Fans of World's Fastest Ocean Liner Put Out a Distress Call
PHILADELPHIA -- Dan McSweeney has a few ideas for saving the United States.
That would be the SS United States -- the fastest ocean liner in the world. Bigger than the Titanic and fast enough to water-ski behind, she's a steamship so sophisticated, her capabilities remained a Cold War secret for decades.
She transported royalty and starlets. Her crew served frog legs in first class. Before the dawn of the jet age, the SS United States was the Concorde of her era.
Admirers call her the "Big U." Today, she could be in big trouble.
The once-proud ship is rusting away in the Delaware River, across from an Ikea. Its owner, cruise line NCL Group, has put her up for sale.
"This is the endgame," says Mr. McSweeney, a 39-year-old former active duty Marine officer with infectious enthusiasm for the vessel. Sometimes he goes on ship-touching trips, sailing into the river with a few like-minded individuals to put their hands on the hull.
Mr. McSweeney and a small band of the ship's most loyal fans fear the worst: That the Big U will get sold to "ship breakers" -- metal scavengers who will gut and fillet the SS United States on a beach somewhere in India, where many old ships go to die...
Read entire article at The Wall Street Journal
That would be the SS United States -- the fastest ocean liner in the world. Bigger than the Titanic and fast enough to water-ski behind, she's a steamship so sophisticated, her capabilities remained a Cold War secret for decades.
She transported royalty and starlets. Her crew served frog legs in first class. Before the dawn of the jet age, the SS United States was the Concorde of her era.
Admirers call her the "Big U." Today, she could be in big trouble.
The once-proud ship is rusting away in the Delaware River, across from an Ikea. Its owner, cruise line NCL Group, has put her up for sale.
"This is the endgame," says Mr. McSweeney, a 39-year-old former active duty Marine officer with infectious enthusiasm for the vessel. Sometimes he goes on ship-touching trips, sailing into the river with a few like-minded individuals to put their hands on the hull.
Mr. McSweeney and a small band of the ship's most loyal fans fear the worst: That the Big U will get sold to "ship breakers" -- metal scavengers who will gut and fillet the SS United States on a beach somewhere in India, where many old ships go to die...