Just kidding. The SS United States isn’t moving this week, say owners.
This time, the SS United States’ start of a much-anticipated departure to Mobile, Alabama, scheduled for Thursday was canceled at the request of the U.S. Coast Guard. There is no new move date.
The best-laid plans to move your 1,000-foot ship parked in South Philadelphia sometimes run into hiccups. Many, many hiccups.
This time, the SS United States’ start of a much-anticipated departure to Mobile, Ala., scheduled for Thursday was canceled at the request of the U.S. Coast Guard. There is no new move date.
The ship, which is incapable of self-propulsion, is slated to become an artificial reef at the bottom of the Florida Panhandle coast. But before it can be towed to Florida it needs to take a two-week tow to Alabama where it will undergo environmental remediation.
Getting the ship out of Philly is a multiday operation. First, it has to be moved from its current berth at Pier 82 to Pier 80 during high tide with the help of tugboats. The second part of the move requires the ship to pass under the Walt Whitman and Commodore Barry Bridges.
The holdup in the plan this time lies in step one.
According to the ship’s new owners in Okaloosa County, Fla., the Coast Guard is seeking additional details on how the tow is to be executed.
If you’re feeling déjà vu, it’s because something similar has happened before.
The ship was slated to begin its two-day move mid-November. The move was initially delayed due to logistical and weather concerns. Days later, the ship’s structural integrity came under U.S. Coast Guard scrutiny, requiring additional testing. Those issues were finally cleared in January and Okaloosa County announced a sudden departure scheduled for Thursday.
By late Wednesday evening, however, an early-morning operation had been pushed to second high tide. Then just before 5 p.m., the whole operation was called off, just the latest in a series of false starts.
The SS United States has acted as a sort of geographical marker along the Delaware River waterfront for close to 30 years, yet its last few have probably been the most eventful. The ship’s previous owners, the SS United States Conservancy, had long sought to have the vessel redeveloped to no avail, launching multiple SOS fundraisers to make rent.
Tied up in a landlord-tenant dispute, the SS United States’ future was decided by a federal judge. Last summer, the judge hearing the case ordered the ship to be moved from Pier 82. To avoid the scrap heap, the conservancy partnered with Okaloosa County, which aims to become the artificial diving destination of the world with the SS United States as its main attraction.
Okaloosa County purchased the ship for $1 million and committed an additional $9.1 million to clean, transport, and sink the vessel, as well as build a land-based museum to honor its history.