State News

A Florida county may turn a ship into the world's largest artificial reef

WUSF | By Kate Payne - Associated Press/Report For America

Published September 5, 2024 at 8:22 AM EDT

The S.S. United States is moored on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024.

A Florida county is in talks to acquire a storied but aging ocean liner in a proposed deal that could create the largest artificial reef in the world.

But the plan hit a snag Tuesday, after local officials in coastal Okaloosa County in the Florida panhandle postponed a vote on the plan to buy and purposefully sink the SS United States.

The largest passenger ship ever built in the U.S., the SS United States shattered a record for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing by a passenger liner on its maiden voyage in 1952, The Associated Press reported from aboard the ship.

Now the historic vessel is in a race against time to find a new resting place, after a court set a Sept. 12 deadline for the ship to vacate its current home at a pier in Philadelphia, following a yearslong legal dispute over rent and dockage fees.

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Options include scrapping the massive ocean liner — which is more than 100 feet (30 meters) longer than the Titanic — or purposefully sinking it to create an artificial reef. Officials in Florida’s Okaloosa County hope to do just that: send the SS United States to the bottom of the Gulf to create the world’s largest artificial reef — a diving attraction that boosters hope will generate millions of dollars a year in local tourism spending for scuba shops, charter fishing boats and hotels.

“Most divers are going to be very excited,” said David Bailey, a member of the Emerald Coast Scubaholics dive club. “But any of the reefing program is about more than just diving. ... Build the reefs, you get the fish.”

County staff have been tracking the status of the boat since 2022, with advocates arguing the SS United States could be a barnacle-encrusted star in the county’s constellation of more than 500 artificial reefs.

But at a meeting of Okaloosa's Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, staff asked that a vote on the proposal be postponed until the board’s next meeting on Sept. 17.

“We’ve hit a wrinkle with the pier operators,” County Administrator John Hofstad explained.

A spokesperson for the county said officials there are actively working with the SS United States Conservancy, the group behind the effort to save the ship, but declined to make further comments about the status of the proposal.