Historic SS United States sinks after hours-long goodbye off Florida’s coast

Detailed summary

It was a long goodbye.

The historic SS United States, once the fastest ship on the seas, made a slow final journey beneath the waters Wednesday.

The famous ocean liner — which is longer than the Titanic and crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times — was deliberately sunk Wednesday to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, where the once-luxurious behemoth was set to begin a new chapter as the world’s largest artificial reef.

Hours after the sinking began on a cloudy afternoon, much of the hulking ship could still be seen in the dark waters off the coast of the Florida Panhandle by nightfall.

Organizers had predicted the sinking could finish in as quickly as an hour.

Finally, around 9 p.m., the vessel leaned on one side and then quickly submerged.

“She is an amazing lady who will not lay down without a fight,” Coleen O’Malley, president of Coleen Marine, the company sinking the ship, said before the vessel disappeared beneath the water. “Much like the amazing nation she was named after.”

The event — described by officials as a controlled sinking — was a long-planned $13.5 million project aimed at attracting more divers and fishing enthusiasts while creating a home for tuna, marlin and swordfish.

The slower-than-expected descent was partly due to crews filling 128 fuel and lubricant tanks aboard the ship with water so that it would rest evenly on the ocean floor, said Nick Tomecek, a spokesperson for Okaloosa County, which helped organize the sinking. He said the process “took longer than we thought.”

The project will keep what had been a technological marvel when it made its maiden voyage in 1952 from becoming scrap metal.

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