Famed ship SS United States to be sunk off coast of Florida
What happened
The SS United States, once the world's fastest ocean liner, was deliberately sunk off Destin, Florida, on Wednesday to become the world's largest artificial reef.
The nearly 1,000-foot ship went down in the Gulf of Mexico around 10pm after workers cut openings in its hull to let water in, according to the Guardian.
It now rests at about 180 feet, with its upper decks roughly 55 feet below the surface.
Florida's Okaloosa county bought the vessel for $1m in 2024; officials expect red snapper, grouper, amberjack, mackerel and tuna to settle there.
Activists with the SS United States Conservancy tried repeatedly to save the ship as a museum, but the cost of keeping it docked in Philadelphia became too high.
A land-based museum on the ship's history is also planned.
“She's being reefed and will remain intact and will become a vibrant and dynamic marine habitat”
Guardian
Summary written by AI from 3 independent sources (BBC, MyJoyOnline, Guardian) and checked automatically against them for copied text and numbers that are not in the sources. How we work
Open on the live globe →Who reported it
- 2026-11-11 18:42 UTCBBC · bbc.co.uk ↗
- 2026-11-11 20:50 UTCPrensa Libre · prensalibre.com ↗
- 2026-11-11 21:58 UTCMyJoyOnline · myjoyonline.com ↗
- 2026-11-12 03:07 UTCGuardian · theguardian.com ↗
- 2026-11-12 06:48 UTCEuronews · euronews.com ↗
- 2026-11-12 12:38 UTCNZZ · nzz.ch ↗
- 2026-11-12 18:26 UTCYle · yle.fi ↗
- 2026-11-13 04:39 UTCAl Jazeera · aljazeera.com ↗
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