STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This week, a giant ocean liner will cast off from a Philadelphia pier. The SS United States, which set a speed record crossing the Atlantic in the 1950s, will take its final voyage. So before departure, we climbed aboard.
(SOUNDBITE OF GANG PLANK CLANKING)
INSKEEP: Walking a gang plank through a door in the great black hull, covered in peeling paint.
UNIDENTIFIED GUIDE: So welcome aboard the SS United States.
INSKEEP: Our guide led us up spiral stairs and through cabins stripped back to the walls...
UNIDENTIFIED GUIDE: This would have been first-class cabin space.
INSKEEP: ...Until we emerged on deck. I walked all the way to the bow, the very front.
(Shouting) I'm the king of the world.
I repeated that line from the movie "Titanic," although the United States differs from that famous ship. For one thing, it was better built. The woman who has fought to preserve it says if Leo DiCaprio's character had traveled on the United States, he would have been fine.
SUSAN GIBBS: If this ship had hit the Titanic's Iceberg, there is no way she would have sunk.
INSKEEP: Susan Gibbs stood on the foredeck of this ship that was launched in 1951. The U.S. Navy paid most of the bills.
GIBBS: It was a top-secret Cold War weapon. Its keel was laid right as the Soviet Union tested the atomic bomb.
INSKEEP: It was designed to carry thousands of troops in war and passengers in peace from New York to Europe.
GIBBS: So my grandfather, William Francis Gibbs, designed the ship. He was a Philadelphia boy, grew up here.
INSKEEP: And became obsessed with ships at age 8 when he saw one being launched. Though never formally trained as an architect, he went on to design many of the U.S. ships that supplied troops in World War II then built an ocean liner to be fast and fireproof, with almost no wood fixtures. Gibbs insisted on aluminum railings, walls, shelving - everything, almost.
GIBBS: And it even went so far as to a skirmish with - between my grandfather and Theodore Steinway. Steinway was instructed to design a baby grand in aluminum. And Steinway was...
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
GIBBS: ...Thought that might affect the tonal quality of the instrument, so he refused. There was a knock-down, drag-out fight. Only when a mahogany piano was doused with gasoline and set on fire, and the flames kind of, you know...
INSKEEP: Burned off.
GIBBS: ...Petered out pretty quickly...
INSKEEP: So there was a wood piano in the ballroom where musicians, including Duke Ellington, once played for passengers, including several presidents.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The brand-new super liner of the United States races along toward a new trans-Atlantic speed record. She's averaging better than 40 land miles an hour through some heavy weather.
INSKEEP: The record it set was 3 1/2 days. The ship went out of service in 1969 as jet travel took over. In more recent years, Susan Gibbs tried to have it repurposed as a floating hotel, which never quite worked.
What's the plan now?
GIBBS: The ship has been purchased by Okaloosa County in Florida. And their plan is to convert her into an artificial - the world's largest artificial underwater reef.
INSKEEP: The United States, which could never have been sunk by an outside force, will be deliberately scuttled in the Gulf of Mexico. On the promenade deck, we met Jennifer Adams of the Okaloosa County tourist department, who says divers can explore it.
JENNIFER ADAMS: If you're an expert, you'll make it to the bottom. I would love to tell that story.
INSKEEP: When you say the bottom, meaning that you would swim inside this ship.
ADAMS: Yeah.
INSKEEP: Somebody might be in scuba gear underwater in this room...
ADAMS: Yes.
INSKEEP: ...Where we are or below us somewhere.
ADAMS: Yes.
INSKEEP: And Susan Gibbs, the architect's granddaughter, is thinking of the fish that will swim through.
Did you have a moment of, like, it was hard to accept this as the solution?
GIBBS: I've shed a few tears. Yeah, I've shed a few tears. But - how do I say it? This is her next chapter, and I'm coming to terms with it. And I think it will offer its own sense of dignity and makes me even more determined to continue to tell her story.
INSKEEP: You referred to the ship as she, which is the traditional way that ships are referred to. But as I hear you say it, I wonder if this ship almost has a personality, in your mind.
GIBBS: Yes. I see the ship as a feminist icon (laughter). She's tough. She's tough and strong and resilient and holds so much. So I do tend to animate her, so to speak.
INSKEEP: This week, the crew plans to cast off the ropes in Philadelphia. The United States is so vast, they will wait for low tide to get the faded red, white and blue funnels under the bridges. In a few weeks, the ship reaches the Gulf Coast, and crews will prepare the United States for its final resting place at the bottom of the sea.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEYOND THE SEA")
BOBBY DARIN: (Singing) Somewhere beyond the sea. Somewhere, waiting for me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
