S.S. United States up for sale

[Jeffwxyz 0]

Hi everybody,
I ask you all to take a few minutes and have a look at this http://ssunitedstatesconservancy.org/SSUSCPressRelease021009FINAL.pdf

I am sorry if this should go in SC. I am trying to make this visible.

Our country stands to loose one of our best examples of engineering work of the 20th century if nothing is done.

Given the cost of keeping a ship like this operational, it is unlikely that it could ever be sold to be used as a commercially viable passenger ship.

The best that we can hope for is some sort of status as a museum.

Otherwise, it will most definately end up being scrapped in the far east.

For those that don't know already. Ships like this are becoming very rare. In fact it is the only ship of its size class with an intact powerplant. Another surviving example would be the Queen Mary, but the powerplant was largely removed when the ship was bought by Long Beach, Ca.

They are not the same as a cruise ship. These were ment to move people across the Atlantic as fast as possible before jet airliners became popular. These ships typically have 6 - 8 times the horsepower than a comparable sized cruise ship. The Queen Mary could out-run her destroyer escorts while in troop ship service during WW II. The Queen Mary could comfortably make 30 knots and 36 maximum. The Queen Mary is an 80,000 ton, 1019' long ship. This is as big and as fast as our modern aircraft carriers.

The top speed of 38 knots of The SS United States was kept top secret until 1977 because of its capability as a troop ship.

Just recently, one of the ships that competed with the SS United States was scrapped in India. It was the France aka Norway.

Examples:

Normandie: Accidental fire in New York. Scrapped

Queen Elizabeth: Burned (poss. Arson) in Hong Kong. Scrapped

Queen Mary: Survivor. Engineering spaces largely gutted

France/Norway: Scrapped 2008

Queen Elizabeth 2: Sold for use to convert to an Apartment Building/ Shopping Center. All original interior and engineering spaces will be gutted

SS America: Lost at sea while under tow. Ran aground. Fell to hands of nature

There were many more examples. This list would be too long to post here, but there are only a few survivors.

[Gene03 0]

So sad we are scrapping everything American.

The last sentence says it best.

"The ship could become the centerpiece of a large
public works project that creates jobs and generates tax revenues."

I just don't see it happening because a lot of Americans aren't willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

But we can sit in front of a monitor all day and whine about it.

Not a PA on you.

Nice post.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)