GULF OF MEXICO — 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.
It was a long goodbye. 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.”
“She’s a big ship,” Tomecek said.
The project will keep what had been a technological marvel when it made its maiden voyage in 1952 from becoming scrap metal.
Famous passengers included Hollywood stars like Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor. Other passengers have included Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and 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.
Once aboard, passengers were treated to dinners that included caviar, roast duckling, smoked ox tongue and Calf’s Head en Tortue.
In preparation for the sinking, organizers removed the 65-foot (20-meter) smokestacks and plan to have them anchor a new museum that celebrates the ship.
Federal environmental and explosives rules prevent Okaloosa County, Florida, and its contractor from using explosives to scuttle the ship, Tomecek said. Concerns about inclement weather prompted officials to move up the sinking by a day.
The SS United States has pipes that pulled seawater into tanks as part of the system that cooled its boilers, he said, and those tanks have been removed so that once the valves are opened, water will flood the hull. Workers also have cut 10-foot by 10-foot (3-meter by 3-meter) holes in the decks, and more than 400 portholes have been removed.
The ship is to sink in about 180 feet (55 meters) of water, with its top deck about 60 feet (18 meters) below the surface — shallow enough that inexperienced divers can visit. It will settle on the floor of the waters about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest 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 Truman’s daughter, Margaret, were among 1,700 passengers for the first voyage.
The ship’s average speed for that trip was almost 41 mph (66 kph), besting a record set by Britain’s RMS Queen Mary in 1938 by 4.5 mph (7.2 kph), 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 mph (111 kph) — “so strong it blew a ping pong table off the deck,” AP reported.
At 990 feet (302 meters), the ship is 108 feet (33 meters) longer than the ill-fated Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank on its first voyage across the Atlantic.
“She really embodies and expresses this country’s best,” said Susan Gibbs, the granddaughter of the ship’s designer. “She represents pride and resilience and strength and beauty.”
More than 500 artificial reefs are located in the waters near where the SS United States will rest.
Previously, the largest artificial reef came from the 2006 scuttling of an aircraft carrier, the USS Oriskany in the Gulf off Pensacola — near enough to the SS United States site that an experienced diver could visit both in the same day, Tomecek said. The Oriskany, launched in 1950, was 911 feet (278 meters) in length.
“We’re trying to be the best diving destination in the world,” Tomecek said.
The ship was decommissioned in 1969. Attempts by a hotel magnate and Norwegian Cruise Lines to use the ship never floated, and from 1996 until recently, it sat along a dock in Philadelphia.
Tim Mullane, a Navy veteran and chief operating officer of Coleen Marine, called the huge funnels — the smokestacks that have been removed to anchor the new museum — “works of art.”
“I’m just so happy that we are able to save parts of her,” Gibbs said.
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Eisenhower.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.