The SS United States sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, completing a $13.5 million project to transform the legendary ocean liner into the world’s largest artificial reef, NPR reported.
Launched in 1951, the nearly 1,000-foot vessel once carried four presidents, Hollywood stars, and the Mona Lisa across the Atlantic in record-setting time. After decades of sitting idle at a Philadelphia dock and facing the scrap heap, the ship found a second life when Florida’s Okaloosa County purchased the vessel in 2024 for $1 million.
The ship spent nearly 30 years docked in Philadelphia, according to BBC. The vessel crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times, according to CTV News.
In its heyday, the luxury ocean liner took only three days to cross from New York to Europe on its maiden voyage in 1952, according to PBS. More than 3,000 workers helped build the ship in 1950 and 1951 in Virginia, according to CTV News. The vessel’s passengers during its operational history included Marlon Brando, Coco Chanel, Duke Ellington, Salvador Dali, Walt Disney, Judy Garland, Cary Grant, former King Edward VIII, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, and comedian Jackie Gleason, according to Fox News.
Presidents who travelled on the vessel included Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and a young Bill Clinton traveling to Oxford University, according to BBC and Fox News. The ship’s first voyage carried 1,700 passengers, including an Associated Press reporter and President Harry Truman’s daughter, Margaret, according to CTV News.
Crews removed plugs from the ship’s hull and opened valves to flood the interior with water, allowing the massive liner to sink without the use of explosives, according to NPR. Federal environmental rules prevented the use of explosives for the scuttling, PBS reported. Okaloosa County spokesperson Nick Tomecek said that tanks used to cool the ship’s boilers were removed and 10-foot by 10-foot holes were cut in the decks, alongside the removal of more than 400 portholes, according to CTV News. Reuters reported that work crews spent months removing non-metal items, wiring, glass, and residual fuel, and that the sinking started at about 1 p.m. CST before accelerating as sea poured through the holes, with the vessel finally disappearing after listing to its port side.
The deployment began Wednesday afternoon off the coast of Destin, Florida, The Guardian reported. The ship settled upright on the seafloor at a depth of approximately 180 feet, with its upper decks resting about 55 feet below the surface, The Guardian reported, while Fox News noted the top deck rests about 60 feet below the surface.
Reuters reported the sinking process concluded when the vessel settled on the gulf floor at a depth of 180 feet.
Prior to the sinking, the SS United States Preservation Foundation filed an emergency lawsuit in federal court attempting to halt the operation, arguing that regulators failed to adequately review environmental risks concerning onboard contaminants like hexavalent chromium, WPVI reported.
A federal judge dismissed the challenge, clearing the way for the deployment, WPVI reported. The lawsuit estimated about 59,000 pounds of zinc chromate was applied as primer during construction, according to The Maritime Executive.
Local officials expect the sunken liner to serve as a major diving attraction and a rich habitat for marine life such as red snapper, grouper, amberjack, mackerel, and tuna, The Guardian reported. Okaloosa County tourism director Jennifer Adams said that local artificial reefs generate roughly $10 million to $12 million in annual economic benefits, NPR reported.
“Certainly this is the biggest that we’ve done,” said Jennifer Adams, Okaloosa County tourism director.
Supporters of the project included members of the SS United States Conservancy, which sold the vessel to the county. Susan Gibbs, president and co-founder of the conservancy and granddaughter of the ship’s designer William Francis Gibbs, reflected on the outcome.
“We felt that reefing was by far the more dignified solution,” Susan Gibbs said.
Susan Gibbs also stated:
“She’s being reefed and will remain intact and will become a vibrant and dynamic marine habitat, so that, combined with the land-based museum and visitor experience, will honor her history in a deeply moving way.”
David Lawrence, a member of the board for the SS United States Conservancy, said:
“It was our goal to make sure that she wasn’t lost forever.”
Earlier coverage: Historic SS United States Ocean Liner to Become World's Largest Artificial Reef in Florida
