The historic ship SS United States has completed its final journey at sea. Authorities carried out its sinking on Wednesday off the coast of Destin, Florida. The ship, nearly 300 meters long and built in America, was once the fastest ocean liner in the world and was launched in 1952.
The sinking was carried out as part of a project to turn it into a marine habitat in the Gulf of Mexico, after Okaloosa County bought the ship for $1 million in 2024, according to Okaloosa County authorities. Destin, Florida, is also where the ship sank and will serve as a marine habitat for sea life, according to statements by Susan Gibbs, president and co-founder of the conservancy group, who said the ship will become a vibrant and dynamic marine habitat.
The initiative aims to create a marine habitat in the Gulf of Mexico by turning the ship into a shelter for marine organisms, according to the same sources. Okaloosa County bought the ship for $1 million, and now it will contribute to the marine habitat, as Gibbs stated. The ship had been emptied and had several cuts in its structure to allow water to enter and help it sink straight to the ocean floor.
Over the following hours, it gradually filled with water before finally sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico at around 10:00 p.m. For years, SS United States remained moored in Philadelphia, while various owners tried to save and restore it.
However, the rising costs of maintaining the aging ship complicated preservation efforts. In 2021, port authorities raised the daily mooring fee to $1,700, a cost that the nonprofit SS United States Conservancy could no longer afford.
In 2024, Okaloosa County in Florida bought the ship for $1 million. Before the sinking, Susan Gibbs, president and co-founder of the conservancy group, said the ship was being covered with underwater reefs and would remain intact. According to her, the ship will become a vibrant and dynamic marine habitat.
Gibbs, whose grandfather, William Francis Gibbs, designed the ship, said his relationship with the ship was an obsession. According to him, his grandfather joked that he loved the SS United States a thousand times more than his wife.