United States (ship)
.jpg) |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
The United States is a former American passenger ship and to this day it is the title holder of the Blue Ribbon as the fastest steamer on the transatlantic route. She was used as a liner of the United States Lines shipping company for regular services from New York to Europe .
history
construction
The turbine ship was built from 1950 to 1952 at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News . The cost of $ 78 million was borne by the United States government for $ 50 million and the shipping company for $ 28 million.
The ship was built as a type P6-S4-DS1 as part of the post-war shipbuilding program of the United States Maritime Administration . Even during construction, precautions had been taken to convert it into a troop transport in the shortest possible time . For this purpose, the construction was financially and technically supported by the US government. In the event of war, up to 15,000 soldiers could have been transported. In addition, the ship had many bulkheads and separate engine rooms to be more resistant to damage. Use as a hospital ship would also have been possible. The dimensions of the United States were limited to the Panamax standard. However, the United States was never used as a troop transport.
Liner service
Already on her maiden voyage under the command of Captain Harry Manning on July 3, 1952, she was awarded the Blue Ribbon for the fastest Atlantic crossing by passenger ships with an average speed of 35.59 knots . The travel time required was 3 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes. The return trip to America took her 3 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes (average speed of 34.51 knots). It thus holds the record for the fastest crossing in both west and east directions.
These records have not yet been broken. The terminus in Europe was initially Southampton , later it also drove frequently to Bremerhaven , where it first arrived on January 3, 1953.
As air travel became cheaper and more popular, operating passenger steamers between North America and Europe was no longer profitable. Therefore, the United States was decommissioned on November 14, 1969.
sale
After a long layover , the ship was sold to a Turkish shipyard owner in 1992. He had the ship towed to Istanbul to have it converted into a cruise ship; however, these plans soon came to nothing. The ship was towed to Sevastopol in Ukraine in early November 1993 , where it was almost completely gutted and asbestos cleared by May 13, 1994 . The most noticeable change is the removal of the davits and lifeboats .
In 1996 the ship was sold again. The new owner had the ship towed across the Atlantic again and laid up in Philadelphia , where it has been since then.
Intended further use
In 2003, Norwegian Cruise Line initially acquired the United States with the intention of carrying out a full restoration and incorporating it into its Hawaii service under the American flag . In 2004 the shipping company commissioned a feasibility study for a new extension. In May 2006, the CEO Sri Lim Kok Thay of Star Cruises (the parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line) announced the restoration of the United States as the shipping company's next project. Contrary to this announcement, however, the NCL had not taken any corresponding measures. Rather, it was announced in spring 2009 that the ship would be sold by NCL and possibly scrapped. In March 2010 the NCL already collected specific offers from dropouts.
On February 1, 2011, the SS United States Conservancy , a specially formed group of idealists, acquired the ship after a public campaign to preserve the ocean liner in order to preserve it as a national maritime monument. The group was welcomed by fans of the oldie liner from all parts of the world and was able to purchase NCL after negotiating a price reduction to 3 million US dollars with the shipping company. The funds for this came from donations. The SS United States Conservancy had only yet to take the next steps to possibly rehabilitate the ship. The interior of the ship is completely missing, so that a restoration would represent a considerable financial expense.
The Conservancy did not pursue the goal of “the Big U” - as the steamer is affectionately known by the fan base due to its silhouette due to its two oversized chimneys - as a passenger ship again. A combination as a hotel , museum and culture ship was planned . Several port cities on the northern US east coast should have expressed an interest in the project and the possibility of a new permanent berth for the United States in prospect.
In October 2015, statements were made that the scrapping was imminent, because even the fees for the berth in Philadelphia are too expensive for the group due to the decline in donations. There was no longer any question of expanding the ship, it said.
On February 4, 2016, the US shipping company Crystal Cruises announced that it had signed a purchase option for the United States in order to use it for luxury travel from the end of 2016 after complete modernization. “In its heyday, the ship itself was the destination: it was the way to travel. We want it to go this way again, ”said Edie Rodriguez, CEO of Crystal Cruises, at the press conference. The contractor was the Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven , which like Crystal Cruises belongs to the Genting Group . Due to the high costs and the considerable effort required to convert the ship to the current standards, the shipping company later abandoned the plans.
