SS United States sinks off Florida to become artificial reef

The SS United States, an ocean liner that set a transatlantic speed record in 1952, began a controlled sinking Wednesday off Florida’s Gulf Coast. The 1,000-foot ship is being sent to the seabed without explosives, where it is expected to become the world’s largest artificial reef.

The operation is taking place about 20 nautical miles offshore, between the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area and Pensacola. Workers prepared the ship for a precision sinking, cutting holes to help it settle upright.

The liner crossed the Atlantic hundreds of times during its years in service, from 1952 to 1969. Its speed record for an ocean liner still stands, according to CBS News. Longer than the Titanic, it carried presidents, royalty and celebrities. The BBC reported that passengers included former Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy, as well as Bill Clinton before he became president. Marlon Brando, Coco Chanel, Duke Ellington, Salvador Dali, Walt Disney, Judy Garland and Cary Grant also traveled aboard, the BBC reported. CBS News broadcaster Walter Cronkite was another passenger.

After its retirement, the ship passed through multiple owners and docks before arriving in Philadelphia in 1996. It remained there for decades as proposals to turn it into a museum or floating hotel failed. The SS United States Conservancy sought to preserve the liner above water, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

Okaloosa County, Florida, bought the ship from the conservancy for about $1 million in 2024 to create a reef habitat for Gulf marine life. The county sent it to Mobile, Alabama, for a year of preparation, including the removal of fuel, wiring and other materials deemed environmentally unsafe. That work was coordinated with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, according to CBS News. The ship then made its final journey from Alabama toward Destin on Monday.

The reef project costs approximately $13 million and is funded by county tourist tax revenue, CBS News reported. The county hopes the liner will draw divers throughout the year. The Destin-Fort Walton Beach area already has about 580 artificial reefs off its coast, which CBS News reported is the most of any region in the country. A land-based museum documenting the ship’s history is also planned, according to the BBC.

“I think it’s going to be like Disney World,” Jocelyn Collins, general manager of Emerald Coast Scuba, told CBS News. “You know, we’re going to line people up and take pictures underwater.”

Conservancy President Susan Gibbs, whose grandfather helped design the liner, said she was glad its story would continue. “[The ship] has always been this unabashedly American symbol that brings so many people together,” she told CBS News.