balance tourism<\/a> with preservation are common across the fast-growing Gulf Coast. But the story of the ship, which has come to symbolize patriotic triumph, is also a sign of the country\u2019s increasing divide over how to honor its past.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u2018The extraordinary story\u2019<\/p>\n
If all goes to the county\u2019s plan, the vessel will become the world\u2019s largest artificial reef and bring millions of tourism dollars to the region each year.\u00a0Scientists will study it, and dive shops and fishing charters will lead excursions there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a day goes by that we don\u2019t get asked questions about the vessel and our visions for her as a reef,\u201d said Jennifer Adams, the county\u2019s tourism director. \u201cWe\u2019re ready to deploy her as soon as we possibly can.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The conservancy is gathering artifacts from the ship, including passengers\u2019 letters and engineers\u2019 logs, to display in the future museum on the shores of Destin and Fort Walton Beach. The group is also planning immersive displays that will simulate the experience of standing in the engine room as the ship blasts to sea, or watching legendary musician Duke Ellington play piano in the ballroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"20250331_ssunitedstates_006.jpg\"](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
<\/p>\n
Passengers on The Perdido Queen take photos of the SS United States as it is docked in Mobile on Friday, March 28, 2025.<\/p>\n
Hannah Ruhoff\/Sun Herald<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is certainly to tell the extraordinary story of this ship,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also a story about our country and our past and our future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ship first embarked in 1952, moving so fast that pounding waves blasted paint from its hull. The vessel broke the trans-Atlantic speed record and still holds the title.\u00a0<\/p>\n
U.S. presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Bill Clinton all sailed aboard it. So did Marlon Brando, Walt Disney, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. In 1963, the vessel even carried Leonardo Da Vinci\u2019s \u201cMona Lisa.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But after 17 years, the SS United States retired as trans-Atlantic flights grew popular. The ship bounced between buyers until the conservancy sold it to Okaloosa County, which argued the steep cost of docking the vessel meant sinking it was the only way to save it from a scrapyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly made more sense than having her turned into razor blades,\u201d said Warren Jones, who serves on the conservancy\u2019s board.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The county lugged the vessel to Mobile, Alabama, where it is temporarily docked.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On Friday, March 28, 2025, workers in Mobile, Alabama, prepare the SS United States to be sunk off the coast of Destin, Florida.<\/p>\n
Hannah Ruhoff\/Sun Herald<\/p>\n
\u2018The people are watching\u2019<\/p>\n
Opponents say sinking the SS United States will erase history, and they also fear the ship could leach toxins into the ecosystem once it sits below the waves. They are asking for federal intervention to keep the ship above water and have suggested turning it into a mental health care and job training site for veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSinking this vessel is crazy,\u201d said Carlos Camacho Jr., co-founder of the nonprofit SS United States Preservation Foundation, who has written a letter voicing his opposition to President Donald Trump. \u201cWe have politicians saying, \u2018it\u2019s too expensive, it\u2019s sink or scrap, there\u2019s no other way.\u2019 They\u2019re wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The county insists it is cleaning the ship of all toxins and following rules set by the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which are overseeing the project\u2019s final approval. But the idea is still drawing attention from high-profile voices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people are watching,\u201d Erin Brockovich, the environmental activist whose battle over groundwater pollution became a Hollywood hit two decades ago, recently wrote in capital letters on social media. \u201cClean your ship up before you sink her.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Passengers relax aboard the SS United States in undated photos from the ship\u2019s era of trans-Atlantic voyages, between 1952 and 1969. Okaloosa County, Florida, bought the vessel in 2024 and plans to transform it into an artificial reef off the coast of Destin.<\/p>\n
Photos courtesy of the SS United States Conservancy<\/p>\n
The sinking is personal to Jones, who rode the ship to Europe with his family in 1961. He was just a boy but remembers the journey well \u2014 the engines roaring to life in New York\u2019s Hudson River, his hands gripping the deck railings in punishing winds, tossing and turning one night as the ship forged across the North Atlantic.<\/p>\n
He later gave tours of the ship in Philadelphia, where one day, after the last crowd left, he wandered alone through the empty dining room and walked the ship\u2019s long decks in silence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jones plans to be in Destin when the ship sinks, watching from a nearby boat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be emotional, there\u2019s no question about it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I would not have wanted to see that ship just go to the scrapyard. To me, that would have been the ultimate disrespect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only way Susan Gibbs believes she can save the SS United States is by sinking it to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,8434],"class_list":["post-269167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hardwall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}