The SS United States sits moored in Philadelphia.
The SS United States, an ocean liner bigger than the Titanic that once carried celebrities across the Atlantic at record speeds, may one day sail again.
Crystal Cruises luxury travel company announced plans Thursday to overhaul the ship at a cost of at least $974 million. The massive steamship has been docked in Philadelphia for two decades, gutted and rusting at an unused wharf on the Delaware River. But before it can be turned into a state-of-the-art commercial vessel, the SS United States must undergo a nine-month feasibility study.
In its glory days in the 1950s, the ship carried everyone from royalty to immigrants across the Atlantic Ocean, accompanied by three on-board orchestras. At the time, it was the biggest and fastest ocean liner that had ever been built in the United States — at 301 metres, 33m longer than the Titanic.
An artist rendering of the ship.Source:AP
On its maiden voyage in 1952, the liner’s 268,000-horsepower engines propelled it across the Atlantic in three days, 10 hours, 42 minutes. That record stood until 1990. The ship was decommissioned in 1969.
The SS United States is now owned by a conservation group, with a purchase option signed by Crystal Cruises.
The luxury ocean liner was moored for nearly two decades.Source:AP
This is not the first time that plans were in the works for refurbishment. In 2003, the Norwegian Cruise Lines said it planned an overhaul that did not materialise.
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