SS United States settles 180 feet down off Destin after Wednesday sinking

Ship launched in 1952 set transatlantic speed record on maiden voyage

The SS United States, the ocean liner that set a transatlantic speed record on its maiden voyage in 1952, sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, completing its final voyage about 22 miles off the coast of Destin, Florida.

Crews deployed the nearly 1,000-foot ship at approximately 2:40 p.m. ET, with the sinking process beginning shortly before 5 p.m. Workers had hollowed out the vessel and cut openings into its hull to let water in and help it sink upright to the ocean floor. The ship gradually filled with water over the next several hours before settling on the seafloor around 10 p.m.

The liner will rest at a depth of approximately 180 feet, with its upper decks sitting about 55 feet below the surface. Officials expect the site to become a popular diving destination for divers around the world.

The ship was once the fastest ocean liner in the world. Launched in 1952, it carried thousands of passengers across the Atlantic over 17 years of operation before being retired in 1969.

For years, the vessel remained docked in Philadelphia as various owners attempted to save and restore it. The rising cost of maintaining the aging ship complicated those preservation efforts, and in 2021 port authorities raised the daily dockage fee to $1,700 — a cost the nonprofit SS United States Conservancy could no longer afford.

In 2024, Florida’s Okaloosa County purchased the ship for $1 million, with plans to transform it into the world’s largest artificial reef.

County officials expect the sunken vessel to provide a new habitat for a variety of marine life, including red snapper, grouper, amberjack, mackerel and tuna.

Before the sinking, Susan Gibbs, the conservancy’s president and co-founder, said the ship would remain intact as a marine habitat alongside a land-based museum and visitor experience. “She’s being reefed and will remain intact and will become a vibrant and dynamic marine habitat, so that, combined with the land-based museum and visitor experience, will honor her history in a deeply moving way,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs is the granddaughter of William Francis Gibbs, who designed the ship, and she reflected on his personal connection to the vessel. “His relationship with the ship was, I would say, a full-bore obsession. He would joke that he loved the SS United States a thousand times more than my grandmother. He would see the ship off every time she set sail for Europe, and be one of the first to greet her on her return,” she said.