The historic SS United States, once the fastest ship on the seas, made a slow final journey beneath the waters Wednesday.
The famous ocean liner — which is longer than the Titanic and crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times — was deliberately sunk Wednesday to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, where the once-luxurious behemoth was set to begin a new chapter as the world's largest artificial reef.
And now at 11, the big story on Action News
is the next chapter for an historic ship
that's now living on beneath the waves.
This is the moment, one hour ago,
that the SS United States was finally swallowed by the ocean,
set to become the world's largest artificial reef.
For decades, the ship sat idle along the Delaware River
before it was intentionally sunk off the coast of Florida,
a process that took nearly six hours.
Action News reporter John Paul is in Destin, Florida, with more on the
undertaking to sink what was once the world's fastest ocean liner.
Thousands headed out during the daytime into the Gulf to watch
the S.S. United States sink below the waves, but it had other plans.
However, it is now finally on the ocean floor.
This was the moment the S.S. United States finally went under.
Just after 10 p.m. Eastern Time,
eight hours after holes were ripped in its sides,
it finally slipped beneath the waves.
She was designed to be unsinkable
and that fact has definitely given our crews
some challenges today.
Okaloosa County sank the boat
22 miles off the coast of Destin
to create the largest artificial reef in the world.
But the ship did exactly what it was supposed to do.
William Francis Gibbs said you can't murder
You can't catch her and you can't sink her.
And I guess we found that out today, didn't we?
Bill McGee came down from Dalran, New Jersey,
to watch the ship that he'd been fascinated with
ever since it sat at Pier 82 in South Philadelphia for 29 years.
But as day turned to night,
he realized he wouldn't get to see it go under.
A little bit disappointed that she didn't go down today.
The Conservancy had fought years
of legal battles to keep the boat afloat,
and tonight, the boat fought a battle of its own.
It's a solid ship. It still is. It may be a fitting end in a way.
Now dive teams will be heading down in the coming days
to ensure that the boat is in the right place
and those sea creatures are already taking up residence.
In Destin, Florida, John Paul, Channel 6 Action News.
