February 17, 2025 • 9 mins
The SS United States, formerly the world's fastest transatlantic passenger liner, is about to become the world's biggest artificial reef. Later this week, the liner will be towed on its last voyage from Philadelphia to Mobile, Alabama, where it'll be stripped of fuel and other biohazards. Then it will be towed to waters off Okaloosa County, which bought the ship to give both sea creatures and divers a refuge. The county also plans a land-based museum honoring the ship's legacy. We speak with Alex Fogg, who's in charge of natural resources for the county.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird Beyond the News, a history making ship is
being towed on its last voyage on its way to
the northwest Florida coast. The SS United States has been
docked in Philadelphia for decades. They've tried to make it
seaworthy over the years, but that's failed, and now the
ship will be towed from Philadelphia to Mobile, Alabama, where
(00:21):
it will be prepared for use as an artificial reef
in northwest Florida. Alex Fogg is the natural resources chief
in Okaloosa County in northwest Florida, which bought the ship
for one million dollars. Alex Fogg, Welcome to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hey, thanks Gordon.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Well, the first of all, the launch, the ship was
supposed to launch from Philadelphia on Monday, President's Day. What
happened to delay it?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, So we've been faced with a number of delays
over the last few months, and the delay that we
were faced with this time was associated with that pretty
strong storm system that came through there and lots and
lots of wind. In the situation the SS United States,
it pretty much is a big sale, so when there's
a lot of high winds that makes it I guess
less an ideal situation to transport it through the skinny
waters of the Delaware River out into the Atlantic.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Now, given the state of the ship and how long
it's been sitting at the dock in Philadelphia, it must
be a very tough job to get it safely down
to the Gulf. It must be very challenging, and as
you mentioned, you've had many delays.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, we have. So you mentioned that we purchased the
vessel for a million dollars. That was back in October,
and shortly after that we were prepared to get the
tow underway down to the Gulf Coast, but we were
faced through the number of late season hurricanes that would
have impacted the tow area, so we decided to delay.
We then were faced with some additional requirements and requests
(01:50):
by the US Coast Card that we've worked through over
the last few months, and you know, to ensure that
the vessel can safely make the transit from Philadelphia down
to to the Gulf Coast. I think that's the biggest
biggest thing to pay attention to here is safety is
definitely the priority getting it down to the Gulf Coast.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Now, before we get into the eventual fate of the
SS United States. We should probably take a moment and
talk about the history for those who may not be
familiar with the SS United States. It was at one
time the fastest transatlantic ocean liner in the world, has
a tremendous.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
History, is yep, it still holds that record.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yes, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, So you know, it went into service in the
early nineteen fifties and on its inaugural trip across the
Atlantic Ocean, it broke the record for the fastest crossing
and then it turned around and broke the record for
the return trip, so that certainly put it on the map.
But this vessel was also constructed in a time when
you know, we were coming out of the Second World
War and they didn't know what was on the horizon,
(02:56):
and they didn't know if they were going to need
rapid vessels that could rapidly bring troops overseas. So it
was actually built to be easily retrofit to be a
troop transport if necessary. Fortunately it never was used for
that purpose, and it was strictly an ocean liner for
pleasure and you bring people from one side of the
(03:17):
Atlantic to the other, but as air traffic or air
travel became a little more affordable and a little more efficient.
It started to make these large ocean liners obsolete. It
just wasn't cost effective anymore, and people wanted to get
over in a few hours rather than a few.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Days, and so it fell out of service. And it
has been docked for many years, I think since about
nineteen ninety six, so almost three decades in Philadelphia. Given
the state of the ship and how long it's been
sitting there, how tough of a job is it to
get it safely down to mobile.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, so that's the question we get asked a lot,
and we've done a lot of large vessel artificialies. Certainly
nothing this large, but a lot of times the vessels
that we're getting to create artificial reas with are at
the end of their service life. They're in pretty bad
shape and they don't really have much scrap value. So
the you know, the endgame is to clean them up,
bring them offshore, and sink them and to make its
amazing habitat for the critters that we have in our area.
