my den. The cold atmosphere is creating, I think, the rising vapour from the sea. You get this in the Great Lakes in the Mid West... fabulous....

 

Sadly seems like the perfect metaphor for the once great country itself …..

 

A gopping creation built out of toxic material about to be sunk for fun… sounds about right.

 

Given who is currently in charge of 'the once great country', I'd suggest that the ship is the less toxic of the two.

 

Some video footage of the ship at sea has now appeared on YouTube. Things got a little interesting as it was rather windy


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If you use a ship tracker look up Vinik No.6. That's the tug on the SS United States.

 

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ai.../mmsi:368028510/imo:7044328/vessel:VINIK_NO_6
Appears to have moored on the Mobile River yesterday (3rd March). Presumably awaiting good weather, plus explosives to be loaded on board, before setting off for it's destination (sinking) site.

 

She might still be saved from this fate:
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...EKAB6BAgMEAE&usg=AOvVaw3uNaCgfRBQDKZdATvOD-Pz

 

Jeez, I bet there's a lot of musuems praying that lawsuit is thrown out. Imagine the effect on everyone else's budgets if that gets dropped onto the list of things to be preserved (and I doubt additional money will be provided for this).

Frankly, what are you going to see, it's been gutted?

 

Any of those options will be for eye-watering cost, with limited prospects of return.

Wiki says her interior furnishings were sold at auction in 1984 (so will be widely dispersed by now) and was stripped to the bulkheads in 1994. I'm willing to bet this was not done with a view to putting them back. (There is reference to a late-90s asbestos removal with stuff being "scrapped" and "dumped".) I would therefore think there is no chance of putting back the original. So at best it will be a re-creation.

I'm struggling to see the attraction. If you want to see a steel mid-century ship, there are (comparatively) lots of them, in the form of warships. There is no interior at the moment, so any attraction based on that needs to be funded before those visitors will come (and note also the unfavourable comments about the simplicity of the decor reported in wiki). So what is your customer base?

Bear in mind that a good chunk of the ship would have been accommodation, so cabins 24-875 will effectively not be additional exhibition space as cabins (assuming 24 cabins are enough for most people to look around).

Engines etc? Again, plenty of naval ships with the same technology to see, so what's worth driving a long way to see here?

The size of the thing I think just makes it prohibitively expensive.

 

A lot of the interior was sold off in the 80s to pay bills. Panelling etc got removed in the 90s as part of asbestos removal and scrapped. It's literally just a metal shell. Yes it's said that it's come to this, but the time to save it was 45 years ago before the furniture etc got sold off. Gutting it for asbestos removal should've been the end of it, but it's lingered on for another 30+ years.

If a railway wanted

Exactly. It's an empty, metal shell now. It's a shame, but the time to save it was in the 70s, not at the very last minute. There have been plenty of opportunities over the years to do something with it, but it's far too late now.

 

And it's not as though the ship is being destroyed or cut up and turned into razor blades, it's just being 'relocated'...
I wouldn't be surprised if, once sunk, it generates far more interest (and revenue for locals) from divers and dive tour companies than she's had being tied up for all these years.
Anyone know where I could get one of those tourist ride mini subs? 20 PAX at $25 a head for a 30 minute 'cruise...'