SS United States sunk off Florida to become the world's largest artificial reef
The fastest ocean liner ever built was scuttled in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, ending decades of failed rescue efforts and beginning a new life as a marine habitat and diving attraction.
By Luana Sato ·
The SS United States, once the fastest ocean liner in the world, has completed its final voyage, sinking to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Destin, Florida, where it will form part of what is expected to become the world's largest artificial reef.
The nearly 1,000 foot (302m) vessel was scuttled on Wednesday after its hull was hollowed out to ensure it remains on the ocean floor. Over the course of five hours, the ship gradually filled with water before tilting onto its side in its final moments and slipping beneath the surface.
Built between 1950 and 1951 and officially launched in 1952, the liner was larger than the Titanic, which measured 882 feet nine inches (269.1m) long, and was known for its speed, strength and luxury. On its first trip it set a transatlantic speed record, crossing the Atlantic in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes at an average speed of 35.59 knots, almost 66km/h. No passenger liner has broken that record since.
During 17 years of operation, the ship carried thousands of passengers, including former Presidents John F Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. Hollywood stars Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando also sailed on board, along with surrealist painter Salvador Dali and jazz musician Duke Ellington. With the advent of air travel, the liner's career came to an end in 1969.
The vessel then spent years inactive, docked in Philadelphia while various owners attempted to save and restore it. Maintenance costs mounted, and in 2021 Philadelphia port authorities raised the daily dockage fee to $1,700, which the nonprofit SS United States Conservatory could no longer afford. In 2024, Florida's Okaloosa County bought the ship for $1m with plans to transform it into the world's largest artificial reef.
According to the county's website, the ship underwent a yearlong process to ensure it would be environmentally safe to sink, and the county said it followed all standards set by regulatory agencies. "Artificial reefs prepared in this way are a benefit to the marine ecosystem, not the other way around," a county statement said, adding that such reefs create habitat that did not previously exist and benefit marine life, the fishing industry and tourism.
Officials expect the reef to attract wreck divers to the site, creating new tourism opportunities for Florida.
Deliberately sunken ships are a well established form of reef building. A 2007 report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation estimated that three million shipwrecks lie on sea and ocean floors worldwide, many reclaimed naturally by coral, eels and snappers. Before a vessel can be sunk, harmful substances including paint, wiring and fuel must be removed. Over time, fish, barnacles and crustaceans move in until the hull is unrecognisable.
Other decommissioned structures have met the same fate. More than 600 oil rigs and gas platforms on the US outer continental shelf were converted under a 1984 programme called Rigs to Reefs in the Gulf of Mexico, while log huts, fridges, shopping trolleys and even retired New York City subway cars have also been sunk as reef material.
In 2025, one of the world's largest artificial reefs was installed around the base of a single wind turbine off the Sussex coast in England, made up of 75,000 specially designed low carbon concrete reef cubes that also shield the turbine from erosion. Queensland in Australia has established eight artificial reefs in Moreton Bay Marine Park since 1975 using car tyres, granite boulders, concrete reef balls and steel fish caves, and in 2000 the Mexican government sank two decommissioned World War II minesweepers to create an artificial reef in the Caribbean.