(04:16):
In the case of the United States, yes, it is
very old, is very far from the Gulf coast. So
we did a number of inspections and went through a
pretty significant period of due diligence to ensure that our
purchase was certainly going to make it from point A
to point B. You know, a number of inspections in
the hull, making sure that it was stable. A lot
of these questions were raised by the coast Guard and
really you know, resulted in us sharpening our pencil to
(04:38):
make sure that you know, we were checking all those
boxes and we were going to have a safe transit.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
How long will it take to get the ship down
to the golf and what will be done to it
once it arrives in Mobile?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yep, So it really depends. This time of year can
be kind of rough out there in the Atlantic, so
I suspect that the toe is going to be a
little bit slower. But we're anticipating around fourteen days from
Philadelphia to Mobile, plus or minus a couple of days.
But you'll be able to actually follow the track of
the vessel on our website THAT'SINEFWB dot com. But once
it gets to Mobile, it has to go through a
(05:10):
pretty significant period of remediation. There's a lot of materials
and items on board that have to be removed to
ensure that it's environmentally friendly. There's some paints that need
to be stripped. We certainly need to get all the
old fuel oil that's still on board, get rid of
any non metal materials so that we're creating the best
habitat that we can. We suspect that that's going to
(05:31):
take upwards of a year just because of how large
this vessel is and how much stuff is still left
on board. But keep in mind, before it brought was
brought back to Philadelphia, actually went overseas and the majority
of the vessel was actually gutted. So a good portion
of the work has already been done, but we have
to really really get in there to get all of
those those remaining items off so that we're again creating
(05:52):
that that good habitat for the native species.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So you will have a team of ship workers and
mobile stripping out on everything that would be a biohazard
or a hazard to the sea life. And then you're
going to sink that ship and send it to the
bottom and the gulf to become an artificial reef. And
I believe, if I'm correct, that that ship that has
(06:17):
set records before will be also setting a record once
it becomes an artificial reef. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
You're exactly right. So once this vessel is deployed, it
will be the largest artificial reef in the world. It'll
be topping the previous largest reef by about one hundred
and ten feet. There's a very exciting opportunity for Descinpoola
and Beach in the Florida Coast to get another large
vessel in art waters to not only encourage divers and
fishermen to come to the area, but also benefit the
(06:46):
native species.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So it has, of course two benefits that you mentioned.
One is bringing in tourists obviously, which is part of
your Bailey wick. And the other is that it gives
life sea life a habitat to build on.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yep. Yeah, So where we are in the Northern Gulf,
we really have a lot of sand habitat. There's not
a lot of natural habitat. There is some, but not
like you would see in the Caribbean or maybe South Florida.
So we rely on artificial reefs or man made structures
to be deployed to create that reef habitat so that
there's places for people to go fishing, there's places for
(07:23):
fish to be able to grow up and hide from
some of those pressures. And also, you know, if we
want to boost our destination and you know, put us
on the map to be the diving destination in the
state of Florida, we need large artificial reefs like the
SS United States that have really cool stories but are
also the largest of their kind.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well as far as diving destinations go in Florida, you've
certainly got a lot of competition, so you have to
really up your game and as far as to compete
in that arena.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Definitely exactly, and that's what we really aim to do.
