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SS America was an ocean liner built in (1936-1939) 1940 for the United States Lines and designed by the noted American naval architect William Francis Gibbs. She carried many names in the 54 years between her construction and her 1994 wrecking, as she served as the SS America (carrying this name three different times during her career), the USS West Point, the SS Australis, the SS Italis, the SS Noga, the SS Alferdoss, and the SS American Star. She served most notably in passenger service as the SS America, and as the Greek-flagged SS Australis for Chandris. In 1941, she carried two Nazi spies from the Duquesne Spy Ring in her crew: Erwin Wilhelm Siegler and Franz Joseph Stigler. Both men were charged by the FBI with espionage and sentenced to 10 and 16 years imprisonment, respectively.

In February 1993, the ship was sold yet again, with the intention of being refitted to become a five-star hotel ship off Phuket, in Thailand. Drydocking at that time revealed that despite the years of neglect, her hull was still in remarkably good condition. In August she was renamed American Star, her propellers were removed and placed on the deck, the funnel and bridge were painted red, and ladders were welded to starboard. She left Greece on 22 December 1993 under tow, but the tow proved impossible due to the weather. She then returned to Greece for a few days until the weather calmed down. On New Year's Eve 1993, American Star left Greece for the last time, towed by Ukrainian tugboat Neftegaz-67.

The one hundred day tow began; American Star and Neftegaz 67 entered a thunderstorm in the Atlantic. The tow lines broke and six or more men were sent aboard American Star to reattach the emergency tow lines. This proved unsuccessful. Two other towboats were called to assist Neftegaz 67. On 17 January, the crew aboard American Star was rescued by helicopter. The ship was left adrift. On 18 January, the ship ran aground off the west coast of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.

While discussions among the ship's owners, the towing firm, and the companies insuring the ship were going on, the ship was left to nature, with the forward part of the ship running aground on a sandbar. Within the first 48 hours of grounding the pounding surf of the Atlantic broke the ship in two just past the second funnel. The ship was declared a total loss on 6 July 1994. The stern section collapsed completely to port and sank in 1996, while the bow remained intact.

n November 2005, the port side of the bow section collapsed, which caused the liner's remains to assume a much sharper list and the remaining funnel to detach and fall into the ocean. The collapse of the port side also caused the hull to begin to break up and by October 2006, the wreck had almost completely collapsed onto its port side.

In April 2007 the starboard side finally collapsed causing the wreck to break in half and fall into the sea. Since then, what little remained has been slowly disappearing beneath the waves. As of March 2013, the wreck is only visible during low tide.