The SS United States, America’s Flagship, arrived in Mobile, Alabama today after an approximately 1,800-mile tow from her berth in Philadelphia. The iconic national symbol and last surviving American ocean liner will now undergo preparations for her deployment as the “World’s Largest Artificial Reef” off Florida’s Gulf Coast near Destin-Fort Walton Beach.
“Today, the nation’s sole surviving ocean liner will glide down the Delaware River to begin the next chapter in her uniquely American story. As the fastest ship to ever cross the Atlantic travels for the first time since arriving in Philadelphia in 1996, we are reminded of the postwar high-water mark that the SS United States so gracefully and powerfully embodied when she was launched in 1951.”
In its day, the SS United States was a nautical marvel, the fastest passenger liner to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a record time that has stood for more than 70 years. It was also hailed as an engineering masterpiece, designed in close cooperation with the U.S. Navy as a potential troop ship in the event of a war.
“America’s Flagship” is being evicted. That is the situation the SS United States faces in a yearslong dispute with its landlord, a warehousing company in Philadelphia. The historic ship is the largest ocean liner ever constructed in the United States and the record holder for the fastest average speed during a transatlantic voyage.
