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SS United States

The one and only William Francis Gibbs, one of the founders of Gibbs and Cox designed the UNITED STATES. Gibbs, born in Philadelphia in 1886, attended both Harvard, where he studied science, and Columbia, where he earned a bachelor of law and a Master of Arts degree. He practiced law briefly but moved into the field of naval architecture (good man!). Gibbs' knowledge of naval architecture and shipbuilding was self-taught. In 1922 Gibbs started out with his brother Cedric and formed the firm of Gibbs Brothers, Inc. In 1929 Daniel Cox joined them and the firm was renamed the now familiar Gibbs and Cox. The the $73 million SS UNITED STATES, Gibbs' most famous design, exhibited what every "narc" since the Viking times has known: To go fast you need light displacement, long, fine lines, and a lot of power. However, that's easier said than done.

Monohulls have long dominated the maritime world from shipping to militarycombat. Typically, monhulls have lower total resistance in operation, which is a factor of theslenderness, making them the optimal hull form from a purely hydrodynamic resistance roll. The key to slenderness is vessel length, but the optimal length for decreased resistance ismuch longer than normally accepted. The largest monohull to date is the SS United States, which is 940 feet, and 45,450 LT with a full load. She had a range of 10,000 nm and a sustained speed of 35 knots. Built to rigorous military specifications, she was 110 feet longer than the Titanic.

When the Lusitania and Mauretania were launched, speculation as to the probable development in the size of ocean steamships included the 1,000-foot vessel within the range of possibility. A concept of a 1000-foot liner was initially developed by the Gibbs brothers in 1907. By 1908 the International Mercantile Marine Company had for some time been considering seriously the building of a liner 1,000 feet long. That such a boat was an engineering possibility Mr Pirie, the head of the Harland & Wolff Shipbuilding Company of Belfast, has admitted. Facilities at this shipyard, stocks and the like, have been built to admit of the construction of a 1,000 foot liner. Designs for two express American super liners were, approved for construction by the US Shipping Board by 1916, but were not built when World War I diverted national resources into the creation of new wartime tonnage.

Great interest was aroused by the United States Shipping Board's announcement in mid-1919 of the plan to build two mammoth steamers to ply between New York and Plymouth, England. Each of these gigantic ships was to measure 1,000 feet in length. This was fifty feet longer than the Leviathan, then the largest vessel afloat. The Woolworth was the highest building in America. If up-ended alongside this structure one of these vessels would tower 250 feet above it. The beam of the Leviathan is 100 feet; that of the new American liners was to be 102 feet. The gross tonnage of the new ships was to be 55,000 tons. They were to have a draft of 35 feet, a depth of 74 feet, and were to accommodate 1,000 saloon passengers, 800 second cabin, and 200 steerage. The crew was to number 1,000 officers and men. The vessels were to be of the oil-burning type. They were to be driven by four propellers, upon which will be thrown the strength of 110,000 horse power. The vessels were to be built with a view to immediately converting them into commerce destroyers in event of war. For this purpose gun emplacements were to be built into their decks ready to receive gun mounts and their batteries. The afterdeck will also be constructed with a view to transforming it into a landing and launching space for hydroaeroplanes. These vessels were to have Winter gardens, ballrooms, Turkish baths, swimming pools, moving-picture theatres, sun parlors, grill rooms, promenades, gymnasiums, and miniature department stores in which every article wanted by a traveler was to be found. Although nothing came of this American project, by the 1920s the first 1000-foot ocean liner was on the drawing board, which would debut as the French Line's Normandie.

The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, VA, bid §67,350,000 to build a proposed 48,000-ton super liner which was to be the largest passenger ship ever built in the United States. The bid was opened in the Washington office of the U. S. Maritime Commission along with one other for $75,649,000 submitted by the Bethlehem Steel Co., Shipbuilding Division, New York. The 980-foot luxury liner was to be operated by the United States Lines Co. which has offered to spend $25,000,000 of the amount needed to build the ship. Newport News Shipbuilding promised delivery of the ship in 1,218 calendar days after signing of the contract. The Bethlehem bid quoted 1,430 calendar days.

