In its glory days, the S.S. United States was fast, luxurious and all but indestructible. As the ocean liner’s designer, William Francis Gibbs, liked to say, “You can’t set her on fire, you can’t sink her, and you can’t catch her.”
And he was right, up to a point.
On Wednesday one of the greatest ships to sail the seas made its final journey, 180 feet down to the bottom of the ocean. At 8:59 p.m. Central time, the S.S. United States — a midcentury monument to postwar American technology and ambition — slipped below the waves, opening its next chapter as an artificial reef and diving destination.
But it turned out to be tough to sink the S.S. United States. In fact, it took years of planning and preparation to reach this point. And some fighting. A preservationist group filed a last-minute lawsuit to try to block the effort, though a judge dismissed the suit.
So on Wednesday, hundreds gathered about 22 nautical miles off the coast of Destin, Fla., aboard sailboats, speedboats and yachts to watch one of the most unusual intentional sinkings to ever take place. Rarely is a vessel so big sunk in this way.
Stripped of its signature red-white-and-blue smokestacks — they were removed for a planned museum nearby — the S.S. United States cut a somewhat more low and lean profile than it once did. You could say it looked more like a cigarette boat than an ocean liner, if cigarette boats were as long as three football fields.
Source: www.nytimes.com
