She is moored down on the Delaware river. Its right by my bank so I grabbed this shot today. She is not going to be there much longer cause the rumor is that she will be sold for scrap.
This amazing ship was built late and was put out of business by international air travel.
It still holds the speed record for crossing the Atlantic ocean.
This cause the hull and bulk heads (most of the super structure) is aluminum.
Her top speed and some of her inner engineering is still a secret.
The original owner , who has since died was going to restore her to a working cruise ship. Even though it would cost twice as much as building a new one.
His dream was never realized.
Later they said that they were going to permanently moor her at Penn’s Landing, to be a hotel, shopping and entertainment complex.
This would be better than scrapping it all together.
But I am afraid the cost of mothballing it is too high, and the price of aluminum too valuable. Economics will over take nostalgia.
I do agree, Cap. Living in Baltimore, there are many examples of history and preservation around that I think are an inspiring history lesson. I always get a little sad when something is demolished that could provide an important history lesson to the public.
I was perhaps distracted by thinking about “bigger” issues in our society today. But I agree… if feasible, this would make a great national park monument.
I love naval history. Still have lots to learn but I love it. I used to build model ships when I was a kid. I built a giant USS Massachusetts. I built a USS New Jersey too. Later I worked at The Philadelphai Naval Ship yard for a few years.
It was awesome to actually work on the real ships. I was stoked.
I worked on the refit of the USS Kitty Hawk back in the 80’s. It was my first real job.
She was just recently decommissioned.
Word is she is to serve as a floating museum in North Carolina.
There are those that want her to be a Museum alongside of the New Jersey because she was built in Camden.
Love the Iowa class battleships, they are a huge, beautiful design that ended up being generally obsolete as soon as they were built…the age of the dreadnoughts having long since past. Still I gather they were useful for shelling shorelines (and far beyond) in various later wars, up to the Gulf War, as I recall. Not to mention, the USS Missouri was useful for accepting the Japanese surrender in style.
Cool article, thanks. The writer should have done a little more research though, they made a few mistakes. One of them is that the United States still holds the record for ocean liner crossing the Atlantic. Another is that while the steel in the hull is valuable the aluminum is worth much, much more. The super structure is mostly aluminum which is one of the reasons it is so fast.
Lets hope they save it. It would look great up in NYC.
as an old submariner, i see a big surface ship and all i see is a “target”. but i love it when they can be preserved. even small old coast gaurd ships are sometimes turned in to parks. they make great places for a cub scout, boy scout campout. just something different and it teaches a little about what men, and women, go through to protect this great land and people
