As I talked about in an earlier post the SS United States, a 1,000- foot long ocean liner, was scheduled to begin its journey south to Alabama this past weekend. It was stopping there before being sunk as part of a reef building project off of Florida. The ship was purchased by Okaloosa County, Florida and will be sunk about 20 miles southeast of Destin, Florida.
The ship has sat at Pier 82 since 1997. It was supposed to be moved temporarily to Pier 80 before making its way down the Delaware River to the open ocean before landing at Mobile, Alabama. If successful it will be the largest artificial reef project in the world.
The United States Coast Guard's delay in the two-week journey has been ruled "indefinite" with no new target gate announced. Honestly, I'm thinking this could go down as one of the greatest maritime tow jobs ever completed, or the biggest debacle ever to be witnessed by millions of people.
While the idea seems to be right and noble, I'm not sure if all the logistics, and common sense, were considered. If anything goes wrong in the Delaware River it will surely
cause an environmental and economic disaster. In addition, how will all those shad, herring and striped bass get past it? I can just imagine this thing turned on its side somewhere in the Delaware River, hopefully not near any of the bridges it needs to be navigated around.
The SS United States was the flagship ocean liner that was built completely in the United States. It holds the record for the quickest transatlantic voyage by going from New York to England in 3 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes. Sadly it has sat for years after being stripped of all of it's beauty and elegance and is now just a hulk of a ship, which could, possibly, become home to all types of marine life off the coast of Florida, or in the Delaware Bay.