The SS United States, once the fastest ocean liner in the world and longer than the Titanic, is being sunk off the coast of Florida to form an underwater artificial reef, a habitat for marine life and an attraction for divers. Dinajpur TV's report calls it the world's largest artificial reef.
After almost 30 years moored in Philadelphia, the ship was bought by a Florida county, which decided to turn it into a reef. Several earlier plans to keep it as a museum or a floating hotel had failed, and it had lain in different ports through changes of owner and long legal battles.
Last year the ship was moved from Philadelphia to Alabama to be cleaned and cleared of pollutants. On Monday it set out from Alabama on its last voyage, towards the coast off Destin, Florida. It will be sunk by a controlled operation without explosives and will join the artificial reefs already off Florida's coast.
In service from 1952 to 1969, the liner was known for carrying royalty and celebrities between the United States and Europe. Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and John F Kennedy sailed on it, as did Bill Clinton before he became president.
Susan Gibbs, president of the SS United States Conservancy, which tried to keep the ship afloat and whose grandfather helped design it, said the ship's history would live on among people.
Photo: Kochman / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Dinajpur TV
Comments
(0)