SS United States

IMO: 5373476

The United States is still the title holder Blue Riband as the fastest passenger ship on the transatlantic route. It was used as a line ship of United States Lines for regular service from New York to Europe.

History

Construction

The turbine ship was built in 1950-1952 at the Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News. The cost of $ 78 million was paid by the United States government with $ 50 million and by the shipping company with $ 28 million.

The ship was built as a type P6 -S4 -DS1 in the context of post-war shipbuilding program of the United States Maritime Administration. Even when constructing measures had been taken in order to convert it in no time troopship can. For the construction of the U.S. government was supported financially and technically. In case of war would have up to 15,000 troops can be transported. In addition, the ship had many Scots and separate engine rooms to be more resistant to damage. Also use as a hospital ship would have been possible. The dimensions of the United States were limited to the Panamax standard. The United States has never been used as troop transports.

Line service

Already during her maiden voyage under the command of Captain Harry Manning on July 3, 1952, she won the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing by passenger vessels with an average speed of 34.51 knots. The travel time required was 3 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes. Arrival ports in Europe was initially Southampton, later she went often to Bremerhaven.

As air travel becoming cheaper and more popular were the operation of passenger steamers between North America and Europe was no longer profitable. Therefore, the United States was filed on November 2, 1969 out of service.

Sale

After a long Aufliegezeit the ship in 1992 was sold to a Turkish shipyard owner. This had first of all, convert the ship to a cruise ship, but those plans were dashed soon. The ship was the beginning of November 1993 to be carried over to Sevastopol in Ukraine, where it was almost completely gutted by May 13, 1994, exempt from asbestos. The most striking change is the elimination of the davits and lifeboats.

In 1996 the ship was sold again. The new owner had the boat hauling back across the Atlantic and hang up in Philadelphia, where it is located since.

Future Use

2003 initially acquired the Norwegian Cruise Line the United States with the intention to carry out a full restoration and involve them under the American flag in their Hawaii service. In 2004, the shipping company a feasibility study for a relining in order. In May 2006 the Chairman Sri Lim Kok Thay of Star Cruises ( the parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line ) announced the restoration of the United States as the next project of the shipping company. Contrary to this announcement, NCL, however, had not taken any appropriate action. Rather, it was announced in early 2009 that the ship is sold by NCL and possibly should be scrapped and the NCL collected in March 2010 already concrete offers of terminators.

On 1 February 2011 acquired the " SS United States Conservancy ," a special- purpose this group of idealists, after a public campaign for the salvation of the ocean liner the ship to keep it alive as a national maritime monument. The group had this experience encouragement from fans of the oldie - Liners from all over the world and can realize the purchase of NCL to a negotiated with the shipping company price cut to 3 million U.S. dollars. The funds for this consultation were from donations. The SS United States Conservancy are the next steps for the rehabilitation of the ship before only. The interior of the vessel is completely missing, so a restoration represents a considerable financial outlay.

The Conservancy does not aim to provide " the Big U " as the steamer is due to its silhouette called by the two oversized chimneys lovingly by the fan base, again as a transport ship for passengers in service. The plan is a combination as a hotel, museum and cultural ship. Several harbor cities on the northern U.S. east coast are already made ​​known to an interest in the project and have provided the possibility of a new fixed mooring site for the United States in view.

Technology

The ship was unique in many ways. In its interior was waived in favor of the fire safety entirely on wood, and it reached a full four departments standard; ie, it would even remain afloat in the simultaneous flooding of any four adjacent watertight compartments.

The outstanding feature of the United States was their drive. Your steam turbines were designed for aircraft carriers; therefore they had the most powerful drive of all commercial ships ever built. Due to military secrecy, the technical data have not been published, and only in the 1970s data of their test drives were known. Just their top speed is but still not clear. According to crew members, who provided during the tests as officer cadets on the bridge service, a speed of 41.6 kn was briefly achieved. Some sources even speak of 44.7 knots and 268,000 hp engine power. However, even with "only" 38,32 nodes it is the fastest ever built ship of this size.

Others

The American novelist Clive Cussler used the United States for one of his books. In his 1997 published story " Flood Tide " ( "hell Flood" ) purchased the ship from a Chinese ship owners, exploited and used as a key tool for a large-scale attack that took the giant liner is almost destroyed.