SS United States Conservancy in South Philadelphia faces eviction

CBS Philadelphia ^ | March 2, 2024 | CBS Philadelphia

[Dr. Franklin]

Also, note that the top of the ship is aluminum to cut down on its weight, which added to her speed.

[Dr. Franklin]

Tow it out and sink it. The longer it stays there, the more likely tax payers will bail it out costing billions to be made in to an illegal alien housing project.

Not unless she is full of rainbow warriors. If this national treasure must be sacrificed, there must be a national benefit.

[Yardstick]

I’d like to see a video walkthrough of this ship in its current condition. Bet it would be spooky.

[Dr. Franklin]

I’d like to see a video walkthrough of this ship in its current condition. Bet it would be spooky.

This is from two years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuBKewWTag0&t=20s

There is a few more video bits on Youtube.

[Fresh Wind]

They can always use it to warehouse actual American citizens who are displaced from their homes to make room for Briben’s newcomers.

[Bull Snipe]

I suspect her fate will be that of most ships, the breakers or the bottom.

[Dr. Franklin]

I suspect her fate will be that of most ships, the breakers or the bottom.

Philadelphia already has the U.S.S. Olympia, Commodore Dewey's flag ship from the Spanish American War, the USS Becuna, a WWII submarine, and the Moshulu, a windjammer from 1904. Across the river is the USS New Jersey in Camden. So, adding the SS United States would add to an already impressive fleet of museum ships in the port area. Our government wastes money in so many wrong ways, they should find money to save this historic ship, which still holds the record for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing.

[Bull Snipe]

fully agree with you.

[Organic Panic]

Rainbow warriors wouldn’t dare go on anything called the “SS United States” or its sister ship “SS America.” I’m surprised they haven’t demanded it be recycled in to George Floyd statues.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

It IS a shame, but I would suggest that the current state of the cruise industry has pretty much wrecked the possibility of any such concept. Fairly ordinary cruise ships are already very hoity toity inside, fully the equivalent of a high end hotel. And you can get cruises for little more than the ordinary cost of a medium-high end hotel. Cruises are actually pretty darn cheap.

Now I’m not gonna tell you I can say what the ultra-rich would want in such a thing, because I am not one of them. But it ain’t gonna be a big ship with the capacity for 5000 PAX. I could definitely see cruise ships repurposed to eldercare facilities. The ship I worked on, RCCL’s Jewel of the Seas for 10 months as a musician, had a fully equipped infirmary (and a morgue) but you can’t do surgery on a ship that can rock and roll. I would think that very rich people, when they want to go somewhere, they want to go at airplane speed. And when they want something, they want it now. Plus, rich people get bored and once you run out things to do on a cruise, you are nothing but bored. So if it’s not on the ship they have to wait. There ARE people who have booked permanent suites on cruise ships as their eldercare homes. There is one lady on the Queen Mary II who has an endowment of some kind that pays for her perpetual room & board there.

I could also see retired cruise ships working as homeless shelters. At least they could be hosed down when the occupants change.

[Yardstick]

Very interesting — thanks. It’s too bad they had strip out the interior walls for asbestos removal. It’s mostly just the metal frame now without much of its original character. But, as the project leader for the conservancy says, that makes it kind of a blank canvas, and as such they’re looking for a visionary investor to do a total renovation. She contrasts this with the Queen Mary, another one of the handful of surviving ocean liners of the era, whose original appointments were all intact making a historical restoration the natural approach. It would be great to see them succeed in getting the SS United States reworked in grand fashion and back on the seas again.

[mowowie]

Last week i found a 4 hour video tour of this ship from 1991.
Filmed after the auction but before she was gutted.
The interior is still intact.
Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx9nfj_WHRQ

Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tl8OkIY4tU

I have always been a big fan of this liner and found the video pretty fascinating.

[Yardstick]

Thanks — I’ll check those out.

[Dr. Franklin]

Very interesting — thanks. It’s too bad they had strip out the interior walls for asbestos removal. It’s mostly just the metal frame now without much of its original character. But, as the project leader for the conservancy says, that makes it kind of a blank canvas, and as such they’re looking for a visionary investor to do a total renovation. She contrasts this with the Queen Mary, another one of the handful of surviving ocean liners of the era, whose original appointments were all intact making a historical restoration the natural approach. It would be great to see them succeed in getting the SS United States reworked in grand fashion and back on the seas again.

The fact that they gutted the interior to remove the asbestos allows for either restoring the old look with improved plumbing and wiring from high tech devices, and sound proofing, or something completely new. I think refitting the ship as a floating hotel offers the most promise, and it could still have a restaurant, bar and ball room. The bar and ball room could be done first to pay the bills while the rooms are refitted. I do think some government money is needed to start the effort moving forward. Enough government money has been wasted through the decades that this should have been done by now.

[Dr. Franklin]

A recent story online about this: The Last Fastest Ocean Liner Allegedly Owes $800,000 In Back Rent