Update: SS United States saved from the scrapper (for now)

A few months back, in one of my first posts for Boing Boing, I wrote about the plight of the SS United States, the fastest ocean liner ever built. It was docked in Philadelphia at the time, a beautiful ghost from a pre-jet era when sea travel was both glamorous and financially viable, and the scrappers were circling. Some things haven't changed since March: The great days of the ocean liner are still gone, and "The Big U" is still sitting forlornly in her mooring on the Delaware River. But against all odds, one very big thing has transpired: The SS United States Conservancy, a volunteer group of self-described ship geeks, has managed at the 11th hour to keep the ship from the scrapyard. The Conservancy announced yesterday a deal to purchase the SSUS from its owner, NCL Group. It's an astonishing victory. The Wall Street Journal reports the purchase price to be $3 million; NCL reportedly turned down a bid of almost twice as much from a scrapper. A Philadelphia philanthropist, Gerry Lenfest, has agreed to pay the $60,000-per-month upkeep on the ship for 20 months while the conservancy looks for a partner with whom to repurpose the vessel, most likely as a hotel or mixed-use development on the Philadelphia or New York waterfront.

My last post on the ship churned up a lot of comment, as this one will probably will, and a lot of readers said, in effect, "Let the thing rust away and die." I wonder how many of them would have said the same thing about New York's Pennsylvania Station, the grand Beaux Arts railroad terminal whose destruction in the early '60s helped to spark the modern preservation movement. The problem is, once these things are gone they're gone, and with them goes a piece of our shared history, even our national identity. The good guys won one today in Philadelphia. Here's hoping that 20 months from now some of us will be lucky enough to pop champagne corks on the deck of a refurbished Big U.

Bill Barol is the author of Thanks For Killing Me, a novel. He blogs at Extra Bonus Super Happy Funtime.

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Anonymous

@1: I have plans to cross the atlantic by ship as well. From the hour or so I spent researching a few months back, apparently one can do it as a crew member (ordinary seaman) of some ship. you get to cross the ocean AND you get paid (all you need is a Z-card which you can get without any experience).

If someone wants to correct me please do.
- tote
  
  #3 – Sorry running away to sea isn’t as easy as it used to be. It’s a lot more involved now than getting a card and walking down to the docks. Now you’ll also need a TWIC (Transportation Worker Identification Card) before going to the CG. The Z-Card and licenses have been replaced by a passport like MMC (Merchant Mariner Credential). You can check out the CG’s website for Merchant Mariners here: http://www.uscg.mil/nmc/
  The info you’d want would be under Applications -> Checklists -> and then entry level ratings. If you’re looking for more info try searching the forums at http://www.gcaptain.com.
  
  As for saving the ship, I am personally very happy that its being done. It was such a shame she was moth-balled for so long. The United States is arguably one of the best ships ever constructed and her designer, William F. Gibbs, was one of the true geniuses in the field of Naval Architecture. She still holds the Blue Ribband after 58 years, she is truly an amazing piece of engineering.
eagleapex

I am so glad it won’t be scrapped, but why can’t it be a ship? NCL wanted to use it as a cruise ship, and then they couldn’t afford it. Why is it’s only future a stupid floating hotel?
That’s like buying a racing horse and using it for pony rides.
Bittersweet.
- Travis McGee
  
  Do a Google search on the S.S. Norway (f/k/a the S.S. France), and you will get an idea of why NCL is out of the steamship business.
- Anonymous
  
  Touche! Great reply!
Anonymous

Actually, I think you can cross the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2 for not much over a grandâ€”a lot of money, but not tens of thousands of dollars. At least not for basic cabins; the big suites are much more, and of course a weekâ€™s meals are going to cost more than pocket change. Still, itâ€™s not out of reach for a motivated person.

http://book.cunard.com/find/pb/searchResults.do?subTrade=ETA&duration=&ship=QM&date=1110
retrac13

Hurray! Though I too hope it can once again return to the seas, and not just as a floating hotel.
Anonymous

I love the great old ocean liners! But sadly even if it was completely restored and refitted for use I just don’t think that many people would be interested in cruising on her. Like it was said in a previous post, passengers nowadays want climbing walls and huge atrium lobbies with glass elevators and raised restaurants with 360 views. Very few would appreciate the class of this grand old lady. Besides, what a waste to have such a thorougbred lollygagging around the Caribbean. Although that would be better than the cutting torch. Too bad there really isn’t a market for transatlantic crossings anymore. I would settle for a floating hotel if it gave her a new life.
Jesse Pesta

Writer of the WSJ story here. Bill, many thanks for the link!

