ORLANDO, Fla. – So far, so good.
On Wednesday, Feb. 19, the SS United States left Philadelphia’s Pier 82 (with a micro-stop at Pier 80) after a stay of more than 28 years in the City of Brotherly Love. Making its way down the Delaware River with the help of the tugboat Vinik No. 6, the world’s fastest ocean liner hit the Atlantic Ocean on an 1,800 nautical mile trip that would take it around the southern tip of Florida, into the Gulf, and on to a new temporary home in Mobile, Alabama.
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Sometime next year, the ship will again be towed, this time to a point off the coast of Destin and Ft. Walton Beach where it will intentionally sent to the sea floor to become the world’s largest artificial reef and a scuba diving attraction.
The United States passed Central Florida on Tuesday, Feb. 25, but was too far offshore for any of us to see. The ship however drew closer to the east coast as she traveled further south with fans in various parts of south Florida being able to see the ship from land on Thursday and Friday.
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Last week, we spoke to Mike Vinik, captain of Vinik No. 6, when he was about 65 miles off of the coast of Vero Beach.
“The ship’s handled better than anybody expected,” he told us via Starlink satellite internet. Before the tow, Vinik and his team conducted a thorough inspection of the Big U. “I spent hours trawling through as many spaces as [I could] get to…I’ve been blown away with how good a condition it is in.”
Though the United States was sitting stagnate for almost three decades, being docked off of the Delaware River was better for her than the alternative: sitting in the salty Atlantic Ocean. Vinik told us, “Fresh water is very good for steel.”
Despite the seaworthiness of the ship, there’s always in an inherent danger with towing anything that large through ocean waters (the United States is almost 1,000 feet long). A myriad of things could go wrong.
Along with Captain Vinik, we also spoke with Captain Joseph Farrell Jr.
In 1984, Farrell founded Resolve Marine, an emergency response and maritime salvage company now on standby to help Captain Vinik and the SS United States in case they run into any trouble.
“There’s really not much danger in in the tow itself,” Farrell told us last week. “The ship is in pretty darn good shape. And when it was built, it was sort of built bulletproof.”
Farell added “The tow is only as bad as the weather is.”
Since its inception, Farrell and Resolve Marine have commanded a number of high-profile maritime salvage operations including the ValuJet 592 crash in Florida in 1996, the grounding of the Costa Concordia in Italy in 2012, and most recently, freeing the ship/Motor Vehicle carrier MV Dali after its collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last March.
“We were brought in to remove the ship, which we had to do and use the explosives to cut the bridge to get it out,” Farrell said. “It took us a total of six months to get to all the hazardous materials that were on the bottom of that ship.”
Farrell told WKMG that he didn’t anticipate problems with the United States despite her age and that she is in “pretty darn good shape.”
“It was a sturdy a well-built vessel. Of course it hasn’t been maintained in a number of years, but she’s really solid.”
“Specifically, this ship was not meant to sink. This thing has transverse internal bulkheads or walls to stop one compartment from flooding to the next,” Farrell said. “And on top of that, good side shell tanks that are made to confuse enemy torpedoes. If they were to go through the hull, there’s an inner compartment. So, it’s a real challenging vessel to put down.”
For those who are sad that the SS United States is being turned into a reef rather than refurbished, keep in mind one of the other, more common options for a ship of that size and age: being scrapped and recycled for her metal.
“This, without a doubt, is the best way for a ship to go,” said Farrell. “This is by far the best thing because it’s an afterlife for the ship.” He added: “This, honestly, is such a wonderful, wonderful ending [and] a new beginning for this ship. Most ships don’t get this.”
In 2024, 324 merchant ships were recycled for a total of 4.6 million gross tons.
Aside from salvaging and emergency response, Resolve Marine also has a philanthropic offshoot of the company called the Mission Resolve Foundation, a nonprofit organization focusing on education, restoration, and humanitarian efforts connected to the world’s oceans.
And though you would think salvage operations and a nonprofit wouldn’t align very well, the fate of the SS United States is a perfect example of how humans can favorably affect the world’s oceans. As an artificial reef, the United States will be a new home for countless marine life and an exciting adventure for a new generation of underwater explorers.
“The SS United States was and is going forward. It’s just going to create such a phenomenal habitat,” said Farrell. “The ship will be known to generations to come.”
The SS United States is expected to arrive in Mobile, Alabama sometime today. You can track the ship’s progress using this link.