The towering funnels of the legendary SS United States will soon be removed from the historic ocean liner in Mobile, Alabama, as the ship continues its preparation to becomes the world’s largest artificial reef off the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach.
- The iconic structures, standing six stories high and sloping backward to convey the record-breaking speed of the ship, will form a dramatic centerpiece of the future SS United States Museum and Visitor Experience. The aft funnel is expected to be removed soon after the forward funnel.
The SS United States Museum and Visitor Experience will honor the enduring legacy of “America’s Flagship.” Launched 74 years ago, the SS United States smashed the transatlantic speed records for both eastbound and westbound travel on her maiden voyage. These records remain unbroken to this day.
The “Big U” carried over one million passengers during her service life, including four U.S. Presidents, celebrities, immigrants, artists, diplomats, and American servicemen and servicewomen and their families.
The SS United States Conservancy has engaged Thinc Design, one of the world’s premier museum and exhibit design firms, to initiate the museum planning and development process. Thinc is internationally recognized for creating powerful, story-driven environments that merge physical artifacts with immersive media and theatrical effects.
- Their acclaimed projects include the National September 11 Memorial Museum, the Empire State Building Observatory, Robert Ballard’s Challenge of the Deep focusing on RMS Titanic exploration, and aquariums in Seattle, Miami, and San Francisco, including the new Ocean Pavilion on Seattle’s waterfront.
Thinc is partnering with LMN Architects and engineering firm Buro Happold to guide the initial planning of the SS United States Museum and Visitor Experience. Gibbs & Cox, the firm that designed the SS United States and now a subsidiary of Leidos, is lending valuable technical input as well.
“We are deeply committed to celebrating the enduring legacy of America’s Flagship, and we have assembled an extraordinary team to help us realize our vision,” said Susan Gibbs, Conservancy president and granddaughter of the SS United States’ designer. “By incorporating iconic components from the historic ocean liner into an architecturally stunning land-based museum, the SS United States will continue to excite and inspire future generations.”
Tom Hennes, founder of Thinc Design, said, “From the moment we first set foot aboard the SS United States, we felt a passion for helping tell her remarkable story. In close collaboration with the Conservancy, we look forward to designing dynamic, interactive exhibits that create an unforgettable experience for all visitors.”
The funnels are the largest ever installed on a ship — at 65 feet they are themselves as tall as a six-story building. Unlike other ships’ “false” funnels installed purely for aesthetics, both funnels on the SS United States were fully functional. The stacks served two independent engine rooms and boiler rooms several decks below.
- The funnels will join thousands of curatorial items that already have been saved, restored and preserved for display at the planned land-based museum.
Other large artifacts will include one of the “Big U’s” massive, five-bladed propellers, as well as her revolutionary radar mast, which combined ground-breaking radar technology with a traditional crow’s nest. Even original cocktail bars that remained on the ship will be retrieved and restored.
Over the decades, the Conservancy has acquired thousands of unique and historic items from the SS United States, including artwork, artifacts, vintage photographs and film footage.
Highlights from these collections will be featured in the future museum’s exhibitions and will be complemented by dynamic and immersive simulations of seagoing journeys aboard America’s Flagship.
5 Responses
Why can’t they do to the Unite States in Florida what they did with Queen Mary in California?
They have been trying for decades so save the ship, make her a museum, make her a hotel, make her ANYTHING useful and beautiful that paid respect to her. I used to “visit” her on Google Earth when she was still docked in Philadelphia, and you could walk around on deck and see her up close. I love this ship, but there was never enough support (public or $$) to restore her.
A lot of people never heard of the SSUS until she was towed to the Gulf. They all have opinions without knowing anything about how hard the SSUS Conservancy has been working all this time. She’s been sitting rusting in Philadelphia since she was decommissioned and she couldn’t stay there forever. Too little, too late.
Contact all the news stations you possibly can this is what i have said to a few!
Hello, I would like something to be put on the news please spread all over!
The SS United States is going to kill off the entire ecosystem! She has fire retardant chemicals that have been soaking into the two metals that she was built with! those chemicals have been soaking in for years and its impossible to remove them! I have a link here for a petition!
Most of all the SS United States was built with aluminum and steel and those metals were only tested while floating! but if you look it up aluminum and steel are two different metals and they will cause extreme corrosion underneath the salt water!! this isn’t safe for the marine life!! This will kill the entire ecosystem off including fish, sharks, natural coral, plants, the already threatened manatees will forsure be gone if all these ships an boats continue to be sunk!!!! Now what will happen is the artificial reefs will bring in invasive species that we dont want!!! oh lets not forget when the SS United States corrodes she will be gone in as little as a decade! not only that she will be a danger to divers etc. Now lets get real here! now with the fish being our food supply! when she starts to rust those rust particles filled will cancer causing chemicals will enter into the gills of fish which will then get into the blood stream of all the fish and then we all will have people eating fish with cancer causing chemicals inside of them yeah no thank you!!!!!
I need your guys’ help to help spread the news and get this all over florida! I will make my self more clear! Okaloosa county is going to have the SS United States sunk! But get this the county has a history of steam ships! The county was even named after one! Its on there website under history! Oh and the county lied to millions of people around the entire united states! they said they were going to build a museum nope nope there phoney liers if you look it up it shows that they bought a red lobster that went bankrupt so they can make there so called land based museum!!! To be honest lets all get serious!! The ship WAS the museum! she could have been rebuilt! they clearly had the money to rebuild her instead! okaloosa county bought her for $1 million dollars the towing was $7.1 million dollars $10 million to sink it and the land base museum will be $10.1 million dollars! which comes up to $ 21,100,007.1
wheres that money coming from? most likely from our tax dollars yea no thank you!!!!!!!!!! Please spread this all out there
oh and heres the petition link https://chng.it/SGjZjXYHTh
I am very disappointed that a nation that has a large portion of its citizens, openly and proactively preserving its seditious losers of a Civil War over 150 years ago, could not rally around the preservation of the pride of the US transatlantic passenger liner, the SS United States, the fastest liner ever built. Too bad that the pieces they are “preserving” for a memorial museum will be in the seditious, Confederacy loving south, on the Gulf of Mexico, which had NOTHING to do with her history. I, for one, will never spend my money in Alabama, which can’t take care of its less advantaged citizens, or hide its hatred of anyone who isn’t a white, Christian republican.
Learn to dive. When you’re 100′ down the sins of a nation, for better or worse are irrelevant. The living creatures of the ocean who will soon call her home won’t care either. Oh, and I’m sure there would be plenty of people who would share with you the reasons why in Alabama there is no gambling, no lottery, open carry, low taxes, low cost of living, high educational standards, and a historical significance in the civil rights movement no other state can claim. Ever hear of Ms. Rosa Parks and Dr. MLK? Alabama has some of the best living standards for it’s citizens, of all races. I’d walk the streets of Montgomery, Mobile, Birmingham, Huntsville, Selma any time of day before I’d do the same in Detroit, Chicago, DC, SanFran, LA, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Philly, Baltimore…… should I continue…… (mike drop)