Famed ship heads for afterlife as artificial reef in deliberate sinking off Florida

Résumé détaillé

The plan is to turn the decommissioned ship into the world’s largest artificial reef. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The SS United States being towed into the Gulf of Mexico to be sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of Destin, Florida, on Nov 9.

Famed ocean liner SS United States, the largest passenger ship ever built in America and the world’s fastest, headed for the sea floor near Florida on Nov 11 in a deliberate sinking designed to transform the vessel into the world’s biggest artificial reef.

The finale to a year-long process preparing the ship to meet its destiny, 75 years after it was launched at sea, was presented in a live stream showing aerial views of the once-grand vessel’s rusted hulk, stripped of its two smokestacks, afloat but quietly, slowly settling into calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The ship, measuring nearly 305m from stem to stern, was surrounded by onlookers and safety crews aboard dozens of tugboats and recreational vessels that accompanied the ocean liner as it was towed out to sea for its final voyage.

By then, work crews had spent months removing all environmentally unsafe materials from the ship, including residual fuel, wiring, glass, ductwork and other non-metal items, as well as any objects that could pose entanglement hazards for scuba divers.

The crews then cut holes strategically throughout the ship’s hull and its decks to ensure that it would sink in a gradual, level and uniform manner, according to a fact sheet posted online by project organisers. No explosives were being used.

Passageways also were cut through the interior to allow for marine life to thrive in and around the ship on the sea floor.

If all goes as planned, the ageing 20th-century vessel will come to rest upright on the gulf floor at a depth of 55m off the coast of Destin, Florida, a resort town and recreational fishing haven known for its white sand beaches and emerald green waters. The upper deck is expected to end up about 15m beneath the surface, organisers said.

The sinking process began at about 1pm Central Standard Time but was so imperceptibly slow that the majority of…

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