The SS United States is Still Rotting Away

"Jcarr" (jcarr) 09/15/2015 at 14:12 • Filed to: Shiplopnik

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Found the below video from April on YouTube. Sad to see this once-proud vessel just wasting away. There has been talk of a restoration, but details are pretty scarce.

At least she hasn’t succumbed to a more tragic fate !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Jcarr 09/15/2015 at 14:17

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We’re working on it... but NYC bureaucracy is a pain to navigate.

Jcarr > Snuze: Needs another Swede 09/15/2015 at 14:20

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Are you part of the restoration organization?

Trunk Impaired 318 > Jcarr 09/15/2015 at 14:20

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I drive by it all the time, it never stops being depressing...

X37.9XXS > Jcarr 09/15/2015 at 14:27

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There is a memory stays upon old ships,
A weightless cargo in the musty hold, —
Of bright lagoons and prow-caressing lips,
Of stormy midnights, — and a tale untold.
They have remembered islands in the dawn,
And windy capes that tried their slender spars,
And tortuous channels where their keels have gone,
And calm blue nights of stillness and the stars.

Ah, never think that ships forget a shore,
Or bitter seas, or winds that made them wise;
There is a dream upon them, evermore; —
And there be some who say that sunk ships rise
To seek familiar harbors in the night,

Blowing in mists, their spectral sails like light.

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 09/15/2015 at 14:29

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For many years, United States was docked in the Elizabeth River in Norfolk, near the Norfolk Naval Base. You could see her stacks from the shore, and I remember taking more than one river cruise past her on board the Spirit of Norfolk , and being fascinated with the stories of her speed. I remember having some notepads with the ship’s name on them that were given to me by somebody who had worked on the ship. This was back in the mid-1980s, and even back then, there was talk of restoring her. But she looked very sad then, and looks even sadder now. Unfortunately, there just isn’t a market for ships that don’t carry thousands of passengers at a time. Remember the Pacific Princess from Love Boat ? She’s been decommissioned and broken up in Turkey (IIRC), just too small for today’s market.

Jedidiah > Jcarr 09/15/2015 at 14:30

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This image is very striking. Almost metaphorical

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > ttyymmnn 09/15/2015 at 14:35

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“Remember the Pacific Princess from Love Boat ? She’s been decommissioned and broken up in Turkey (IIRC), just too small for today’s market.”

But... But... I just watched an old Love Boat rerun and the song says it’s shiney and new!!!

ttyymmnn > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 09/15/2015 at 14:36

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We were all shiny and new in the 1980s.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Jcarr 09/15/2015 at 14:39

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I work for Gibbs & Cox, the original designer of the ship. We are working with the restoration organization, because we really want to see her saved as well. We have an interested developer, we are just trying to get all the permitting and stuff in place.

pauljones > ttyymmnn 09/15/2015 at 14:53

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She can carry the requisite number of passengers; that’s not the issue. The issue that she faces is that while she was designed to be able to make some concessions to cruising, she is ultimately not a cruise ship - she’s an ocean liner. She’s meant to haul ass for long periods of time, not dawdle around in shallow waters. The same hull form that allowed her to reach such astounding speeds for the time also limits her ability to offer all of the amenities that cruise ships now regularly offer. Her turbine engines, while the most powerful ever fitted to a passenger vessel, aren’t economic at the low speeds required for cruising. They also require far more detailed and expensive maintenance than the maritime diesels used on cruise ships today. Finally, her 38-foot draft - while shallow for an ocean liner - makes it difficult for her to enter many shallower ports popular with the cruise ship demographic.

In short, she’s the equivalent of an Olympic athlete living in a world surrounded by, and designed for, armchair athletes.

pauljones > Snuze: Needs another Swede 09/15/2015 at 14:55

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That’s quite literally the coolest thing I’ve read on Jalopnik/Oppositelock in the 11 years that I’ve been around here.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > pauljones 09/15/2015 at 14:58

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Thanks. I’m excited to see that the ship means so much to so many people. I wish there was more we could do to get things moving.

Jcarr > Snuze: Needs another Swede 09/15/2015 at 14:58

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Boy, that’s great to hear. I really hope you’re successful.

ttyymmnn > pauljones 09/15/2015 at 15:04

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Excellent reply. Thanks.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Jcarr 09/15/2015 at 15:04

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Thanks, me too.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > pauljones 09/15/2015 at 15:05

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Sadly, she won’t ply the seas again. If she’s restored, she will become more of a floating hotel/museum/shopping attraction. Not really what she was meant for, but better than becoming razor blades.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > Jcarr 09/15/2015 at 15:39

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My wife’s grandfather was a ships cook on her, he passed away well before I met my wife but she tells me that he had some interesting stories.

Berang > Jcarr 09/15/2015 at 16:41

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In semi-related news, apparently the USS Olymipa is safe again for the time being.

I’m pretty sure all the talk about possibly scrapping it was just a bad publicity stunt for the museum, since they eventually turned away all other museums that offered to take her.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > Snuze: Needs another Swede 09/15/2015 at 17:16

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Is there any way we can track the progress of this? My wife and inlaws would love to be able to follow the progress (her grandfather was a ships cook on the SS USA).

facw > Berang 09/15/2015 at 19:25

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That’s great news, though so much work left to be done there. Doesn’t matter if they don’t scrap it if it’s just left to rust away.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. 09/15/2015 at 20:19

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I can ask at work tomorrow, but not hat I’m aware of. Frankly, we have very little to do with it at this point... we are just and engineering & naval architecture firm, so work for us doesn’t start until all the permitting and everything else is in place for the restoration to begin.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > X37.9XXS 09/16/2015 at 15:19

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This is goosebumps raising levels of hauntingly beautiful poetry.