Historic Ocean Liner SS United States Sinks to Become Artificial Reef

The SS United States, a historic ocean liner that once held transatlantic speed records, sank into the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday to become the world's largest artificial reef off the Florida coast.

The 990-foot-long vessel settled on the seafloor approximately 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach after a lengthy, hours-long flooding process that began Wednesday morning.

Okaloosa County officials moved the deployment forward by one day to avoid deteriorating weather conditions, according to reports.

The sinking marks a final chapter for the ship, which spent decades in Philadelphia before undergoing extensive remediation in Alabama to remove hazardous materials and prepare the hull for its new role.

County officials expect the massive structure to boost local tourism and generate millions in annual economic benefits by attracting divers and anglers to the region.

"For those of us who love shipwrecks and love ships in general, it was way more tragic to see it sitting and rusting away at the dock," said Karen Flynn, a diver with the Maryland-based Atlantic Wreck Divers.

The ship, designed by William Francis Gibbs, proved resilient during the operation, remaining afloat for hours longer than crews initially anticipated despite having openings cut into its hull.

"She was designed to be unsinkable, and that fact has definitely given our crews some challenges today," said Nick Tomecek, a spokesperson for Okaloosa County.

The vessel, which entered service in 1952, transported presidents, celebrities, and even the Mona Lisa during its tenure as a premier transatlantic liner.

While preservationists had long campaigned to turn the ship into a museum, those efforts ultimately failed, leading the county to purchase the hull for the $13.5 million reef project.

"William Francis Gibbs said you can't burn her, you can't catch her and you can't sink her," said Bill Magee, a spectator who traveled from New Jersey to witness the event.

The ship now joins a network of artificial reefs in the Florida Panhandle, including the USS Oriskany, which sits about 13 nautical miles away.

The U.S. Coast Guard enforced a one-nautical-mile exclusion zone around the site to manage the hundreds of vessels that gathered to observe the final descent.

It remains to be seen how quickly marine life will colonize the wreck and how effectively the site will draw the anticipated influx of recreational divers in the coming months.