Today is the day they sink – on purpose – the once-magnificent SS United States. The timing is fitting.
In case you didn’t know, the United States – the ship – was the fastest luxury liner ever made by anyone. This beautiful, sleek colossus – at 50,000 tons and about 1,000 feet long, she was comparable in size and heft to a WW II battleship – was capable of 45 MPH on the open ocean. Try to visualize something that big moving that fast.
She could easily outrun the fastest battleship.
In her prime – in the 1950s and ’60s – she was magnificent. She was designed by the brilliant William Gibbs, who had previously designed the Malolo – Hawaiian for flying fish – which survived what otherwise would have been a catastrophic collision with another vessel that tore a massive gash in the side of the ship that ought to have sunk her but didn’t because of Gibbs’ decision to extend the water tight doors all the way up to the main deck, such that Malolo did not suffer the fate of Titanic.
United States was his crowning achievement – and more than just that. It was an expression of American capability at the apogee of what, undoubtedly, will be regarded by future historians as the apogee of America itself. She was capable of making the Atlantic crossing in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes. Probably faster than that, if she’d been run all-out. It took the Mayflower 66 days to do the same run.
United States was powered by four Westinghouse double reduction geared steam turbines that could each generate 60,000 horsepower; these were fed steam by eight Babcock & Wilcox Type-M boilers. She could carry 2,000 passengers in style and comfort. She was elegant and classy. Two things one rarely encounters nowadays.
That she is about to be thrown away says much about what America thinks of itself – and its history.
Like the Saturn V rocket, she propelled America to unparalleled greatness, now not just forgotten but also questioned. America no longer honors her history; she is ashamed of it. Statues come down. Tiresome lectures about “enslaved people” take precedence over the ol’ E Plebnista. Vulgar floating casinos full of obese slobs ply the oceans now.
Private attempts were made to save The United States but they lacked the money that was necessary to preserve her, as many of the relics of war have been preserved. It is telling that the United States – the government, that is – hasn’t got the money (or even the interest) in saving important artifacts of its history unless they happen to be part of military history.
How much has the United States spent so far on this war in Iran? The United States could probably have been saved for 5 percent of what has been expended on bombs and jet fuel and everything it takes to send aircraft carriers across the ocean to the other side of the world – and had that 5 percent been spent on the United States instead, the United States would at least have something to show for it. Something beautiful rather than ugly. Something that showed our best side rather than our darkest side.
Today, she goes to the bottom.
Maybe just like the United States, itself.
. . .
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I never heard of this until now. It’s a shame and it describes our condition as a national on the wane.
Most people believe that the U.S. was started on 1776 with the Declaration of Independence. It was actually founded at Jamestown in 1607. The average lifespan of any world power is 400 years, give or take a few decades.
We as nation have already ran past the expiration date and it is showing. World history also shows that power shifts between the East and the west every 500 years or so.
The west has had Great Britain and America until now. China has risen and is poised to establish it’s turn as the world power.
I agree fully, Eric. Since I first heard of it, I’ve often said the sinking of the SS United States is a fitting metaphor for the fate of our once great country. That 80 percent of people cheerleading for the cancer eating it from the inside is both telling and chilling.