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.”
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The clock is ticking for an old ocean liner that's looking for a new port city to call home.
Currently at a port in Philadelphia, the SS United States needs a new home after a federal judge ruled that it must leave by September 12. According to the Board of Directors for the SS United States Conservancy Warren Jones, the ruling comes after the landlord significantly increased the rent.
Conservancy President Susan Gibbs was recently honored by the National Maritime Historical Society. Susan’s article, “Naval Architect William Francis Gibbs, ‘A Dream Deferred Never Died,’” from the Society’s flagship publication, SEA HISTORY, was selected as the winner of the 2024 Rodney Houghton Award for the best article in SEA HISTORY in the past year.
