SS United States to leave Philadelphia waters and be turned into artificial reef, museum in Florida
A famous Philadelphia vessel will set sail for the south after being docked at the same pier for nearly three decades. The SS United States and Penn Warehousing have officially settled their two-year-long dispute and the ship will now be turned into an artificial reef in accordance with a museum in Okaloosa County, Florida.
Friday afternoon, the SS United States Conservancy said the litigation between the organizations has been difficult and "drastically impacted" the ship's future plans but is officially settled.
SS United States Conservancy President Susan Gibbs, who is also the granddaughter of the vessel's designer, explained in a statement that the court proceedings expedited the conservancy's timeline in finding the ship a new home. But in the end, they couldn't land on a place that "proved viable within our current timetable and logistical constraints."
According to Gibbs in 2023, the conservancy unveiled a redevelopment plan for the ship that would be a "privately funded, permanently-moored, mixed-use destination and economic engine." The plan, which the conservancy said required five years of planning, demonstrated that it could create thousands of jobs and millions in revenue. But the plan was stopped before it could begin, due to the "difficulty of securing the planned pier location and the unwillingness of government entities to prioritize the project," the conservancy said.
The statement continued by saying that since they couldn't save the ship in its current state and were under the time constraint of the court order, they had one of two options: scrap the boat or convert it into an artificial reef. The conservancy decided to go with the latter.
"This next chapter of the SS United States' story will bring tens of thousands of people annually from around the world to experience her," Gibbs said. "Okaloosa County has now allocated more than $10 million to reactivate the SS United States as the world's largest artificial reef in tandem with the conservancy's land-based museum and visitor center."
According to Gibbs, the conservancy is committed to creating a state-of-the-art museum infusing modern-day technology with original artifacts and artwork from the SS United States. They plan to incorporate one or both of the ship's funnels, radar mast and recreate areas on the ship using original materials.
As for the next step, once the conservancy transfers the vessel's title over to Okaloosa County, the ship will leave Philadelphia's waters and head to Norfolk, Virginia, for extensive preparations for reefing over the next several months.