I can address eagleplex’s question. It could be used again as a ship. Testing has shown the hull to be sound. Some Conservancy members have a dream that it could eventually become a hospital ship or humanitarian ship.

This kind of full restoration would be much more expensive than partial restoration, however.

As for being a cruise ship: Because the SSUS was built for speed, the shape isn’t quite right to be a modern cruise ship. It would have trouble competing (in a business sense) with modern liners which have more room for the amenities — private decks, rock climbing walls, whatever — that people expect.

Hope that helps.
- Chrs
  
  Good to know; speed isn’t exactly the killer app of cruise lines nowadays.
saul goode

I’m trying to paint it before they rehab it, maybe continue the Love Letter we started in west Philly. It will be a great way to get eyes on this amazing piece of history. Let me know, we’re ready http://www.aloveletterforyou.com
Macavity

I actually sailed on the SS United States returning from Europe in 1956 when I was 11. Coincidentally, we sailed to Southhampton on the RMS Queen Mary. Both were magnificent and unforgettable experiences.
Anonymous

I see the ship often and it is very graceful looking. Many famous people traveled to Europe on it,including Marilyn Monroe, Dwight D Eisenhower, Bob Hope and many others. There is a documentary about it I saw last year.
I read that the Navy contributed to its building, thinking it would be a way to deploy troops quickly. It similiar to the Iowa class battleships in many ways and is anchored across the Delaware from the USS New Jersey. I hope it can be kept intact. It is a beautiful ship.
Joe Deegan
Philadelphia
Anonymous

The Olympia is a far more historically significant than the SS United States and has much greater merit for preservation.

If you have never visited the Olympia, come see it while you can.

And if you’re rich, please step up and help save this ship!

http://www.phillyseaport.org/ships_olympia.shtml
Dewi Morgan

Very, VERY impressed by the company taking a $3M hit just to do something good.

That said: from what I understand from the last thread, the ship’s already stripped inside. It’s just a floating health hazard now. Sending it to India to be stripped would be an awful idea, certainly, but I’m still not convinced that it’s ever going to be restorable.

But if they’ve raised $3M, maybe they can raise more and do something awesome with it?
- Jesse Pesta
  
  There are a number of obstacles to successful reuse. But the fact that it’s gutted, ironically, might improve the chances. One big factor: Asbestos has been removed.
GeekMan

“a lot of readers said, in effect, ‘Let the thing rust away and die.’”

Bill, you actually do your readers a disservice by typecasting them thusly. If I remember the discussion correctly (and we can always go back and look), there were two main concerns:

1) The upkeep of a ship in water entails a lot of attention to technical details (removal of asbestos/PCBs, anodes, electrical wiring, etc) and some of the commenters were concerned that those who supported keeping the ship didn’t fully appreciate the amount of work involved.

2) A lot of ship-lovers showed up who felt that gutting a ship’s components and filling it with mud ballast to turn said ship into hotel or casino was akin to stuffing your favourite dog and putting it on the mantle. They felt that a ship is only a ship as long as it functions, and to gut the ship is doing it a disservice.

There are a variety of opinions, but they’re all based on rational and careful consideration. Plenty of room for different views. The ship is saved, and someone’s going to take care of it. So that’s a happy ending for most.
- Travis McGee
  
  I was similarly taken aback by that comment. It is terribly expensive to keep a ship from falling apart, let alone restore. A steamship is a particularly complicated machine. I just doubt that people have a realistic view of what they’re getting into, but I certainly wish them the best.
  - Ugly Canuck
    
    Agreed: people may not understand, or may under-estimate, how corrosive long-term constant exposure to the the marine environment is.
    For anything.
    
    Ocean going ships just don’t last that long, and only a few very special ships are worth the expense and bother of restoration/preservation.
    
    That being said, this may be one such, but I wouldn’t know.
jjasper

I wonder how many of them would have said the same thing about New York’s Pennsylvania Station

I live in NYC, and I still loathe the place. It’s a pit. Not as bad as the Port Authority Bus Terminal, which is an excruciating intestinal blockage of a building, if ever there was one.