On December 10th, 2018 Susan L. Gibbs, the managing director of the "SS United States Conservancy", announced on her homepage that a partner had been found again who should help the ship for its future use as a hotel, museum and culture ship feed. This is RXR Realty , a multi-billion dollar real estate company with its main business area in New York and its headquarters there. As soon as the planned cooperation becomes known, expansion plans will be drawn up and a suitable berth will be found at the same time. In this project, too, the implementation depends on the feasibility, the course or outcome of the planning should be published continuously. Specifically, the ship could find its place at Pier 57 on the Hudson River in Manhattan , New York, as RXR Realty already provides office space there. Attached to the office complex, which is currently mainly used by Google LLC , the ship will serve as a "floating hotel and event space".
technology
The ship is unique in many ways. For the sake of fire safety, wood was completely dispensed with in its interior, with the exception of a chopping block in the kitchen and a wing, and it achieved a complete four-compartment standard, so it would remain buoyant even if any four adjacent watertight compartments were flooded at the same time.
The distinguishing feature of the United States was its drive. Its steam turbines were designed for aircraft carriers , which is why they had the most powerful propulsion of any merchant ship ever built . Due to military secrecy, the technical data has not been published for a long time. It was not until the 1970s that data from their test drives became known, but their top speed is not exactly known. According to statements by crew members who were on duty as officer candidates on the navigating bridge during the test drives, a speed of 41.6 kn was briefly reached. But even with the officially stated 38.32 knots, she was the fastest ship of this size ever built.
Others
The American novelist Clive Cussler used the United States for one of his books. In his 1997 story “Flood Tide”, the ship was bought by a Chinese shipowner, cannibalized and used as a key tool in a large-scale attack that almost destroyed the ocean liner.
In the film Die Munsters, Gespensterparty from 1966 it was used as a backdrop (exterior shots).
In the film Dead Man Down , scenes take place inside the ship, the ship is also shown from the outside.
In the film "I've never been to New York" she is used in a modified form as "Maximilliane".
literature
- Robert D. Ballard , Ken Marschall : Lost Liners - From the Titanic to Andrea Doria - the glory and decline of the great luxury liners . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co., Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-12905-9 (English: Lost Liners: From the Titanic to the Andrea Doria. The ocean floor reveals its greatest lost ships. Translated by Helmut Gerstberger).
- Peter Raap : The racehorse of the Atlantic - the SS "United States". Maiden voyage 60 years ago: From secret ship to ghost ship . Low German Homeland Gazette No. 751 (July 2012). ( online ; PDF).
Movie
- Mathias Haentjes, director: ocean liners - golden years. Documentation about the era of the Atlantik-Liner , Germany, 2019, Radio Bremen , 52 min. (Image and film material for "Titanic", " Britanic " (wreck), from Cherbourg from Gare Maritime , from the Hapag-Hallen in Cuxhaven, to the " Queen Mary 2 ", " Normandie ", "United States" - Philadelphia, " Astoria " (ex-Stockholm) - the oldest traveling passenger ship in this category. Information from the broadcaster arte , accessed Feb. 27, 2020)
Web links
- Luxury liner "SS United States": The end of the Kennedy steamship , annotated photo series, Spiegel Online , October 19, 2015
- SS UNITED STATES CONSERVANCY , English
- SS United States: Crystal Cruises Planning Return of Historic Transatlantic Liner, February 4, 2016
Individual evidence
- ^ Article in the Sevastopolskaya gaseta. dated July 12, 2007 (Russian).
- ↑ Report on the scrapping plans (English).
- ↑ Homepage SS United States Conservancy (English).
- ↑ Legendary Liner Has New Owner. In: Wall Street Journal. (English).
- ↑ United States is sold and under renovation
- ↑ conservancy purchases SS United States ( Memento of February 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
- ↑ "United States" is threatened with scrapping . In: THB - Deutsche Schiffahrts-Zeitung of October 22, 2015, p. 15.
- ↑ SS United States: Crystal Cruises Planning Return of Historic Transatlantic Liner. In: GCaptain. February 4, 2016, accessed February 5, 2016 .
- ↑ SS United States: Crystal Cruises wants to bring shipping legend back on the road. In: Schiffsjournal. February 4, 2016, accessed February 5, 2016 .
- ↑ Otto, Heiner: Is the ghost ship going again? In: Nordwest-Zeitung . February 10, 2016, accessed February 10, 2016 .
- ↑ No conversion to a cruise ship , THB - Deutsche Schiffahrts-Zeitung, August 9, 2016, p. 14.
- ^ Breaking News: New Agreement with RXR Realty. Retrieved April 2, 2019 .
- ^ Jacob Adelman: NYC developer with Manhattan pier project in deal to explore reviving SS United States. Retrieved April 2, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ America's Dream Ship - The History of the "United States". TV documentary, first broadcast on April 17, 2012 on N24 .
- ↑ FACTS . 2017 at ssusc.org, accessed May 29, 2017
Coordinates: 39 ° 55 ′ 6.3 " N , 75 ° 8 ′ 11.5" W.