Once-majestic cruise ship, the S.S. United States, could be 'America's Flagship' once again

Yepper ... rode her going to and coming back from Europe - 1962 and 1965 - when my dad was assigned to and returning from commands in Germany. Was a great ship and a good time. Still have a few of the photos taken by the ship's photographer. I don't support taxpayer funding of the old girl, but I do hope some philanthropic billionaire steps up the plate.

LTC Stephen C. - Concur. I'm all for restoring old ships if they have historical value. This one doesn't beyond it's name. There's plenty of other ships I'd rather see restored, both military and civilian. Any of the Iowa-class BB's that aren't currently museums. The NS Savannah. etc.

This ship was a masterpiece designed by famed boat designer Robert Francis Gibbs, it was the flagship of the United States Line and the most significant ocean liner ever constructed in the United States. It was the PT boat of ocean liners, most of its design was proprietary and kept top secret. Built for pure speed with use as a troop transport in time of war as its secondary mission. It was the most technologically advanced passenger ship of its day. It was designed to outrun submarines and surface warships of the time. It still holds the Blue Riband Trophy for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a vessel, made on its maiden voyage and she wasn’t run wide open. A record that has been bettered by only a couple of hours by a boat built by entrepreneur Richard Branson specifically for that purpose and for that reason and the fact of that boat having to be refueled during its passage, disqualified it for the Blue Riband award. So I wouldn’t exactly say she didn’t contribute anything.

CSM William Payne - Consider me educated, CSM. In this case, I'm happy to be wrong.

No problem. Being a Navy Brat and born and raised around Norfolk, I was more familiar with the United States. She was built under strict security in the Newport News shipyard. After she was taken out of service, she was tied up for years at the Norfolk Port Authority.

I was privileged to have a tour on her before they auctioned everything off of her. I managed to score a beautiful print of her and a couple of the crew member’s wool blankets with the United States Line Symbol on it. She was then towed overseas and gutted of much of her mechanicals.

To me that pretty much ended any chance of her being retrofitted to go back to sea or used as the Queen Mary out in California.

She’s a proud old Ship but just a shell of her former self. I stopped by to see her in Philadelphia couple of years ago.

I’m not optimistic that they’ll ever raise enough money to do anything with her, though I have contributed to her charity.