SS United States sinks and becomes world’s largest artificial reef

All right, you are looking live right now at what used to be the SS United States. Just seconds ago, it sunk at a high rate of speed, I might add, after hours and hours of floating there. And it was actually an awkward process as it sat there. They were unable to sink it, and now you see the bubbles there right in the Gulf, and the ship just went down. No word on exactly what they had to do to make it happen so rapidly. But we can just watch together and at least for now take a couple of guesses about what they did. They did not use explosives. They did not drill any holes over the last few hours that we know of. But there it is. It seemed quite immediate, and we're going to try to get that video turned around for you all so you can see exactly what happened, but it looked like just moments ago a large part of this ship was above water floating, and then within seconds it went under the surface of the ocean. Just an amazing view tonight. It almost looked like... A large flurry of water at one point, like it was being forced under. But I guess with all that water on board, it just overtook the S.S. United States and now making its way under the ocean to be on the ocean floor. Let's just stay with this for a little bit because, I mean, this was supposed to be, what, 3:45 around 3 o'clock this afternoon. Even earlier, the process began to sink. It was supposed to be a 45-minute process. And then things got awkward as hours and hours went by and the ship was not sinking. And this is a process that took 20 months to outfit the ship to get it ready to sink. They took off the smokestacks. Those will be stored in a museum somewhere so that this can be an artificial reef in the Gulf for, you know, for eternity, really. And so now divers will soon be able to go there and wildlife as well. But it'll be interesting to find out what took so long for this ship. To go down, I don't think it's, I mean, this kind of thing has ever been done before, so the company in charge of it, it was a first for them as well. Yeah, nothing this big. The SS United States is larger than the Titanic, so nothing this big. There have been intentional sinkings before scuttling, but, you know, again, this was supposed to happen around 2 o'clock this afternoon, and then it kept getting pushed back and pushed back. And now we have it. The SS United States is officially sinking just off the coast of Destin, Florida, the Fort Walton Beach area. The only shame is that, you know, we didn't get to see it in daylight. You know, it's dark out there tonight. So Jason and Sheba here. That was an interesting thing. We've never seen that before. I was getting ready to say, bring it back. You know what? At this point, maybe it doesn't want to go down. Maybe he wants to come back home. So, So come back home because it was here in Philadelphia for nearly 30 years before it was taken over to Alabama and then Florida and officially sunk. So Don, we have been watching the S.S. United States all day long. Did you did you see that in real time happen? I actually did. It was crazy. And obviously we hope to turn around that video for you. But this was really the story of the ship you guys that wouldn't sink. The famed ocean liner was once the fastest passenger ship in the world but took forever to go under. The sinking of the once-mighty SS United States, taking a lot longer than anticipated. The 990-foot ocean liner, longer than the Titanic, being deliberately sunk off of Florida's panhandle. Among those on hand to see the deployment, some of her original passengers. It's kind of unreal, almost. It's been a long journey, and we're on a boat right now to go view it, being deployed as the world's largest artificial reef. We have some passengers. Aboard this vessel that were passengers on the SS United States, they wanted to see it as well. The sinking was supposed to start this afternoon after it was moved up a day because of weather, but didn't begin until the sun was setting. Artist Brooke Lanier painted portions of the SS United States when it was still here in Philadelphia. She is sad to bid it farewell and wanted to witness the historic sinking. We have spent the day with the SS United States Thank you. Now we are going home because she does not want to sink, which is kind of awesome, but also it would have been cool to watch. So I think it's pretty cool that she was made so well that they are having a hard time making her go down, even though they did a lot of planning to make the sinking go smoothly. The SS United States will rest 180 feet deep on the floor of the Gulf. About 25 miles southwest of Destin Fort Walton Beach, the ocean liner, which was once the fastest on the seas, will now be the world's largest artificial reef. For scuba divers and fishermen, it will be a seaside sanctuary. This is a great opportunity to really help. Native wildlife in this region, so there's going to be lots of different fish species, some recruitment of marine invertebrates and different corals that could even potentially recruit up that high. It is the end of an era for the iconic ship that made its maiden voyage in 1952. She spent nearly 30 years along Philadelphia's waterfront, slowly decaying. After several failed plans for restoration, officials in Okaloosa County In an effort to bring her back to life, in February, the vessel was towed to Mobile, Alabama for restoration. Crews stripped away hazardous materials, removed the iconic smokestacks, and prepared her for her next role. This 3D animation shows what the ship is expected to look like on the ocean floor. It really is going to be something that... Generations of people can see divers from all over the world. This is really going to transform our tourism industry, just having her here. And again, finally sunk. Plans are also underway to have part of the S.S. United States preserved on land as well. The goal to open a museum in Fort Walton Beach featuring artifacts from the ship, including those massive smokestacks. Divers were expected to explore this new artificial reef as early as tomorrow. So it looks like now they may finally be able to. Sheba and Jason. Okay. Well, you know, you were talking about how, you know, the intention was that it's sitting here. Let me use my water bottle here. That it sits on the bottom of the ocean floor like this. When we saw it going down, and we'll show you the video as soon as we can, but it was kind of doing some Titanic stuff. Yeah, it did. It did. I thought I saw a spark or something. Did you see that? It looked like a giant hair dryer. Yeah, something. It was in the ocean. It looked like it lit up. Yeah, a lot of sputtering of water around and then boom, down. So once it's daylight, it'll be interesting to see if, yes, if it's sitting flat on the ocean or if it's... Where's your water bottle? Water bottle. Or is it like that? Yeah. Well, and once it's... Once it's down, there's no moving it, right? It's at the bottom of the... I would imagine, no. I mean, it's a massive ship. Yeah. You never know. We are working to get that video to all of you so you can see exactly what we saw. It's really hard to follow when you didn't see exactly what we did. Right. And it was pretty spectacular the way it happened. Yes. So... In dramatic fashion. After waiting and waiting and waiting, then all of a sudden it just went whoosh. Boom. Yeah. Right? Yes. Yeah. The one second we were not on air or streaming, that's when it happened. All right. Thanks, Dawn. Yep.