Once the world's fastest ocean liner, SS United States to be sunk to create largest artificial reef

PTI, Nov 11, 2026, Destin: An ocean liner that is longer than the Titanic and was once the fastest on the seas is headed to a final home on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico as the world's largest artificial reef.

The SS United States is scheduled to be sunk on Wednesday off the coast of the Florida Panhandle, fulfilling a long-planned USD 13.5 million project aimed at attracting more divers and fishing enthusiasts to the area while creating a home for tuna, marlin and swordfish.

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

The SS United States crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times, carrying old Hollywood stars like Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor.

Other passengers have included President John F Kennedy and Britain's former King Edward VIII.

In 1968, a young Bill Clinton took it when he went to Oxford University, decades before he was elected president.

In preparation for the sinking, organisers removed the 65-foot (20-metre) smokestacks and plan to have them anchor a new museum that celebrates the ship.

Once aboard, passengers were treated to dinners that included caviar, roast duckling, smoked ox tongue and Calf's Head en Tortue.

“It was our goal to make sure that she wasn't lost forever,” said David Lawrence, a member of the board for the SS United States Conservancy, which is dedicated to preserving the ship.

The ship will be sunk without using explosives.

The ship is to sink in about 180 feet (55 metres) of water, with its top deck about 60 feet (18 metres) below the surface — shallow enough that inexperienced divers can visit.

It will settle on the floor of the waters about 25 miles (40 kilometres) south-west of Destin, between Panama City and Pensacola.

More than 3,000 workers helped build the SS United States in 1950 and 1951 in Virginia.

An Associated Press reporter and President Harry Truman's daughter, Margaret, were among 1,700 passengers for the first voyage.

The ship's average speed for that trip was almost 41 miles (66 kilometres) per hour, besting a record set by Britain's RMS Queen Mary in 1938 by 4.5 miles (7.2 kilometres) per hour, according to the AP's dispatch.

The SS United States set the record even though its journey ended in the face of a full gale that reached 69 miles (111 kilometres) per hour — “so strong it blew a ping pong table off the deck,” AP reported.

At 990 feet (302 metres), the ship is 108 feet (33 metres) longer than the ill-fated Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank on its first voyage across the Atlantic.