HELL'S KITCHEN — The SS United States — an ocean liner that once transported such luminaries as Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy and Salvador Dalí after embarking on its maiden voyage in the Hudson River — has dodged the scrap yard again.
On Thursday, the SS United States Conservancy — a preservation organization dedicated to saving “one of the nation’s greatest post-war treasures” — took to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal on 12th Avenue to announce that a luxury cruise line would pay to preserve the SS United States.
The conservancy bought the historic ocean liner with $5.8 million donated by a philanthropist back in 2010, after concerns mounted that its owner at the time would sell it to an overseas scrapper to avoid paying for its upkeep.
But expenses mounted, and in October the preservation organization itself began contemplating selling the ship to be dismantled and recycled.
An “outpouring of public support worldwide” and additional funds allowed the group to pursue its new partnership with Crystal Cruises, which will cover preservation costs and commission a technical feasibility study, the conservancy said.
“We are thrilled that the SS United States is now poised to make a triumphant return to sea and that the ship’s historical legacy will continue to intrigue and inspire a new generation,” the conservancy's executive director, Susan Gibbs, said in a statement.
The former luxury liner is currently docked in Philadelphia, where it will remain for at least a year while the study is carried out, a spokesman for the conservancy said.
After that, Crystal Cruises — which could exercise the option to buy the ship in addition to covering the costs — will decide where to dock the ship while preservation work takes place, the spokesman added.
The ship will be “extensively rebuilt” to bring it up to current maritime and shipbuilding standards, the conservancy said.
After that, the cruise line is considering various options for the ship, which could include “traditional transatlantic voyages” starting in New York City or round-the-world-voyages.
In 2010, when the ship’s future was uncertain, local activists hoped to move the SS United States to Chelsea. Its maiden voyage began at Chelsea Piers in 1952.
There are also plans in the works for a museum dedicated to the ship, which would feature “a wide range of original artifacts and historic components from the ship’s heyday,” the conservancy said.
