SS United States Conservancy files motion to keep ship docked in Philadelphia until December
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The nonprofit that owns the SS United States has filed a motion that, if approved, would keep the vessel docked in South Philadelphia until December 2024.
The motion filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania on behalf of the SS United States Conservancy alleges that Penn Warehousing, which owns the pier where the vessel is docked, has been acting in "bad faith" and preventing the organization from removing the ship.
According to the court documents, the Conservancy accuses Penn Warehousing of failing to honor a deal that allowed the nonprofit to enter a purchase and sale agreement with Okaloosa County, Florida, which would remove the ship from Philadelphia and sink it off the coast of Florida to create an artificial reef.
The motion alleges Penn Warehousing "failed to honor its representations" to the court that it would enter a deal with the Conservancy and Okaloosa County to keep the ship docked at Pier 82 until Dec. 5 and the end of hurricane season.
The Conservancy's motion claims that if a $3 million penalty is not paid to Penn Warehousing by Sept. 12, the pier operator will "arrest the ship" and "sell it to the highest bidder."
Penn Warehousing is expected to file an answer to that motion Thursday night denying the Conservancy's claims.
In a virtual hearing with a federal judge Friday, Pier 82's operator and Okaloosa County were ordered to enter court-supervised mediation to devise a plan to get the ship to the Gulf of Mexico.
In a statement, the SS United States Conservancy said it welcomed the ruling for mediation.
"We are grateful that the Judge's earlier order for the ship to be removed from Pier 82 was held in abeyance as we continue to work in good faith to resolve this dispute and relocate the vessel safely," the SSUSC said in a statement. "We remain steadfast in our determination to ensure that the legacy of America's Flagship endures and inspires future generations. While we were disappointed that Penn Warehousing continues to disparage and denigrate both the Conservancy and the historic symbol of our nation, we hope that Penn Warehousing will enter mediation in good faith."
It was hoped that the ship could have been developed into a hotel or other attraction, but those plans never materialized.
A federal judge previously sided with Penn Warehousing that the once-great ocean liner can't stay at Pier 82 in South Philadelphia past Sept. 12. Court documents said Penn Warehousing had warned the SS United States Conservancy, which oversees the vessel, that it was prepared to impose a $3 million penalty if the ship is there on Sept. 13.
Ahead of the Sept. 12 deadline, attorneys for Penn Warehousing told CBS News Philadelphia they were "almost completely in the dark" about how the Conservancy planned to comply with the court order and were "extremely frustrated."
In August, CBS News Philadelphia learned that the SS US could be sunk off the coast of Florida, and the Okaloosa County Board of Commissioners was expected to take up the matter at a meeting in early September.
At that Sept. 5 meeting, the board postponed voting on whether the ship would be taken there and sunk off the coast as an artificial reef. County Administrator John Hofstad said the county "hit a wrinkle" with its pier operators and asked for the vote to be pushed two weeks to Tuesday, Sept. 17.
Following that meeting, sources told CBS News Philadelphia that any plans to move the ship are complicated. Because the SS United States is so tall, sources said the ship would come within "feet" of the Walt Whitman Bridge deck, and navigation would need to be timed for the lowest tide. Meetings about traffic on the bridge and in the shipping channel still have to happen.
Sources also told CBS News Philadelphia the journey to the Gulf of Mexico would depend on possible storms forming during hurricane season.
The SS United States, docked in South Philadelphia since 1996, was considered in its heyday as "the most powerful, modern, and advanced passenger liner ever built," according to the SS United States Conservancy. Designed in the late 1940s, the SS US was intended to quickly move troops in the event of war but instead became a cruise liner.
The ship hit the high seas in 1952 and crisscrossed the Atlantic for 17 years, carrying presidents, dignitaries and entertainers.
The SS United States Conservancy has been working to save the vessel and raise more than $500,000 to help with relocation and other costs.
Some of the ship's admirers gathered in South Philly Thursday, where they could see it from behind a fence.
"I love American history, and just look at it, it is quintessential American history, industrial life," Hayden Lupton, of Pilesgrove, said. "To get rid of it would be a crime."
Louis Pearlman Sullivan was painting the ship.
"We treat our history like it's trash — and that's what they're going to do," Pearlman Sullivan said, "they're going to dump it in the ocean."