{"id":448513,"date":"2025-12-15T11:19:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/448513\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T11:19:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:19:51","slug":"nycs-push-to-save-ss-united-states-is-sinking-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/448513\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC’s push to save SS United States is sinking fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big Apple officials are fighting to relocate<\/a> a historic 1950s-era ocean liner to New York City and restore it as a waterfront icon \u2014 but its owner hopes that idea goes down the ship.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s Okaloosa County, which purchased the vessel last year for $1 million, told The Post it has other plans for the nationally landmarked SS United States, a former ritzy cruise liner \u2014 hoping it can be sunk off the Gulf of Mexico for an artificial reefing project next year.<\/p>\n

The historic SS United States is headed for the bottom of the ocean, despite New York City\u2019s best efforts to keep it afloat as a museum. AP<\/p>\n

Big Apple Councilwoman Gale Brewer has fought to save the old liner. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

\u201cOkaloosa County is the owner of the ship,\u201d a rep for the county said. \u201cWe fully intend to deploy the SS United States as the World\u2019s Largest Artificial Reef.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer proposed a resolution last year calling on Congress to pass \u2014 and President Trump to sign \u2014 a law declaring the ship a historic location, reclaim it from its owner and allocate funding for its restoration in Gotham, where it would make trips back and forth to Europe in its heyday.<\/p>\n

But even Brewer has acknowledged that if the council were to pass the resolution, the measure would only be symbolic and that it would still be \u201chard\u201d to convince the Florida ownership to change course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to sugar-coat anything, but I\u2019d love to see that ship not become a coral reef,\u201d Brewer told The Post, noting that the vessel\u2019s likely fate as a diving attraction in Florida doesn\u2019t do its \u201ccomplete stature\u201d justice.<\/p>\n

The last chance for a City Council vote on the resolution this session is Dec. 18, a rep for Brewer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLetting this iconic vessel slip away would mean losing a huge opportunity to create a great new public space and maritime museum that could educate and inspire New Yorkers about our maritime history for generations,\u201d the pol said, adding the vessel could also have potential as a waterfront restaurant.<\/p>\n

A petition from the New York Coalition to Save the SS United States has amassed more than 15,000 signatures<\/a> to date. The group has already earmarked a possible location for the ship through a board member who owns the Gowanus GBX terminal, according to Minnesota state Sen. Andrew Lang.<\/p>\n

But according to Okaloosa County\u2019s plans, the ship is slated to sink about 180 feet underwater for diving tourists to explore, joining roughly a dozen other shipwrecks in the area.<\/p>\n

The \u201ciconic vessel,\u201d seen on its first voyage in 1952, was retired in 1969. AP<\/p>\n

The ship is slated to sink approximately 180 feet underwater for divers to explore, joining roughly a dozen other shipwrecks in that area of the Gulf of Mexico. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cThe transformation of the SS United States<\/a> into the world\u2019s largest artificial reef creates a rare opportunity to elevate our entire region on the global stage,\u201d Darien Schaefer, president and CEO of Visit Pensacola, told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The Florida county\u2019s purchase came after a dispute between its longtime owner, the S.S. United States Conservancy, and the parent company of the Philadelphia dock it has been housed in since the 1990s.<\/p>\n

The vessel, which was built in the 1950s and retired in 1969, still holds the record \u2014 44 mph \u2014 for transatlantic speed for an ocean liner. It has been docked in Mobile, Ala., for the past few months to be completely stripped and prepared for sinking.<\/p>\n

Swaths of perturbed history buffs \u2014 hailing from Arizona to England \u2014 submitted testimony in favor of the ship to be relocated at a New York City Council hearing for Brewer\u2019s resolution on Nov. 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an extraordinary opportunity to transform this national treasure into a stationary, dynamic cultural and economic asset,\u201d testified retired education administrator David Di Gregorio. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe exterior of the SS United States \u2014 sleek, iconic and nearly as long as the Chrysler Building is tall, can once again inspire millions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Gilma Fields of the SS United States Ocean Liner Preservation Foundation: \u201cIt grieves me to think that our beloved country, that normally treasures our maritime history of excellence and exceptionalism, could stand by and watch the purposeful destruction of our historic ship and deny intervention to save her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout intervention, it will be an unthinkable catastrophe,\u201d she said, adding that her father worked on building the ship as a new immigrant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big Apple officials are fighting to relocate a historic 1950s-era ocean liner to New York City and restore…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":448514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,32258,5310,723,201257,472,5248,405,403,7619,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-448513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-boats","10":"tag-city-council","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-gale-brewer","13":"tag-history","14":"tag-metro","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-new-york-city-life","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-news","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115723319610548195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448513","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=448513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}