The ocean liner that ferried four presidents across the Atlantic Ocean, hosted Duke Ellington and Sylvia Plath, and captured the world’s imagination in the mid-20th century has begun its final voyage. Leaving Philadelphia, where it has been rusting for decades, the ship, the S.S. United States, is bound this time for the bottom of the sea.
Many supporters — including former passengers who traveled on the ship before it docked largely for good in 1969 — had hoped to see the ship restored and opened to visitors. Instead, it is on its way to become the world’s largest artificial reef, off the coast of the Florida Panhandle.