Officials in Florida’s Okaloosa County approve $10.1 million for purchase and transport of SS United States

The stewards of the SS United States are one step closer to sealing a deal that would submerge the holder of the transatlantic speed record into the warm waters of the Florida Panhandle coast.

Okaloosa County commissioners voted Tuesday to allocate up to $10.1 million for the purchase, transportation, and related remediation costs associated with the SS United States’ sinking along the shores of Destin-Fort Walton Beach to become an artificial reef. The ship itself will be purchased for $1 million.

Okaloosa County calls its artificial reef program “the most active, and one of the largest vessel artificial reef collections in the United States.” Tourism officials in the county backed the acquisition of the SS United States as a way to further cement its status as a diving and fishing destination.

“The SS United States will be an exciting addition to the many artificial reefs and wrecks available in Destin-Fort Walton Beach for divers to explore while providing essential habitat for the fishery that our fleet is so dependent on,” said Jennifer Adams, the county’s director of tourist development, in a statement.

Tuesday’s vote was a bit of a Groundhog Day moment for the ship’s legion of close followers. It was initially slated to take place early September but postponed at the last minute, with a Florida official citing hiccups in dealing with the ship’s current Philadelphia landlord, Penn Warehousing.

The ship’s stewards, the SS United States Conservancy, and Penn Warehousing have been locked in a rent dispute since 2021. The spat landed before a federal judge, who gave the conservancy a firm deadline to come up with a plan to move the ship out of its current berth at Pier 82. Failure to do so could open the door to losing ownership of the vessel.

Yet as the deadline approached, conversations fell apart, according to court filings made on behalf of the conservancy, which accused Penn Warehousing of attempting to sink the deal with a $3 million payment should the ship stay past Sept. 12 in the South Philadelphia berth. The parties involved returned to court, where mediation was ordered and existing deadlines put on hold.

Though the mediation updates have been limited, the purchase and sale agreement between the conservancy and Okaloosa County offers insight to progress made in conversations. According to purchase documents, the county is looking to keep the ship at Pier 82 until Dec. 12 and will make a $50,000 up-front lease payment to Penn Warehousing.

The county will pay a $3,400 daily dockage fee until it moves the ship, a significant increase from the $850 daily fee the conservancy was paying. The county has also agreed to pay up to a third of damages the ship has caused to Pier 82, or $200,000, whichever is less. Should the ship stay at Pier 82 past Dec. 12, the county will pay a $100,000 penalty to Penn Warehousing.

Still, the sale of the ship could be finalized in the coming weeks, “contingent upon the conclusion of the current U.S. District Court-imposed mediation,” according to the Okaloosa County commissioners.

Once the ship is in Floridian possession, getting it clean and ready for sinking could take more than a year, according to county officials there. Devising the sinking of the ship could take up to another year.

Part of the deal between Okaloosa County and the conservancy includes building a land-based museum to keep the ship’s legacy and history alive.

In a statement, SS United States Conservancy president Susan Gibbs acknowledged, as the nonprofit has in the past, that sinking the ship was not the ideal scenario. The conservancy had long aimed to redevelop the ship and give it a second life. But efforts to transform the ship, incapable of self-propulsion, into time-share condos or reconfigure it for a cruise line failed to materialize because of a lack of financing.

Though not the desired outcome, Gibbs said, turning the ship into an artificial reef would “write a new chapter for the SS United States as a world class destination.”

“We are confident that the experienced and committed team in Okaloosa County fully appreciates the historic significance of the SS United States and our long-standing commitment to educating and exciting future generations about this unique expression of American maritime history and technological innovation,” she wrote.