Perhaps you meant Grand Central?
- rachel
  
  jjasper, that’s just sad. That you never knew the original, I mean. Grand Central is all we have left, but it’s second best.
- chriscombs
  
  You live in NYC, huh? http://bit.ly/d8M9vy
Anonymous

Not that long ago people were bemoaning the new metal ocean liners and insisting that the only authentic way to cross the Atlantic was on a wooden sailing ship. Sic transit gloria mundi.
Anonymous

The original Penn Sta was a fabulous place. The Garden is also fabulous, but surely they could have built it somewhere else.

Many cruise ships reposition twice a year. You can get some pretty good deals on those cruises and they often stop in off-beat ports.
Anonymous

I have postcards from the United States, and the America.
Anonymous

I had the pleasure of traveling on her in Cabin Class both directions across the Atlantic as a graduation present from my father. It was quite an experience.
Anonymous

When I was a kid – must’ve been 1966 or 1967 – I was a passenger on the last voyage of the United States. Or at least that’s what I was told at the time. Somehow I recall us being Southampton bound, but that can’t be correct. We must’ve been New York bound.

For various reasons, my family took transatlantic voyages often – I did it 3 or 4 times in my youth. But never since 1968.
Anonymous

I could definitely see that ship turned into a hipster hotel like the Standard in NYC. I remember a few years back on the local news, they wanted to convert it to floating condos. That would be a great idea, but it’s docked right on Delaware Ave in Philadelphia, which is just hideous to the eyes.
Anonymous

I’ve seen the ship, and it’s a very cool thing to see, especially because of the rust. I’d say that might be the best part about it.

Restoration sounds like a good idea, but it’s a little hard to imagine that the SS US is anywhere near as impressive as the old Penn Station. But maybe that’s me.

Thanks for the update on the story.
markbellis

It was built in the post-jet airliner era – it was obsolete before it was finished. It represented the most advanced transatlantic liner, but it had already been overtaken by flight.
Anonymous

It’s wonderful, although a little depressing, to see that ship on our waterfront. I photographed it just today. Many thanks to Gerry Lenfest for giving it another chance at being preserved.
Ship Geek

Just to be perfectly clear, the ship has not been saved. She’s been granted a 20 month stay of execution. The Conservancy must still raise the millions of dollars or find a partner in order to refurbish and repurpose the ship. It’s still amazingly good news for those of us working to see the ship preserved, but the story is in some ways only beginning!
Anonymous

As a 13 year old, in 1954, my father, French mother and my sister took the SSUS back and forth from NYC to LeHavre. What a blast for a youngster! most remember sneaking fro First to Cabin to Tourist, and back and forth to catch movies all over. And you could really feel the speed, having been on the Ile de France and the Liberte before.PHD.
CASizemore

Oh, I would so love to travel on this ship. It would be a shame to turn her into a crappy kitchy hotel, she should be at sea.
Brainspore

…a beautiful ghost from a pre-jet era when sea travel was both glamorous and financially viable…

I take it “financially viable” in this case means “compared to modern-day ocean travel” and not “compared to the relative cost of modern-day jet travel?”

It used to be a pretty major investment for working-class folks to book passage across the Atlantic, and the “glamorous” parts of the ship were largely off limits to everyone but the rich.
AnthonyC

“The great days of the ocean liner are still gone,”

I’d be willing to bet more passengers-miles are traveled by ship today than at any time previously, and that you get a lot more for your money than you did back then.
Anonymous

Yet the Olympia seems doomed and she is far more historic.
hershmire

Sadly, a trans-Atlantic journey runs at least $1000 and that’s just for a spot on a container ship. The QM, et al. cost well into the tens of thousands.

Guess my dream of crossing the oceans on a steam liner will never come true.
Anonymous

I know someone that rode the QM2 for $115/day.

You can get a single occupancy room on a cruise from Europe to South America for under $400. Every fall and winter there’s a migration of cruise ships between the two continents, so check Cruise Compete around that time.

(I have no affiliation)
- Travis McGee
  
  I don’t recommend this. Few cruise ships are built to the specifications of a true ocean liner, and the voyage can be quite miserable.