The ocean liner of my childhood is about to sink beneath the waves.
After years of neglect while docked along the Philadelphia waterfront, the SS United States is bound for the ocean floor. The once-fastest ocean liner will soon become an artificial reef off the Florida coast. Fish will swim where tuxedoed and gowned passengers once dined and danced.
The SS United States underway (image by JAGRAFXWIK, Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license)
In 1968, I sailed on one of the ship’s final voyages, returning with my family from Europe to the US. My father was an American spy based in Germany, and our fellow passengers were military, diplomatic, or national security civilians. With most commercial passengers choosing to jet across the Atlantic in 1968, US government contracts filled many berths on the SS United States.
Mother and son aboard the SS United States in 1968
My parents were no strangers to ocean liners. They completed a similar journey in 1953 aboard a sister ship, the SS America. My mother was pregnant, so I was an unticketed passenger. Fifteen years later, in the summer of 1968, our family sailed again. This time on the SS United States, the world’s fastest and finest ocean liner. We traveled in style—first class cabins, incredible food and service. For a young teenager, it was an awe-inspiring experience. For my parents, it was a nostalgic journey home after their second assignment in Europe.
Parents aboard the SS America in 1953
Just months after we disembarked in New York, the SS United States was withdrawn from service, never to sail again. Once the pride of the American ocean liner fleet, the ship began its long final journey of neglect and dashed revival attempts.
Abandoned in Philadelphia—The rusting hull of the SS United States (public domain image)
Flash forward fifty-six years. The age of ocean liners is not totally gone. One ship, the RMS Queen Mary 2, still plies the transatlantic route. And the once awe-inspired teenager is still sailing too. In the summer of 2024, I traversed the Atlantic on a seven day voyage between New York and Southampton. Across the pond in comfort, with good food, service (and no jet-lag).
Onboard the Queen Mary 2 in 2024
The Queen Mary 2 is technically the only purpose-built ocean liner still in service. Cruise ships are a different breed of boat—usually wider, slower, and designed for vacationing, not repeated ocean voyages. Launched in 2003, the ship is significantly different from the 1950’s era SS United States. The Queen Mary is three times larger, but with nearly the same passenger capacity as the United States. One other difference: the United States was built for speed, capable of plying the waves at nearly 50 miles per hour. The Queen is built for comfort and churns along at less than 35 mph. But luxury still abounds on the world’s only (and perhaps last) ocean liner.
The ocean liner survives—just barely. It offers a unique travel alternative. Experience it while you still can.
Sunset from the RMS Queen Mary 2
Deb Hosey White is an executive management consultant with over thirty years experience working for Fortune 1000 companies. She is the author of Pink Slips and Parting Gifts, a workplace novel based upon those experiences. With English ancestors on both sides of her family, Deb is a serious Anglophile and an avid traveler.
David Stewart White began his adventures in family travel as a child when he lived in Paris and traveled throughout Europe. He is the author of Let's Take the Kids to London His travel articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com, AAA World Magazine, and in numerous travel websites and online magazines.
Beyond Downton Abbey — A Guide to 25 Great Houses was their first collaborative travel writing effort. They followed up with Beyond Downton Abbey Volume 2 to tell the stories of another group of great homes in Britain.
www.beyonddowntonabbey.com/
I sailed to the US from Italy on the maiden voyage of the Andrea Doria in 1953. I still remember my mother conserving the lovely menus and her steamer trunk( baule) which opened up, much like the LV trunks in latter years. We sailed back and forth on the Italian Line; The Cristofaro Colombo, Giulio Cesare and others. My father worked for the Italian government at the time. Not too many years ago here in NYC there was a regatta of the Cunard ships on the Hudson. The Queen Elizabeth was the simplest in all its elegance. The newer ships were bigger, more glitzy but still wondrous to behold. Such an era. Thank you for sharing.