SS United States

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Career Name: SS United States Operator: United States Lines Port of registry: New York City Ordered: 1950 Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Cost: $78 million Laid down: 8 February 1950 Launched: 1952 Christened: 1952 Maiden voyage: 3 July 1952 Out of service: 1969 Fate: sold in 1978; various owners through 2002 Career Owner: Norwegian Cruise Line Acquired: 2003 Fate: Docked in Philadelphia General characteristics Tonnage: 53,330 gt Displacement: 47,300 tons at maximum draft Length: 990 ft (301.8 m) Beam: 101 ft (30.8 m) Draft: 31 ft (9.4 m) Decks: 12 Propulsion: 8 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 4 sets Westinghouse double-reduction geared steam turbines 335,000 hp Speed: 36 knots (41.4 mph; 66.7 km/h) (service speed) 45 kn (52 mph; 83 km/h) (maximum speed) True top speed unknown as engines have never been run at full capacity. Capacity: 1,928 passengers Crew: 900 Nickname: "The Big U"[1]

SS United States (Steamship) U.S. National Register of Historic Places Location: Pier 82, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Coordinates: 39°55′4.63″N 75°8′12.84″W / 39.9179528°N 75.1369°W / 39.9179528; -75.1369 Architect: William Francis Gibbs Governing body: Private Added to NRHP: 3 June 1999 NRHP Reference#: 99000609[2]

SS United States is a passenger liner built in 1952 for the United States Lines and designed to recapture the trans-Atlantic speed record from the British and serve as a possible troop carrier.^[3] Built at a cost of $78 million,^[3] the ship remains the largest ocean liner built entirely in the United States, the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction, and it remains current holder of the Blue Riband, given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest speed. The United States operated in transatlantic passenger service until 1969, and since 1996 has been docked at Pier 82 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

Captains of the United States included Harry Manning, Roy Edward Fiddler, John Anderson and Leroy J. Alexanderson.

Construction

Cutaway of United States

Inspired by the exemplary service of the British liners RMS Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, which transported hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops to Europe during the Second World War, the federal government of the United States decided to sponsor construction of a large and very fast vessel that would be capable of transporting large numbers of soldiers. Designed by renowned American naval architect and marine engineer William Francis Gibbs, the liner's construction was a joint effort between the United States Navy and United States Lines. The U.S. government underwrote $50 million of the $78 million construction cost, with the ship's operators, United States Lines, contributing the remaining $28 million. In exchange, the ship was designed to be easily converted in times of war to a troopship with a capacity of 15,000 troops, or a hospital ship.

The vessel was constructed from 1950-1952 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Virginia. The keel was laid and the hull was constructed in a graving dock. United States was built to exacting Navy specifications, which required the ship be heavily compartmentalized and have separate engine rooms to optimize war-time survival.

To minimize the risk of fire, the designers of United States used no wood in the ship's framing, accessories, decorations or interior surfaces. Fittings, including all furniture and fabrics, were custom made in glass, metal and spun glass fiber to ensure compliance with fireproofing guidelines set by the U.S. Navy. Though the galley did feature butcher block, the clothes hangers in the luxury cabins were aluminum. The ballroom's grand piano was of a rare, fire-resistant wood species, though originally specified in aluminum — and accepted only after a demonstration in which gasoline was poured upon the wood and ignited, without the wood itself igniting.

The construction of the ship's superstructure involved the largest use of aluminum in any construction project to that time, and presented a challenge to the builders in joining the aluminum structure to the steel decks below. The significant use of aluminum provided extreme weight savings. At 105 feet (32 m) beam, United States was built to Panamax capacity, ensuring the ship could clear the Panama Canal locks with just 2 feet (0.6 m) to spare on either side.

United States had the most powerful steam turbine in a merchant marine vessel. The ship was capable of steaming astern at over 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h), and could carry enough fuel and stores to steam non-stop for over 10000 nautical miles (12,000 mi; 19,000 km).

Speed Records

SS America (Foreground) and SS United States (Background) in New York.

On its maiden voyage on 4 July 1952, the United States broke the transatlantic speed record held by the Queen Mary for the previous 14 years by over 10 hours, making the maiden crossing from the Ambrose lightship at New York Harbor to Bishop Rock off Cornwall, UK in 3 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes at an average speed of 35.59 knots (40.96 mph) The liner also broke the westbound crossing record by returning to America in 3 days 12 hours and 12 minutes at an average speed of 34.51 knots (39.71 mph), thereby obtaining both the eastbound and westbound Blue Ribands — the first time a U.S. flagged ship had held the speed record since the SS Baltic claimed the prize a century earlier.

The United States maintained a 30-knot (35 mph) crossing speed on the North Atlantic in a service career that lasted 17 years.

