SS United States' Florida owners will pay $100K with ship not moved out by deadline
The new owners of the historic SS United States are forking over a $100,000 late fee to a Philadelphia company in accordance with an agreement on the towering ocean liner's fate.
Okaloosa County, Florida, will pay the six-figure sum to Penn Warehousing after missing a Dec. 11 deadline to have the ship moved out of Philadelphia.
The county purchased the ship in October for more than $10 million, settling a two-year-long dispute between Penn and the SS United States Conservancy, headed by the granddaughter of the designer of the massive boat.
Okaloosa County plans to sink the ship off the coast of Destin, Florida, and then turn it into an artificial reef after undergoing some prep work in Mobile, Alabama. It agreed to have the ship removed within 90 days of Sept. 12.
But a seaward journey down the East Coast and into the Gulf of Mexico was scrapped in November when a tropical disturbance formed in the Gulf. A storm disrupted the rescheduled journey in October as well.
An attorney for Penn Warehousing said Okaloosa County requested an invoice and is expected to make the payment Friday.
While the six-figure amount sounds high, it's a drop in the bucket compared to what other owners have spent on the ship — more than $40 million since it was brought to Philadelphia in 1996.
Sources previously told CBS News Philadelphia the Coast Guard is analyzing whether the ship would be able to make the voyage to Alabama and whether its twin smokestacks could clear the bridge, which, according to nautical reference materials, has about 150 feet of space below when water is at medium height.
The journey would need to take place at low tide for the boat to clear under the bridge.
