One of the things we’ve enjoyed about doing this blog six days a week for more than a year (yes, it’s been that long!) is learning things about ships, old and new. Marine history had not really been on our must-do list, yet every once in a while we find something that, to us, is fascinating.
It happened again last week.
The SS United States, a grand old ship stamped with a made-in-America label, was saved from destruction — temporarily at least — even though destruction would have put an extra $3 million in the pockets of the owners.
Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it?
Who walks from three million dollars? Or three thousand?
First, a little scene-setting…
The SS United States was launched in 1952, and retired in 1969 after 17 years of uninterrupted ocean crossings. It still holds the record for the quickest trip across the 
Atlantic. In retirement, it’s been thrown under the bus, or kicked to the curb, or just basically ignored amid the ever-lasting question: What to do with this ship?
According to blogger Chris Owen, it was going to become a floating time-share ship, then turned into furniture in a North Carolina restaurant, then a member of Norwegian’s Hawaiian fleet.
According to the SS United States Conservancy, its last destination was going to be the scrapyard, for parts.
And then…
The Conservancy — obviously dedicated to conserving the SS United States, hence the name — received a pledge of $5.8 million from philanthropist Gerry Lenfest. That enabled it to purchase the ship from Norwegian Cruise Lines and its cruise-ship partner, Genting Hong Kong, for $3 million. A vessel scrapper had offered the owners $6 million.
On the Conservancy website, Lenfest explained: “She is worth keeping. This ship is an iconic part of American maritime history and if there’s any chance at all that she can be saved, we should take that chance.”
Lenfest’s father, a naval architect, designed components of the ship, 60 years ago. The designer was William Francis Gibbs, grandfather of the Conservancy’s president, Susan Gibbs.
Family moorings aside, the ship is considered an historical monument, or historical monster. It carried four presidents (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Clinton), and numerous diplomats, heads of state and movie stars, and it carried thousands of immigrants to America. It could travel 10,000 miles without refueling. Today it would be an impractical fuel guzzler, and its restoration costs will be many millions. Three cities — New York, Miami and Philadelphia — have expressed interest in having her once (if) she becomes a waterfront destination hotel with retail, education and museum availabilities.
She could have been a pile of junk, to be taken apart piece by piece. It’s a nice story.
Chivalry of the seas lives.