The United States lost the eastbound speed record in 1990 — however, the United States continues to hold the Blue Riband as all subsequent record breakers were neither in passenger service nor were their voyages east and westbound.^[4]

The maximum speed of the United States was deliberately exaggerated, and kept obscure for many years. An impossible value of 43 knots (49 mph) was leaked to reporters by engineers after the first speed trial.^[5] The actual top speed — 38.3 knots (44.1 mph) — was not revealed until 1977. A Philadelphia Inquirer article reported the top speed achieved as 36 knots (41 mph).^[6]

Post-service

While United States was at Newport News for annual overhaul in 1969, the owners decided to withdraw the ship from service, docking the ship there. A few years later, the ship was relocated to Norfolk, Virginia. Subsequently, ownership passed between several companies. In 1978, the vessel was sold to private interests who hoped to revitalize the liner in a time share cruise ship format. Financing fell through and the ship was placed up for auction by MARAD. During the 1980s, United States was considered by the United States Navy as a troop ship or a hospital ship, to be called the USS United States, but this plan never materialized.

In 1984, the ship's remaining fittings and furniture were sold at auction in Norfolk. Some of the furniture now represents a substantial portion of the interior of Windmill Point, a restaurant in Nags Head, North Carolina.^[7] (These items include dining room tables and chairs in the main restaurant and the bar and lounge tables and chairs in the upstairs lounge as well as other items.) One of the ship's propellers is mounted at the entrance to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City. In 1992, a new consortium of owners purchassed the vessel and had the vessel towed to Turkey and then Ukraine, where it underwent asbestos removal in 1994. No viable agreements were reached in the U.S. for a reworking of the vessel, and in 1996 the United States was towed to its current location at Pier 84 in South Philadelphia. The ship is easily visible from shore and Interstate 95, directly across Columbus Boulevard from Philadelphia's IKEA store.

While the United States lost the eastbound transatlantic speed record in 1990 to Hoverspeed Great Britain, an Incat-built Norwegian-owned wave-piercing catamaran ferry^[3], it still holds the Blue Riband for the westbound transatlantic speed record.

In 1999, the SS United States Foundation and the SS United States Conservancy (then known as the SS United States Preservation Society, Inc.) succeeded in having the ship placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Future plans

In 2003, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) purchased the ship from the estate of Edward Cantor when the ship was put up for auction after his death, with the stated intent of fully restoring the ship to a service role in their newly-announced American-flagged Hawaiian passenger service called NCL America. The SS United States is one of only a handful of ships eligible to enter such service because of the Jones Act, which requires that any vessel engaged in domestic commerce be built and flagged in the USA and operated by a predominantly American crew. In August, 2004, NCL commenced feasibility studies regarding a new build-out of the vessel, and in May, 2006 Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, chairman of Malaysia-based Star Cruises (which owns NCL), stated that the company's next project is "the restoration of the...United States."^[8] By May, 2007, an extensive technical review had been completed, with NCL stating that the ship was in sound condition. The cruise line has over 100 boxes of the ship's blueprints cataloged. While this documentation is not complete, NCL believes it will provide useful information for the planned refit.^[9] However, when NCL America began operation, it used the Pride of America, Pride of Aloha, and Pride of Hawaii, rather than the United States, and later withdrew the Pride of Aloha and Pride of Hawaii from Hawaiian service.

In February, 2009, it was reported that Star Cruises, to whom the United States' ownership was transferred, and NCL are looking for buyers for the United States .^[10][11]

A group of the ship's fans keeps in touch via the Internet and meets annually in Philadelphia. The ship receives occasional press coverage, such as a 2007 feature article in USA Today^[12] and there have been various projects through the years to celebrate the ship, such as lighting it on special occasions. A television documentary about the ship^[13] entitled SS United States: Lady in Waiting[1] was completed in early February, 2008 and was distributed through Chicago's WTTW TV and American Public Television with the first airings in May, 2008 on PBS stations throughout the USA. The Big U: The Story of the SS United States, another documentary about the ship,^[14] is currently in development by Rock Creek Productions.

On July 30, 2009, H. F. Lenfest, a Philadelphia media entrepreneur and philanthropist, pledged a matching grant of $300,000 to help the United States Conservancy purchase the vessel from Star Cruises.^[15]

See also

• SS America (1940), United States’s post-war running mate.
• SS Constitution
• SS Independence

Gallery

Postcard of the SS United States	Sun deck of SS United States during 1964 eastbound voyage	SS United States disembarking at Le Havre in 1964	Photo of SS United States at Pier 84, Philadelphia, as viewed from Columbus Blvd
Photo of the SS United States taken from The Spirit of Philadelphia cruise ship

Bibliography

• Braynard, Frank O. (1968). By Their Works Ye Shall Know Them, The Life and Ships of William Francis Gibbs 1886-1967. Gibbs & Cox, Inc. 

External links

• Big Ship Films, LLC's Homepage about the Lady In Waiting Documentary
• "The United States" by C.K. Williams
• Archival film footage of a cruise aboard the SS United States
• SS United States Foundation a Federal 501c3 nonprofit historic preservation site
• SS United States site
• SS United States 2007 photographs
• SS United States Conservancy

References

Philadelphia portal

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