After nearly 30 years, the SS United States has left Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On February 19, 2025, “America’s Flagship” left her longtime berth aided by tugboats. She was maneuvered into the Delaware River and started the first leg of her last voyage. Over the next two weeks, the ship will be towed down to Mobile, Alabama (you can track its progress here). Preparation work will take place there before her eventual reefing off the Florida coast. Okaloosa County, the United States’ owners, have said that the work is expected to take 12 months.
Like many in the ocean liner and maritime history community, I’m very saddened. I donated several times in hopes of saving and preserving the ship. It broke my heart to watch the United States being towed out of Philly. My eyes were glued to the screen as I watched the live coverage over my lunchbreak. But I was also struck by how majestic the ship still looked after all these years. She’s truly one of the best ocean liners ever built.
Uncertainty
The SS United States came to Philadelphia in July 1996 and was moored at Pier 82. There, she lingered for decades and changed hands several times until purchased by the SS United States Conservancy in February 2011. In June 2024, a district judge ordered that the ship had to find a new berth by September after a lengthy dispute between the Conservancy and Penn Warehousing (Pier 82’s landlord). This kicked off a mad dash to save “America’s Flagship.” Ultimately, Florida’s Okaloosa County purchased the ship with the intention of reefing her off the Gulf Coast.
The United States was originally slated to leave Philadelphia in November 2024, but this was delayed due to logistics. More delays followed. Finally, on February 14, 2025, the United States was moved laterally from Pier 82 to Pier 80 ahead of being towed out. The ship was then slated to be towed out on February 17 — President’s Day — but was delayed again due to weather. Then wind pushed the departure to February 18th. Then February 19th. It became a running joke on social media that she’d never actually leave.
And then the United States was towed out of Philadelphia without further delay.
Now she’s on her way to a watery grave. But still, becoming an artificial reef is better than going to the breakers. That doesn’t make it hurt any less though.
An Ending
I confess that I’ve felt all sorts of emotions during this whole ordeal: disbelief, anger, sadness, and more. I’m far from the only one too. Social media is full of people who are likewise running the gamut of emotions over the United States. It’s often been said that ships develop their own personalities, and that they seem to become living beings over time. That makes the United States’ all the more painful.
But as he took RMS Queen Mary to an uncertain future in 1967, her last master — Captain John Treasure Jones — said:
I’m always very sorry to see a very nice ship end its days, but it’s inevitable of course. But both ships and us have a, have a time limit and the day must come when we, when we, we go, and this applies to ships as to human beings.
I’ve been seeing this quote quite a bit lately in regard to the SS United States. And it’s true. All things have a lifespan and must eventually pass on. That this fine ship is, as some would say, meeting an inglorious end doesn’t take away from her proud legacy. The SS United States is still the fastest ocean liner ever built. She’s still a marvel of marine engineering.
The SS United States is still “America’s Flagship.” Nothing changes that.
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