Legendary SS United States Is About to Sink—and Become the World’s Largest Artificial Reef

The SS United States was, at one point, the fastest ocean liner ever to cross the Atlantic. She won’t be doing that anymore as the legendary ship has set sail on its final voyage after over 30 years of being anchored in Philadelphia.

Where is it off to? Is it just a sail into the afterlife like Frodo at the end of The Return of the King (spoilers for The Return Of The King)? No, but it is one of the only times you’ll ever hear a positive new story about a sinking ship.

SS United States Is About to Find New Purpose at the Bottom of the Sea

The SS United States began its life as a gigantic and glamorous cruise ship that transported countless Americans across the Atlantic between 1952 and 1969. It was designed to have a secondary application as troop transport should it be needed in a military conflict, but that eventuality never came to pass.

The ship posted up at a port in Norfolk, Virginia, for a while before calling Philadelphia her home, beginning in 1966. Norwegian Cruise Lines had plans to purchase and refurbish the ship to bring it back to service, but ultimately it was deemed way too costly.

That cycle would repeat with a variety of companies over the decades. For a while, there were plans to demolish it, reducing the legendary ship to scrap, which turned into plans to turn it into a hotel and casino. Eventually, by the mid-2010s, plans shifted to preserving it for historical purposes. But that plan was costly and no one knew where it would be permanently stationed.

The ship was stuck in limbo for decades until rents were raised at the pier in Philadelphia, which it called home. Evicted, with nowhere to go, in 2024, Florida’s Okaloosa County announced plans to buy the United States and sink it near the Florida Panhandle to create the world’s largest artificial reef—and that’s where it’s headed right now.

It’s going to make a stop in Mobile, Alabama, where it will be thoroughly deep-cleaned and decontaminated. That process will take about a year. After that, it’s going to sail a little bit east where it will be sunk just 20 nautical miles off of the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach.

It will be turned into an artificial reef to become the home of countless sea creatures and become exploratory fodder for divers. A ship that spent decades pumping toxic greenhouse gases into the air will now become an environmentally beneficial artificial reef. What a nice way to close the loop on its story.