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The SS United States is facing eviction from its mooring at Pier 82 in Philadelphia in a lawsuit filed by Penn Warehousing, the pier’s landlord. The ocean liner has been rusting away in the Delaware River since 1996 but has a storied past. In 1952, it broke the once-highly sought record for the fastest transatlantic crossing, the last passenger ship to do so. The SS United States Conservancy, a non-profit attempting to restore the ship, admits that relocation will be necessary but is still aiming to preserve the vessel. The potential eviction stems from rent increases that could be against...

A COUPLE of generations ago sanitary conditions on shipboard were either of the crudest or did not exist at all. It is a fact that in the days of the famous Yankee clippers the crews of those and contemporaneous craft were absolutely without toilet conveniences. The first-class passengers of the sailing "packets" of the 1840's and 1850's and still later had no bathing facilities and the so-called lavatories were as foul as they were inefficient. The unfortunates who had to journey in the steerages were even worse off, the filth and immodesty of the sanitary arrangements, if they could be...

Clive Palmer, an Australian billionaire, released the blueprints for the Titanic II on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Set to begin it's maiden voyage in 2016, and will travel the original Titanic's route from South Hampton, England to New York.

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...

HOURS after boarding the luxury cruise that would result in her death, Dianne Brimble's friend warned her of a group of men who had been ogling female passengers, a Sydney inquest was told today. The next morning, Ms Brimble, 42, was found dead in a cabin belonging to some of those same men. Police allege she had been given a lethal dose of the date rape drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate before being sexually assaulted. The inquest was told Ms Brimble had been ecstatic, setting out on the "holiday of a lifetime" with family and friends on the P&O liner Pacific Sky on...

A "freak wave" more than 70 feet high slammed a luxury cruise ship steaming for New York yesterday, flooding cabins, injuring passengers and forcing the liner to stop for emergency repairs. The Norwegian Dawn, an opulent ocean liner almost 1,000 feet long, limped into Charleston, S.C., yesterday afternoon after it hit vicious seas in an overnight storm off Florida - then was creamed by the rogue wave after dawn. "[My room] was destroyed by stuff getting thrown all over the place," passenger James Fraley, of Keansburg, N.J., told NBC News before embarking on the 12-hour drive home because he didn't...

Scrapping looms for veteran linerTime seems to be running out for the venerable SS Norway. The former liner that helped launch Norwegian shipowners' venture into the cruise industry will reportedly be scrapped if no buyer steps forward by next week.The vessel continues to be owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL), but hasn't sailed since an explosion in its boiler room in 2003. The explosion and fire killed several crew members.Vastly in need of expensive renovation, the vessel has since been berthed at Bremerhaven in Germany. NCL initially announced plans to repair the vessel, but the Associated Press reported Friday that...