Okaloosa County, Florida has signed a contingent contract to purchase the SS United States. It would towed just off the coast from either Destin or Fort Walton Beach and scuttled to be an artificial reef.
Better than the other option, which was a trip to Brownsville, Texas for breaking.
The SS United States needs to be out of its berth in Philadelphia by September 12th, so not sure where it will wait while it is prepared for its trip to the Gulf Coast of Florida.
That’s gonna be one heck of a wreck dive
Too bad there was no way to preserve her. She’s an interesting ship. But way too big and way too expensive to maintain safely.
The lower hull is in fair shape. No leaks and fit enough for the tow to Okaloosa County.
But most of the ships fittings were stripped decades ago and the superstructure and upper hull is in poor shape internally.
Just too far gone to restore.
Yuck she looks like the USS America at the end of its service life.
The US Navy treated that carrier like it was ghetto or something. Cause she looked like a beat up Impala in the hood in the late 90s.
Looks like she was found in some rednecks old barn like a 1964 Falcon.
Boy that’s a lot of rust.
Sad thing someone in congress probably said “it’s fine we can do a 300 million dollar refit on her and she will be good as new and ready to go fight Russians.”
She was an Essex-class carrier laid down in 1944 and launched after the end of the war in 1945 and did not enter commission for the first time until 1950, with a straight flight deck. She was taken out of commission for several years in the late 1950’s and received an angled flight deck. She returned to commission in 1959 and was taken out of commission for the final time in 1976, and was placed in the mothball fleet.
The Reagan administration attempted to have her recommissioned in the late 1980’s as part of the 600 ship fleet, but Congress rejected her as being obsolete and instead she was stricken in 1989. She would sit and rust for 17 years before being scuttled off of Pensacola. That is why she looked so bad.
Crazy that they tried to save ships outmoded by decades like that but state of the art Virginia class cruisers that weren’t even 15 years into their 40 year service lives? Nope we got to cancel that ■■■■■They hadn’t even had their first RICOHs yet. I think Texas was literally in the middle of hers when they canned them. Same thing happened to a bunch of young Los Angeles class boats.
Granted I kind of get why the Virginias, as cool as they were, had to get the axe. They were very expensive guided missile cruisers yet they came out literally half a decade before Aegis became a thing. So the Ticonderogas and Arleigh Burkes had way more potential for both anti air and anti ballistic missile defense. Virginias could kill any other surface ship including Kirovs with prejudice, but they were limited to that one role only. Kind of a one trick pony really. They were really neat ships. Had I been alive back then and in the navy I would have begged to serve on one.
I think I’ve liked them just because USS Mississippi was one of them. And that’s the coolest ship our state ever had its name plastered on. Besides that one battleship Mississippi that got in a knock out drag out fight with one of the Kongos in World War II.
Too bad there is no longer a value in repurposing scrap steel. It makes more sense than sending a rusting hulk to the bottom of the sea as an “artificial reef”? Years back I watched what was once a sprawling Bethlehem Steel Sparrows Point Works in Baltimore systematically torn down and the scrap steel loaded on barges. Later found out the scrap steel was sold to the ChiComs. The property and the mills were at the time no longer owned by Beth Steel. Granted the CCP would welcome that tonnage of steel, melt it down and have probably made military hardware with it. The environmental and labor costs are not of any consequence in places like China. I’m just curious if there are any scrap steel repurposing facilities here in America?
Actually, most of our Navy ships end their days on the breakers in Brownsville, Texas, a major metal recycling facility.
However, for Okaloosa County, the SS United States holds more value as an artificial reef and a diving attraction, as they would like to ramp up their tourism industry. Had Okaloosa County not put that bid in, the SS United States would almost certainly have gone to Brownsville for breaking and recycling.
Interesting thread and news. This ship has had the restoration rug pulled out from under it many times.
Lots of really good exploration videos like this one.
Okaloosa County, Florida, formally took title to the ship. It will be towed from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia, as early as this week to be prepped for scuttling.
No time frame yet for when the vessel will be towed to its final location and scuttled.
100 years from now our progeny will be wringing their hands and conjuring engineering feats to raise these scuttled ships because they will have discovered some unexpected environmental hazard they are causing.
… if mankind is even still here.
