By Tamara L. Young, PhD, Public Information Director for the World’s Luckiest Fishing Village
If you’ve seen the movie Titanic, you’ll remember Rose DeWitt Bukater (portrayed by Kate Winslet) who falls in love with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character.
But this is Rose Skelton, and she was in love with Glen Richard Skelton. And the ship she was on is bigger than the Titanic; over 100 feet longer, in fact. It’s the SSUS and, to this very day, she holds the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing by an ocean liner.
Acquired by Okaloosa County with the Tourist Development Department leading the way, the SSUS is prepping her way to becoming the world’s largest artificial reef, a habitat for marine life and attracting divers and anglers from all over the world.
But before that, she had a long, storied life. One of those stories includes Destin City Councilmember Terésa Hebert. She was a baby when her mother, Rose Skelton, took her and two of her siblings across the ocean to London.
Coming full circle this month, Terésa met up with her sister Juliana Skelton and their mother, who is now in her 90s and lives with Juliana in Mississippi. The three met in Mobile, Alabama, where crews are working on the ship to get her ready for deployment.
“I was too young to remember any of it, so my mother being one of the travelers on this massive ship was a surprise to me up until a year ago,” said Terésa. I sit on the Destin City Council, and my husband heard us talking about the future artificial reef at a meeting that was being livestreamed, and he mentioned he thought that was the ship my mother had taken. So, to go from that to then getting a chance to visit the ship together was incredible. Being able to see her sitting outside the ship and talking about having to deal with the three tiny little people that we were, all by herself, for the five days crossing. It was so amazing!”
It was toward the end of 1961 when Rose’s husband Glen requested his next assignment to be at an Air Force base in the United Kingdom. Part of the government budget cuts at the time were that all dependent travel was suspended. “Military members had the option to resubmit requests for orders, but they would be unaccompanied tours,” recalled Rose. “He received orders for Weathersfield AFB to arrive by April 1962. I wrote to my mother who was living in London and told her he was coming, but I couldn’t afford the plane tickets to England.”
The only option was to go a more affordable route – by sea. “As our household goods wouldn’t be shipped for free, we figured we could take more needed household items if we went by sea. The car had to be shipped by sea out of New Jersey, and the USS United States was in New York. So, it was easy for us all to take a road trip from Maxwell AFB in Montgomery to New York.”
They chose the last cruise in April to book, right before the pricier summer rates kicked in for travelers.
“My husband was able to help bring our bags and steamer trunk onto the ship and get us settled in,” said Rose.
Rose elicited laughter from Terésa and Juliana recalling what happened just after she waved goodbye to her husband. “As the ship’s horn blasted, my eldest son wet his pants.”
Her other memories were equally spirited. “Our room must have been on the upper deck, because I remember going downstairs to the dining room. I also remember the bar was very close to our cabin, probably 30 feet away.” One late night Rose slipped away for a drink while the kids (Terésa and her two brothers Dominic and Anthony) were sleeping. Dominic woke up crying, and that woke up Anthony, and soon enough the noise was heard outside the cabin by the steward. He headed to the bar to find Rose.
“She remembered dad giving her permission to leave and have a glass of wine each night,” said Terésa. “And then of course the one night she does, Dominic needed her!”
Rose was quick to chime in with what a good baby Terésa was. “She just ate and slept, so when I put her down, it was easy for me and the boys to go to the dining room where we could eat. I don’t remember seeing a lot of people, and for a couple of days the weather was so rough that we preferred to stay in the room. When we did go out on rough days, we had to hold onto the ropes that were strewn from one side of the ship to the other. I had friends who told me that I would have plenty of help with taking care of three little ones. Well, that wasn’t the case as most of the passengers were dependent wives in the same boat as I was. No pun intended!”
There was also the added complication that there were not disposable diapers. All of Rose’s three kids on board wore cloth diapers at night, so “there was a lot of washing diapers out in the morning and hanging them around the cabin.”
Soon enough, they arrived on land and found a place close to base, with the towels, pots, cutlery and other items she’d packed. It also wasn’t long before “the budget opened up and dependents were able to travel again on the government dime.”
But Rose wouldn’t have had their experience any other way. She’s a part of history, having cruised on the SSUS. Due to a bit of walking instability, she was unable to tour the ship alongside Terésa and Juliana on their recent visit. Instead, Rose stood on the concrete slab next to the ship, looking up and waving enthusiastically as she saw her daughters through an upper deck porthole.
They all wish Glen was here to be part of this (he passed away in 2015 at the age of 81), but Terésa is grateful to have this experience with her mother.
“It was mixed emotions of funny, inspiring, and just happy she’s still alive to be able to see the ship up close 63 years later.
Rose plans to travel to our area for the ship’s deployment, which is scheduled to take place later in 2025. The exact location in the Gulf has not been set, but it is expected to be about 20 miles south of the Florida Panhandle region in the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area.
Unlike the tragedy of the unexpected sinking of the Titanic, Rose said she is excited for the purposeful sinking of the SSUS and knowing it will continue to serve a valuable purpose.
