Fastest liner in the world.
Posted on 03/11/2009 1:45:45 PM PDT by americanophile
Efforts to save the SS United States — a storied former ocean liner that has been mothballed in South Philadelphia — have apparently fallen through.
Two Washington, D.C.-based foundations that seek to preserve the ship are sounding the alarm that the historic vessel may be sold for scrap metal.
Robert Westover, who heads the SS United States Foundation, said this week that plans for refurbishment by Norwegian Cruise Line appear to be dead, and that the ship may be sold to a scrap dealer.
“I’m hoping this does not have a sad end, but it’s shaping up as an American tragedy,” said Westover, who started the SS United States Foundation 11 years ago to try to preserve the ship. It’s likely, he added, to be “headed for the scrap yard.”
Norwegian Cruise Line, which is owned by Hong Kong-based Star Cruises, said in April 2003 that it hoped to return the ship to service.
But this week the SS United States Conservancy, a second nonprofit, sent an urgent message to supporters: “In light of current economic conditions, the SS United States is now in grave danger of being sold for scrap.”
It added that “Star Cruises has provided no assurances that the historic vessel will not be sold for scrap.”
The SS United States, launched in 1952, set a speed record for westbound Atlantic crossings, averaging better than 35 knots an hour (or 41 mph). The record still stands.
The ship was built in Newport News, Va., for $79 million, in 500 days. In addition to duties handling transatlantic passenger service, it was used in 1962 in the Cuban Missile Crisis and in 1982 to transport British troops to the Falkland Islands. It is on the National Register for Historic Places. With the advent of air travel, the ship fell into disuse, and has not been used commercially since 1969.
It has been moored at a pier on South Columbus Boulevard since 1996.
Fixing it up would take millions.
Westover estimates that revamping the 990-foot ship to be a docked exhibit, much like the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif., would cost $100 million. To make it a viable, seaworthy cruise ship could cost $500 million, he said.
A last hope may be redirecting some of the $782 billion in federal stimulus funding — perhaps money earmarked for infrastructure.
To that end, Westover is appealing to Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., based on the fact that the SS United States was built in Newport News and could be returned to shipyards there for a makeover.
But Westover concedes that getting a piece of the stimulus funding “is a big old Hail Mary.”
When Norwegian Cruise Line bought the SS United States six years ago, it said it would refurbish it and add it to its fleet, using it on cruises between Hawaii and mainland United States.
Westover speculated that the cruise line’s motivation for buying the ship might have been driven by maritime law, which requires ships making domestic runs to use ships that are flagged, or registered, in the United States. Because there were a limited number of ships fitting that description, the SS United States may have seemed the most attractive option.
As to the ship’s future, Norwegian Cruise Line, which is based in Miami, said that it is evaluating its options, but offered few details.
“While all options for the ship are being evaluated, the SS United States Conservancy has been offered the opportunity to explore possibilities for the ship with the option of purchasing the vessel,” said AnneMarie Mathews, director of public relations for Norwegian Cruise Line.
An SS United States Conservancy spokesman, Dan McSweeney, said Norwegian’s asking price is $20 million.
“We must not let this national treasure fall into the wrong hands if she is sold,” said the SS United States Conservancy’s president, Susan Gibbs, granddaughter of the vessel’s designer, William Francis Gibbs. “While we understand the challenges posed by the economic downturn, this ship must be saved.”
Westover’s group, which has already spent an estimated $1 million in cash and in-kind contributions to save the ship, plans to hold a protest by the ship next month.
“Any other ship, I would not be wasting time. But I don’t want some kid to read five years from now that the ship that set the speed record that still stands could be hauled away for scrap,” said Westover. “It’s a great ship with our nation’s name on it.”
Fastest liner in the world.
Interesting metaphor
sign of the times
We definitely need to require a certain percentage of trans-Atlantic travelers to travel on this vessel. Or to use it as a troop transport to send our soldiers back and forth to posts in Germany, Iraq and Afghanistan.
ping
I sailed to Europe on her in 1968.
Definitely though it was a Social Security thread about which the title is true also.
Ain’t that the truth.
Ironic coincidence?
You always go to Windmill Point restaurant in Nags Head, N.C. Some of the furniture and other items from the ship has adorned it for years. I always thought that was all there was to it until I saw your post. Interesting.
“...35 knots an hour.”
I hate stuff like that.
It was never more than a footnote to the Age of Liners, though: it came along too late to establish a mystique.
She’d make a nice presidential yacht. Maybe a little small for the current chief executive’s taste, but times are tough.
And who knows, Obama might take it for his own private yacht.
Sell it for 79 million worth of scrap to a US steel mill. At today's prices and with union labor, it should make 100 million worth of new steel.
I heard there was a lot of Aluminum used in the construction of the superstructure on that ship. I never heard the Falklands thing before the QE2 was used I think.
haha...no sentimentalist you. I should think a ship that fast would have a perfectly good military application. A great high-speed troop transport.
2/3 of the construction cost was borne by the US government to do just that.
Lots of aluminum for scrap. wow.
Oink! Oink! I worked for the money the government takes away from me, and I could give a rat'sass about their stinking ship.
There was...it was designed to be fire retardant. It didn’t have the sumptuous interiors that British liners had, very functional...but it was fast.
It was originally designed for use as such.
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