Over the last five years or so. We've deployed fourteen
large vessels in the last a few years, and this
will be our our flagship and we're going to continue
to honor its legacy not only below the waves, but
also with a with a land based museum. So there's
a lot of artifacts that have been collected from the
vessel over the years, and we're partnering with the conservancy
(08:15):
that's this United States conservancy that owned the vessel prior
to us to create or stand up that museum in
the destined full Walton Beach area.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So uh to approach is here, You've got sea tourism
and land tourism. So it sounds like exactly got all
the bases covered.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I think so. I think so. And this will be
the first artificial reef that has a dedicated museum associated
with it. And there's you know, there's plenty of people
out there that aren't divers and maybe never be able
to see it underwater, but there's going to be a
lot of virtual reality, augmented reality artifacts and other things
at this museum that'll they'll give them the experience that
that they're that they're certainly looking for.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And let's get that web address out for people who
would like to follow the voyage, the last voyage of
the SS United States and follow your efforts to transform
it into an artificial reef.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yep. So it'll be on the destinswb dot com website.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
All right, very good, and we'll all be looking forward
to that. Alex Fogg is the natural resources chief in
Okalusa County. They're taking the ocean liner, the vintage ocean
Liner SS United States, which was built around seventy five
years ago, and they're going to bring it down from
Philadelphia to Mobile and they're going to prepare it to
(09:35):
be used as an artificial reef in the waters off
Okalusa County. Alex Fogg, best of success to you, and
thank you very much for joining us on beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yep, thanks for having again
Gordon Bird Beyond the News, a history making ship is
being towed on its last voyage on its way to
the northwest Florida coast. The SS United States has been
docked in Philadelphia for decades. They've tried to make it
seaworthy over the years, but that's failed, and now the
ship will be towed from Philadelphia to Mobile, Alabama, where
(00:21):
it will be prepared for use as an artificial reef
in northwest Florida. Alex Fogg is the natural resources chief
in Okaloosa County in northwest Florida, which bought the ship
for one million dollars. Alex Fogg, Welcome to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hey, thanks Gordon.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Well, the first of all, the launch, the ship was
supposed to launch from Philadelphia on Monday, President's Day. What
happened to delay it?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, So we've been faced with a number of delays
over the last few months, and the delay that we
were faced with this time was associated with that pretty
strong storm system that came through there and lots and
lots of wind. In the situation the SS United States,
it pretty much is a big sale, so when there's
a lot of high winds that makes it I guess
less an ideal situation to transport it through the skinny
waters of the Delaware River out into the Atlantic.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Now, given the state of the ship and how long
it's been sitting at the dock in Philadelphia, it must
be a very tough job to get it safely down
to the Gulf. It must be very challenging, and as
you mentioned, you've had many delays.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, we have. So you mentioned that we purchased the
vessel for a million dollars. That was back in October,
and shortly after that we were prepared to get the
tow underway down to the Gulf Coast, but we were
faced through the number of late season hurricanes that would
have impacted the tow area, so we decided to delay.
We then were faced with some additional requirements and requests
(01:50):
by the US Coast Card that we've worked through over
the last few months, and you know, to ensure that
the vessel can safely make the transit from Philadelphia down
to to the Gulf Coast. I think that's the biggest
biggest thing to pay attention to here is safety is
definitely the priority getting it down to the Gulf Coast.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Now, before we get into the eventual fate of the
SS United States. We should probably take a moment and
talk about the history for those who may not be
familiar with the SS United States. It was at one
time the fastest transatlantic ocean liner in the world, has
a tremendous.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
History, is yep, it still holds that record.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yes, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, So you know, it went into service in the
early nineteen fifties and on its inaugural trip across the
Atlantic Ocean, it broke the record for the fastest crossing
and then it turned around and broke the record for
the return trip, so that certainly put it on the map.
But this vessel was also constructed in a time when
you know, we were coming out of the Second World
War and they didn't know what was on the horizon,
(02:56):
and they didn't know if they were going to need
rapid vessels that could rapidly bring troops overseas. So it
was actually built to be easily retrofit to be a
troop transport if necessary. Fortunately it never was used for
that purpose, and it was strictly an ocean liner for
pleasure and you bring people from one side of the
(03:17):
Atlantic to the other, but as air traffic or air
travel became a little more affordable and a little more efficient.
It started to make these large ocean liners obsolete. It
just wasn't cost effective anymore, and people wanted to get
over in a few hours rather than a few.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Days, and so it fell out of service. And it
has been docked for many years, I think since about
nineteen ninety six, so almost three decades in Philadelphia. Given
the state of the ship and how long it's been
sitting there, how tough of a job is it to
get it safely down to mobile.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, so that's the question we get asked a lot,
and we've done a lot of large vessel artificialies. Certainly
nothing this large, but a lot of times the vessels
that we're getting to create artificial reas with are at
the end of their service life. They're in pretty bad
shape and they don't really have much scrap value. So
the you know, the endgame is to clean them up,
bring them offshore, and sink them and to make its
amazing habitat for the critters that we have in our area.
(04:16):
In the case of the United States, yes, it is
very old, is very far from the Gulf coast. So
we did a number of inspections and went through a
pretty significant period of due diligence to ensure that our
purchase was certainly going to make it from point A
to point B. You know, a number of inspections in
the hull, making sure that it was stable. A lot
of these questions were raised by the coast Guard and
really you know, resulted in us sharpening our pencil to
(04:38):
make sure that you know, we were checking all those
boxes and we were going to have a safe transit.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
How long will it take to get the ship down
to the golf and what will be done to it
once it arrives in Mobile?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yep, So it really depends. This time of year can
be kind of rough out there in the Atlantic, so
I suspect that the toe is going to be a
little bit slower. But we're anticipating around fourteen days from
Philadelphia to Mobile, plus or minus a couple of days.