Commenting on the opening of the bids, Vice Admiral William W. Smith, chairman of the Maritime Commission, said that the Commission and the Navy "are happy about it" and that he personally believed the ship will be built. Admiral Smith said that the shipyards had already been asked to return bids on the liner minus defense features. This will give the government an accurate estimate of the additional cost that private industry could not be asked to bear. The new bids were expected within two weeks and, he said, "we might have a decision by the first of January." Defense features which the Navy has drawn up for the super liner are said to include extra speed; separate engine rooms, each as an integral unit which could be operated independently if the other fails for any reason; parallel piping systems for safety; special hull protection; special refrigeration equipment, and extra water capacity.

The ship was built with an all-aluminum superstructure from the largest single order of aluminum yet placed, the vessel's weight was kept to a minimum compared to similarly-sized vessels such as Cunard's Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth, each having displacements of greater than 77,000 long tons. By comparison, her aluminum superstructure reduced the SS United States' deadweight to a significantly lower 45,400 long tons, which combined with a maximum 247,785 horsepower rating (approximately 60,000 shaft horsepower greater than either of the Queens) gave the vessel a tremendous horsepower to weight ratio compared to its rivals.

Following the maiden voyage of the passenger vessel SS United States in July 1952, on which she easily bettered by four knots the existing transatlantic speed records from Ambrose Light to Bishop Rock and return, the curiosity of the marine world was aroused to know the maximum speed capability of the phenomonal vessel. William Francis Gibbs, the architect of the United States, had other ideas, however, and the top speed performance of the vessel, and the details as to how it was attained, remained 25 years later a well kept secret.

The second Lake Champlain (CV-39), an aircraft carrier, set a speed record for crossing the Atlantic 26 November 1945 when she arrived at Hampton Roads, Va., having completed a run from Cape Spartel, Africa, in 4 days, 8 hours, 51 minutes. This record stood until surpassed by SS United States in the summer of 1952. On her first Atlantic crossing, in July of 1952, the ship demolished the eastbound speed record, long held by the Queen Mary, averaging an unheard-of 35.6 knots, or 41 miles a hour. Coming back, she broke the westbound record.

Within a decade, the luxury liner SS United States represented a mode of transport rapidly being made obsolete by the first generation of jet airliners. The liner's last crossing was in 1969.

Pub. L. No. 92-296 was enacted in response to the distressed condition of the American passenger vessel industry. By 1971, American passenger vessels had been operating at a deficit for some time, and most had been placed in an inactive status. Studies showed that, for various reasons, the operation of passenger vessels under the American flag was no longer economically feasible. However, construction of many had been paid for in part by construction-differential subsidies under the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, 46 U.S.C. § 1153 (1970). For this reason, the vessels were required to remain documented under United States laws for a period of 25 years. This precluded sale of the vessels to foreign registry without specific statutory authority. Pub. L. No. 92-296 was enacted to provide such authority.

The S.S. UNITED STATES was determined to be a special case, though. This vessel was deemed to have significant national defense features. To insure that these features would not be removed or altered so as to destroy the value of the vessel in times of national emergency, its disposition was limited. The SS UNITED STATES was acquired by the Government on under the authority of Pub. L. No. 92-296, sec. 2, 86 Stat. 140 (1972); 46 U.S.C.A. § 1160, note (1975). This law directed the Secretary of Commerce to purchase the vessel for layup in the National Defense Reserve Fleet or for sale or charter for operation under the American flag. The Secretary of Commerce delegated his authority under Pub. L. No. 92-296 to the Assistant Secretary for Maritime Affairs, chief executive of MarAd.

On February 26, 1973, MarAd published a notice soliciting proposals from qualified operators interested in the purchase or charter of the vessel. None of the responses was satisfactory. In a second effort to sell the vessel, MarAd issued invitation for bids (IFB) No. PD-X-969 on November 9, 1973. The S. S. UNITED STATES was offered for sale to United States citizens for operation under the American flag at a minimum price of $12,100,000. Among the other terms of the IFB was a provision requiring that each bid be submitted with a 10-percent bid deposit. None of the replies received under this IFB were accompanied by the bid deposit; thus, all were rejected. Since the ship was retired from the United States Lines, and was no longer viewed as a potential naval auxiliary in case of an emergency, security was lifted and such information was released. This information, although historic, is to some degree timely nonetheless, since it represented a yardstick with which to measure the performance and potential of the large fast cellular-type containerships which were beginning to rival in size and approach in speed that attained in 1952 by the SS United States.

