{"id":388398,"date":"2025-11-18T21:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/388398\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:13:12","slug":"final-resting-place-set-for-the-historic-ss-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/388398\/","title":{"rendered":"Final resting place set for the historic SS United States"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The SS United States is set to join Okaloosa County\u2019s more than\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.destinfwb.com\/explore\/eco-tourism\/artificial-reefs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">500 artificial reefs<\/a>, which include a dozen smaller ship wrecks.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe transformation of the SS United States into the world\u2019s largest artificial reef creates a rare opportunity to elevate our entire region on the global stage,\u201d said Darien Schaefer, president and CEO of Visit Pensacola.\n<\/p>\n<p>The new artificial reef will provide essential marine life habitat, which prompted Coastal Conservation Association Florida to make its largest donation in the organization\u2019s 40-year history.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to contribute to the creation of the world\u2019s largest artificial reef,\u201d CCA Florida Executive Director Brian Gorski said in a statement.\n  <\/p>\n<p>Long Journey<\/p>\n<p>The SS United States arrived in Alabama at the beginning of March following a 12-day tow from Philadelphia\u2019s Delaware River, where it has spent nearly three decades. Okaloosa County took ownership after a years-old rent dispute\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/united-states-historic-ship-philadelphia-rent-dispute-2e2dc7c89915ae9b00e82f54a418f334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was resolved<\/a>\u00a0last October between the conservancy that oversees the ship and its landlord.\n<\/p>\n<p>Various groups have attempted to restore the SS United States over the years, but all plans were eventually abandoned because of the steep cost. Recently, increased media attention has generated more calls to preserve the ship, and a group called the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nycsavessus.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Coalition sued<\/a>\u00a0in Pensacola federal court asking a judge to halt sinking such a historically significant vessel.\n<\/p>\n<p>But Okaloosa County officials have said that preventing the SS United States from becoming a reef would only send it to the scrapyard.\n<\/p>\n<p>The vessel, which is more than 100 feet (30 meters) longer than the RMS Titanic, was once considered a beacon of American thousands of troops. On its maiden voyage, the ship reached an average speed of 36 knots, or just over 41 mph (66 kph), The Associated Press\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/timesmachine.nytimes.com\/timesmachine\/1952\/07\/07\/84331321.html?pageNumber=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported from aboard<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>The ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes, besting the RMS Queen Mary\u2019s time by 10 hours. To this day, the SS United States holds the trans-Atlantic speed record for an ocean liner.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The SS United States is set to join Okaloosa County\u2019s more than\u00a0500 artificial reefs, which include a dozen&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":388399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,164410,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-388398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-ss-united-states","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115572769250700655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}