The SS United States’ stewards bid farewell to the Philly ship destined for Florida: ‘Bon voyage, you grand lady’

The SS United States, a ship parked in Philadelphia since 1996, hosted a small farewell Saturday as it prepares to semi-retire to Florida.

The vessels’ stewards, members of the SS United States Conservancy, and Florida officials from Okaloosa County — where the ship is eventually headed to be sunk into an artificial reef — marked their marriage of convenience with a small transfer-of-title ceremony aboard the defunct boat.

“We can tell you that you will not be lost, you will not be forgotten, you will no longer be neglected and abused,” said Thomas Watkins, a conservancy board member and retired judge of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, in a goodbye to the ship.

“You will be rightly honored, cherished, and loved in a new home and in a new dimension. You will no longer be sailing the seas, but you will be surrounded and caressed by them.”

Call it a new era for the ship, just don’t call it official yet. Despite the pomp and circumstance of the ceremonial signing, the deal with Okaloosa County still needs the final seal of approval from a judge of a U.S. District Court, where the conservancy and the ship’s landlords — Penn Warehousing — have been arguing over a 2021 rent dispute. The parties were ordered to undergo court-supervised mediation in September.

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

Still, the largest obstacle is out of the way: Reaching a settlement with Penn Warehousing that would allow the ship to stay at Pier 82 until Dec. 12, if need be.

Details of the new deal, which came to light in the purchase agreement that Okaloosa County commissioners approved this month, say the county will pay a $3,400 daily dockage fee until it moves the ship to Norfolk, Va., where the ship will undergo prep before the eventual move to Florida. Depending on the judge’s approval, permitting, and U.S. Coast Guard approvals, the ship could move as early as the end of the month.

To say Saturday was bittersweet for members of the SS United States Conservancy would be an understatement.

The conservancy, which bought the ship outright in 2011 to save it from the scrapyard, has always made clear it had bigger ambitions for the once-famous luxury ocean liner than for it to be eternally parked outside the South Philadelphia IKEA. But like the ship’s previous owners who’d imagined the ship could become time-share condos or a cruise ship, the conservancy found securing financing to carry out its visions difficult. The ship was gutted long ago and is incapable of self-propulsion.

The clock began to run out for the vessel and its stewards when its landlord demanded a rent increase, arguing the vague berthing agreement they signed in 2011 was not supposed to run in perpetuity. U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody agreed, ultimately giving the conservancy a hard deadline to have a plan to move.

Last year, the conservancy published the details of a redevelopment program that ensured the engineering and financial feasibility of a $400 million reimagining of the ship. RXR Realty LLC made the plans with New York City in mind, but the Big Apple’s officials never answered the conservancy’s calls, according to the board.

In her remarks during the ceremony, Susan Gibbs, president of the conservancy and granddaughter of the vessel’s designer, took swipes at Penn Warehousing and the “government entities” that failed to step up and save the ship.

“After five years of intensive planning and investment, we demonstrated with our development partners that the ship could create thousands of jobs and generate millions in economic revenue, but the difficulty of securing the planned pier location, and the unwillingness of government entities to prioritize the project prevented this exciting plan from being launched,” she lamented.

It’s under these circumstances and a binding court order that the conservancy handed the metaphorical keys to the ship to Okaloosa County, which aims to further cement its status as a diving and fishing destination.

Okaloosa County has already allocated $10 million to buy, clean, transport, and sink the ship. The $1 million purchase price is included in the budget.

Part of the deal includes creating a land-based museum dedicated to the SS United States, a vessel that once hosted Marilyn Monroe and would-be American presidents.

Paul Mixon, chairman of the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners, reveled in Florida’s ability to “keep that legacy going” through the museum and reefing of the ship.

Members of the conservancy took solace in that message, grateful to have avoided the scrapyard in what is likely the first of many goodbyes.

“Bon voyage, you grand lady, and Godspeed, oh ship of state,” said Watkins raising his hand to the right of his eye. “We salute you.”