The SS United States Conservancy should soon learn the fate of the 990-foot SS United States currently berthed at Pier 82 in Philadelphia. Built in the early 1950s, the SS United States is the fastest passenger liner to have ever crossed the Atlantic while serving in the United States Lines fleet until 1969. The ship has been sold several times since the 1970s, ultimately being stripped for parts before getting towed to Philly in the mid-90s where the old girl has sat as an on-water monument of sorts ever since.
The SS United States Conservancy purchased her in 2011; while raising funds they’ve also drawn up several unrealized plans to restore the ship, one of which included turning the ship into a multi-purpose waterfront complex. While ongoing donations have allowed the ship to avoid being scrapped, the conservancy has apparently lost their lease. According to CBS News there was a rental agreement between the conservancy and Penn Warehousing and Distribution in place since 2011 for a daily berth fee of $850. In 2021, rent doubled to $1,700.
A complaint filed in federal court found SS United States Conservancy failed to pay the higher rent, while a conservancy attorney argued the higher rent was never negotiated with them and was raised improperly. Penn Warehousing sued and the matter ended up before a federal judge; the U.S. District Court denied the Conservancy’s request for a three-month extension at the ship’s Philadelphia pier, ruling instead that they had until last Thursday, September 12 to present a formal agreement to the court to remove the ship from Pier 82.
The SS United States Conservancy has apparently been in discussions on a range of scenarios for the ship’s future, including proposals to deploy the SS United States as an artificial reef in tandem with a land-based museum. Okaloosa County officials along the Florida Panhandel have reportedly signed an agreement to purchase the SS United States for $1 million; the county’s Tourist Development Department is also seeking a budget allocation of up to $9 million for the acquisition, remediation, transport, and deployment of the ship, which also includes plans for a land-based museum.
Reefing is apparently not the conservancy’s preferred scenario, as the group stated they were hoping for a “more dignified outcome.” From my personal perspective, there could be no more dignified outcome than to be memorialized in a shoreside museum with an underwater entertainment complex devoted to divers and anglers. Imagine starting your morning heading out the inlet towards and saying, “today we find our bounty at the United States.”
I’ve heard from several New Jersey anglers peeved that the SS United States is not being considered for deployment locally, similar to the fate of other great ships like the 205-foot USCG Zuni/Tamaroa in 2017, or the 563-foot USS Radford in 2011, both of which were deployed at the DelJerseyLand Artificial Reef some 33.7 miles SE of Cape May. Basically, it comes to funding and geography, having an ample budget for reef-building and an actual location that accommodate a 990-foot long vessel with 101-foot beam and keel-to-funnel height of 175 feet.
“It would need to be deployed in roughly 180 feet of water to make a clearance of 50-foot from the surface,” said New Jersey Bureau of Marine Fisheries senior biologist and Artificial Reef Coordinator Peter Clarke, which he said is “roughly the Triple Wrecks area” referencing the popular yellowfin area 50-plus miles out.
“We currently don’t have a reef site that will accommodate the height of this vessel, though we did consider applying for a deeper reef site if funding the 9 million dollar project was an option for NJ,” Clarke told me, though he did of course do his due diligence and spoke with both the president of the Conservancy as well as the folks expected to get the contract to discuss the potential for New Jersey to receive the vessel.