By 1985 U.S. Cruises, Inc. planned to place the SS UNITED STATES back in service. The company had signed construction contracts subject to finalizing a financial package. It spent a great deal of time and money on the project, which came to nothing. The SS United States, docked in Philadelphia at a cost of $1,000 a day for eight years, hadn't fired her boilers since 1969.

After a succession of owners, the ship was auctioned to pay debts. Turkey-based Marmara Marine Inc. bought the idled and rusting ship 28 April 1992 for $2.6 million at auction in Newport News, Va. ``We're going to fix her,'' said Fred Mayer, Marmara's chief executive officer. The once-luxurious ocean liner SS United States may yet again ply the North Atlantic. Mayer, who also is an executive with Exprinter Cruises and Regency Cruises, estimated refurbishing could take $150 million and three years. The surprise $2.6 million bid by a group called Marmara Marine Inc. bested others gathered at the Newport News, Va., courthouse, including those who wanted to cut the ship into 53,290 tons of scrap metal. Other than Marmara Marine, the principal bidder was Nissho Iwai, a New York company that wanted the ship for scrap. The ship was towed to Ukraine in the 1990s to be stripped of asbestos.

Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line is a global cruise company and industry innovator that in 2003 operated a fleet of eleven passenger cruise ships in the Caribbean, Bermuda, Alaska, Europe, Hawaii, New England, Canada, and Central and South America. Norwegian Cruise Line and Orient Lines operated a combined fleet of 11 vessels. New vessels would have been added with the completion of the project America, then under construction and the acquisitions of the SS "United States States" & SS "Independence." But the $500 million cost of reviving the 52-year-old vessel was perhaps $150 million greater than building a new one.

NCL was first established in 1966. One of Norway's oldest and most respected shipping companies, Oslo-based Klosters Rederi A/S, acquired the M/S Sunward in that year and repositioned the ship fromEurope to the then obscure Port of Miami. With the formation of a company called Norwegian Caribbean Lines, the cruise industry was changed forever. Until then, the industry - such as it was - had consisted largely of older foreign flag passenger ships offering the occasional cruise itinerary. With the increased popularity of jet travel, these ships, which had been designed for trans-Atlantic and other transportation routes, were increasingly being displaced. Most of the ocean gomg U.S. flag passenger ships had failed to make the transition to cruising and were sold to foreigners. Their foreign-based owners were experimenting with alternative deployments in warm weather climates where the focus was tourism, nottransportation. NCL based its operations in the United States and launched an entirely newconcept with its regularly scheduled cruises to the Caribbean in a single-class atmosphere of informal luxury. No longer simply a means of transportation, the ship became a destination unto itself, offering guests year-round an exciting and affordable alternative to land-based resorts.

In February 2000 NCL's parent company, Norwegian Cruise Line Limited, was acquired by Star Cruises PLC of Malaysia. In 2002 NCL purchased the partially completed hull for one new cruise ship, plus materials for a second, that had been under construction at the Ingalls Shipyard in Mississippi and had become available following the default of the previous owners. The first three ships alone would create over 20,000 jobs for Americans on land and at sea, and are projected on an annual basis togenerate $828.7 million of expenditures in the US economy, including crew payroll, cruise ship operating expenditures and passenger purchases.

In addition, NCL also purchased the SS United States and the SS Independence for potential conversion to modern cruise shipsand eventual coastwise operation under US flag. The additional two ships would generate nearly 2000 more jobs at sea and another 5,000 on shore. The SS United States Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting and restoring one of the country's greatest maritime symbols: the SS United States, the greatest ocean liner ever built and the national flagship. As of 2003, the ship sat in Philadelphia, stripped of her former glory and facing an uncertain future. The foundation wants to bring the ship to Honolulu and restore it into a museum (i.e. the Queen Mary in Long Beach). They would employ 1,000 people to refurbish the ship and 1,000-1,500 to work on the ship.

But by 2009 cruise line NCL Group had put her up for sale. In July 2009, the SS United States Conservancy, lined up a promise from Gerry Lenfest, a Philadelphia philanthropist, to kick in $300,000 toward the purchase price if other people cough up the rest.