SS United States sunk to create artificial reef

You're watching Fox 9 Morning News at 7 a.m. And good morning. Welcome back. It is 7:46 right now. More than 70 years since her maiden voyage, the SS United States has now reached her final destination. Crews sunk her yesterday off the coast of Destin, Florida, creating the world's largest artificial reef. Fox's Asher Redd is in Miramar Beach, Florida right now. And Asher, you watched this ship start to sink from a mile away. Tell us all about that. That must have been something to see. Good morning. Well, Tom and Kelly, it took so long that the media boat even turned around because we couldn't see anything anymore, so we were really left to the few correspondents who we had out there near the boat, a little closer than we were. So we were about a mile away. Now, the SS United States did not go down without a fight, a process that was supposed to take crews only 45 minutes. It ended up taking eight hours. It's emotional, but there are definitely emotions churning right now, there really are. Warren Jones was just eight years old when he was a passenger on the SS United States in 1961. At the time, the 990-foot-long ocean liner was the fastest ship to cross the Atlantic at just three days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes, a record she still holds. You felt the power of those engines. Boy, they really came to life, of course, as the ship sailed past the Statue of Liberty and out into the open sea. Jones has spent the last few years trying to save the ship as a board member of the SS United States Conservancy. In a way, we're comforted that the ship... It did not go to the scrapyard. The ship's future was uncertain as she rusted in Philadelphia for nearly three decades. Private preservationists tried raising enough funds to turn the ship into a museum, but in 2024, Okaloosa County, Florida bought her to create an artificial reef off Destin's coast. Not many people have the opportunity to say, hey boss, can I buy a ship, you know, and can I sink her and can she be the world's largest Artificial reefs. There isn't a whole lot that grows in an area where it's just sand. But if you can put hard bottom down, then you get all sorts of encrusting organisms and you basically have the opportunity to build an entire food chain. The SS United States made her maiden voyage in July of 1952 from New York to France. She stopped sailing in 1969 because of high operating costs and the rise of airline travel. And the top of the SS United States deck will be about 55 feet below the surface, which will allow boats above to go over it without even touching it, but also for divers to go down there and experience her history firsthand. And crews even put plaques around the inside of the ship so those divers can kind of go on a scavenger hunt and learn as they go. Tom and Kelly? You've got to love that the ship didn't want to go down. I know. And you found a passenger, too. That's pretty cool. That's great. Cool. Good stuff, Asher. Asher Redd there. Appreciate it so much on that report. Thank you.