America’s Flagship, the SS United States (SSUS), has now begun her journey to our own Emerald Coast, successfully moving from Pier 82 to Pier 80 in preparation for her departure from Philadelphia, Pa.
After Okaloosa County’s Tourist Development Department, Destin-Fort Walton Beach completed the necessary safety requirements by local, state and federal agencies, the journey began to move the SSUS from her current docking area in south Philadelphia to a docking area in Mobile, Ala., where preparations to ready the ship to become the World’s Largest Artificial Reef will continue.
The SSUS has departed Philadelphia after 30 years, and, at the time of this printing, she was being chaperoned by multiple tug boats while making her way down the Delaware River and into the Atlantic Ocean. As with any project of this magnitude, the schedule is tentative with dates, times and other logistics subject to change, due to many factors.
The SSUS’ amazing journey to Mobile is expected to take about two weeks. Upon arrival, the vessel will continue its rebirth into an artificial reef as contractors remove hazardous material, including non-metal parts and fuel to ensure this deployment is clean and not harmful to the environment it aims to benefit. Modifications will also be made to ensure that when the vessel is deployed, it will land upright underwater. The preparation process will take about 12 months.
The exact location along the Gulf Coast for the vessel’s deployment has not been set, but it is expected to be about 20 nautical miles south of the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area.
As the World’s Largest Artificial Reef, the story of the SSUS will be told to thousands of divers from around the world as they explore her unique design and features. She will also benefit her surrounding ecosystem and become home to countless marine species that will thrive from the presence of her structure. Due to the size and the depth, she will be home to a wide variety of marine life from iconic reef fish such as red snapper to pelagic species of fish like wahoo. This new artificial reef will provide bountiful fishing and diving opportunities for the local, visiting and charter industries.
Okaloosa County will continue to partner with the SSUS Conservancy as it pivots to develop a land-based museum in Destin-Fort Walton Beach that will celebrate and commemorate the nation’s flagship. The County will provide the Conservancy with regular project updates and will support the museum planning process which will incorporate iconic features from the ship, including the funnels, radar mast, and other signature components, as well as the Conservancy’s extensive curatorial and archival collection. This will preserve the ship’s storied history and the memories that she has created for so many people over the years.
To follow the SSUS’ journey via GPS tracking, visit //www.destinfwb.com/explore/eco-tourism/ssus.
Fun Facts About the SSUS:
• The design of the SSUS was so innovative that the details of her construction were kept top-secret. She was the first passenger liner to be built almost entirely in a graving dock – safely out of the public eye.
• The SSUS was designed to be just wide enough (101 feet) so it could pass through the locks of the Panama Canal with two feet of clearance on either side.
• Five days before her maiden voyage in July 1952, the SSUS was opened to the public at her berth in New York. Some 70,000 people turned out to see the dazzling new ship that day – more than a sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium! The line to go aboard stretched for 14 blocks.
• How fast was the SSUS? During her speed trials, she sliced through the waves at an astonishing 38.32 knots – 44 miles per hour!
• Four U.S. presidents sailed aboard the SSUS: Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Bill Clinton. (The youthful Clinton, fresh out of Georgetown, was on his way to study at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.)
• For her maiden voyage, the SSUS stocked 7,935 quarts of ice cream and a whopping 500 pounds of caviar.
• The SSUS carried an impressive roster of luminaries on nearly every voyage. Famous passengers included Marlon Brando, Coco Chanel, Sean Connery, Gary Cooper, Walter Cronkite, Salvador Dali, Walt Disney, Duke Ellington, Judy Garland, Cary Grant, Charlton Heston, Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe, Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
• A famous passenger of a different sort sailed aboard the SSUS in 1963: the Mona Lisa. Leonardo Da Vinci ’s masterpiece was traveling to the U.S. for special exhibitions in Washington and New York. (She made it back to the Louvre in remarkably good shape for a 460-year-old woman.)
• The SSUS is 990 feet long – about five city blocks! If you stood her on end, she’d rise nearly as high as New York’s Chrysler Building or Philadelphia’s Comcast Center.
• You think the Titanic was huge? The SSUS is over 100 feet longer.
• The SS United States’ designer, William Francis Gibbs, wanted his ship to be fireproof, so he insisted that no wood be used in her construction or fittings. One exception: the ship’s grand pianos were made from fire-resistant mahogany. A Steinway piano was tested in advance by dousing it with gasoline and lighting a match. (It didn’t burn.)
• More aluminum was used in the SSUS than for any previous construction project in history. Why? To reduce her weight and make her the fastest ocean liner of all time.
• Thanks to her reduced weight and powerful engines, the SSUS could go almost as fast in reverse as the Titanic could go forward.
• On her maiden voyage, the SSUS shattered the trans-Atlantic speed record in both directions. She was the first American ship in 100 years to capture the coveted Blue Riband (awarded to the fastest trans-Atlantic ocean liner). Amazingly, she still holds the record more than 60 years later.
• Built to be converted from luxury liner to troop transport in the event of war, the SSUS was able to carry 14,000 troops 10,000 miles without refueling.
• The galleys aboard the SSUS could turn out up to 9,000 individual meals a day!
• The SSUS was retired from active service in 1969. The age of the great ocean liners had come to a close, doomed by increasingly fast and affordable trans-Atlantic airline flights.
• From 1996 to 2025, the SSUS was docked on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.
Source: ssusc.org
Learn more about Okaloosa County’s artificial reef program at https://www.destinfwb.com/explore/eco-tourism/artificial-reefs/.
