NPR: SS United States, record-setting ocean liner, makes its final voyage
In the coming days, the United States is expected to take its final voyage, on its way to be buried at sea.
It's not the country nearing its end, but a ship that bears its name. The SS United States is a mid-20th century ocean liner that set the speed record for crossing the Atlantic. Now tied up at a Philadelphia pier, its paint peeling and faded after decades of inactivity, it's bound for an ending that is, in reality, a new phase of its life: serving as an artificial reef that attracts divers and marine life in the waters off Florida.