The hull of the SS United States, stretching to more than 300 meters in length — about thirty meters longer than the Titanic — is set to gradually take on water this afternoon and sink into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, roughly forty kilometers from Destin, on Florida’s northwest coast.
To ensure it sinks without the use of explosives, valves that originally fed its cooling system have been opened, more than 400 portholes removed, and large holes cut into its decks.
This project, costing around $13.5 million, aims to attract divers and fishing enthusiasts to this artificial reef, described by its initiators as “the largest in the world,” by creating a habitat for marine life.
During its heyday, the imposing liner carried a number of celebrities aboard. Among them were U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Salvador Dalí, and Walt Disney, according to archives. The future U.S. president Bill Clinton also traveled aboard when he was young, to study at the University of Oxford.
Its first transatlantic crossing dates back to 1952, and its last crossing was in 1969.
The out-of-service liner is to rest at a depth of 55 meters, with its upper deck rising to about 18 meters beneath the surface. It has been stripped of its tall funnels.
With this new artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico, where hundreds already exist, “we are trying to become the best diving destination in the world,” explained Nick Tomecek, the Okaloosa County spokesperson, to the Washington Post.
Until now, the largest artificial reef in the world was an old aircraft carrier sunk twenty years ago off Pensacola, also in Florida.
Before its underwater reclamation, the SS United States spent more than a quarter of a century moored at a dock in Philadelphia (on the East Coast).