But you'll be able to actually follow the track of
the vessel on our website THAT'SINEFWB dot com. But once
it gets to Mobile, it has to go through a
(05:10):
pretty significant period of remediation. There's a lot of materials
and items on board that have to be removed to
ensure that it's environmentally friendly. There's some paints that need
to be stripped. We certainly need to get all the
old fuel oil that's still on board, get rid of
any non metal materials so that we're creating the best
habitat that we can. We suspect that that's going to
(05:31):
take upwards of a year just because of how large
this vessel is and how much stuff is still left
on board. But keep in mind, before it brought was
brought back to Philadelphia, actually went overseas and the majority
of the vessel was actually gutted. So a good portion
of the work has already been done, but we have
to really really get in there to get all of
those those remaining items off so that we're again creating
(05:52):
that that good habitat for the native species.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So you will have a team of ship workers and
mobile stripping out on everything that would be a biohazard
or a hazard to the sea life. And then you're
going to sink that ship and send it to the
bottom and the gulf to become an artificial reef. And
I believe, if I'm correct, that that ship that has
(06:17):
set records before will be also setting a record once
it becomes an artificial reef. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
You're exactly right. So once this vessel is deployed, it
will be the largest artificial reef in the world. It'll
be topping the previous largest reef by about one hundred
and ten feet. There's a very exciting opportunity for Descinpoola
and Beach in the Florida Coast to get another large
vessel in art waters to not only encourage divers and
fishermen to come to the area, but also benefit the
(06:46):
native species.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So it has, of course two benefits that you mentioned.
One is bringing in tourists obviously, which is part of
your Bailey wick. And the other is that it gives
life sea life a habitat to build on.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yep. Yeah, So where we are in the Northern Gulf,
we really have a lot of sand habitat. There's not
a lot of natural habitat. There is some, but not
like you would see in the Caribbean or maybe South Florida.
So we rely on artificial reefs or man made structures
to be deployed to create that reef habitat so that
there's places for people to go fishing, there's places for
(07:23):
fish to be able to grow up and hide from
some of those pressures. And also, you know, if we
want to boost our destination and you know, put us
on the map to be the diving destination in the
state of Florida, we need large artificial reefs like the
SS United States that have really cool stories but are
also the largest of their kind.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well as far as diving destinations go in Florida, you've
certainly got a lot of competition, so you have to
really up your game and as far as to compete
in that arena.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Definitely exactly, and that's what we really aim to do.
Over the last five years or so. We've deployed fourteen
large vessels in the last a few years, and this
will be our our flagship and we're going to continue
to honor its legacy not only below the waves, but
also with a with a land based museum. So there's
a lot of artifacts that have been collected from the
vessel over the years, and we're partnering with the conservancy
(08:15):
that's this United States conservancy that owned the vessel prior
to us to create or stand up that museum in
the destined full Walton Beach area.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So uh to approach is here, You've got sea tourism
and land tourism. So it sounds like exactly got all
the bases covered.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I think so. I think so. And this will be
the first artificial reef that has a dedicated museum associated
with it. And there's you know, there's plenty of people
out there that aren't divers and maybe never be able
to see it underwater, but there's going to be a
lot of virtual reality, augmented reality artifacts and other things
at this museum that'll they'll give them the experience that
that they're that they're certainly looking for.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And let's get that web address out for people who
would like to follow the voyage, the last voyage of
the SS United States and follow your efforts to transform
it into an artificial reef.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yep. So it'll be on the destinswb dot com website.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
All right, very good, and we'll all be looking forward
to that. Alex Fogg is the natural resources chief in
Okalusa County. They're taking the ocean liner, the vintage ocean
Liner SS United States, which was built around seventy five
years ago, and they're going to bring it down from
Philadelphia to Mobile and they're going to prepare it to
(09:35):
be used as an artificial reef in the waters off
Okalusa County. Alex Fogg, best of success to you, and
thank you very much for joining us on beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yep, thanks for having again
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