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SS United States to be sunk as largest artificial reef

40 points by geox 2 days ago | 32 comments

"Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,

The lightning and the gale!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Ironsides_(poem)

WalterBright 2 hours ago

It's a sad day. I crossed the Atlantic in it long ago. Some great memories.

bunderbunder 30 minutes ago

Bittersweet, perhaps? I've never seen the ship in person but I've been following its story. It seems that Okaloosa County snatched it out of the jaws of the scrapyard just in the nick of time.

It won't be floating anymore, but it will at least be somewhat physically intact, at least relative to the state it was already in. It was pretty well stripped bare back in the 80s, and further gutted after that asbestos abatement project a while back. And it will be available for people who can SCUBA dive to visit.

rkagerer 27 minutes ago

Lasted three quarters of a century, not bad!

jparishy 43 minutes ago

Only love from all the Philadelphians who have sat eating Swedish meatballs and looking at it in wonder. Will be dearly missed

tylergetsay 9 minutes ago

Incase anyone was unaware part of the consideration for where to sink it is access for divers -- the top will be around 55ft deep which will make it accessible for recreational divers

geokon 17 minutes ago

Was strangely difficult to find on Wikipedia what the "SS" actually means

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_steamer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_prefix

scrollaway 10 minutes ago

Here is a great video on the topic.

https://youtu.be/ZOXymrplqCg

kragen 36 minutes ago

If this is interesting to you, there's still one ocean liner left: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Mary_2

Buy a ticket while you can.

whyenot 17 minutes ago

I wonder if Cunard/Carnival will ever build a replacement to her.

kragen 4 minutes ago

No. Possibly Kishore Patil, who was born yesterday in Mumbai, will build a replacement for her on a whim using self-assembling nanobots, or possibly next century the Creative Cold War Re-Enactment Society will cosplay 20th-century steel-mill workers and welders long enough to build a replacement for her in a period-correct fashion, but nothing really resembling Cunard will exist in a future where building a replacement for her is possible.

jauntywundrkind 22 minutes ago

I had a coworker whose not a fan of flying who has done a couple crossings now, really enjoys it! I think of the Queen Mary 2 a bunch because of them, their tales. A little world of fans who really enjoy doing the crossing.

asanineassasin 45 minutes ago

Would a metall ship, that is artificially erroded a a solar driven scarficial annode, count as geo-engineering, when the resulting algea bloom fell out over a dead spot of the ocean?

analog8374 9 minutes ago

Well that's symbolic as heck. A component in a piece of ritual magic maybe. Somebody should feature it that way in a comic book.

mig39 60 minutes ago

Hasn't this been the plan for years now?

Jtsummers 54 minutes ago

Only since 2024, and the date is now approaching so that gives it renewed interest in the news media.

dmead 34 minutes ago

Ikea in south philly will never be the same :<

hparadiz 41 minutes ago

I've had a lot of chick-fil-a sitting in my car looking at this thing.

iJohnDoe 44 minutes ago

Other than it changing hands a couple of times and it languishing for decades, both of which are pretty normal, the cleanup of the ship sounds largely successful. Almost like an example of how all cleanup projects should go.

verytrivial 30 minutes ago

Honestly read this as satirical after my brain inserted "intelligence" after reef. It certainly feels like that.

rspoerri 26 minutes ago

i read "United States to be sunk as largest artificial reef" and thought, thats no news... /s

opengrass 16 minutes ago

[flagged]

verdverm 2 days ago

> The SS United States, once the fastest passenger liner in the world, is scheduled to be sunk in the Gulf of Mexico in November, creating what will be the world’s largest artificial reef.

This sentence may anger someone into causing a controversy... hope this doesn't hit his favorite channels.

input_sh 5 minutes ago

It's a British magazine, they (like the rest of the world) don't really have a reason to care about his Executive Orders.

mahboi 2 hours ago

Without judging, this is the first I've heard of deliberately sinking ships to create artificial reefs.

consumer451 47 minutes ago

This is somewhat common. Once cleaned up, they provide refuge for sea life, and increased economic activity for nearby communities via fishing and diving.

The program in the Florida Keys is huge.

https://gis.myfwc.com/boating_guides/florida_keys/pages/art_...

smallerfish 2 hours ago

Your mind may be blown by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbird_Reef

mahboi 57 minutes ago

That is really cool, thanks

thaumasiotes 53 minutes ago

Yeah, that was pretty interesting.

> From 2001 to 2008, within the vicinity of the reef, the amount of marine food per square foot has increased 400 times.

> The site has become so popular that fishermen steal from each other, and other states apply for the next subway cars to be dumped in their waters.

I guess the biggest problem in the ocean is the inability to stay in place. There was an interesting discussion of something similar on Twitter a couple years ago: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1760058156632142058.html

> Hyenas can strip a dead elephant clean in less than 48 hours.

> But in the ocean, whale carcasses drift around for months before they eventually sink.

> Land animals have gravity privilege. Any random stray dog can tear into a dead cow, even if the cow is a lot larger.

> But when bunch of sharks come up on the floating whale carcass, it's essentially a game of bobbing for pumpkins... it's not really possible to hold on to it or tear it open.

Terr_ 2 days ago

Regardless of the location, there's editorial cartoon/headline grist in it, e.g.: "As Trump does $VERB this weekend, the United States will sink to its doom."

I would not be surprised if Ron DeSantis (Florida governor, Republican) somehow abuses his position to force a rename of the ship at the last moment, purely to avoid snarky headlines.

mrlonglong 2 hours ago

Rename it USS Trump for the lulz.

shagie 9 minutes ago

The SS United States was a beautiful ship from an era past that was the crown jewel of the USA merchant marine that in part represented the technology contests of civilian ships after WWII.

Trump is not deserving of its name.

From two years ago: What's Going on With Shipping? SS United States - Fastest Cruise Liner and Flagship of US Merchant Marine - To Be Sunk! https://youtu.be/XFIPAJEl1TE

phgn 8 minutes ago

They should sink the US as artificial reef.