The SS United States has a sink date. It’s the hottest ticket along the Florida panhandle.
There’s no shortage of ways to commemorate the long-awaited event, barring any inclement weather.
The SS United States is set to enter its new chapter as the world’s largest artificial reef some 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach in Florida on Nov. 12 — some two years since it left its berth in South Philadelphia.
And there’s no shortage of ways to commemorate the long-awaited event, barring any inclement weather.
Area charter companies are already selling seats to their vessels to get as close as possible to the sinking as it won’t be visible from shore. Okaloosa County expects hundreds of boats to come out for the big day.
“This is once in a lifetime,” reads the pitch from Marler Fishing Charters, which is selling 240 seats at $99 per person.
“No second sinking. No rerun. On one day this November, the fastest liner ever built leaves the surface for good, and the people on the water that day get a story they will tell for the rest of their lives.”
Philadelphia-based artist Brooke Lanier didn’t need much convincing.
She snagged tickets for her and her parents, even though, like most other people traveling from out of state to see the bon voyage, she has very little else planned out. Okaloosa County made the announcement with just over two weeks’ notice.
Lanier had never heard of the SS United States before she started volunteering aboard a different ship at Penn’s Landing and subsequently creating artwork of the rusty ships there. People who saw her art kept pointing her to “the biggest and rustiest one,” she remembers.
Lanier has crafted a collection of oil paintings of the less publicly accessible parts of the 990-foot vessel over the last four years. She even got to tour the gutted ocean liner three times before it was bought by Okaloosa County.
The trip and viewing will be a networking opportunity to sell her art and a bittersweet goodbye for Lanier.
“I have kind of come to terms with it over time because I think it would have been nice if it was feasible to repurpose her as a ship that people could actually visit and use in an educational capacity, but that it was logistically and cost-wise not realistic,” she said.
Yet for a disparate group of SS United States enthusiasts, letting go is not so easy. The self-described “never reefers” see the planned sinking as a dark chapter in the vessel’s history and they continue to ask if there’s any way to stop the final descent, or at the very least protest.
It’s unclear how much momentum the movement has left.
The ocean liner was in Philadelphia for nearly 30 years, during which time various owners spent more than $40 million buying, maintaining, and reimagining the vessel’s future. The grand aspirations of a second life clashed with poor economic conditions or proved to be unattractive to investors. Even eleventh-hour appeals to various state governors and presidents fell short. So did a lawsuit filed by a New York-based group, which was eventually dismissed.
Despite the critics, Okaloosa County spokesperson Nick Tomecek expects the week to be “one big, giant, long party” thanks to the international interest the SS United States has drawn.
In preparation, the county has arranged a “send-off ceremony” the Wednesday before free and open to the public at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center. Susan Gibbs, granddaughter of the ship’s designer and who led the conservancy that tried to save the ship from sinking, will be in attendance.
There will also be a viewing party at AJ’s Seafood and Oyster Bar in Destin the morning of, where people can mingle and watch the sinking on a large outdoor screen.
Tomecek said a few hours after the sinking is complete — once the dust settles and the water becomes less cloudy — county divers will be the first to so around the vessel to ensure everything is in order.
They will be accompanied by marine biologists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who plan to return periodically to see how ocean life adapts to the 990-foot artificial reef.
Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser, a marine biologist with the organization, has described the research as a “prime opportunity to study the formation of a marine community from scratch.”
But barring any major complications, divers can begin exploring the SS United States’ new home the following day with local companies now accepting bookings.
Andy Ross, owner of Niuhi Dive Charters, said he already has customers lined up for November and December. Part of the appeal, he says, is that the vessel’s size means there’s something for every kind of diver.
“It’s really going to be great because a lot of these super huge wrecks are deep, and while this one is going to be 175 foot deep, it’s still going to have the top half in pretty shallow water, so most anybody can dive it,” he said.
